SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give you our main idea this morning a little bit early, and hopefully I can keep driving home that point that I believe God has led me to in the text.
SPEAKER_00: And the main idea this morning is that we are to be a people who take redemptive action with prayer-driven purpose.
SPEAKER_00: We're to be a people that take action with prayer-driven purpose, prayer-driven intentionality.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer needs to be what fuels us and guides us and sets us on our trajectory and our course for life.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray this morning as we are going through this second week in Rise Up and Rebuild our series.
SPEAKER_00: We as pastors have been praying that God would open doors in our neighborhood, in our city, in the Mason and Westchester community.
SPEAKER_00: And we're really praying that this series would be a catalyst for mission, for kingdom advancement here and now.
SPEAKER_00: And so this morning we are going to be centered on the fact that prayer should be what guides us to walk out God's purposes.
SPEAKER_00: That we would make much of King Jesus and him crucified for sinners.
SPEAKER_00: One thing I know to be sure is that all of us in here would say that we are busy people.
SPEAKER_00: We all can relate to being overwhelmed, to not having enough hours in the day, to going to bed, to sleep, and being tired and tired.
SPEAKER_00: Anything and everything is vying for our attention, right?
SPEAKER_00: This week has been chaotic.
SPEAKER_00: A lot of you have been fair weather fans and trying to get a Bengals jersey all week long, trying to track one down, right?
SPEAKER_00: It took a lot of time, a lot of mental energy, a lot of emotions this week just going into a game.
SPEAKER_00: And so what we're talking about this morning is not that we would add work to our schedule, that we would add things to our schedule, but that we would redeem it, that we'd have intentionality in the comings and goings of our life.
SPEAKER_00: This evening, many of us are going to be at a Super Bowl party, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so we have the opportunity to herald the good news of Jesus, hopefully with neighbors, hopefully with coworkers, hopefully with people who do not know the hope and the good news that we have.
SPEAKER_00: And so if we don't live lives that are submitted to God in prayer, we will just go through life going through the motions without purpose and without intentionality.
SPEAKER_00: So this morning I'm gonna open us up in prayer and we're gonna jump into the text.
SPEAKER_00: God, this morning I ask that you would allow me to speak your truth.
SPEAKER_00: God, I pray that your spirit would uh move in me in a mighty way to behold Christ crucified, that we would glory in nothing else this morning, that you came, you took on flesh, and you died the death that we deserved.
SPEAKER_00: God, that you paid our sin debt in whole.
SPEAKER_00: And God, that you ransomed us as your bride to be a people that proclaim your goodness, your glory, your kingship, and it's far above all others.
SPEAKER_00: So, God, this morning I pray that you would use me to herald your good news.
SPEAKER_00: It's your name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So, like I said, this is our second week in the series.
SPEAKER_00: If you missed it, last week Pastor Justin had a great uh history lesson for us, kind of placing us into the redemptive narrative of where we're at.
SPEAKER_00: So if you missed it, I'm gonna recap real briefly, and you can write down, take notes, or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and if you were here, hopefully it's a good reminder.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm gonna kind of go fast through what we worked through last week.
SPEAKER_00: So we're in the book of Nehemiah, it's a historical book, and really leading up to the text in Nehemiah in 586 BC, the people of God were taken into captivity.
SPEAKER_00: They were taken into captivity by a man, a king Nebuchadnezzar.
SPEAKER_00: He was a Babylonian king.
SPEAKER_00: Many of you have probably heard of him, and God's people were taken into exile.
SPEAKER_00: And then 47 years later, into exile, God's hand moved on King Cyrus.
SPEAKER_00: His name was Cyrus the Great because he had military power and wisdom like none other of the ancient world.
SPEAKER_00: And King Cyrus defeated Nebuchadnezzar.
SPEAKER_00: And he, in Isaiah chapter 45, we learn that the right hand of God had grasped King Cyrus, and he decreed that God's people would be able to return from exile and go back to their promised land.
SPEAKER_00: And Cyrus, under the guiding of God, not only the exiles back to Jerusalem, but he also returned the sacred vessels that were destroyed when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the temple.
