Ready to Use
Nehemiah 1 Sermon
“Ready to Use”
Big Idea: God will accomplish His excellent purpose with those who are sensitive to the things of God, who have a passion for prayer and who are available to be used.
I. Introduction
A. Secular
1. The phrase “some assembly required” does different things to different people.
a. Some latch onto it and relish it and plan a day or whole weekend around a box and its hundreds of pieces
b. Others will run in the other direction and prefer to spend more money simply because the box says “no assembly required” or “ready to use”
2. Listen to how one man described the process of putting up a ham radio antenna:
a. “When [the antenna] arrived I opened the box, read the instructions, said ‘Holy Cow!’ and put it back in the box. Do the words ‘Some assembly required’ strike terror in your heart? … I mumbled and groaned about it for months until [my wife] told me to either put up the antenna or shut up about it. I think she was hoping for ‘shut up.’”
b. Many of us groan when we see those words “some assembly required” and wonder if it will be worth our time, energy, frustration and bandages or, after all is said and done, wonder if the object we are assembling will even be useful.
B. Personal
1. I wonder if God gets frustrated with us, because we are definitely “some assembly required” projects.
2. Have you ever wondered what God has in store for you? How He might want to use you?
a. If He wanted to change the world through you by discovering the cure for cancer, destroying AIDS, or balancing the federal budget?
b. Or maybe not so global, but you would be the one to hit the buzzer-beater to win the championship, or write the book that would sell a million copies, or start the company that would expand into all 50 states.
3. Or maybe not how God was going to use you, but if He was going to use you at all?
a. You have a messed-up life and you don’t see any way that God might be able use you.
b. Or, perhaps you don’t see anything special about yourself that would be useful for God.
4. Either way, I think that deep down, we want to be used by God
a. We desire to live for something that is bigger than ourselves
b. We desire to do something that will last for eternity
C. Biblical
1. The amazing thing is that God uses people to do incredible things.
2. Bible is one continuous story of God using all sorts of people to do all sorts of incredible things.
3. We may recognize these names: Noah, Moses, Joshua, David, Mary
4. But what about these: Bartholomew, Andrew, Thaddeus
a. These were three of the original 12 apostles chosen specifically by Christ
b. God used them to change the world by bringing the gospel to the remotest parts of the world.
D. Textual
1. Transition to Text
a. It is certainly within God’s character and ability to do big things, yet He chooses to use people in order to do those big things.
b. Are we ready to be used by God?
2. We are going to be spending the next several weeks talking about a man that God used to do incredible things: Nehemiah.
a. Turn there now.
b. I will give you a little overview of what the book has in store for us.
II. Exposition
A. Overview of the book of Nehemiah
1. Most likely written as Ezra-Nehemiah
a. The earliest Jewish Bibles include them as one book, written by one author.
b. The division came much later primarily because there is a shift from focusing on the person of Ezra and his purpose to the person of Nehemiah and his purpose.
2. Themes of Ezra-Nehemiah
a. Ezra focused on the rebuilding of the temple
b. Nehemiah focuses on the rebuilding of the city walls
B. Nehemiah’s Question (Neh. 1:1-3)
1. Much content comes from Nehemiah’s memoirs
a. Can see this in our chapter, but also throughout the book with “I” pronouns.
b. Book has a heavy reliance on his writings.
c. Can see this in verse 1.
2. Background and setting
a. Events take place in Dec. 445BC
b. Susa was the winter capital of Persia
c. Jerusalem and the temple had been destroyed in 587BC and Israel had been in exile out of the Promised Land for about 140 years by now.
d. Change in world power from Babylon to Persia
e. In 538BC, as recorded in Ezra 1, King Cyrus of Persia issued a decree allowing about 50,000 Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple
1.) Happened about 90 years prior to Nehemiah
2.) Gain favor in Jewish eyes. Have a western military outpost.
3.) Haggai and Zechariah were active as prophets soon after this time.
