Faith Presbyterian Church - Birmingham
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Faith Presbyterian Church - Birmingham
Nehemiah 1:1-11; A Foundation of Prayer
Jason Sterling September 14, 2025 Faith Presbyterian Church Birmingham, AL Bulletin
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If you have a copy of God's Word, turn with me to Nehemiah, chapter 1. So Ezra, nehemiah, so you'll find Nehemiah. After the book of Ezra. We've been in a series in Ezra and Nehemiah. This fall, we've been learning. The exiles have come back from Babylon, they're in Jerusalem, they have rebuilt the temple, but there was something that was still missing the physical walls around Jerusalem that were there to protect God's people. They remained in ruins, and it's in that context that God raises up a man named Nehemiah. And so follow along with me. Nehemiah, chapter 1.
Speaker 1:This is the word of the Lord, the words of Nehemiah, the son of Hakaliah. Now, it happened in the month of Kislev, in the 20th year, as I was in Susa, the citadel that Hanani, one of my brothers, came from, certain men from Judah, and I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem, and they said to me the remnant there in the province, who had survived the exile, was in great trouble and shame, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are destroyed by fire. As soon as I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days. I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven, 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, let your ear 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. Even I and my father's house have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, the rules that you commanded your servant Moses. Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses saying if you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, 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. They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. Oh 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 and give success to your servant today and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. Now, I was cupbearer to the king. This is God's word. Let me pray for us. Let's ask the spirit to come and be in our midst and to work through the preaching of the word. Let's pray together, father. That is what we ask that you would be among us, that you would work. You brought us here. You have this word for us this morning. Speak, o Lord, for your servants are listening. In Jesus' name, amen. We are in the midst.
Speaker 1:If you're visiting with us, you'll notice our campus. There's a lot of building going on. We are in the midst of a generational building project, a once-in-a-generation project, the All Generations Campaign. We're building new children's nursery space, new sanctuary and other new ministry space, and so there's a lot of physical building going on. But this is a new season of ministry that our church is moving into and as we move into that season, in the midst of all the physical building, it's also important that we build spiritual foundations as we move forward, and that's what we're looking at.
Speaker 1:In Ezra and Nehemiah We've seen that we're building foundations of hope and worship and repentance and perseverance, and this morning we look at another important foundation that we need to carry with us and continue on as we move forward in this next season of ministry, and it is the foundation of prayer. This morning, nehemiah shows us how to move from burden to prayer, to participation and trust in God's purposes. To build a foundation of prayer. We look at three things in this passage that we need. We need to listen for God's heart, number one. Secondly, anchor our prayers in truth, so in the truth of God's Word. Lastly, trust God's timing. Listen for God's heart, anchor our prayers in truth and trust God's timing. Let's look at those in turn this morning. First, listen for God's heart.
Speaker 1:Have you ever found yourself unexpectedly concerned about something that really wasn't your problem? Maybe you heard about a need in the community, you heard about a need in our city and you found yourself losing sleep over that. Or maybe you heard about a need or something going on halfway around the world, a crisis of some sort, and you were compelled to pray. You were compelled, maybe, to go or to get involved in some way. Most of us have experienced something like that at some point in time, and lots of times we struggle when we experience that. We struggle with what exactly to do, to do. Nehemiah was in one of those moments and let's look and walk through it and see what he does.
Speaker 1:Look at verse two and three. One of his brothers comes from Judah and I ask I think that's important Nehemiah is asking he didn't get this information. He's asking for this information concerning the Jews, the exiles, the remnant, who are left, and it says they are in great trouble and shame. The walls are broken down, destroyed by fire, and I want us to get into this passage a little bit, because I think this is remarkable.
Speaker 1:Think about who Nehemiah was. He was an Israelite. He was a successful cupbearer to the most powerful king on the earth. He had a great life. He was living very comfortably in Persia, 900 miles away from Jerusalem. He had security in his work, his calendar was full, he had a bright future. He had every reason to stay focused on his life and on his own responsibilities, and so why in the world would he suddenly care about Jews 900 miles away? Well, when he gets this disturbing news, he doesn't just express polite concern and move on Again. I think this is just remarkable. He had never lived there, he didn't know these people personally, but he hears this and God uses this moment to shatter Nehemiah's comfortable distance from the people's devastation.
