“Called to Serve”

We’ve walked through the book of Nehemiah this summer, and we’re going to complete our series tonight as we look at the prayer of God’s people.

We’ve walked through the book of Nehemiah this summer, and we’re going to complete our series tonight as we look at the prayer of God’s people.

Recap:

Week 1 - “Praying for the Calling” -

Week 2 - “Prepare for the Calling (pt. 1) -

Week 3 - “Prepare for the Calling (pt. 2) -

Week 4 - “Prosper in the Calling” -

Week 5 - “Sword & a Shovel” -

Week 6 - “Opposition on the Inside” -

Week 7 - “The Enemy’s Last Attempt” -

Week 8 - “The Work of the Word” -

After studying all of that, and seeing all that God had accomplished for and through His people, tonight we’re going to see just exactly how the people responded to hearing God’s Word and seeing God Work...

I believe one of the greatest things that we see in Nehemiah is how God set His people apart to worship and praise Him.

Here in , we see a long prayer from the Levites in verses 5-38. They have this realization of what they should have been doing all along.

The first three verses show us what the people began to do.

the israelites separated themselves from the nonIsraelites. they got into a posture of prayer, and look what happened:

They heard the Word again

Then they confessed and worshipped!

at the end of this prayer, the people confessed: “We are servants!”

How did they get there? How did they get to the point where they wanted to genuinely serve God.

Let’s look at the prayer and see what led them to serve God...

1. God, You are Great

Notice their perspective of who God is. They noticed:

a) God is Eternal

v. 5 “Stand up and bless the Lord your God for ever and ever...”

that phrase “for ever and ever” is really translated “from everlasting to everlasting...”

Eternity is so hard to grasp!

b) God is True

verse 6 - You are Lord alone...” this speaks of the fact that God is so unique!

c) God is Creator

not only did God create all this, but He sustains all that He created!

2. God, You Care

v. 7-17

The prayer begins with a heart of worship, as to say, “God I don’t understand You, but wow!”

This prayer begins to show:

God’s faithfulness compared to the Israelites’ ingratitude.

look what God did:

Chose Abraham to be the father of Israel (v. 7)

Led the Israelites out of Egypt (v. 10)

Divided the Red Sea (v. 11)

Led Israel with a pillar of cloud by day, and pillar of fire by night. (v. 12)

Gave them laws to live by (v. 13-14)

Gave them bread and water when they were hungry and thirsty (v. 15)

wow! think of how good God is to do all that!

In all of these examples, God was looking out for what was best for the Israelites!

God wants what is best for us!

God’s faithfulness compared to the Israelites’ ingratitude.

take a look at verses 16-17 - After God did all of that for Israel, their fathers still chose to disobey.

Think of all that God has done for us

the end of verse 17 - “even when we were making bad decisions, you were gracious, merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not.”

PRAISE THE LORD!!!

3. God, It’s about You

verses 18-22

This section continues to show the comparison between God’s faithfulness and Israels ingratitude.

not to echo the last point too much, but think about this:

Every single thing they went through was more about God’s glory than them.

He led them with a pillar of cloud and fire

He didn’t even let their shoes wear out in FORTY YEARS!

their prayer right now was simple: “God looking back, I see that this life is more about You than us.”

4. God, You Discipline

verses 23-30

Because all that they had gone through and hardened their hearts toward God for so long, they went through a time of discipline.

This section of the prayer almost answers the question of “How did we get here?”

God did some great things, and the people did this:

a) Disobedience instead of Dedication

verses 23-25 show what God did

verse 26 - the people enjoyed the goodness of God, but nevertheless were disobedient

instead of answering with dedication, the answered with disobedience

b) Rebellion instead of Submission

verses 23-25

c) Killing instead of Knowing

verse 26

5. God, You Give Grace

v. 31-38

God’s people were described as “wicked, disobedient, rebellious, and unwilling to serve or repent.”

and at this point the people had enough time to realize that they put themselves in that situation.

Looking back, are there things in your life that you would want to change?

God’s people realized that they had a God that is “merciful, gracious, great, awesome, loyal, loving, righteous, and just.”

They came to the end of themselves and said, “LORD, WE ARE YOUR SERVANTS!”

This year, will you say the same thing?