SPEAKER_00: He also returned the finances that were destroyed that were in the temple, and God directed all this.
SPEAKER_00: And then somewhere in there, the building process stopped.
SPEAKER_00: And it came to a halt until King Darius was king.
SPEAKER_00: And King Darius resumed the work of the temple, and he actually had a decree to all people that we read in the book preceding Nehemiah, which is Ezra.
SPEAKER_00: In Ezra chapter 6, King Darius says, If anyone alters the edict of rebuilding this temple, a beam shall be pulled out of his house, and he shall be impaled on it, and his house shall be made a dunghill.
SPEAKER_00: So King Darius wasn't messing around.
SPEAKER_00: We're getting this temple finished, and if not, you're not gonna like what happens, what I do to you, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so that all this has taken place, and then 23 years later, in the year 516, the temple is finally rebuilt.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's 70 years, 586 to 516.
SPEAKER_00: That's 70 years.
SPEAKER_00: This is exactly what the I uh Isaiah, the prophet, prophesies that there were people of God would be in captivity for 70 years.
SPEAKER_00: And that brings us up to today's story in 444 BC, some 70 years after the temple had been rebuilt, we pick up with the story of Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: Last week we learned that Nehemiah was a cupbearer to King Artaxerxes.
SPEAKER_00: So this cupbearer was a very important, prominent person in the royal party of the kingship.
SPEAKER_00: And so this man was trusted heavily by the king.
SPEAKER_00: Back then, king's assassination attempts were made.
SPEAKER_00: Kingships came and went very quickly, and so Nehemiah was trusted by King Artaxerxes.
SPEAKER_00: He was the one that actually brought his royal cup to him, and he took care of his vineyards and his wine that was put before him, and so he had to be trusted.
SPEAKER_00: We actually learned that the cupbearers would fulfill kind of like a prime minister type role within this society.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's who our author is here, Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah runs uh into a fellow Jew, um, and he asks that Jew last week.
SPEAKER_00: We learned in uh chapter one, he asks him, How are God's people doing?
SPEAKER_00: We don't ever believe that actually Nehemiah made it to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: He was always in exile when uh we pick up this story.
SPEAKER_00: And this report, this troubling report is given to him in chapter one, verse three.
SPEAKER_00: It says, He says, That the remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame.
SPEAKER_00: The walls of Jerusalem are broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.
SPEAKER_00: And we learned last week that Nehemiah, after hearing this news, he weeped and he prayed.
SPEAKER_00: And he weeped and he prayed.
SPEAKER_00: And that's where we pick up today in chapter two.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's easy for us to read from chapter one to chapter two like a chronological time span.
SPEAKER_00: But what we're gonna learn is from chapter one to the closing of chapter one to the beginning of chapter two, there's actually a four or five-month span of time that has lapsed before we pick up in this text.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna read verse one together.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah 2, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: 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 so this month of Nisan really puts us in the April to May time of the year.
SPEAKER_00: And when Nehemiah had first heard the news, it was November, December.
SPEAKER_00: So Nehemiah has been praying and fasting and weeping for four to five months about what he is to do about this troubling news that he had heard.
SPEAKER_00: And so we need to put ourselves in this picture that Nehemiah, before he acted, before we learn about what he's going to do, he stopped and he prayed.
SPEAKER_00: He sought the Lord for five months, asking for vision, asking for clarity, asking for direction, asking for counsel.
SPEAKER_00: And so, really, this what we read today is the culmination of that five months, that building up to this climactic moment when Nehemiah is going to go before the king and make a bold request.
SPEAKER_00: We can all relate to this, right?
SPEAKER_00: Who in here likes confrontation?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, nobody.
SPEAKER_00: Unless you're weird, right?
SPEAKER_00: Nobody likes confrontation, let alone confrontation from a king who has the ability to imprison you or take your life, right?
SPEAKER_00: So Nehemiah is going to be bringing some potentially troubling and hard news before the king, and he's nervous.
