Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
0.12UNLIKELY
Disgust
0.5UNLIKELY
Fear
0.15UNLIKELY
Joy
0.47UNLIKELY
Sadness
0.53LIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.39UNLIKELY
Confident
0UNLIKELY
Tentative
0.3UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.77LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.67LIKELY
Extraversion
0.15UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.85LIKELY
Emotional Range
0.73LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
We Can Make a Difference!
Nehemiah 1:1-2:6
Sermon by Rick Crandall
Grayson Baptist Church - August 3, 2014
BACKGROUND:
*As we look into God's Word today, remember that the Jews had been conquered and carried away to Babylon.
That terrible event happened because the Jews had rebelled against God for hundreds of years.
They began to worship idols and participate in all of the evils that went along with those satanic religions.
*This Jewish Captivity happened about 600 years before Jesus was born.
After 50 years, their new Persian rulers started to allow the Jews to return home to Jerusalem.
And by the end of 70 years, they had rebuilt the Temple.
*Then 70 more years went by, but the walls around Jerusalem still lay in ruins.
That basically left the city defenseless, and that's when the Lord moved a man to rebuild those desperately needed walls.
His name was Nehemiah.
He was a godly man, both full of faith and faithful to the Lord.
*Nehemiah was also the Cup Bearer for King Artaxerxes.
In ancient courts, the Cup Bearer was a person of rank and importance.
He possessed great influence, due to the nature of his duties and his frequent access to the king.
(1)
*With this background in mind, let's read today's Scripture, thinking about how God wants to use our lives.
MESSAGE:
*Are you living your life with purpose?
-- It really matters.
Welch poet David Whyte put it something like this: "When people struggle through the weeds, pull back the moss, and read the inscription on my tombstone, I don't want it to say: 'He made his car payments.'"
(2)
*We were made for so much more than that!
Our lives can have real purpose and meaning.
Our lives can matter.
God used Nehemiah, and God can use you to make a tremendous difference in our world.
1. First: God wants to use our concern.
*And we can see Nehemiah's concern in vs. 1-4:
1.
The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah.
It came to pass in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the citadel,
2. that Hanani one of my brethren came with men from Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who had survived the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.
3.
And they said to me, "The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach.
The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.''
4. So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.
[1] One of the first things to notice here is that Nehemiah really cared about the problems going on in his world.
*And that's something to think about, because if Nehemiah only looked at his own life, if he only looked at how things were going around him, everything seemed okay.
He had a good job.
He served in the palace of the king!
That was a prominent and very important job.
And as long as he didn't fall out of favor with the king, Nehemiah had it made.
*But Nehemiah cared deeply for people who were living hundreds of miles away.
He cared for people that he had never met, and that's the way God wants us to be.
He wants us to care about other people.
*Jesus Christ wants us to be able to look beyond our own backyard and see the needs.
When we look around here, things look pretty good.
The walls aren't falling down.
But there are people in our church family who feel like the walls of their lives have fallen down.
*And just beyond the walls of our church, it's much worse.
There are all kinds of people with all kinds of needs, and the greatest need is Jesus Christ!
They may be happy and healthy today, but they will never make it to Heaven without Jesus.
And they will never really have a life worth living without Jesus, so God wants us care.
[2] The Lord wants us to see the problems.
-- But He also wants us to see the possibilities.
*Nehemiah might have been devastated by the bad news he heard from Jerusalem.
But he had the light of hope in his heart, because he knew the Lord God.
And Christians: We know the Lord God in a personal way, so we have great hope for the future.
And that's why we can care without despair.
We can care with great confidence, because our God is a great God!
All good things are possible for Him.
*Ephesians 3:20 tells us that God "is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us."
Also listen to some of the amazing words Jesus spoke a few hours before He died on the cross for our sins.
In John 14:11-13, Jesus said:
11. "Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.
12.
Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.
13.
And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son."
*With God, all things are possible!
So when we see both the problems and the possibilities, then God can use our concern.
And God wants to use our concern to make a difference in the world.
2. The Lord also wants to use our heartfelt cries of prayer.
*When Nehemiah heard the bad news.
-- He did exactly what the Lord wants us to do.
Nehemiah cried out to God in heartfelt prayer, and we see his wonderful prayer in vs. 4-11.
But how did Nehemiah pray?
[1] First, he prayed with passion.
*As Nehemiah said in vs. 4: "So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven."
*James 5:16 says: "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed.
The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."
We know that the righteous man in that verse isn't a perfect man.
Otherwise James wouldn't have started that verse by asking us to confess our faults to one another.
*And God surely wants us to live holy lives, but Christians, our true righteousness is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He took our sins on Him when He died on the cross for us.
Now through faith in our Risen Savior, we are righteous in Him.
*And "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."
In other words: "The energized prayer of a righteous man has great power and wonderful results."
Nehemiah prayed with passion.
[2] He also prayed with wisdom.
*Listen for the wisdom of his prayer in vs. 5.
There Nehemiah said, "I pray, Lord God of heaven, O great and awesome God, You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your commandments."
Nehemiah had the wisdom to recognize both the might and the mercy of the Lord God.
*King David had this same kind of wisdom.
That's why David often wrote of God's mercy and might.
Listen King David's words from Psalm 103:
8.
The Lord is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy.
9.
He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever.
10.
He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor punished us according to our iniquities.
11.
For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him;
12.
As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
13.
As a father pities his children, So the Lord pities those who fear Him.
14.
For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9