FUR1 - Nehemiah the Missionary
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How we get missions from Nehemiah?
Nehemiah traveled to a needy place and worked
He was lied about
He was maligned
He was misunderstood
They tried to kick him out
But he stayed and did a work for the Lord
1. Calling of Nehemiah
1. Calling of Nehemiah
Nehemiah saw a problem
Nehemiah saw a problem
He saw a need
He saw something that wasn’t right
There were just a few people left
They were in great affliction
They were in great reproach
Their wall of protection was broken down
The gates were burned with fire
And it affected him
It ate him up
When he heard those words
When he heard that report
He sat down
He wept
He mourned
Not just a glistening of the eyes after an emotional song
It lasted for days!
It brought him to fasting and prayer
Because he heard about a need!
What a tender heart!
And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.
And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.
We are commanded to be tenderhearted
I hear this verse used to preach kindness, forgiveness, but they leave out the tender heart!
We don’t have a tender hear that sees needs
We don’t listen to the Holy Spirit
We’re so busy
We have to get to the next place,
See the next thing
Talk to the next person
And we don’t make the time and space to listen
To that still, small voice
We walk right past:
That person that needed to hear the gospel
That co-worker needed to hear the gospel
The missionary that need gas money(can I say that?)
That neighbor that needed to hear the gospel
That waiter that needed a tract
That homeless man that needed a meal
That church member needed a word of encouragement or a smile
We don’t even see needs
Because we aren’t listening to the Holy Spirit’s prompting
Not because we can’t but because we choose not to
Many people don’t take the time to meditate because they are afraid of what they might find
My mind is like a bad neighborhood… I try not to go there alone.
Many of you don’t take time to meditate and think about God’s Word
Because you are afraid what it might reveal
What you might be called to do
We don’t want to be engaged beyond the shallowest of levels
We’ll give it a like(and maybe even a share). We’ll give it a hearty amen.
But do we let it get to our hearts?
Do we let it truly confront us?
Do we search our heart and life for application?
Does it effect any action? Any change?
God’s Word wasn’t written just for a social media “like”.
God’s Word wasn’t written just for our minds.
It was written to pierce and divide the soul and spirit!
It was written to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart!()
But do you give it the opportunity?
For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Because seeing a need is often an uncomfortable confrontation
Or at least it should be for a Christian who cares about obeying the Lord
It brings to mind our responsibility
It reminds us of our duty
When was the last time you
had to take a seat because you were impacted by a need?
couldn’t just move on when the invitation was finished?
wept for your community?
When was the last time you wept for your community?
missed a meal because of something the Lord touched your heart about?
truly mourned over the sin and troubles of your nation? Or another country?
mourned so much that your boss or co-workers asked what was wrong?
were driven to your knees for days for a need other than your own?
This is what happened to Nehemiah!
Nehemiah finally announces his intentions
And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers’ sepulchres, that I may build it.
This was not a hasty or foolish decision
It was made after prayer and fasting and time
Some decisions should be easy
Giving a tract
Speaking up for truth and for our Lord
Sharing the gospel
Giving what you have in your pocket
Make it a habit to respond scripturally to the impulses of the Holy Spirit!
But this was a major decision
To leave his work for the King
To travel more than 1200 miles
And embark on a project that many thought was impossible
Big decisions are made of small decisions!
...
Nehemiah’s calling to the work of the Lord in a far away land was not a momentary emotional experience, but a scriptural response to a need that God placed in his path!
“The Lord hasn’t called me!”
Are you reading your Bible? Who do you think it was written to?
Are you meditating and applying it?
Are you fasting? Are you focusing your wants and desires on the God of heaven?
Too many of us are waiting on an audible voice, writing in the sky, a miraculous sign
to confirm what God has already said to us in scripture
"...Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest”
Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.
The man who reads God’s Word will hear and feel the calling of God on every page!
A person who sees and recognizes spiritual needs will never want for a calling!
“If everyone goes to the missionfield… we’d be overrun with missionaries”
What a marvelous problem!
I’d be glad to answer for that problem at the judgment!
“But think of the practical realities!”
The Bible is full of “impractical realities”
We have a super-natural God who is not limited by practicalities
“For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God...”
For every beast of the forest is mine,
And the cattle upon a thousand hills.
God can provide for a million missionaries
Wouldn’t you want to be a part of that!?
But why do you think you would be a part of God providing for amillion missionaries
If you won’t be a part of sending those that are going now?
Long before I went to the missionfield, I gave to the missionfield
That brings us to the next point...
2. Providing for Nehemiah
2. Providing for Nehemiah
Moreover I said unto the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river, that they may convey me over till I come into Judah; And a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me.
Then I came to the governors beyond the river, and gave them the king’s letters. Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me.
Nehemiah needed supplies for his work
The king gave letters that allowed Nehemiah to get those supplies
God used a heathen king to provide for this mission initially
Just because God can use a heathen king doesn’t mean that is his preferred plan
God’s plan is to use God’s people to provide for God’s preachers
We see the commands to give throughout the Bible(new and old testaments)
We instructions for giving - with planning and purpose, cheerfully, generously
We see the example of giving in the Pauline
Along with detailed explanations of the how and why.
Paul said this about the gifts what were sent to him while he was on his missions trip:
Not because I desire a gift: but I desire fruit that may abound to your account.
Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.
mat 6 38
God wants to be able to bless and work through you
Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse,
That there may be meat in mine house,
And prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts,
If I will not open you the windows of heaven,
And pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.
But many never give him the opportunity()
But many never give him the opportunity()
But many never give him the opportunity()
Even though the supplies came physically from the king
Nehemiah recognized the true source
Nehemiah first asked the Lord to prosper him:
O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was the king’s cupbearer.
Even when the king asked, Nehemiah went to the King of Kings:
Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven.
Neh
Neh
Even after the king gave his letter, Nehemiah still understood and still told people:
The Lord is the one that blesses and prospers!
Because of him we are able to serve and work at his will
Then answered I them, and said unto them, The God of heaven, he will prosper us; therefore we his servants will arise and build: but ye have no portion, nor right, nor memorial, in Jerusalem.
Every month I get a spreadsheet that tells me which churches sent money
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
Neh
3. Preaching of Nehemiah
3. Preaching of Nehemiah
Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me; as also the king’s words that he had spoken unto me. And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work.
Let me tell you about the hand of my God!
Let me tell you what he’s done for me
How good he is
How he cares
How he loves
What he’s done for you
But first, he talked about their sin problem!
Then said I unto them, Ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach.
That we be no more a reproach!
Let’s not be a reproach!
“...Sin is a reproach to any people”
Turn from your sin, he said
Repent!
Nehemiah talked about their sin problem before in his prayer:
We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses.
A good preacher can preach in his prayer.