4.) Their ministry was to encourage the Jewish people to finish the building of the temple, and in 515BC, the temple was finally dedicated.
f. Around 475BC, a Jewish woman named Esther is queen in Persia.
1.) This was about 30 years before the events of Nehemiah, and they happened while Queen Esther and the king were in the capital city of Susa.
2.) Esther is about God’s faithfulness in preserving the Jewish people who chose to stay in Persia after many went back to Israel, even though Haman had desired to wipe them out.
3.) Nehemiah is most likely born near (or during) the events of the book of Esther
g. Finally, in 458BC, Ezra led 5000 people back to the Promised Land.
1.) Ezra had desired to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach God’s statutes and rules in Israel (Ezra 7:10).
2.) About 13 years prior to Nehemiah
3. Question (Neh. 1:2)
a. Opportunity arises
1.) Nehemiah runs into his brother Hanani and a bunch of men returning from Judah
a.) We don’t know who these men are exactly, or what they were doing in Judah
b.) Maybe part of Ezra’s group, or just checking up on the progress
2.) Nehemiah hails them
b. Asks Hanani the question: what of the people and the place?
1.) Most people read this innocently, like “How was the trip?”
2.) See something more, in light of what happened in Esther and in Ezra
3.) Wanted to hear stories of triumph and victory in the Promised Land
4. Answer (Neh. 1:3)
a. Hanani’s answer is that neither are doing well at all.
1.) The people who have survived being in exile in Persia and were able to make the trip to Judah were “in great trouble and shame”
a.) They were suffering miserably, and were probably wondering why they ever made the trip back to the “Promised Land” in the first place.
2.) Jerusalem is in shambles
a.) The walls and gates were still in ruins, which meant that the people had little to no protection from the enemies that surrounded them.
C. Nehemiah’s Response (Neh. 1:4)
1. Nehemiah responds instantly – “As soon as I heard these words”
2. Nehemiah responds physically – “I sat down and wept and mourned”
3. Nehemiah responds spiritually – “I fasted and prayed”
4. Nehemiah responds unswervingly – “For days”, “continued”
a. Looking ahead to Ch. 2 it was nearly four months
b. He was punched in the gut and had the wind knocked out of him.
D. Nehemiah’s Prayer (Neh. 1:5-11a)
1. Adoration (Neh. 1:5)
a. YHWH – personal name of God that brings to mind His covenant relationship with Israel
b. God of heaven – He is the sovereign creator God, there is none like Him
c. Great and awesome God – His character is powerful and possesses majesty
d. Keeps covenant and steadfast love – He is faithful to His unconditional promises He has made to His chosen people
2. Plea to hear (Neh. 1:6a)
a. Phrase used to ask God to engage all of Himself to the hearing of the prayer.
3. Confession of personal and corporate sins (Neh. 1:6b-7)
a. Just as Nehemiah realizes that God is a god who keeps His “covenant and steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His commandments”,
b. He confesses that he, his family and the people as a whole have not been faithful to keep what they have been commanded.
c. Not only have they not been faithful, but their sin and their turning away from God was the reason that the people and the city were in desolate condition.
d. So his prayer is not because of a sense of entitlement, but out of a desire for mercy and grace.
4. Appeal to remember covenant and people (Neh. 1:8-10)
a. Not remember as to bring it to mind again, but as a call to act on his promise
b. Nehemiah here is able to draw from several different verses from Gen., Lev. and Deut.
c. If God was faithful to keep His promise to scatter the nation because of their sin, He would be faithful to keep His promise to gather them back to the Promised Land, as they repent and return to Him.
5. Request for success (1:11a)
a. After all of this, he knew something would have to be done, and he knew that God would have to be the reason it got done.
b. So he asks for success in whatever needed to be done.
c. And he asks for “mercy in the sight of this man”
E. Nehemiah’s Position (Neh. 1:11b)
1. His request begs the question, “Who is this man, and what can Nehemiah do?”
2. Cupbearer to the king
a. “This man” was King Artaxerxes, the king of the Persian Empire who was arguably the most powerful man on the earth.
b. What Nehemiah could do was bend his ear.