SPEAKER_00: And so he he prays and he goes before the king, and it says in the end of verse 1, it says, Now I have not been sad in his presence.
SPEAKER_00: And so Nehemiah has chosen to not show his sadness before the king up to this point.
SPEAKER_00: He had guarded himself, he had hidden it until the right time when he felt that he could come before the king and make a request.
SPEAKER_00: And so this is a purposeful, planned, premeditated thought process that he is going to let his guard down.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to show all of his cards before the king, and he's going to make this grand request.
SPEAKER_00: And so we read about his request.
SPEAKER_00: We read on in verse two through three.
SPEAKER_00: And the king said to me, Why is your face sad?
SPEAKER_00: Seeing you are not sick, this is nothing but sadness of heart.
SPEAKER_00: And 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 the city, the place of my father's grave, lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?
SPEAKER_00: So King Artaxerxes begins by questioning Nehemiah, what's going on?
SPEAKER_00: Why are you sad?
SPEAKER_00: What's going on?
SPEAKER_00: And remember, Nehemiah's terrified right now, right?
SPEAKER_00: He's afraid that the king notices something's off.
SPEAKER_00: And the king's probably wondering, is this man trying to take my life, right?
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah had just brought, it says that there's wine before the king.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah had just brought this wine out to the king, and all of a sudden this sadness falls over Nehemiah to the point where the king notices it.
SPEAKER_00: And Nehemiah says, I am very much afraid.
SPEAKER_00: That said, Oh man, this is about to get real.
SPEAKER_00: What did I just do?
SPEAKER_00: What did I just step into?
SPEAKER_00: And Nehemiah, he regains his composure, and what does he say?
SPEAKER_00: Let the king live forever.
SPEAKER_00: So he's showing his loyalty, his allegiance to the king.
SPEAKER_00: He's not here for harm for the king, but he's he's showing him there's other motives for his sadness.
SPEAKER_00: And he says to the king, 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: See, this for us today, we might miss this, but in Persian culture, there is a deep respect for ancestors, and particularly the graves of fathers.
SPEAKER_00: So Nehemiah here is tactfully presenting his request in such a way that would have maximum appeal before the king.
SPEAKER_00: He's telling him, Man, this, I'm distraught.
SPEAKER_00: The place of my ancestors is destroyed.
SPEAKER_00: It's unprotected, its walls are burnt down, its gates have been destroyed by fire.
SPEAKER_00: And so Nehemiah is presenting this before the king, and we read on in verse 4 what the king replies with.
SPEAKER_00: Then the king said to me, What are you requesting?
SPEAKER_00: And so I prayed to the God of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, he'd spent four to five months before he even came before the king in prayer, right?
SPEAKER_00: He's been praying and praying and praying, and he finally gets the boldness to come and let his guard down before the king.
SPEAKER_00: And the king asks him, What is it you're asking?
SPEAKER_00: You know, like here it is.
SPEAKER_00: Like, I'm I'm here, I'm listening to you.
SPEAKER_00: And what does Nehemiah do?
SPEAKER_00: He prays.
SPEAKER_00: He prays again.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer backed by prayer.
SPEAKER_00: It says that he prayed to the God of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: See, Nehemiah in the heat of his request, and in the blood boiling, the heartbeat pounding, high stress situation, stops once more to pray before he acts.
SPEAKER_00: And we read on in verse 5, after he prays, he says 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: So here's where his cards are completely out on the table.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: I'm asking that you send me to let me go to rebuild the city.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah shows great humility here again and respect for the kings.
SPEAKER_00: He calls to the graves one more time that the king would be able to relate to.
SPEAKER_00: And then he gives us five words that I may rebuild it.
SPEAKER_00: That I may rebuild it.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't want to go to mourn the ruins.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't want to go just to observe what was going on.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't want to go to offer up prayers.
SPEAKER_00: No, Nehemiah wanted to rebuild the city that had been destroyed.
SPEAKER_00: And so remember, the temple had already been rebuilt for 70 years prior to this taking place.
