Courageous Commitment to God's Glory!
NEHEMIAH: How God Uses the Ordinary to Revitalize the Kingdom! • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 38:01
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Welcome
Welcome
Good Morning! I’m Pastor Wayne and I’d like to welcome you all to the gathering of Ephesus Baptist Church.
1 I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.
2 I will be glad and exult in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.
Today, you are here to worship God; to give glory to His name; to find your joy in the hope we have in Christ!
He continually does many wonderful things for us, things we don’t deserve, so be glad and exalt His name this morning.
May you revel in the steadfast love of God as we worship Him together for His glory and our joy!
If you are visiting with us this morning, we want you to know that Ephesus is an active faith community on a mission with Jesus.
Here at Ephesus, we are one people giving our all to love God, love others, proclaim Jesus, and make disciples in our generation.
We have a connect card in the pew in front of you. I invite you to take one and fill it out! If you have prayer needs, you can let us know about those as well.
I promise, our prayer team will lift you up soon. You can place those cards in the offering plate when it comes around.
Scripture Memory
Scripture Memory
6 “You are the Lord, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you.
Opening Scripture
Opening Scripture
1 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.
2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”
4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.
5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.
7 And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”
Introduction
Introduction
Let’s briefly review what we have learned so far from Nehemiah.
In our first sermon in our series on Nehemiah, we learned that
Nehemiah is a story of rebuilding, refocusing, and revitalizing not just individuals, but whole communities and cultures.
Nehemiah reveals to us what God can do with a person who yields their life to the Will of God to promote the glory of God.
Nehemiah is living proof that God delights in using ordinary people to restore, to rebuild, to revitalize His people, His church, and His world!
In our second sermon, we learned that
We need to have a regular, honest assessment of our current realities, both personally and corporately.
God’s Word directed Nehemiah’s affections, and through prayer, God changed Nehemiah’s heart as he sought God’s will daily.
We learned that zealousness for the glory of God, like Nehemiah demonstrated, only comes from a sense of brokenness over God’s glory not completely filling every nook and cranny of our darkening society.
In our last sermon, we learned some important elements of powerful prayer.
We were reminded that prayer is essential for beginning and completing a great work of revitalization for the glory of God.
Brokenness: We learned that Prayer requires our brokenness over the lack of influence we exert for God’s Glory.
Praise and Adoration: We learned that Powerful prayer begins with praise and adoration in order to help us reorient our hearts by meditating on the character and nature of God.
Confession of Sin: We learned that Prayer grants us the power to do a great work for the glory of God, in proportion to us getting our hearts right before God. No true work of revitalization can happen until we confess and repent of our sins!
Confidence in God’s Word: Nehemiah challenges us to pray based on an understanding of God’s purpose and will as found in his Word. To build our prayer lives upon the promises of God.
Faithful Trust for God’s Providential Answer: Nehemiah’s greatness came from asking great things of a great God and attempting great things in confident dependence on Him.
Nehemiah believed God had placed him in the role of the King’s Cup-bearer for such a time as this.
That brings us to our message from Nehemiah for today.
Nehemiah is about to receive the commission he needed to carry out the enormous task of rebuilding the walls that God had placed within his heart.
As we think of the the burden of Nehemiah, we will see many similarities to the world we live in today.
Our concern is not with physical walls, but with the spiritual walls of our time that are in a terrible state of disrepair and there seems to be little interest in their revitalization.
I can assure you that this is not pleasing to our Lord. His church across our land lies mired in ineffectiveness, apathy, biblical illiteracy, and even moral scandal.
He is looking for those who will rise to the occasion and seek to rebuild that which has been torn down. Who will accept the call among us and seek to restore that which is in disrepair among us?
What I’m saying, ladies and gentlemen is....
It is time that God’s people begin to act like God’s People.
The Bible says in Daniel 11:32, “but the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action.”
So, who will be courageously committed to God’s Glory? Who will be courageously committed to personal revitalization? Corporate revitalization? Community revitalization? or more.
Today, I want to share with you Four Ways you can be courageously committed to God’s Glory!
May God help us; may God help me if we don’t live like the Bible prescribes.
Opening Prayer
1. Courageous Commitment to God’s Glory Requires Tactical Patience. (2:1-4)
1. Courageous Commitment to God’s Glory Requires Tactical Patience. (2:1-4)
As I consider the life of Nehemiah, I see a man who was willing to stand for truth at all costs and was willing to make the necessary sacrifices to serve the Lord. He was willing to roll up his sleeves and get busy doing what God had called him to do.
Consider the last part of his prayer in Chapter One.
