Sermon Tone Analysis

The people who pray, do so because of certain beliefs that they have about God.

One of the reasons Nehemiah is able to pray like he is able to pray is he has some really staunch beliefs about who God is.

Some of the things we see in this prayer is he believes God is a covenant-keeping God.

He believes God keeps his promises.

That’s what he believes about God.

If you ask Nehemiah, “What do you believe about God?” he says, “I believe God keeps His promises.”

You also see in the prayer Nehemiah believes God actually hears his people.

Don’t blow past that, because if you believe God actually hears you, you actually pray.

Then he believes God is powerful.

God’s hands aren’t tied, that he’s not praying in vain, that God is able to act.

Though God will at times say, “No,” he has never said, “I can’t.”

Then he believes God is merciful.

All those things are clearly seen in Nehemiah’s prayer.

He believes these things about God.

Now, I’m going to throw this out here, everyone in this room is a theologian.

Every one of you.

Theology is simply the study of God, and everyone in this room has a view of who God is and what God is like (right or wrong).

Where does Nehemiah get these beliefs about God?

One of the things you see here is that Nehemiah in that long prayer we just read is literally just quoting Scripture.

In , verse 9, Moses writes, “Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments;

That’s almost word for word what Nehemiah prayed.

“You’re a covenant-keeping God.”

— And I 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,

Now, here we have the bible supporting itself.

Think about this:

It’s 40 different authors

over a period of several thousand years on

three different continents and

multiple different languages

all painting the same picture of God’s saving work among men.

It is not just convenient; it’s divine.

Deuteronomy now is being clung to by Nehemiah, and he’s saying, “You’re a covenant-keeping God, and I know it because your Word says you’re a covenant-keeping God.”

Then in (turn there with me), you get a real gritty text,

but one that actually helps Nehemiah in his present circumstance.

, starting in verse 25.

It says this:

— 25 “When you beget children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, and act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of anything, and do evil in the sight of the Lord your God to provoke Him to anger, 26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you will soon utterly perish from the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess; you will not prolong your days in it, but will be utterly destroyed.

27 And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you.

[real uplifting and chipper text here] 28 And there you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell.

This is not a text we would put on a tee shirt, and yet it’s bringing immense comfort to Nehemiah.

Nehemiah says, “You told us this would happen.”

Nehemiah’s confession in his prayer is,

“We have acted corruptly against your law.

You told us this would come if we turned our backs on you.

You are the one true God, and

we have chosen things that were not God to serve, and

in serving things that are not God as though they were God,

You did exactly what You said you were going to do.” (stay in Deut.)

So here is Nehemiah… we know that his duties as cupbearer would have to continue.

But Nehemiah’s duties as cupbearer would have to continue.

So this thought occurs to him after he had pondered and prayed for a while (approx.

3-5 months)?

So this thought occurs to him after he had pondered and prayed for a while (approx.

3-5 months)?

We are often impatient when it comes to prayer.

We think it essential for God to respond immediately, and we sometimes engage in all manner of complaints and accusations when He does not.

But God’s timetable is different from ours.

We live according to a schedule that we can see and perceive, often a faulty one, but

God sees things from the perspective of eternity:

“With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” ().

God’s timing is perfect.

He is never early or late.

All things fall out according to the execution of

a perfect decree

from the mind of a loving God

who wants the very best for us and all His people.

Nehemiah had a well-respected job as cupbearer to the king at the Persian royal court.

So here’s Nehemiah, willing to give up his privileges in order to do the work of reconstruction because God had called him to the work (2:12).

Nehemiah’s attitude and action reminds us of Jesus Christ, who

saw our need for a Savior,

left the glory of heaven, and

met our deepest need

by dying on a Roman cross to give us forgiveness for sin and eternal life.

Nehemiah serves as a foreshadowing of Jesus, a finger pointing forward to Christ’s work of salvation on behalf of humankind.

And like Christ, Nehemiah (what I mentioned last week) is revealed in Scripture as a

Prayer in such instances becomes an excuse for action.

Nehemiah, what I mentioned last week, is revealed in Scripture as a

man of action:

vigorous,

gifted,

organizationally meticulous,

administratively efficient, and

a leader of men.

But for now at least, he prays.

That is the way we often think of prayer—as “all we can do”!

Prayer is the last resort, when things get so bad that there is nothing else we can do.

But that is not how Nehemiah thought of prayer.

It was not his last resort; it was his first.

Before Nehemiah did anything else, he spent months praying about it.

Prayer is his action.

Have we trials and temptations?

Is there trouble anywhere?

Is there trouble anywhere?

We should never be discouraged: Take it to the Lord in prayer!

Take it to the Lord in prayer!

Nehemiah continued praying for several months, patiently waiting on God’s timing and God’s insight.

Initially, perhaps, the prayer would be one for guidance about what to do.

Then, at whatever point it became clear to him that he would ask for the king’s permission to go to Jerusalem,

the prayer would take on a greater urgency,

anticipating the circumstances in which he would speak to the king.