SPEAKER_00: But the city had no protection.
SPEAKER_00: The walls, which were uh set up to protect the city from outside enemies, were broken down.
SPEAKER_00: Its gates were wide open.
SPEAKER_00: People could come in as they pleased.
SPEAKER_00: And so Cyrus the Great had given them the permission to reconstruct the temple.
SPEAKER_00: But now we're going to see King Artaxerxes giving permission to Nehemiah to rebuild the walls.
SPEAKER_00: And so he puts it all out there before the king.
SPEAKER_00: And we read the king's response to this request in six.
SPEAKER_00: And the king said to him, The queen sitting beside me, How long will you be gone?
SPEAKER_00: And when will you return?
SPEAKER_00: So it pleased the king to send me when I had given him a time.
SPEAKER_00: It pleased the king to send me when I had given him a time.
SPEAKER_00: I love this.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of like a parent as your children come before you and you make and they're making these requests, and it's kind of like this giving in.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, how long are you going to be gone?
SPEAKER_00: Like how how long, how long are you going to be playing on the switch?
SPEAKER_00: How long are you wanting to do this, right?
SPEAKER_00: So this had to be such a weight off of Nehemiah's shoulder that the king, how long are you going to be gone?
SPEAKER_00: And we don't know how long Nehemiah actually requested time.
SPEAKER_00: We know that it had been about four months of travel each way, plus the rebuilding process, but we don't ever really figure out how long Nehemiah had asked to be gone.
SPEAKER_00: But he didn't just ask to leave and rebuild.
SPEAKER_00: His request goes on in verse 7 through 8.
SPEAKER_00: He says, And then I said to the king, If it pleases the king, let letters be given to the governors of the province beyond the river, that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah, and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me the timber to make beams for the 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, for the good hand of my God was upon me.
SPEAKER_00: The good hand of my God was upon me.
SPEAKER_00: This is where Nehemiah's prayer and fasting come into play.
SPEAKER_00: A few months ago I was in a promotional process at work, and I literally remember being asked questions in these high stress and pressure moments, and I don't even know how I responded.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember sitting to myself thinking, why am I talking about this right now?
SPEAKER_00: Like in these high stress situations, man, we can't think under under pressure like that.
SPEAKER_00: We can't reason.
SPEAKER_00: And so we see Nehemiah, the power of prayer, this four and five months of prayer and fasting that Nehemiah had put in before he made his request.
SPEAKER_00: See, Nehemiah was a man of prayer and a man of action.
SPEAKER_00: And underneath this high-tense situation before the king, he has the diligence and the courage and the wisdom to ask for things and specifics.
SPEAKER_00: He first asked for a letter of safe passage.
SPEAKER_00: A letter of safe passage on his way to Judah.
SPEAKER_00: It's a four-month travel.
SPEAKER_00: And he was going to go there and he was going to face potentially possible enemies and possible people within the Persian kingdom who didn't understand that King Artaxerxes had actually sent him and gave him a favorable request to what he was doing.
SPEAKER_00: And so he had the wisdom to ask for safe passage.
SPEAKER_00: And then he asked for a letter to Asaph.
SPEAKER_00: Asaph is a Hebrew name.
SPEAKER_00: He was the keeper of the forests.
SPEAKER_00: And so Nehemiah knew he was going to need supplies to rebuild these walls and to rebuild the gates and rebuild the temple's fortress on it.
SPEAKER_00: And so he asked for a letter to Asaph that he would need the wood that it would take not only for the walls and the gates and the temple fortress, but for his own house.
SPEAKER_00: So underneath this high stress situation, Nehemiah, because of his prayer directing him, his vision and clarity that he had received in the five months preceding to coming before the king, he's able to ask with boldness before the king.
SPEAKER_00: And then we learn that the good hand of his God was upon him.
SPEAKER_00: The good hand of his God was upon me.
SPEAKER_00: This phrase is used nine times in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: And so we get to see the mighty hand of God working on behalf of his people, like it did for King Darius, like it did for King Cyrus, like it did in the past for Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_00: The mighty hand of God working on behalf of his people.