11 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, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.” Now I was cupbearer to the king.
He asked God to grant him mercy in the sight of this man.....today. Nehemiah had prayed and prayed, now it was time to put action to his prayers.
1 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. Now I had not been sad in his presence.
2 And the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of the heart.” Then I was very much afraid.
3 I said to the king, “Let the king live forever! Why should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ graves, lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”
4 Then the king said to me, “What are you requesting?” So I prayed to the God of heaven.
It is the month of Nisan (April). Nehemiah has been praying and fasting since Chislev (December). Again, that is 4 months.
What I want you to understand is that Nehemiah did not act out emotionally concerning his burden for God’s glory. No, he waited. He was patient.
By the time he prays in chapter one, four months have passed and the waiting was over. What was he waiting for?
He was waiting for the right moment to lay his burden at the feet of King Artaxerxes. Even in his position, he could not just walk up to the King and speak about Jerusalem.
He had to practice tactical patience. Tactical patience is the ability to hold back trying to do something that you know needs to be done because you know if you rush in you could ruin your chance to allow God to work ahead of you.
On this day, King Artaxerxes wanted wine. Nehemiah was the Cup-Bearer, so he took wine to the king. He had likely done this every day for the past few months.
Those previous times he had put on a happy face and delivered the wine like he was supposed to, but not this day.
Why today?
Commentator, Hugh Williamson notes that Persian kings regularly had special feasts; and according to Herodotus (9.110), at a certain feast, the Persian king showed special generosity toward his servants. It is believed that the feast may have been related to the month of Nisan.
Also, there is an interesting note in verse 6 that says, (the queen sitting beside him).
This could be telling us a couple of important things that played into his decision to make today the day.
First, It was against protocol for the wife of the king to sit beside him while on the throne. Because of this something different was going on here.
Second, Some believe that the word “queen” was also used for the queen mother. The queen mother (or stepmother, in this case) would have been none other than Esther herself! She would have been afforded the right to sit beside the king at feasts and other major moments.
Perhaps, Nehemiah believed that Esther would help to influence the king while he presented his request.
Listen Ephesus, if this is true, can you feel the mighty hand of God, providentially moving in the midst of this revitalization project?
If God is for us, who can be against us!
Today, having prayed over the matter and controlling his feelings up until now, Nehemiah let down his facade of happiness, and looked sad before the king.
This was a risky endeavor to be sure. But it was all a part of Nehemiah’s plan of action. He wanted the king to notice his grief on this particular day.
2 And the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of the heart.” Then I was very much afraid.
Why was this risky?
Persian Kings required all servants to look happy in the their presence (a compliment to the boss, you could call it), and failure to be happy before the king was thought treasonable, an insult to the crown, and could be punished with death if the king so decided, we can see why Nehemiah would have been afraid.
Add to that, It was Nehemiah’s job to protect the king from any assassination attempts through poisoning.
Any change in Nehemiah’s behavior or countenance would surely bring suspicion from an already paranoid king whose own father had been assassinated.
Furthermore, you can actually translate the word sadness as: “Why is your face troubled with ‘evil’ or ‘badness of heart’?”
Basically, the king says, “Nehemiah, something is wrong. What’s going on here, do I need to call the royal guard?”
Tactically, Nehemiah had waited for this moment of decision to come. Weighing the risk to his own comfort, his own life, he graciously lays out his reason for sadness.
3 I said to the king, “Let the king live forever! Why should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ graves, lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”
Concern for the burial place of one’s forefathers was not limited to the Jews.
Nehemiah very tactfully displayed a concern for the lack of respect for the dead. What a smart move.
As Judah Slotki notes, “The appeal to be allowed to show respect for the dead would touch the sense of ancestral piety which was strong in the oriental heart.”
God used Nehemiah’s sadness to move the heart of the King. Artaxerxes next words were, “What are you requesting?”
Courageous Commitment to God’s Glory Requires Tactical Patience.
2. Courageous Commitment to God’s Glory Is Sustained Through Prayer. (2:4)
2. Courageous Commitment to God’s Glory Is Sustained Through Prayer. (2:4)
4 Then the king said to me, “What are you requesting?” So I prayed to the God of heaven.
Too often we look at situations and assume there is no way, but do we fail to ask God to make a way?
If God has placed a burden on our hearts, He will make a way, but we need to be in continual prayer before Him.
Nehemiah’s prayer was short and quick. I am convinced that it was an ancient Hebrew phrase that when translated says, “O Lord, Help Me!”
