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Welcome
Good Morning!
I’m Pastor Wayne and I’d like to welcome you all to the gathering of Ephesus Baptist Church.
Jesus said in John 16:22, “but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.”
Today, you are here to worship God; to give glory to His name; to find your joy in the hope we have in Christ!
He will return and our hearts will rejoice.
May you revel in the steadfast love of God as we worship Him together for His glory and our joy!
If you are visiting with us this morning, we want you to know that Ephesus is an active faith community on a mission with Jesus.
We don’t all share the same story; in fact, we come from many different paths.
But here, we are one people giving our all to love God, love others, proclaim Jesus, and make disciples in our generation.
We have a connect card in the pew in front of you.
I invite you to take one and fill it out!
If you have prayer needs, you can let us know about those as well.
I promise, our prayer team will lift you up soon.
You can place those cards in the offering plate when it comes around.
Scripture Memory
Opening Scripture
Opening Prayer
Introduction
Today, we are continuing along in the Book of Nehemiah.
So far...
We have discovered that Nehemiah was an ordinary guy who was full of character and virtue.
He was a guy who was comfortably serving as the Cupbearer of the King of Persia.
Last week, we began to see a man who is zealous for the glory of God.
Upon an exploration and examination into the the current reality of Jerusalem, Nehemiah became broken of spirit and greatly burdened by the news of the walls and gates being destroyed.
So what did Nehemiah do next?
You can learn a lot about the character of a leader by his reaction to a crisis.
Do you remember his reaction?
Did he panic?
No. Did he go to the King’s ABC store to self-medicate?
No. Did he complain?
No. Did he look to escape life?
No. Did he bury himself in busyness?
No. Does he start to develop a strategical plan to fix the problem on his own?
No!!!
What does he do?
He prays!
Upon hearing the news of Jerusalem, Nehemiah immediately began to pray and seek the Lord on behalf of the city and its people.
I told you all last week that the gap from Nehemiah 1:1 to 2:1 is around 4 months long.
Nehemiah
It only took them 52 days to build the walls (6:15).
Nehemiah spent more time in prayer than in the building the walls.
Nehemiah humbled himself before the Lord and spoke candidly about the sinful condition and redemptive needs of his people.
Surely, we would have to admit that our society is in much the same condition as was Jerusalem.
Our spiritual walls and gates are broken down and destroyed.
Our churches are declining and plateauing at an astonishing rate.
Biblical Illiteracy is at an all time high despite our having access to more Bible Study tools than any previous generation of believers.
Yes, we have many similar needs among us today.
Where is our brokenness?
Where is our desire to see God glorified in His church again?
I trust as we look at the prayer of Nehemiah that we will be convicted of the needs within our lives and compelled to pray about the situation in our land.
We need those today who will be open and honest with the Lord regarding our needs!
I believe that the Spirit of God has left us with this prayer out of the pages of Nehemiah’s personal memoirs to learn something of the substance and power of prayer.
The main take-away today is this:
Prayer is essential for beginning and completing a great work of revitalization for the glory of God.
When I was a student in Campus Crusade for Christ many years ago, I learned that prayer is the backbone of any successful ministry.
Prayer was the backbone of Nehemiah’s ministry.
He prayed at least 10 times in 13 chapters.
And God responded powerfully!
Prayer is powerful church!
This prayer by Nehemiah was extremely powerful as it allowed God to get His people’s attention and begin to move them in accordance with His good and perfect will.
The question I believe we should ask is this:
What is the substance of the powerful prayer we find in Nehemiah?
Allow me to briefly share with you five elements of powerful prayer found in Nehemiah’s Prayer.
1. Brokenness.
(1:4)
We discussed this in detail last week, but suffice it to say: this whole story begins when Nehemiah sat down to weep and mourn over the walls and gates remaining in destruction in Jerusalem.
He understands that to mean that God is not being glorified among the nations.
He sees thing differently now.
He’s burdened for the Glory of God.
He is broken over the fact that without God’s glory being revealed to the nations through Jerusalem, all hope is lost.
It’s easy to just go through the motions and not be broken over the lostness and the brokenness of our sin riddled world.
But it takes real strength of character, conviction, and commitment to see the need for God’s glory to shine salvation light into the dark recesses of humanity.
We should be broken until we are moved to actionable joy!
God will never bless a tear-less ministry that is not burdened by the brokenness of sinfulness!
Are you broken when you see the church numbers remaining static rather than growing dynamically?
Are we broken when we realize that most Christians have never been truly discipled?
Are we broken when we see that personal preference is superior to providential promises found in God’s Word?
Are we broken when we see a spouse abused by an alcoholic spouse?
Are we broken when we see the deplorable nature of our cultures vulgar language, immoral sexuality, lust for power, and greedy materialism?
Are we broken?
Are we truly broken today?
Do our hearts grieve over our own sin the way God grieves overs our sin?
2. Praise and Adoration (1:5)
Nehemiah gives us a great example of how to begin prayer.
It is very similar to the way Jesus taught his disciples to pray.
Jesus taught us to reorient our hearts by meditating on the character and nature of God.
That is precisely how Nehemiah begins his prayer!
“O Lord God of Heaven” – is a declaration that God rules over everything.
He is the sovereign God of Heaven.
There is no problem to large for Him to handle.
“Great and Awesome” - Nehemiah speaks of God’s great power.
God is a great God!
Awesome speaks to the holiness and majesty of God’s character that leaves us in awe-filled wonder.
The Hebrew root (yr’ pronounced yahreh) means, “to inspire awe, terror, or dread.”
God is one who is to be feared and offered complete reverence toward.
Nehemiah was aware that he was taking his petition before the God of heaven, the only true God.
As he came before Him, he did so in humility and awe.
It would do us good to see God for who He really is.
I firmly believe if we could possibly grasp the holiness and sanctity of our God, we would never be the same.
We would live differently; we would pray differently; we would worship differently.
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