Speaker 1:He couldn't get this off of his heart and mind. These ruined walls began to dominate his thoughts and his heart broke in a way that changed everything in his life. Everything in his life. Comfortable distance is one of the greatest enemies of spiritual burden. We live in a world full of brokenness. We have seen that up close and personal in the last few weeks and we've become experts at insulation. We scroll past, or at least it's my tendency to scroll past suffering, to drive around or past problems maintain enough of a distance in order to preserve our comfort and our peace of mind, and it is so easy for us to hear about things and feel something in the moment and feel sympathy and then move on. But sometimes God wants to break through the comfort and the distance in a supernatural way that will not let us go. That's what's happening here.
Speaker 1:Jerusalem is a nobody to the world. They are on no one's radar. They're politically insignificant, economically they're powerless, they're geographically distant, and yet God moved. We've been seeing that all the way through this series. God stirred in the heart of a man in the inner circle of the king and moved him to start caring deeply for the broken walls around Jerusalem. Look at verse 4. He heard these words. He wept and mourned for days and continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. The text indicates that this was four months.
Speaker 1:If you look at Kislev through, look at chapter 2, verse 1, nisan that would have been four months and notice what Nehemiah doesn't do. He doesn't rush it's important to see this to immediate action, without preparation. Nor does he let this burden fade into the background. And most of us, I think that we swing between one or the other. We feel a need, we sense the urgency, and we don't prepare or pray. We just jump right in or we do the opposite, which is it affects us for a second and then the busyness of life comes and then it becomes a distant memory. Nehemiah is showing us a different way. His burden is driving him to sustained prayer. Real burden from God produces sustained response, not fleeting feelings. It's something that won't let you go. You're not able to just feel bad and move on. He was not think about. Nehemiah was not just able to put this on the prayer list. He entered into a season of grief, reordered priorities and he was expending a lot of emotional energy towards what was burdening his heart.
Speaker 1:When God burdens your heart, expect it to be costly. Expect it to be costly. Divine concerns concerns. They are going to disrupt our comfortable routine. It is going to make you restless with the status quo. It's going to create, as it's been said, holy discontentment inside of you that will not easily be resolved. And when you feel those, don't dismiss those as mere emotion and temporary distraction.
Speaker 1:Ask yourself this question Could it be that God has given me eyes to see something that breaks his heart? That breaks his heart. Could it be that God is calling me to care about something that seems distant but is really close to his heart and precious to him? That is how God works. He gives his people unexpected burdens and places and burdens for people in places that the world considers unimportant and insignificant. And so when you find yourself caring about a situation that doesn't directly impact you, when you find yourself praying for and thinking about people you've never met, when you find yourself praying for and thinking about people you've never met, or when you're feeling burdened by problems that aren't your direct responsibility, stop and start listening. That might very well be God giving you eyes to see what matters to him. What if God wants to break our hearts over what breaks his.
Speaker 1:God may be stirring hearts in this congregation for ministries, as we move forward as a church, that we haven't even thought about yet, or for people in our community and in our city that haven't yet been reached, or for needs in our city that we haven't yet seen. God may be calling you to go overseas and join his mission. God may be calling you into the ministry. As we move into this new season in the life of our church, my hope and prayer is that we would be listening, would be listening listening for what God wants to do and the burdens he's given us and the ways that he is moving in our hearts and in the life of our church. Secondly, we want to anchor our prayers in truth. I love this. We're actually doing this in our kingdom communities, our Sunday schools. We're going through prayer and basically learning what it means just to pray the Bible and pray God's promises back to him.
Speaker 1:We see Nehemiah doing the exact same thing here. He gives us a model for how to approach God, how to pray, which is oftentimes a struggle for us. What does it look like? How do I pray? We see a profound model here in this passage. First, you see Nehemiah adoring God. He confesses sin and he claims God's promises. Look at verse 5. He receives this news and he doesn't just pour out raw emotion, he moves into prayer and his prayer begins and is anchored in who God is. Notice he starts with the God of heaven. I love that. He's saying I serve the king, but he's not the king. The God of heaven is the true king. And in verse five I love this we see this both, and he shows us God's faithfulness and God's greatness, his awesome power and at the same time, his covenant love.
