Sermon Tone Analysis

*Intro* 

Irish novelist George Moore tells the story about Irish peasants who were put to work during the Great Depression.

They were asked to build government roads.

For a time, the men were great workers who really enjoyed the work during tough economic times, even singing songs as they worked.

In addition, they felt like they were contributing to the good of the nation.

But little by little, it began to dawn on them that the roads they were building were going nowhere.

It became clear that they had been put to work so the government would have an excuse for feeding them.

They were doing pointless busywork.

Pretty soon, the men grew weary and the songs were sung no more.

Moore concludes that the “roads to nowhere are difficult to build.”[1]

This is what the world is doing.

They are building lives that lead to nowhere…nowhere good anyway.

And if you ever said yes to Jesus, that was not just fire insurance.

It is not just a “get out of hell free” card.

He calls you to serve Him and do His work.

We may have secular jobs, family and other responsibilities, but for the child of God, he~/she is called to the work for God.

I am not talking about just full-time ministry, but I am talking about living life purposefully and investing it in the stuff that matters and the stuff that is going to last.

Paul told the Corinthians, because Jesus is raised from the dead and we have victory through him, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Cor.

15:58).

I want to do abounding work in the Lord and for the Lord.

We got one shot at this thing called life and if we are not on board now, we are building a road that is going nowhere.

We have been talking these weeks about how God prepares His people for His work.

God has work for us to do here and He wants to use us.

But before He can use us, He wants to make us usable.

But very rarely is God going to come to you in a vision or a dream and say, “I want you to do this work for me.”

Even if God does that, He has still been preparing you up to that point.

But most of the time, He likes to quietly prepare people.

Moses, for example, was called to serve God at age 80.

Why couldn’t he call Moses earlier?

Because He was preparing him.

Even when he was shepherding stubborn sheep for 40 years in the desert, God used it as training in his life, for he will eventually have to shepherd the stubborn sheep of Israel for 40 years.

What about even Jesus?

What was he doing for 30 years?

He could have saved so many people!

He could have healed countless and delivered so many during that time.

I think it was a lesson for us that Jesus being fully God, yet also fully man, still had preparation time.

We talked about God starting with a burden in our hearts which results in our hearts breaking.

When was the last time the Lord broke your heart for the things which God’s heart breaks?

This broken heart is given back to the Lord in prayer and He takes it, makes it a bigger heart than ever before and prepares it for His blessing.

This is what happened to Nehemiah.

He is an ordinary man working a job, but who loved God, His Word, His people and who wanted God’s glory.

He does not want to work independently of the Lord.

He wants to work alongside Him.

He wants God to do something great for His name, and then asks God for an opportunity to be part of that process.

God uses him because he was usable for the Lord.

But there is more to God preparing us! Preparation entails more work.

After we pray, then what?

A miracle?!

At this point at the end of Nehemiah 1, we might think, “Ok.

Nehemiah prayed and now God will answer it.

I wish my prayers worked like that.”

Before we jump to that conclusion, look at Neh. 2:1 and notice that the next events happen, “in the month of Nisan.”

This would be our March or April time.

Nehemiah received the news about the walls and the people four months prior (Neh.

1:1).

This brings us to our first principle today:

*I.

Praying for God’s will requires persevering until God’s timing (Neh.

2:1)*

We read of nothing of Nehemiah’s journal entries from January to April.

What happened in January Nehemiah?

Nothing.

What happened in February?

Nothing.

What about March?

Umm, nothing.

Beloved, God’s delays are not God’s denials.

Nehemiah had to wait for God’s timing.

When we go back to his prayer in Neh.

1:11, he seems to have so much confidence that God was going to answer his prayer that day.

But for some reason, he did not go through with it.

Perhaps he realized he needed more time and wanted to wait until God opened a door.

Actually now 100 days have gone by and he is still waiting.

Let’s pick up the story in Neh.

2:1.

Four months have passed.

We find that Nehemiah is still working and he is still alive.

Remember he was the cupbearer for the King.

This meant he tasted the food and wine before the King did just in case anyone tried to assassinate the king by poisoning the food.

Now four months later, despite a broken heart over his people’s welfare, he is still working faithfully.

I find this really hard to do, apart from the grace of God.

It is really hard to keep doing what is in front of you when your heart is elsewhere.

But we can learn from Nehemiah, that until God’s timing comes to fruition for whatever we are waiting for, let us commit to faithfully doing what is in front of us.

I remember when I lost my job at Moody and Jenny was several months pregnant and we were still waiting on what God would have us next.

When the baby arrived and Jenny had to go back to work, I can remember several times I was sitting at my in-laws’ house with a baby in my arms, struggling with trusting God.

I had several times of wallowing in self-pity.

I didn’t understand this then that what God wanted me to do was to be a father and husband.

I had to do what was in front of me.

In looking back, we are thankful God does not always answer prayer in our timing, for I would seriously doubt His wisdom if He did!

Nehemiah was persevering all of this time.

During the past four months, Nehemiah says he was not sad in the king’s presence.

In that culture, if you were in the King’s presence, you were not allowed to wear your emotions on your sleeve.

If he happens to be in a bad mood himself, you might die.

But it was an insult to look sad in his presence.

Even if things were going rough, you were expected to “put on a happy face” because just being in the King’s presence should bring you joy.

Anything less might suggest that you are dissatisfied with him.[2] I am so glad God doesn’t ask us to pretend before Him.

We can come to Him just as we are!

I do not think for a moment that it was easy for Nehemiah to wait.

First of all, he seemed ready to go to the king in Neh.

1:11, pretty soon after he heard the terrible news.

Secondly, throughout the book, we can see that he is a very bold and ready-aim-fire kind-of-guy.

He is always making quick decisions.

If he is that type-A kind of personality, it must have driven him nuts that nothing was happening for four months!

As one commentator notes here, “Waiting time is not wasted time.”[3]