Pray Like You Mean It
Notes
Transcript
Intro & Context
Intro & Context
This has been a week, hasn’t it? You know, I could say a lot of political things that would anger a lot of people. I’m so sick of division, but I fear saying anything at all would rally a third of our church body, anger another third of our church body, and cause another third to leave. And that’s regardless of which side I speak to or speak about. Here’s all I’m going to say, and you need to hear it:
Watch what media you’re consuming. You’ve got media on the left and media on the right. I don’t know if you remember, amidst all the chaos of last year, but we had two big storms enter the Gulf of Mexico. Laura and Marco. You probably forgot that, right? I’m telling you, 2020 is full of sermon illustrations.
But you’ve got two violent hurricanes of media on the left and on the right, and even without debating those two truth claims, what we see happening as a nation is both of these media hurricanes whipping up people on both sides to create a violent clash of political ideologies. And listen, if you want to be a part of the efforts to divide America, you need to check yourself and check the media that’s pumping into you, because chances are, you’re listening to the media a lot more than you’re listening to God’s Word. I don’t care what side you’re on, I see it all the time.
The media wants you to think the other side is your enemy, and I get that there’s some radicalization happening, where one is more culturally accepted and the other is not. I think we’ve heard that the world will hate us on account of Christ, and thus have become enemies to us… But we’ve forgotten what the Bible says about what we DO to our enemies. Listen to what the Bible has to say about how you treat your enemy.
Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Now, that’s an aside, because I think it needs to be addressed. I want us to move into our sermon for today, which comes out of Nehemiah 1 and 2.
You know, I’m convinced of something: I’m convinced that we need to pray more. Kind of a non-statement, because I think we all know we ought to dedicate more time in prayer, save for probably Lisa Logue, because she’s always praying for us.
But I believe we ought to pray more. Sincerely. But I’m also convinced that there are some holdups in our beliefs that cause us not to pray. Some of it is desire, but some of it is truly what we believe or don’t believe about prayer.
Question: Do you believe that God hears your prayers? Do you ever wonder that because He knows everything, we really have no use in praying, because He knows it all already? Or if He has a great plan, who could change His mind?
I want to tackle those questions in a small way today.
Pray Humbly
Pray Humbly
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 prayer 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, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses.
Nehemiah begins his prayer with the understanding that he Nehemiah, is very small in the Lord’s sight. He does not go before God, proud of who he is, or what he’s about to accomplish. There is no, “Lord, look at me,” there is only, “Lord, you are great. You are awesome. We have fallen and sinned against you.”
Nehemiah looked at the Covenant of God with Israel very seriously. He didn’t think God was one to be trifled with. Listen, we’re given the opportunity to approach the throne of God boldly, but we must always remember what He has done for us.
Nehemiah implores God for His grace and mercy. He knows Israel is guilty of so much wrongdoing, but yet he approaches God on the basis of His grace.
We can do that, too. God always receives the humble with open arms. Jesus tells us to approach God like little children.
and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
When we pray, we pray not as those who are deserving and ungrateful. We pray as those who are in need and know it.
If we are to pray like we mean it, we pray like our lives depend on it. Without the grace and mercy of our God, we have nothing, and we treasure His grace toward us in this way.
We are the beggar who has nothing to give in return. Only that which we can gain.
And it is in this kind of humility that God uses our prayers. God uses our humility to shape US! And He uses our requests to shape the world. He hears your hearts cry, and He cares, deeply, for you.
Pray His Promises
Pray His Promises
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.
Notice how Nehemiah prays here. Two things I want to draw out of Nehemiah’s prayer. The first thing that I want to draw out is that he’s praying things that God has commanded him to pray for.
See, Nehemiah first acquainted himself with what God had told him. Nehemiah’s saying, “Okay, what has God promised me?” Then, he goes to the Lord with those promises. Essentially, Nehemiah is approaching God with what He’s already promised! Do you want to know what God has already promised you? You can’t know if you’re not in His Word. Spend some time in the Psalms, and just reflect on how the Psalmists prayed for the Lord to go ahead of them and protect them. Find some of the great prayers of the Bible and pray them over yourself, too. Pray God’s promises back to Him. He is honored by that!
Don’t get caught up by the image of your nagging spouse… “Well, you said!” It annoys us because we can’t uphold our promises. It pleases God because He CAN uphold His promises! And He wants to!
This is a big reason why I spend so much time talking about God’s Word… It is His way of communicating to us and through us.
Now listen, I don’t want you to walk out of here with the wrong idea. A Camaro is not promised to you. Riches beyond your wildest dreams are not promised to you here on this earth. But God does promise to care for your needs:
Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Life won’t always be easy, but God does promise that it will work for your good:
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Life won’t always be easy, but what is promised is the presence of the Father through all things.