Charles Spurgeon once said,
You may breathe a prayer to heaven and say, “Lord, keep me.” It will take no time. It is one great advantage to persons who are hard pressed in business that such prayers as those will not, in the slightest degree, incapacitate them from attending to the business they may have in hand. It requires you to go to no particular place... No altar, no church, no so-called sacred place is needed, but wherever you are, just such a little prayer as that will reach the ear of God, and win a blessing.
Quick prayers are most effective when you have prayed sufficiently beforehand.
In this case Nehemiah’s prayer is evidence of a life lived in constant communion with God.
Nehemiah had prayed for months, but he knew he was completely dependent on God’s work in the king’s heart at this moment.
I confess I admire Nehemiah. I wish every Christian heart would exercise the practice of praying before we speak more often. How many problems, how much pain could be avoided.
Courageous Commitment to God’s Glory Is Sustained Through Prayer.
3. Courageous Commitment to God’s Glory Involves Strategic Planning. (2:5-8)
3. Courageous Commitment to God’s Glory Involves Strategic Planning. (2:5-8)
I want you to notice as we read the next few verses, if you haven’t picked up on it already, that Nehemiah was a man with a plan.
5 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 fathers’ graves, that I may rebuild it.”
6 And the king said to me (the queen sitting beside him), “How long will you be gone, and when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me when I had given him a time.
7 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,
8 and a letter to Asaph, 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, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall occupy.” And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me.
Real quick there are 4 parts to Nehemiah’s plan revealed here.
a. “Send me to Judah....that I may rebuild it.”
a. “Send me to Judah....that I may rebuild it.”
Nehemiah had a plan to rebuild Jerusalem.
b. “I had given him a time.”
b. “I had given him a time.”
He had an idea of how long it would take.
c. “letters…to let me pass through.”
c. “letters…to let me pass through.”
He knew he would need permission to pass through Persian provinces on his way to Jerusalem. specially since Artaxerxes had previously had the building stopped (Ezra 4:17–22).
d. “letter…to give me timber”
d. “letter…to give me timber”
He knew he was going to need resources to rebuild the gates, the walls, and a home.
He knew what needed to be done, how he wanted to approach it, and an idea of how long it would take.
He had been praying and planning during these past four months so that he would be ready when God moved.
God’s work and our planning are not contradictory. Prayer is where planning starts.
Nehemiah models great leadership; he prayed, planned, and acted in dependence on God and submission to those above him.
Understand that the real planning was done by God. God was actually in the process of doing something in Nehemiah before He would ever do anything through Nehemiah.
I fear that many of us, myself included, are so accustomed to church work and its activities that we give little thought to what it is we are actually doing.
Much of the work that is being done in the average church today is being done by the “seat of our pants” so to speak.
We spend very little time praying about specific needs and ministries and we often jump into something with little thought or preparation. If it is worth doing, it is worth doing right!
We need to take the time to pray and seek the Lord about everything we do and make plans to fulfill our calling to the best of our ability.
Courageous Commitment to God’s Glory Involves Strategic Planning.
4. Courageous Commitment to God’s Glory Must Be Guided By God’s Gracious Hand. (2:8)
4. Courageous Commitment to God’s Glory Must Be Guided By God’s Gracious Hand. (2:8)
There is no task to great for the Lord to handle. He has all the resources we need.
8 and a letter to Asaph, 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, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall occupy.” And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me.
You see, it wasn’t this earthly king, Artaxerxes; he was only a tool in the hand of the King of kings.
1 The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.
God moved the king to grant every request that Nehemiah made according to his good hand. Everything that God had put in his heart to do was provided for. Nehemiah was not hindered for lack of resources or ability. He had liberty to carry out the work.
Nehemiah had the benefit of working with the authority of the king and the backing of the kingdom.
The work we have been called to perform is not expected or carried out in and of ourselves.
We, too, have the authority of the Lord behind us and the backing of His kingdom.
We have no reason to hang our heads or be timid about our work. We have no reason to be apathetic toward His cause. We are carrying out the official business of the King of kings and Lord of lords.
Courageous Commitment to God’s Glory Must Be Guided By God’s Gracious Hand
When God is willing, anything is possible!
Are we willing?
Are we willing to accept, like Nehemiah, any change and any risk that may be involved in rendering the service our church and community spiritually need?
Are we willing to put God first, others second, and ourselves last as we seek to fulfil the ministry God has given?
Are we willing to leave it to the Lord to look after us as we concentrate on the tasks he has given us?
Are we doing what the Lord desires of us? Are we seeking His guidance and help as we serve Him? Are we resting in His ability or are we trying to make our own way and achieve the results we desire?
I pray that we will submit our lives to the will of God and be willing to follow Him wherever He leads!