Sermon Tone Analysis

*Intro*

 Last time we looked at how God prepares His workers for His work.

We said two things.

First of all, it begins by God:

*I.

Birthing a burden in our hearts (Neh.

1:1-3).

*Nehemiah, far removed in distance and generations from his people, after finding out that the wall of Jerusalem was still broken down and not fixed, even after some of the Jews had returned, was moved with compassion.

A burden was birthed in his heart.

God’s work requires taking on God’s heart and God’s burden.

Secondly:

*II.

Breaking our hearts with the burden (Neh.

1:4a).*

Not only does the burden weigh heavy on our heart, but it causes our hearts to break.

If you remember, we said that whoever wants to rebuild the walls, cannot do so until he~/she has first wept over the ruins.

Thirdly God prepares His workers for His work by us:

*III.

Bringing the burden to God (Neh.

1:4-10)*

It is interesting how this works.

A burdened God looks for believers who can carry His burden.

He births a burden in their heart.

This burden then breaks their heart.

Then he desires them to roll the burden back to Him to see His power and experience His joy and leave with confidence and trust that He will turn the burden into a blessing.

This seems like common sense to bring our burdens to God, but dying to self-sufficiency and this “I can handle it” attitude is a big struggle for us.

Cyril J.

Barber, the author of a very valuable study of Nehemiah, has written wisely, “The self-sufficient do not pray; they merely talk to themselves.

The self-satisfied will not pray; they have no knowledge of their need.

The self-righteous cannot pray; they have no basis on which to approach God.”[1]Nehemiah, as big a position he had, still found it necessary to go to God in prayer.

If you remember from the overview, this book is saturated with prayer.

There are 10 instances of prayer in 13 chapters of this book.[2]

It even begins and ends in prayer.

We are going to look at this beginning prayer today.

Do you want to know how God prepares His workers for His work?

He first teaches them to be pleaders, before they can become leaders.

Someone asked author Stephen Davey, “How does prayer work?”

I like his response: “I don’t know /how/ prayer works, I just know that prayer /is /work!

And those who /work at /prayer discover that /prayer works!/”[3]

Nehemiah is a great example of someone who is working at prayer.

What does it mean to bring our burden to God? Bringing our burden to God means: 

*a) Look up and grasp His greatness (Neh.

1:4-5)*

Notice his prayer.

How many of you ever heard of the ACTS acronym on how to pray? “A” stands for Adoration.

“C” stands for Confession.

“T” for Thanksgiving and “S” for Supplication.

We will see elements of each in Nehemiah’s prayer here.

Notice how he begins his prayer with praise.

He starts off invoking the personal name of God: Yahweh.

“God of Heaven” was a common use by the Persians when they talked about their pagan gods.[4]

But by putting it next to LORD, Nehemiah is saying that one true God of Heaven is the one who had a personal relationship with them through the covenant God had made with His people.

When Nehemiah calls God the “God of Heaven,” and when we say, “Our Father who art in Heaven”, it is not so much that it is God’s address, but more about God’s attributes.

“Of Heaven” refers to God being transcendent, majestic, and sovereign.[5]

As such, Nehemiah is acknowledging that God is above even the greatest empire of that time, Persia and above the greatest tragedy of the Captivity and exile.

Notice He is the “great and awesome God.”

As one commentator notes, “God’s awesomeness is the impression his total character and person leaves on all who encounter him.”[6]

We would be wise to reserve the word “awesome” to God alone.

We tend to ascribe that word to a music band, chocolate, a ball game or a movie we just saw.

But truly nothing and nobody is awesome like God!

He says this great and awesome God is also a promise-keeping God.

This is what he means as he says “who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments.”

He is referring the covenant God made with the people of Israel.

We will talk more about that in a second.

See the words “steadfast love.”

If you remember our Ruth series, this is a very popular word in the Old Testament.

Write in your margin the word “hesed.”

This is a great word!

Let’s review this word again.

It is found 246x in the OT and 127x (over half in the Psalms).[7]

The only problem is that there is no real good English equivalent for it.

Probably the best is “God’s loyal covenant-keeping love for His people.”

Some translations call it “lovingkindness” or “mercy” or “kindness” or “steadfast love.”

It is most often mentioned with God as the subject and His people or humanity as the object (3:1).

Humans also can also show “hesed” to one another.

On one website, the author defined “hesed” as “the consistent, ever-faithful, relentless, constantly-pursuing, lavish, extravagant, unrestrained, furious love of our Father God!”[8] I really like that!

Nehemiah here is appealing to that love.

He knows his people did not keep their end of the bargain, but He is recalling God who has been faithful, even when God’s people were unfaithful.

Do you see what Nehemiah’s doing here?

He is grasping the greatness of God.

Praise comes before petition.

He is not coming to God and saying, “Here I am!” but instead, “There /you/ are!”[9] God was not some genie who will give you three wishes if you rub hard enough on the prayer lamp.

He was not some “gumball machine” into which you insert the prayer quarter and get some candy.[10]

But God, you are Sovereign!

Notice how many times he refers to either himself or God’s people as servants in this chapter!

Eight times in 11 verses!

He knew his place before God and he knew God’s place before him.

God was on the throne.

His servant was at his feet.

Sure he is probably really close to the King of Persia as a cupbearer, and in front of the world’s eyes, the second most important person, but before God, he is just a servant and God is the sovereign ruler of the Universe.

I could certainly work on adoration more in my life, but I cannot begin to tell you how many times I have felt really heavy burdens on my heart weighing me down and then coming to God in prayer and then when I just start to worship and praise Him for who He is, how God gives my heart wings!

Sometimes by the time I get to petition, I forget what the burdens even were!

We could work on adoring the Lord more.

We may know so many verses and songs that deal with us, but very little that just talk about how great God is.

For example, finish this verse: “Be still and know…” Most of you probably know the rest of that /sentence/---“that I am God”---but how many know the rest of that /verse/?

The rest of the verse from Ps. 46:10 says, “I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted among the earth.”

If you are one who likes to underline verses in your Bible, I wonder what percentage are verses about us (which is not wrong to underline by the way) and what percentage is solely about God? How do you bring your burdens to God? Start by looking up and grasping His greatness.

Learn to spend time in adoration.

Read Psalms like Ps 145 or 136 to help you.

Secondly,

*b) Look in and grasp our sin (Neh.

1:6-7)*

In Neh.

1:6, Nehemiah asks God for “his ear to be attentive and his eyes open.”