Aligning Our Heart, Mind, and Will with God

When I was a kid, I remember many Sunday nights when my brother and sisters would gather around the TV in the living room to watch the Wonderful World of Disney. The offerings varied, but we got most excited when they would play Disney movies. Back then, it felt like a big deal to have a real movie playing on TV. And while the name and introduction had many iterations over the years from 1954 to today, the thing that sticks out most to me, and the thing that I still associate with Disney the most today, is the theme song they used the most over those years, “When You Wish Upon A Star.” That song epitomizes the magic of Disney. It says when you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are, when you wish upon star your dreams come true.

That certainly seemed true for Walt Disney. He had a wish of creating a magical place where people could escape from the real world and enter his dream. It began with the animated movies where animals, wooden puppets, and 7 dwarfs interacted with paupers and princesses. But eventually he created Disney Land and Disney World, where children and adults can enter into the magic. In Disney World, for example, the magic is sustained by the creation of underground tunnels that keep the staff from being seen moving between different areas of the park. Even the real life nuisance of mosquitoes is kept away as the park is virtually void of the pests due to the design that prevents any areas with standing water.

While it may not be true that wishing upon a star makes things like this happen, it is true that amazing things can be accomplished when men and women understand their purpose in life and work hard to make it happen. The possibilities increase exponentially when God is the one who gives that purpose to someone who loves him and is willing to devote their lives to his will.

That’s what we see when we read the Bible, and particularly the book of Nehemiah.

Nehemiah is the second half of what used to be called First and Second Ezra. In these books, or the two parts of one book, we read the true story of how God restored the people of Israel after the exile. What seemed impossible to many at the time, that the Jews would ever be able to live in their homeland again, became a reality.

Since before the people of God entered the Promised Land of Israel, God warned them that the peace and prosperity they experienced there would be conditioned on their faithfulness to the covenant they made with God during the Exodus. When God called his people out of Egyptian slavery, he met with them at Mount Sinai and, through Moses, promised to be their God if they would be his holy people. They agreed to follow his law, honor him with sacrifices, and love him with all their heart, soul, and strength. But if they turned from him, God promised to kick them out of the land and disperse them among the nations of the earth. This is exactly what happened.

After the reigns of David and Solomon, the nation of Israel was divided into two kingdoms - northern and southern. The people of the Northern Kingdom, called Israel, were removed by the Assyrians in 722 B.C. This kingdom was made up of the 10 tribes that rebelled against king David’s grandson, Rehoboam. Only the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi remained faithful to David’s line, though not to always faithful to God. These tribes occupied the Southern Kingdom, called Judah. The people of Judah were cast out of their land about 135 years later by the Babylonians in 586 B.C. Its from this event that we get the stories of Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther along many of the prophetic writings, including Jeremiah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.

The 10 tribes of the Northern Kingdom were essentially lost to history. But the people of the Southern Kingdom were able to return. These people from Judah, Benjamin, and Levi are what came to be known as Jews (a name that comes from Judah). It was these Jews who began to return to Jerusalem in 538 B.C., a span of almost 50 years after the exile. This return, described in the book of Ezra, was initiated specifically to rebuild the Temple that was destroyed in 586 B.C. After a 20 year delay, the Temple was rebuilt and completed in 516 B.C. But the city of Jerusalem, and the walls that protected the city, remained in ruins. This was where things stood for another 70 years, and where the book of Nehemiah begins.

It can be hard for us today to understand why the walls around a city were so important. But in the time before airplanes, rockets, guns, and explosives, walls were the best way to defend a place against an enemy army. All the major cities of the ancient world were surrounded by walls. As cities grew, the walls would expand to cover the newly developed territory. In fact, many cities still have the remnants of these walls. (The city of Jerusalem has been defeated many times, and the walls around the city today are from the 16th century Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent.)

In Nehemiah’s day, a city without walls was a city unable to defend itself. A city without walls was a city without peace. And so Jerusalem was…a defenseless city without peace.

Align Your Heart With God’s Heart

In fact, Jerusalem was a laughing stock, scorned by its neighbors. And so when Nehemiah asked his brother and friends about the state of the remnant in the city, he was heartbroken to hear about the walls and gates of the city.

Read Nehemiah 1:1-4

1 In the month of Kislev in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa, 2 Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem.

3 They said to me, “Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.”

4 When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.

Now remember, Nehemiah had never been to Jerusalem. His lived over 100 years after the exile began and it appears that he grew up under Persian rule. When he mentions the 20th year, he is referring to the 20th year of the reign of Artaxerxes I. Nehemiah was Artaxerxes’ cupbearer. That was a very prominent position in Persia. One of the primary duties of a cupbearer was the guard the king’s food and drink before serving it. Sometimes he would even eat and drink from the food served to the king beforehand to show that it was safe. This protected the king against murder by poison. Given that Artaxerxes father and brother were both murdered by the commander of his bodyguard, there was good reason for Artaxerxes to be suspicious. For this reason, the role of cupbearer was only given to the most trusted and loyal servants.

In fact, Nehemiah was probably considered a man of high moral character. On top of that, the cupbearer was one of the few people who was always near the king. In some cases, cup-bearers were unnamed advisors to the king and had an incredible amount of influence over decisions that were made. As such, they were often chosen not only for their moral character but also for their wisdom and knowledge. We don’t know how much of this was true for Nehemiah, but we will see later who his role impacted his own calling.

That calling was to restore the walls and gates around the city of Jerusalem. But how did Nehemiah realize that this was his calling? There were a few steps that came first. The biggest one, in some ways, was when his heart came to mirror the heart of God for Jerusalem.

Talk about how Nehemiah’s heart was like God’s heart for Jerusalem and how we can align our hearts with God’s

In the song, Hosanna, by Brooke Fraser, we sing about a generation that rises up to take their place with selfless faith. But people don’t rise up to live like that our of nothing. Something has to happen first. Who among us is willing to give our lives to a cause that we don’t care about? No one does that. Fraser’s lyric that follows is so powerful and wise. It’s instructive for us as we consider the role of an aligned heart. She writes, “Break my heart for what breaks yours…everything I am for your Kingdom’s cause. Show me how to love like you have loved me.” Only when our hearts break for the same things that break God’s heart will we be able to give our all to the cause of Christ and his Kingdom. Paul’s heart was broken for the lost. He was passionate about creating churches. Martin Luther’s heart was broken for sinners who were in need of grace. He devoted his life to sharing the hope of the Gospel to a world caught up in legalism. Billy Graham’s heart ached for those who had never heard the gospel and it drove him to travel the world, speaking at over 400 crusades in 185 countries to over 210,000,000 people. And a small group of believers in Dedham’s Mill Village ached to start a mission for the sake of Christ right here at Milton and Myrtle St. in 1843, so they gave their money, time, and talent to the church we’re gathered with this morning. This is the power of an aligned heart.

Align Your Mind with God’s Mind

Align Your Will with God’s Will