Praying To The God Of Heaven (Part 1)

Nehemiah: Be Committed  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  43:01
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Review

Turn to Nehemiah 1:1-11.
In order to understand the book of Nehemiah, we’ve learned that we need to step back in time to around 450 BC. That was the time in which Nehemiah lived. Jerusalem and the southern kingdom of Judah had been conquered by the Babylonians in 586 BC and thousands of Jews were deported from their homeland and resettled in the region around Babylon. Eventually, Babylon was conquered by the Persian Empire, which was the world power in Nehemiah’s day.
Not only must we go back in time, we must go far away to different place. Shushan the palace was located in modern-day Iran. Shushan was the winter capital of Persia. It was the Washington DC of its day. Its pagan religion and pagan culture was very different from ours and it was foreign to the Jews as well, but for 70 years it was their home. Many would settle down and make it their home permanently, even though the prophets said not to.
Before the 1979 revolution in Iran, it was estimated that 100,000 Jews still lived there and traced their ancestry to the Babylonian captivity. Today it is probably less than 10,000.
Many other thousands of Jews, however, would immigrate back to Jerusalem and to their homeland. There, they would begin the slow process of rebuilding.
Nehemiah, the cupbearer to the Persian king, was at the crossroads of that conflicted world.

Introduction

Read Nehemiah 1:1-11.
By the time Nehemiah comes on the scene, thousands of Jews had moved back to the region around Jerusalem and had lived there for nearly 100 years. Their beloved city, however, stay lay defenceless, without walls, largely in ruin.
An attempt had been made at one time to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Ezra chapter four describes that the Jews in Jerusalem were in the process of rebuilding the walls, but their enemies in the region harassed them continually. The Jews were in great reproach, meaning, they were reviled, taunted, and disgraced. They were a minority in their own land. They remained a subjugated people in their own land.
Their enemies eventually wrote a letter to the Persian king, who forced the work to stop. It was probably news of this setback that Hanani brought to Nehemiah. The Jews wanted to rebuild the walls, but they would need a high ranking official to convince the king to let the work go forward. They would need a high ranking official who could come and wield his authority on their behalf. They would need a man who would be committed despite adversity. They would need a man like Nehemiah.
In verses 1-4, Nehemiah heard the news about Jerusalem. Not only did it move his heart, but it moved him to pray. If he was going to be the man that would lead the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, he would need the help of the sovereign God! He needed to pray to the God of Heaven!
Next slide here:
Nehemiah’s regularity - Nehemiah 1:4.
Maybe you don’t regularly use the word “regularity”, but I use it here on purpose to describe Nehemiah’s praying. As I study his praying, I don’t see repetition, where he prayed the same prayer over and over again like using the rosary. Instead, I see regularity. I see the passionate cry of a desperate man who cried out to God concerning this burden over and over again. Nehemiah didn’t pray about this just this one time.
Two reasons why I know this:
He sat down, wept, mourned, fasted, and prayed certain days. In other words, he did this for an unspecified number of days. He didn’t pray just one time and he didn’t pray about it just one day. He prayed about this for a period of time.
Verse six - Nehemiah prayed about this multiple times a day - day and night.
So this raises an important question: how long did Nehemiah regularly pray about this? Actually, we’re given a pretty good indication by way of the dates that Nehemiah gives us in the text.
Next slide here:
1:1 - Chisleu, twentieth year = December, 445 BC
2:1 - Nisan, twentieth year = March/April, 444 BC
Now we can see that approximately four months passed from chapter one to chapter two. He spent approximately four months praying about this.
Application: Christian, are you disciplined enough to pray about something for four months? If not, why not? What’s holding you back?
I fear that there’s a terrible lack of commitment in prayer among believers today. We are lacking discipline in prayer. Perhaps that’s why we don’t see the power of God to the extent that we desire.
Christian, maybe you need to grow in discipline this year. Maybe it’s time you start a personal prayer list where you will pray for the same things or same people with regularity.
If you’ve committed to be a part of the prayer ministry this year, then please be disciplined in praying for our church. Be disciplined in regularly praying that God would work mightily in our hearts so that we mature in the faith! Be disciplined in regularly praying that God would raise up more laborers out of our church!
Notice what Nehemiah begins to do in verse five. In verse four it says that he “prayed before the God of Heaven and said…”
From verse five to the end of chapter one, God gives us a wiretap into Nehemiah’s prayer. How awesome is that?
Maybe this morning you know for certain that you’re a child of God but you don’t know how to pray to your Heavenly Father. If that’s you, this is one of the clearest examples in the Bible on how to pray.
How did Nehemiah pray to God? He calls out to God and simply begins to pour his heart out to the Lord! He starts praying and you know what is so obvious? He believed that God was hearing him! He was praying in faith! Christian, you pray the same way you were saved - by faith! You pray, believing that your Heavenly Father will hear you!
“But Pastor Tim, how can I be certain?”