SPEAKER_00: And so what does this story, what does this take place mean for us 2,500 plus years later?
SPEAKER_00: How do we come into this story?
SPEAKER_00: What does it mean for us today?
SPEAKER_00: I would submit, church, that Nehemiah's prayer-filled, daring actions are a wonderful example for us today and a sort of assessment tool for how we go about our Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: See, Nehemiah was both a man of prayer and a man of action.
SPEAKER_00: And much like in Nehemiah's era, we as God's people are exiles in a foreign land.
SPEAKER_00: This land does not acknowledge God as creator and sustainer and giver of all good and perfect things.
SPEAKER_00: It does not acknowledge our God as King of kings and Lord of Lords.
SPEAKER_00: No, our faith church is under attack.
SPEAKER_00: Some ways are subtle, some ways are less subtle.
SPEAKER_00: Our cities lie in ruins just like we read of these walls.
SPEAKER_00: The havoc of self-worship and idolatry and gender, chaos, and confusion and all sorts of unrighteousness wreak havoc on our city.
SPEAKER_00: Our gates, our walls of protection that have been torn down by the enemy.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters around the world are literally being beheaded for their faith, tortured, imprisoned, murdered, they're having to hide.
SPEAKER_00: The church is under attack.
SPEAKER_00: Pastors and missionaries being mistreated.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe just a little bit closer, we see the big church, the big sea, attacking each other, tearing each other down, and being divisive.
SPEAKER_00: And we'd be foolish to think this is anything other than an attack from Satan himself.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 6 says that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of darkness, and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
SPEAKER_00: And so we look to Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: We look to this text this morning as a self assessment tool.
SPEAKER_00: What are we as God's people to do about this?
SPEAKER_00: What are we to Do.
SPEAKER_00: And that's our main idea.
SPEAKER_00: We are to be a people who take redemptive action with prayer-driven purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Redemptive action with prayer-driven purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Church, we must be a people that gets to work.
SPEAKER_00: I'll say it again.
SPEAKER_00: We must be a people that gets to work.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us have grown up in church our whole lives and don't like this.
SPEAKER_00: We don't need to get to work.
SPEAKER_00: Pastor, every week you guys preach that Christ came, He secured our faith, He purchased our salvation, He worked on our behalf.
SPEAKER_00: He did what we could not ever do.
SPEAKER_00: And now you're saying we need to go to work.
SPEAKER_00: Others of us don't like this because it means that we have responsibility.
SPEAKER_00: We have some type of accountability in the game.
SPEAKER_00: And that's actually what Romans 14, 12 says.
SPEAKER_00: It says that each of us will give an account to God for our actions, for our behavior, how we conduct ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Church, we are to live life.
SPEAKER_00: We as sent ones.
SPEAKER_00: The Great Commission, Jesus says, go therefore and make.
SPEAKER_00: And we are not working from or for favor with God.
SPEAKER_00: We are not working for his acceptance.
SPEAKER_00: We're not working for salvation.
SPEAKER_00: No, we're working from it.
SPEAKER_00: We are working from the grace that has been extended to us that we might be able to be heralds of that good news.
SPEAKER_00: A quote that I love from Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
SPEAKER_00: I'm listening to his autobiography, or it's not autobiography, which is a book.
SPEAKER_00: But it's an incredible book about the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
SPEAKER_00: And this quote is probably one of his most famous quotes.
SPEAKER_00: It's a little bit lengthy, but I think it'll serve us well for what we're talking about.
SPEAKER_00: It says the cross is laid on every Christian.
SPEAKER_00: The first Christ suffering, which every man must experience, is the call to abandon the attachments of this world.
SPEAKER_00: It is the dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: As we embark upon discipleship, we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death.
SPEAKER_00: We give over our lives to death.
SPEAKER_00: When Christ calls a man, he bids him to come and die.
SPEAKER_00: It may be a death like that of the first disciples who had to leave everything, home, and work to follow him.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe a death like Luther's, who had to leave monastery and go out into the world.