Speaker 1:Charles Hodge was a theologian at Princeton for many years and he had a study that had two entrances to that one from his house you could get in and you could get into his study from the seminary. And the entrance from his house was for his children and they came in any time and they would be in his lap as he studied. They were unhindered. And yet there was an entrance to his study from the seminary and you had to have an appointment. Or the faculty or the students would come in and they would come in with deep respect for learning and for his position. The same man was basically approachable and loving and he was deserving of reverence. That captures, I think, nehemiah's approach to God Confidence born out of relationship Think about Charles Hodge's children and also reverence.
Speaker 1:We don't have to choose, it's not an either or it's a both. And we approach God with reverence and intimacy and he invites both, because God is transcendent and holy and he is high and lifted up and he's personal. He is awesome and accessible. So that's the first thing Nehemiah adores God. Secondly, he moves into confession of sin. We saw this a lot last week with Ezra. Look at verses 6 and 7 with me. Notice again, it's worth pointing out, notice the pronouns we have sinned. I and my father's house have sinned. We saw it again with Ezra and we see it this morning. Nehemiah is 800 miles away, yet he doesn't distance himself from Israel's failures and sin. He owns the corporate guilt as if it were his responsibility. Why does he do that? Because God's people are connected. We are bound together. You could say, put it more theologically, bound together covenantally, as God's people and Nehemiah notice. He mentions Moses, and what he's doing there is he's tying all this back to violating the covenant that was established with God's people at Mount Sinai.
Speaker 1:There's a commentator that says this what distinguishes us, the church, from the, is not that we are less wicked, but that, by God's grace, we've learned to see our wickedness and confess our sins. The church is the only body on earth that confesses sin. Where confession dies out, the church is no longer the church. The church is no longer the church.
Speaker 1:Tim Keller has a book coming out. People compiled some of his writings and studies and there's a book being published at the end of October. How timely the title of the book is. What is Wrong with the World? I saw a quote this week on social media from the book and Keller says healing starts when we stop pretending that we're fine. Where do we need we? Where do we need to confess our sin? Where do we need to ask God's forgiveness, not just for individual mistakes, but for the corporate failures of God's people?
Speaker 1:Nehemiah didn't pretend that Israel was fine. He owned their failure and their sin as if it were his own. The last thing we see Nehemiah is he pleads, he adores, he confesses and then he pleads God's promises. Look at verses 8 and 9. That is a quote from Deuteronomy, chapter 30, verses 1 through 4. He's saying God, you promised that you would scatter us, but you also promised that you would restore us, and so, basically, he starts you would restore us. And so, basically, he starts. He takes God's promises and he turns them and starts praying them back to God. Look at verse 10. I love this.
Speaker 1:He appeals to God's historical investment in his people. He's referencing the exodus there and that deliverance, referencing the Exodus there and that deliverance, and he's essentially saying this God, you have invested too much to let us go now, to abandon us now. You didn't choose us randomly. We are your people and you have redeemed us with great power. You've invested in us and you will not let us go. It's like the child. If you have children, you know your children. Maybe you'll make a promise to them. If you do X, I'll get you ice cream. I'll do this. You forget about it. Do they forget about it? They do not forget about it. They'll come to you and they'll say remember, you promised. That's what Nehemiah is doing and that's what God wants us to do as the church, as his children to pray his God. You promised to pray his promises back to him.
Speaker 1:The Puritans called this pleading the promises, where they would just take Scripture. And we should be doing this as we pray to God, taking the promises of Scripture and boldly praying Lord, do what you promise. This is not presumption, this is faith. And so, as we move forward as a church, we want to establish a foundation of prayer like we see in Nehemiah, not where we, it's just raw emotion, but we take that burden and we move it into prayer, anchored in God's character, anchored in our own need and anchored in the promises of God.
Speaker 1:Lastly, the timing. God's trust is timing and control. Look at verse 11 with me. This is the conclusion of the prayer. Oh Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant and then notice it's repeated, but notice it's plural this time. Did you notice that? And to the prayer of your servants. What's the point? This has become a prayer meeting.