He promises that He will if you have confessed your sin to Him!
Share document that lists some of God’s promises in prayer.
By the way, you go and compare Nehemiah’s prayer to some of the other great prayers in the Bible - David’s, Solomon’s, or our Savior’s - you’ll find the same thing. They all spoke to God the Father, believing that God could hear their very words as they said them. That’s what Nehemiah did here. He prayed! He talked to the God of Heaven and believed God’s promises that God could hear his prayer! That’s faith being exercised. That’s how Nehemiah prayed.
Next slide here:
Nehemiah’s humility - Nehemiah 1:5.
Read Nehemiah 1:5.
Nehemiah begins his prayer with three words, “I beseech thee…”
It’s not, “I demand of thee…”
It’s not, “I deserve of thee…”
It’s, “I beseech thee…”
Application: I wonder how often we pray to the God of Heaven and we do it with a demanding or an entitled attitude.
Hey Christian, don’t ever think that God will hear your prayer if you approach His throne room in pride.
The best way to enter the throne room of God is on your knees. While it may be good for you to do that physically, you must do it in your heart.
Humility must be in the praying character as light is in the sun. E. M. Bounds The Essentials of Prayer (19th century)
Edward McKendree Bounds (American Methodist Episcopal Minister)
Just as light is an inseparable part of the sun, so humility is an inseparable part of prayer.
We are to ask with a beggar’s humility, to seek with a servant’s carefulness, and to knock with the confidence of a friend. D. L. Moody Prevailing Prayer: What Hinders It? (1884)
Dwight Lyman Moody (Evangelist)
That is how Nehemiah prayed to the God of Heaven.
Application: How do you pray, Christian? How do you talk to the God of Heaven?
God’s ear is not attuned to pastors’ or deacons’ prayers more than He is to yours. He is not impressed by the same things that might impress us. Rather, God sees a wondrous beauty in the prayer of the man, woman, or child that prays to Him in humility.
We’ve seen Nehemiah’s regularity, secondly, Nehemiah’s humility, now thirdly…
Next slide here:
Nehemiah’s God - Nehemiah 1:5.
God has revealed many different titles of Himself in His Word. Why has He done this? Perhaps it is because, in our limited understanding, it is impossible for one name to do justice to all of His glory. Each title is like a light prism that captures certain aspects of His glory.
For example, Psalm 80:1 calls Him the Shepherd of Israel. In contrast, Nehemiah here refers to Him as the God of Heaven.
Consider those two titles of God for just a moment. The first title highlights God’s care and tender affection for Israel. The second vividly portrays His power and transcendence. That’s what Nehemiah needed to remember as he wept over the broken down walls of Jerusalem.
Personally, this title is one of my favorite. He is the God of Heaven. He is far above all of my little problems. I am tempted to worry and to fear, but I can cling in faith to the one who is the God of Heaven, the one who is far above all of this universe and its problems and its corruption.
This title occurs twenty-two times in the Old Testament with the majority of those found in Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel.
Nehemiah addresses the LORD - Jehovah - the personal name of God, and Nehemiah refers to Him as the God of Heaven. He is the one far above the King of Persia and far above any kings or presidents on this earth today.
Nehemiah describes God as the great and terrible God. To call Him “terrible” was not an insult. Nehemiah was saying that God was the dreaded God. The terrifying God. The awesome, awe-inspiring God. The God that leaves us speechless when we enter into His presence! The one who makes human beings shake with fear.
This was the God who could move mountains. This was the God who could shake kingdoms. This was the God who could guide the heart of kings.
Proverbs 21:1 KJV 1900
The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: He turneth it whithersoever he will.
This was the God to whom Nehemiah prayed. This was Nehemiah’s God. This was the God that he petitioned as he thought about making a personal request of the Persian king.
Application: What God do you pray to, Christian? How big is your God? Is He the God of Heaven? Or has your faith so limited His moving in your life that He is merely the God of weakness? The God of nothingness? What God do you pray to, Christian? Who is your God?
To paraphrase one songwriter:
He is the God of Heaven!
He is the God of all the earth and sky!
He is the Great Creator! He is the Master of all nature!
He is the God of Ages, the God who wrote the Book of Time!
He is the sovereign Ruler, Alpha and Omega.
He is the God of Power - the God who breaks the darkness.
He is the Righteous Warrior; Champion of His children.
He is the God of Heaven - the God of all the earth and sky!
If you’re tired of serving a small God, if you’re tired of praying small prayers, then do this: first, pray, and ask God to teach you who He is. Then open up your Bible and with open mind and open heart, see who God has revealed Himself to be in His Word.
That same God, the God of Heaven, is the promise-keeping God and merciful towards them that love Him and keep His commandments. These were the things that Nehemiah remembered as he prayed! What faith we see in this man! He served no small God. He served the God of Heaven. This was Nehemiah’s God.

Conclusion

Christian, how regularly do you pray? How humbly do you pray? Who is your God?
It is time that you begin seeing God for who He is. It is time that you pray as Nehemiah did by Praying To The God Of Heaven.

Invitation

Christians: how many are willing to raise their hand and admit that they really don’t know how to pray?
Praying regularly
Praying humbly
Christian, who is your God? Is He the God of Heaven, or is He the God of small things?
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