SPEAKER_00: But it is the same death every time.
SPEAKER_00: Death in Jesus Christ, the death of the old man at his call.
SPEAKER_00: See, church, the Christian life is a call to death of self and life in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We put off with the old man and we put on the new man.
SPEAKER_00: We have purpose.
SPEAKER_00: And if we don't live our lives fueled and inspired and driven by prayer, we will not get the work that we have been tasked to do.
SPEAKER_00: We will not accomplish it.
SPEAKER_00: And so, how do we get this work done?
SPEAKER_00: How do we experience the good hand of God in our city and our homes and our families in our neighborhood?
SPEAKER_00: We pray.
SPEAKER_00: You see, redemptive action actually starts with surrender.
SPEAKER_00: Redemptive action actually starts with a humbling of one's self.
SPEAKER_00: That's what prayer is.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer is acknowledging simply that we in and of ourselves don't have the answers.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have the power to change things.
SPEAKER_00: One of the hardest things as a parent is to understand that I don't have the ability to save my kids.
SPEAKER_00: I don't.
SPEAKER_00: We have to surrender.
SPEAKER_00: Prayers acknowledging the wisdom and power and might that is outside of us.
SPEAKER_00: A greater power, a greater source of wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: And so, like a car that needs realignment, so it doesn't run off the road, we must be a church that prays to stay on course, to stay the path.
SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, we will head to death.
SPEAKER_00: We will head in the wrong direction, and we will not carry out the good work that has been set before us.
SPEAKER_00: So our redemptive action starts with prayer.
SPEAKER_00: It starts with surrender.
SPEAKER_00: It starts with pausing, but it doesn't end there.
SPEAKER_00: Our prayer should drive, it should fuel our action.
SPEAKER_00: This is the call for every believer in here.
SPEAKER_00: The call to Christ is a call to come and die.
SPEAKER_00: See, Nehemiah's prayers led him to action.
SPEAKER_00: He had prayer-driven purpose.
SPEAKER_00: What did he say in verse 6?
SPEAKER_00: He made this request, and what did he want?
SPEAKER_00: He wanted to rebuild the city.
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't passing it on to anybody else.
SPEAKER_00: He said, King, I want you to send me that I may rebuild it.
SPEAKER_00: He had clarity, he had boldness.
SPEAKER_00: God was about to ask him to do something crazy.
SPEAKER_00: He was going to leave this royal position of power and influence, this prime minister type role, this role where he is literally making wines and putting them before the king.
SPEAKER_00: Man, what an awesome gig.
SPEAKER_00: He gave that up to build back what God had called him to, to take redemptive action.
SPEAKER_00: I had coffee this week with a dear brother in here who left corporate world for a call that God had placed on him.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes prayer is dangerous.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it, most times, it is going to cost us something.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to lay, it's cost us to lay down something that we are holding on to potentially too closely and too tightly.
SPEAKER_00: But church, we we need to be a people who pray.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be a people that pray that drives our action.
SPEAKER_00: The work of God is carried out when his people humble themselves in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: And that prayer should drive every action and decision that they make.
SPEAKER_00: As much as we see this in Nehemiah this morning, we see it in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, the better Nehemiah, the greater Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: And this is our gospel conviction this morning that Jesus purchased our salvation with prayer-driven purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus purchased our salvation with prayer-driven purpose.
SPEAKER_00: See, Jesus was laser-focused on his mission.
SPEAKER_00: He understood fully what he had come to do.
SPEAKER_00: He understood fully what the plans of the Father were to do, that he would leave his eternal dwelling with God, and he would take on flesh, and he'd become a man, and he would come in weakness and humility, and he would experience everything that we have experienced.
SPEAKER_00: And we see in moments of weakness and pain, what does Jesus do?
SPEAKER_00: He prays.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus prays.
SPEAKER_00: He prays to re-center himself on the mission, to reconfirm what his purpose was in coming.
SPEAKER_00: We see this Jesus' prayer in the garden.
SPEAKER_00: What does he say?
SPEAKER_00: Father, take this cup from me.
