Sermon Tone Analysis

Today we are going to learn two about two major truths regarding intercession with God.

Our attitude prior to intercession.

Our attitude during intercession.

Both of these reveal our character, motivation, and should express our love, devotion, understanding of who we are in light of our relationship with God.

Nehemiah’s Initial Reaction (4)

Nehemiah sat down and wept.

You might be asking yourself, “do I need to sit and weep?”

This posture was customary in the Old Testament.

He wept because the report from Hanani was so bad!

Imagine the emotional distress you’d be in if someone confirmed what you thought was true.

Nehemiah and his fellow Jews were in exile, having been taken from their home country.

They didn’t know for sure what had happened to their homeland, but could certainly guess.

His sorrow was so great that it moved him to tears.

In our culture, we don’t often see men cry.

More often, we see men curse, and use physical violence.

A weeping adult, especially a man, tells us the person is moved emotionally.

Nehemiah may have had a feeling of abandonment, or a loss of nationalism, or even a heavy burden of sin due to those of the past committed among his countrymen.

Nehemiah mourned, fasted, and prayed for days.

Mourning was typically an expressive act.

It was done through tears, vocalization, and sometimes through ritual expressions of grief and sadness-people knew what you were doing because it was a common way to express grief.

Fasting was required once a year on the Day of Atonement as seen in , but Nehemiah does so here even though it’s not required.

Fasting shows that you are willing to give up physically to focus on the spiritual.

Fasting is a practice that the Jews of that day would be very familiar with.

Nehemiah also prayed.

Notice to whom he directed his prayers: “before the God of heaven.”

Coupled with mourning, fasting, and praying, Nehemiah was readying himself before the almighty

Nehemiah’s Response to God (5-11)

He addressed God respectfully (5)

Take a look at the words he used:

“great and awesome”

“God who keeps His covenant”

One on the problems we have in our individualistic society is that we often think we are better or more important than we actually are IN LIGHT OF our relationship to God.

Sure we have been adopted by Him as His children.

Sure our sins have been forgiven and we are made righteous in Him through Christ.

All this is true, but God’s holiness, perfection, righteousness, and glory still remain.

Notice how people talk about God.

“The man upstairs.”

“OMG!’

“Jeez!”

Thomas Watson wrote on the Ten Commandments and regarding the third commandment found in Watson says:

“This commandment has two parts: 1.

A negative expressed, that we must not take God’s name in vain; that is, cast any reflections and dishonour on his name.

2.

An affirmation implied.

That we should take care to reverence and honour his name.

Here Nehemiah was taking care to reverence and honor God’s name.

In our society, we need to do a better job with respect.

Kids with parents

Employees with bosses

Younger with older

And with anyone who is in a position of authority over us.

He reminded God of the covenant He made (5 & 8, 10-11)

Notice the key phrases in 5, 8, and 10-11:

“who keeps his covenant of love”

“If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations.”

“They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand.”

When we respond to God in prayer, are we emulating this type of prayer and attitude?

God has made a covenant with us as well.

The same Holy God has made a covenant with you and I, those who are born again as well.

Remember this my friend!

He confessed sin (6-7)

He reminded God

Notice the sins he confessed:

His nations sins

His own.

The sins of his fathers (or the house of Judah)

He recognized the nation in which he lived has sinned against God.

They’ve embraced the gods of the Babylonians and Persians.

In captivity, they’ve turned away from worshipping the One True God.

He recognized he was a part of that sin.

It’s easy to point out the sins of others while forgetting that we’ve broken God’s laws and commandments as well.

When we are in misery, sometimes it is due to the fact that other people have sinned and we are receiving the results, sometimes it’s simply because there is a sin nature that touches everything: you haven’t done anything in particular, but you are still reaping the “benefits” of sin.

And other times we are in misery due to the fact that we, us, ourselves, have sinned against God.

He recognized the sins of his fathers.

We are greatly impacted by the generations that precede us.

Sometimes in a good way and other times not so much.

In order to get past some things in life, we may need to recognize a particular sin that happened in the past yet seems to rear it’s ugly head when we would least like it to.

When we come before a holy and mighty God, are we taking the time to look for any known sin?

It may be personal, national, and familial.

All of these sins need to be recognized before God as we bring our requests to Him.