Speaker 1:Nehemiah, in these four months, has developed a prayer team. And then he asked for success for the day, and then mercy, and I love this. In the sight of this man, he doesn't say in the sight of the king of Persia, in the sight of this man. And I love that because, again, nehemiah, yes, did he respect the king? Yes, but Nehemiah knew that he was ultimately just a man, because God was the true king and God was the one in control of all things. And then we have this final revelation and don't miss this Now.
Speaker 1:I was the cupbearer to the king and when we hear that, we think that sounds really random and a strange way to end this chapter. Did you know? It's actually the point of the chapter. We read this and, yes, please do we have something to learn about prayer from Nehemiah and leadership and faithfulness and all the things. Absolutely, but God is the main point of the Bible. Absolutely, but God is the main point of the Bible and God is the main point of this passage.
Speaker 1:Nehemiah was the cupbearer and he, as the cupbearer, was in a position of enormous trust, because the cupbearer would take the first sip of wine to make sure it was not poisonous wine, to make sure it was not poisonous, and then he would serve the king. And so, think about that he was very close and he determined who approached the king and when they approached the king, he had intimate access to the most powerful ruler on the earth. Accident, coincident? No, no way. This was God at work, preparing. Think about that Giving Nehemiah the burden leading him to prayer. Your prayer is a means to accomplishing God's purposes in the world, leading Nehemiah to pray and then giving him this strategic opportunity which he had placed them in. And all of those converge together in this amazing God converges all those things together to accomplish his purposes. The cupbearer remark is Nehemiah's way of saying God has been at work in this far longer than you think, orchestrating all of this long before now.
Speaker 1:Where has God placed you? Where has God positioned you in this life and in this world? Maybe you're a school teacher in the local schools. Maybe you own your own business. Maybe you're a business executive and in a boardroom. Maybe you're a student. Maybe you're a healthcare worker. Maybe you're a stay-at-home mom shaping the next generation. Maybe you're a student. Maybe you're a health care worker. Maybe you're a stay-at-home mom shaping the next generation. Maybe you're a neighbor on a street in a neighborhood or the parent of a child in your school. God has put you there and it is not a coincidence, it is not an accident. We tend to get frustrated I know what I feel this but we can get frustrated about our life and about our work and we can feel like we're just spinning our wheels and wasting our time. Don't despise where God has placed you. Don't despise where God has placed you. God has given you a sphere of influence, however small it might be. Your position is intentional, it's not accidental. Sometimes, the burdens God places on your heart aligns perfectly with the platform and influence he has given you. And the key is to recognize that that, however big or small your influence is, it is by design and God has put you there to be a part of accomplishing his purposes in the world.
Speaker 1:And Nehemiah this story points us to something far greater story points us to something far greater At just the right time in history, god put Nehemiah as the cupbearer so that he could restore the walls for God's people. And that, friends, points to the ultimate display of God's perfect timing. Because, centuries from this moment, galatians, chapter 4, verse 4, tells us that, in the fullness of time, at just the right time, god sent forth his son, jesus Christ, into the world. And Jesus, the greater and better Nehemiah, came exactly at the right moment in history in order to save his people from sin and death. Nehemiah think about it. He risked his life tasting wine for an earthly king. Christ took the cup of God's wrath and he drank it all the way to the bottom. For you when Nehemiah stood, between danger, and the king. Christ stands between us and the judgment that we deserve the poison of sin and the death that we deserve, fell upon Jesus so that you and I could have life and have it abundantly.
Speaker 1:We're moving into this next season of ministry and I've thought about this a lot. What a privilege, I know, I feel this to be here at this church and be a part of what God has been orchestrating here for 50 years, since God planted this church in the mid-70s. Nehemiah shows us that, this foundation here of prayer. He shows us this and we want to build on this foundation of prayer as we move towards the next 50. We want to have hearts that listen for what burdens God and we want that to move us to prayer that's anchored in truth and we want to trust in God's perfect timing.
Speaker 1:Let's move forward as a church by faith, trusting God. Let's pray. Father, thank you that you allow us. You don't need us. You're accomplishing your purposes in the world, but you allow us to be a part, and what a gift and a joy that is. Would you forgive us for the ways that we've ignored your burdens, the ways that we rely on our own wisdom instead of your truth and the ways that we doubt your perfect timing in our lives. Holy Spirit, give us hearts that listen, help us to pray and help us to trust that you're in control of all things. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.