SPEAKER_00: If there's any other way, take this cup from me.
SPEAKER_00: But not my will, but yours.
SPEAKER_00: He surrendered himself to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: We see it before Pilate that Jesus prays before going to Pilate.
SPEAKER_00: We see it on the cross that Jesus is praying for the forgiveness of the man sitting next to standing or hanging next to him.
SPEAKER_00: See, at the cross, Jesus purchased our salvation.
SPEAKER_00: He paid our sin debt in full, and he did it because he was driven by prayer.
SPEAKER_00: He was directed by prayer.
SPEAKER_00: He was influenced by prayer.
SPEAKER_00: And this is grace.
SPEAKER_00: It changes everything for us.
SPEAKER_00: That we respond from that good news.
SPEAKER_00: We respond because of the work that he carried out.
SPEAKER_00: And then now our life's aim, our sole purpose is to make much of Jesus crucified.
SPEAKER_00: Galatians chapter 6, Paul says that, but far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's greatest boast in life was the cross of Jesus, was Christ crucified.
SPEAKER_00: We are too easily distracted from our purpose, from our work.
SPEAKER_00: The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.
SPEAKER_00: And without prayer, we are so easy to glorify ourselves and enjoy things of this world and chase vain pursuits.
SPEAKER_00: Christ died not only for our salvation church, but so that we might boast in him.
SPEAKER_00: That we might boast in him in the empty tomb and the glorious gift of his matchless and marvelous grace.
SPEAKER_00: First Corinthians Paul goes on to say that you are not your own.
SPEAKER_00: You are bought with a price.
SPEAKER_00: So glorify God in your body.
SPEAKER_00: We are not our own.
SPEAKER_00: We must die to self and live to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah was a cupbearer to a king.
SPEAKER_00: That was his story.
SPEAKER_00: So what's yours?
SPEAKER_00: Where does God have you?
SPEAKER_00: Where's he placed you?
SPEAKER_00: What unique giftings and skill sets and relationships and character traits and bents, the good and the bad.
SPEAKER_00: Where does God have you to take redemptive action?
SPEAKER_00: Where he has sovereignly, purposefully placed you.
SPEAKER_00: Church, there is work to be done.
SPEAKER_00: Let us move with purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Let us be driven by prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Our story this morning is that some of us need to get to work simply.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us are apathetic in our work.
SPEAKER_00: And this ranges from not working at all to weak work to working unto self and not Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us are living life on cruise control.
SPEAKER_00: Just going through the motions, collecting a paycheck, making sure that the kids are fed, there's food on the table, that everyone's having fun, we're scheduling vacations.
SPEAKER_00: Man, those aren't bad things.
SPEAKER_00: Well, how can we redeem those moments?
SPEAKER_00: How can we be about making much of Christ and the glory of the cross in those mundane things?
SPEAKER_00: This evening we have a great opportunity to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Super Bowl.
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be awesome.
SPEAKER_00: Lots of people, party, everything.
SPEAKER_00: Man, how tonight can you share the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: How tonight can you share the good news with those who are gonna be at that party?
SPEAKER_00: Redeem that moment.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe after church, just praying as a family that God would open doors for you to share the good news this evening.
SPEAKER_00: That we'd have prayer-driven purpose in the coming and going of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Others of us are just chasing vain pursuits.
SPEAKER_00: Many of our lives don't look very different than our neighbors, than our coworkers.
SPEAKER_00: Yep, we're chasing accolades and promotions.
SPEAKER_00: Our schedules and our minds are preoccupied with what we're gonna do on the weekend, what party we're gonna go to, what kind of truck we're gonna drive, what kind of boat we're gonna get into.
SPEAKER_00: We're chasing vanity, church.
SPEAKER_00: Scripture tells us that we cannot serve two masters.
SPEAKER_00: We cannot serve God in money.
SPEAKER_00: We cannot serve God in self.
SPEAKER_00: So I ask you this morning, where are you spending the bulk of your time, your talent, your finances, your treasure, your unique giftings?