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
What is promised is eternal Heaven, where your riches will go beyond that of Elon Musk, who by the way, just became the richest person in the world. Passed up Jeff Bezos, went from 25 Billion net worth to 185 Billion in the course of one year. Your riches in Heaven are better than the riches of Elon Musk.
In the Psalms, you know, it was a very agrarian society. So the way God talks about His wealth to the Jews seems a little silly to us today. There’s a particular point in the Psalms where we see just how much God owns…
For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.
The cattle on a thousand hills… This points to God’s incalculable wealth!
Cattle? Yes, Cattle. Those were symbols of wealth. What it meant then was that God had more net worth than the kings of Egypt.
Does that extend to today’s billionaires? Yes. Yes, it does. The thing about Jeff Bezos’ money, Elon Musk’s money, Bill Gates’ money is that it will all fade away. The riches of Heaven are eternal.
Pray His protection and security over you, which is guaranteed until you safely reach Heaven.
The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when he delights in his way; though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord upholds his hand.
As a follower of Christ, you are promised these things. If you are not a follower of Christ, the promise of Christ you need to hear is that if you trust in His sacrifice on the cross, and in his resurrection, you will be made free of your sin, and instead of having to pay an eternal debt for that sin, you will be made to live forever in Heaven with God.
Pray With Progress in Mind
Pray With Progress in Mind
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.
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. 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. 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?” Then the king said to me, “What are you requesting?” So I prayed to the God of heaven. 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.” 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. 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, 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. Then I came to the governors of the province Beyond the River and gave them the king’s letters. Now the king had sent with me officers of the army and horsemen. But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant heard this, it displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel. So I went to Jerusalem and was there three days. Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me. And I told no one what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. There was no animal with me but the one on which I rode. I went out by night by the Valley Gate to the Dragon Spring and to the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that were broken down and its gates that had been destroyed by fire. Then I went on to the Fountain Gate and to the King’s Pool, but there was no room for the animal that was under me to pass. Then I went up in the night by the valley and inspected the wall, and I turned back and entered by the Valley Gate, and so returned. And the officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, and I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, and the rest who were to do the work. Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision.” 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. And they said, “Let us rise up and build.” So they strengthened their hands for the good work. But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they jeered at us and despised us and said, “What is this thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?” Then I replied to them, “The God of heaven will make us prosper, and we his servants will arise and build, but you have no portion or right or claim in Jerusalem.”
Nehemiah knew he could rely on God. He prayed for it. His cause was noble and God commanded it of him. So he knew that he could trust God in the middle of all of it. And that’s just what he did! He prayed for success and trusted that the Lord would fill in the gaps.
Do your prayers strengthen you? Do you believe in God’s provision for the journey? He will care for you. He will make your paths straight. You can trust Him more than you can trust your bank account.
And the first thing Nehemiah does after his prayers and journey to Jerusalem is take into account what must be done.
I can’t help but see many parallels between Nehemiah’s story and our story.
COVID has taken so much from us. It’s run rampant over our church. It’s hit our people, it’s hit our ministries, it’s hit the way we do church.
Nothing has gone untouched in our church by this virus.
Watch what Nehemiah does. He goes out, with just a few men, to inspect the walls. They’re in ruins. He can’t even get the donkey he’s riding on under one of the gates.
It’s after prayer and upon seeing these ruins that Nehemiah knows exactly what he is to do. He is to rebuild the city walls.
Where are we, Cassville Baptist Church? We have so many things lying in ruins from COVID. Ministries dismantled, people sick, we’ve even had to shut down live services.
Nehemiah saw the ruins, turned to his people and said, “Let us rebuild.”
Cassville Baptist Church, we must rebuild. How do we do it?
We start with prayer. Nehemiah was able to say, “Let us rebuild,” because he was also able to say, “The good hand of my God is on me.”
When Nehemiah set out to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, he was restoring Jerusalem to some of its former glory. But not only that, this renewed Jerusalem would be the setting in which the Messiah would come.
Cassville, there are some things that need to be restored in our church. There are some things that need to be set up for what’s to come.
Return to: a centering around glorifying God through the ministry of the Word.
Prepare for: a new people who will come to our church in the coming days, with new challenges, but the same Gospel need. We are stepping into a strange new world. Our culture changes at the speed of light. New morals are being crafted and shoved on the population.
Where is the church in all of this?
I’ll tell you where it should be: Proclaiming the unchanging Gospel truth.
In my office, I have a quote from one of my seminary professors: Dr. Lloyd Harsch, professor of Church History. The quote is simply this: “We must present the never-changing Gospel to an ever-changing world in a way that makes sense to them.”
The time has come for a new Jerusalem… That city shining upon a hill for the world to see the glory of God through. Church, we are, in a sense, a Jerusalem to our community. Let’s rebuild and trod ahead into the days to come. It starts with rebuilding the pillars of our ministry. We must have a way to worship, a way to build disciples, a way to promote fellowship, a way to engage in ministry, and a way we engage in God’s mission.