1.) The royal cupbearer was the person who chose and tasted the king’s wine, to show that it wasn’t poisoned. Therefore, they were trusted servants.
2.) He also stood beside the king during each meal to make himself available for the king.
3.) It was not unusual that a king would ask a cupbearer his opinion or thought on a matter
3. Nehemiah’s position plays a big part in the rest of the book of Nehemiah
F. Transition
1. What was it about Nehemiah that made him ready to be used?
2. What can we learn about Nehemiah and examine in ourselves?
III. Implication/Application
A. A person who is sensitive to the things of God
1. King David was described as “a man after God’s own heart” (1 Sam. 13:14)
a. They were like-minded
b. Had the same concerns and cares
2. Nehemiah asked about the people and Jerusalem in v. 2, because he knew God was concerned about them.
a. The people were God’s chosen people, through whom knowledge about God would spread throughout the world.
b. The city was the place God had chosen to make His Name dwell.
3. When Nehemiah heard the news about the condition of the people and of the city, he reacted very strongly.
4. In order to have a heart that is concerned about the things on God’s heart, we first must be born again.
a. Our natural heart is full of sin so that we are only concerned with what benefits ourselves. Naturally, we are prideful and self-centered.
b. We need a new heart, one that has been cleansed from the stain of sin and is able to pursue God and think of others before ourselves.
c. This new heart is given to us by God as we accept His gift of forgiveness, provided by the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, by faith.
5. Once we have this new heart and are born again, the things that used to give us selfish and prideful pleasure are no longer appealing to us.
a. We have little concern for the things of the world
b. Instead, we have great concern for the things of God.
B. A person who has a passion for prayer
1. Before Nehemiah took any action, He came before God in prayer.
2. He rightly understood that if anything was to be done, it must be done by first seeking the power and approval of the God of heaven.
3. A passion for prayer is not about the number of times you pray, the times of day you pray, or even the posture you take in prayer.
a. A passion for prayer is a deep realization that, in every circumstance, we need the Lord God to supernaturally intervene, or else our labor is in vain (Ps. 127:1).
b. It’s a realization that things do not get done by our might or by our power, but things get done by the Spirit of the living God (Zech. 4:6).
4. To properly understand Nehemiah, the person and the book, we need to see his passion for prayer.
a. There are at least 11 prayers of his in this book.
b. This is one of the defining features of his life.
5. It is a passion for prayer that mimics the Lord Jesus’
a. He prayed all night before He chose His 12 apostles (Luke 6:12)
b. He prayed before He fed the 5000 (John 6:11)
c. He prayed extensively for them as He left the Last Supper (John 17)
d. He prayed before He was arrested (Matthew 26:36-44)
e. He prayed right before He died (Luke 23:46)
6. Illustration
a. Dr. A. T. Pierson once said, 'There has never been a spiritual awakening in any country or locality that did not begin in united prayer."
b. One author described the origins and affects of some of the great spiritual revivals in the last 200 years in this way:
1.) In the late 1700s, there was a Scottish Presbyterian minister in Edinburgh named John Erskine, who published a Memorial [pamphlet] pleading with the people of Scotland and elsewhere to unite in prayer for the revival of religion.
2.) He sent one copy of this little book to Jonathan Edwards in New England.
3.) As a result, Edwards published a book that was widely read in both the US and in England.
a.) In England it inspired people like William Carey, Andrew Fuller and John Sutcliffe to begin what was called the Union of Prayer.
b.) In America, the idea of a “concert of prayer” sprung up on the first Monday of every month.
4.) Revival began to spread across the US, which was a country, after the American Revolution, that was at its absolute worst in terms of drunkenness, lawlessness and church attendance and participation.
a.) With this revival came the abolition of slavery, rise in popular education, Sunday School classes, and anti-drunkenness movements.
c. Some years later, in 1857, a man named Jeremiah Lanphier started a businessman’s prayer meeting in New York City.