SPEAKER_00: Each of us will have to give account to God for what he has blessed us with.
SPEAKER_00: And so this morning, I encourage you to reflect.
SPEAKER_00: Where are you spending your time?
SPEAKER_00: James, the brother of Jesus, says in James 1 that he describes people as being forgetful hearers versus effectual doers.
SPEAKER_00: Many of us come church week in and week out, and we hear the gospel proclaimed, we hear the good news.
SPEAKER_00: We hear it and we hear it, and our call is to be doers, effectual doers, sent ones.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us just need to redeem the work.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us have self-guided ambitions.
SPEAKER_00: We are slugging it away for the king.
SPEAKER_00: We are pouring every ounce of time and energy into good things, but we haven't paused and stopped to submit our plans to the Lord, to seek his guiding, to seek his will.
SPEAKER_00: I'm guilty of this all the time.
SPEAKER_00: There's stuff that needs to be done, and I just go and do.
SPEAKER_00: I just go and do.
SPEAKER_00: Good things, not always bad things.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't submit myself to the Lord in prayer for guidance, for direction, for boldness, for clarity, for wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: And we we all could learn and be well served by stopping to pray before we act.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us just have self-centered ambitions.
SPEAKER_00: We are working for the wrong motives.
SPEAKER_00: We are like we see in uh the gospels that many, many will say to me, Lord, didn't I do this in your name?
SPEAKER_00: Didn't I cast out demons in your name?
SPEAKER_00: Didn't I do all this?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, Depart from me, for I never knew you.
SPEAKER_00: Working for wrong motives, for self-glory, for self-gain, for accolades of brothers and sisters in this room.
SPEAKER_00: Church, we are to work from God's favor and not for it.
SPEAKER_00: We all need to redeem the work that is set before us.
SPEAKER_00: As I was preparing for this sermon, I came across an article that was entitled, Pray Like Old Camel Knees.
SPEAKER_00: I just, I don't know why I thought that was so funny.
SPEAKER_00: Pray like old camel knees, but James, uh the brother of Jesus, was to known to pray so much that his knees became callous like that of a camel.
SPEAKER_00: He had spent that much time before the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And so my call to you is to pray like old camel knees this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Our gospel vision.
SPEAKER_00: Our gospel vision, what would our city, our world look like if we the church, lived life with prayer-driven purpose?
SPEAKER_00: What would it look like if we lived with prayer-driven purpose?
SPEAKER_00: What would your home look like if each morning you started out with prayer?
SPEAKER_00: What would the workplace look like if each day you on your commute, or if you're not commuting at this time, if before you log into the computer, that you pause to pray?
SPEAKER_00: That you ask the Lord to lead your actions, to guide your lips, to allow you to work with purpose.
SPEAKER_00: What kind of sacrifices would we make?
SPEAKER_00: What kind of things would we have to give up if we walked this life with prayer-driven purpose?
SPEAKER_00: This week we're going to be sending out in the weekly SMC email a prayer guide.
SPEAKER_00: Prayer is a huge theme throughout the book of Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: And so we as a church want to join in prayer together as we seek to be a church that is in the city for the city, as we seek for God to open up doors for our neighbors and co-workers.
SPEAKER_00: And so be on the lookout for that prayer guide as we together will lift up our voices to God and ask him to give us direction and clarity and wisdom and purpose in our neighborhoods and in our city.
SPEAKER_00: But simply this morning we can pray that what happened to Nehemiah would happen to us.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah's heart was broken for what God's heart was broken for.
SPEAKER_00: He had never been to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: We don't believe.
SPEAKER_00: And he left everything to go there.
SPEAKER_00: Because God had stirred his heart in such a way that he left his position to do this.
SPEAKER_00: We can ask that God would break our heart for what breaks his.
SPEAKER_00: That God would break our apathy with a passion for his glory, that God would break our vain pursuits with lives that are poured out unto his name.
SPEAKER_00: Church, I pray this morning that we see that we need to live lives that take redemptive action with prayer-driven purpose.
SPEAKER_00: Let me pray.