Sermon Tone Analysis

Knowing How to Pray

Nehemiah 1:1-11

Let’s start off with an Old Testament quiz.

Who was the greatest comedian in the Bible?

Samson.

He brought the house down.

Who was the greatest male investor in the Bible?

Noah.

He was floating his stock while everyone else was in liquidation.

Who was the greatest female investor?

Pharaoh’s daughter.

She went down to the bank of the Nile and drew out a little prophet.

Who is the shortest man in the Bible?

Knee-high-miah

This morning we’re kicking off a series through the book of Nehemiah.

Nehemiah is one of the great characters of the Old Testament, but perhaps not as well-known as some others.

I encourage you to spend time during your personal Bible study to just read through this Old Testament book.

It will help you take more away from our time together on Sunday mornings by doing this.

But I’m excited about what God is going to do and teach us as we go through this book.

It should help us personally and also encourage us.

Nehemiah is all about starting over and rebuilding.

It’s about moving forward despite difficulties, distractions, objections, and opposition.

It’s about restoration.

Let me try and quickly set the scene for the book of Nehemiah without making this feel like a history lesson.

After King Solomon died, the Israelites were divided into two kingdoms – the northern (Israel) with 10 tribes and the southern (Judah) with 2.

God had told his people that if they were unfaithful and disobedient that they would be disciplined, just like any good father would.

So, in 722 B.C., the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom and those ten tribes were scattered around the world.

You would have thought that the remaining two tribes in the southern kingdom would have seen what happened and got their act together.

But in 586 B.C., the Babylonian army captured the people of Judah and took them into captivity.

Jerusalem was destroyed, the walls were knocked down, and the temple was burned.

However, God did not forsake His people.

He allowed the Persians to take over the Babylonians and he moved King Cyrus to make a decree to let some of the Jews return.

And in three stages, over about a hundred years, they were allowed to move back to Jerusalem, only to discover the city was still in ruins and their prospects were bleak.

50,000 Israelites returned to Judah with Zerubbabel and began rebuilding the temple.

Unfortunately, they got discouraged and quit.

God then sent them the prophets Haggai and Zechariah to encourage them to finish the work.

Ezra was also sent to help restore their spiritual passion.

As we start the book of Nehemiah, God is about to instigate another movement back to the Promised Land.

This morning we’re going to begin exactly where we should always begin ­- with an emphasis on prayer.

Prayer is one of the overriding themes of the book and really the secret to Nehemiah’s success.

The prayer in chapter one is the first of 12 different prayers recorded in the book.

It begins with prayer in Persia and closes with prayer in Jerusalem.

Fundamentally, Nehemiah knew that only projects that are begun in prayer and covered in prayer throughout are likely to be blessed.

So, let’s pray and then we’ll read the first chapter of Nehemiah.

Pray!

Nehemiah’s starting place was with a concern about the problem in verses 1-4.

Concern about the problem

We know from verse 11 that Nehemiah was the cupbearer to the king.

His job was to taste the king’s wine before the king drank it to make sure it was not poisoned.

As cupbearer, Nehemiah had a great job.

He had intimate access to royalty, political standing, and a place to live in the palace.

It was a cushy job that provided everything he needed.

And yet, when one of his brothers returned from a road trip to Jerusalem, verse 2 says that Nehemiah

…asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem.

Nehemiah was greatly concerned about what was happening in Jerusalem.

He could have insulated himself if he wanted to, but he didn’t.

He wanted to know because he was concerned.

This is an important starting point.

It’s so easy for us to stay uninvolved and unaware.

Some of us don’t want to even think about stuff that’s going on in our own lives, much less take the time to see what is happening in the lives of others.

Even though Nehemiah had never been to Jerusalem, he had heard stories about it, and knew that his ancestors had been led away in chains when Babylon destroyed it.

He was doing what Jeremiah 51:50 instructed the exiles to do:

…Remember the Lord from far away, and let Jerusalem come into your mind:

As he thought on Jerusalem, he heard that his people were in great trouble and disgrace, that the wall of Jerusalem was in shambles and that its gates had been burned with fire.

Nehemiah was broken over the complacency of the people of Jerusalem.

They were living in ruins and they had accepted it.

They were willing to walk around the devastation instead of being concerned enough to do something about their situation.

Listen to me; nothing is ever going to change in your life, in the life of this church, or for our nation, until we become concerned about the problem.

Some of you have become complacent about the way your life is going.

You’re living with broken down walls and it doesn’t even bother you anymore.

Are you ready to let God to do some restoration?

If you are, you need to become concerned about the problem by listening to the facts ­ even if you don’t want to hear them.

When Nehemiah heard this report, he hit the ground and began to weep.

He also fasted.

In the Old Testament, fasting was only required once a year, but here we see Nehemiah refraining from food for several days.

In fact, we know from comparing the different dates in this book that he wept, fasted, and prayed for four months!

These are all signs of humility and show his deep concern for the problem.

Do you need some restoration today?

Are your defenses broken down such that you are allowing some practices and sins to control your life?

Before you can ask God to restore what’s broken, you must first become concerned about the problem.

Conviction about God’s character

After Nehemiah becomes concerned, he next expresses his conviction about God’s character in verse 5:

5 And I said, “O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments,

Nehemiah spends time just recognizing the greatness, majesty, mightiness, power, faithfulness, and love of God

Nehemiah’s boss, the king, was the greatest and mightiest on earth, but compared to God, Artaxerxes was nothing.

He was a nobody.

Nehemiah was in Susa and his concern is in faraway Jerusalem, but these cities: ­

· one rich, the other poor

· one strong the other weak

· one proud, the other broken ­

They were like tiny specks of dust in the vastness of God’s heaven.

When we go to God in prayer, things get put into their proper perspective.

Because of his conviction about God’s character, Nehemiah knew that God was not only able, but also willing to respond to his prayer.

But he also knew that he did not deserve to have God treat him favorably.

That’s why the next phase of his prayer is a confession of sin.

His encounter with an awesome God brings him to the place of repentance and confession.

Confession of sin

After becoming concerned about the problem and expressing his conviction about God’s character, Nehemiah is now moved to confess his sin and the sins of his people in verses 6-7:

6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you.

Even I and my father’s house have sinned.