1.) Prayers meetings then began to pop up to the point that every church and public hall in downtown NYC was filled up.
2.) Even though it was winter, people would go up to the Hudson River and cut huge holes of ice so that they could be baptized.
3.) The revival moved to Chicago, where a man named DL Moody began his ministry and where church membership grew 10-fold in three years.
d. This revival continued to grow across this country and in England as well
1.) In Wales, drunkenness was cut in half and taverns started to go bankrupt.
2.) Illegitimate birth rates dropped by some 44% in one year.
3.) One police sergeant said that his police officers are busiest on Sundays, not patrolling the streets, but singing in church choirs.
e. All because someone had a passion for prayer.
7. How to pray?
a. Follow the model of Nehemiah
1.) Offer words of adoration – extolling God’s virtues and worshipping Him for who He is
2.) Offer words of confession – come before God with a pure heart, in order to restore a right relationship with Him.
3.) Offer words of petition – offered with the understanding that you are relying on Him for even the most mundane things.
b. Nehemiah’s model closely mimics the model the Lord Jesus taught His disciples to pray (Matthew 6:9-12)
1.) Adoration – “Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name.”
2.) Confession – “Forgive us our trespasses”
3.) Petition – “Give us this day our daily bread.”
C. A person who is available to be used
1. The first two qualities that I’ve brought up, being sensitive to the things of God and having a passion for prayer, are matters of the heart, and this one is no less.
2. Nehemiah had a privileged position before the king of Persia.
3. Yet, it wasn’t his job or his family name or his wealth or his ability to win friends and influence people that God saw in him, it was his willingness to use whatever he had and take risks for God.
4. Illustration:
a. In 1952, a man named Charlie Riggs began working for the Billy Graham organization.
b. He originally did follow-up contacts after the crusades left town, but after awhile, someone suggested that Charlie be made the director of the crusades.
c. Billy said that he didn’t think that he could handle the job because all he could do was pray and quote Scripture, but was eventually persuaded to change his mind.
d. Charlie organized the New York City crusade that year, which was a huge success and was the model for Billy’s other crusades.
e. Billy Graham said, “I didn’t think he could do it. But Charlie so depended on the Holy Spirit that I knew the Lord could do it through Charlie.”
f. Charlie said, “‘I always asked the Lord to put me in over my head . That way, when I had a job to do, either the Lord had to help me or I was sunk.’”
g. God was delighted to answer this prayer time after time. He put Charlie Riggs in over his head—and then bailed him out.
5. Charlie recognized his opportunity and prayed.
6. Nehemiah recognized his opportunity and prayed that God would help him take a risk and be bold before King Artaxerxes as his cupbearer.
a. In Chapter 2, we’ll see how God answers that prayer.
IV. Conclusion
A. For the past 2 months you have heard about wonderful opportunities we believe God is placing in front of us.
1. Opportunities to go into different continents around the world to proclaim His truth and see people saved.
2. Opportunities to meet the demands of a growing congregation here in Kearney, both numerically as God continues to give us people and spiritually, as we see people growing mature through their participation in Life Groups and Discipleship Groups.
B. These opportunities are before us, but are we “ready to be used” or is there still “some assembly required”?
1. For all of us, there is some assembly required.
2. We’re not perfect or fully mature yet.
C. But as we look at Nehemiah, being ready to be used by God is a matter of the heart, more than anything else.
1. He wants our hearts to be focused on the things that matter most to Him.
2. He wants our hearts to cry out to Him in every circumstance, knowing that without Him, nothing will get done that will be worth getting done.
3. He wants our hearts to be available for Him, to use however He wants, whenever He wants, including asking us to take risks for Him.
D. As we look at Nehemiah in the upcoming weeks, we need to ask ourselves, “Am I ready to be used?”