Sermon Tone Analysis

*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.