Responding in Trials

What’s up guys? Tonight we’re going to be talking about trials. What’s a trial?

Court

Hard times!

Times of trouble!

Exactly, trials are hard times or struggles that we go through! We’re going to be looking at how we should respond to trials as believers. In order to understand how we should respond to them, we’re going to look at a man named Nehemiah. So, I need everyone to open their bibles to the book of Nehemiah. If you don’t know where that is, its about a third of the way through your bible, in the really big and intimidating section we call the Old Testament. Go ahead and open that up, and while you’re getting there, I’m going to give you three questions that we’re going to answer tonight:

When we find ourselves in hard times, what do we do first?

How do we approach God?

How do we respond to God?

Before we get started, let me pray for our time together.

Alright, let’s set a scene real quick. So right now, Nehemiah is in Babylon, everyone say “Babylon”. Before we got here, Jerusalem, a big city in Israel, was destroyed and a lot of the people there were taken into Babylon. Does anyone remember the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? The king (Nebuchadnezzar) who threw them in the fire is the king who destroyed Jerusalem. Nehemiah is in the same place that that took place! Now though, Nebuchadnezzar died and King Artaxerxes is here. Who thinks they can spell that? Good try, it’s A-R-T-A-X-E-R-X-E-S.

One important thing about Nehemiah is that he’s just a guy in exile from Jerusalem. He works for the king, but isn’t in a royal position. He’s about to get some hard news. His brother came to him from Jerusalem and said this:

Nehemiah 1:3 CSB

They said to me, “The remnant in the province, who survived the exile, are in great trouble and disgrace. Jerusalem’s wall has been broken down, and its gates have been burned.”

So Nehemiah just learned that the walls that protect his home city have been destroyed and the people inside aren’t safe. Let’s pretend for a second that there are walls around your town. Wether you’re from Granby, Windsor, Springfield, doesn’t matter, just pretend there are walls to protect the people inside. If I were to tell you right now, as you’re sitting here, that the walls were destroyed, how would you react? What would you do?

You’d be sad?

You’d cry?

You’d go home to help?

Start a GoFundMe

Call family at home

I agree, these are all good responses, but what if you didn’t have all these resources? No phone, no computers… I know I would cry and not know what to do! I’d be so overwhelmed thinking there’s nothing I can do! But what if we prayed?

We see in Nehemiah 1:4 that Nehemiah’s VERY FIRST response to this news was to weep. Like many of us we would be sad and cry. But when he does this, he also prays. He prayed and mourned to humble himself before God so that God could use him for the people in Jerusalem.

Nehemiah 1:4 CSB

When I heard these words, I sat down and wept. I mourned for a number of days, fasting and praying before the God of the heavens.

When we pray what does it usually look like? Do we usually pray to ask God for something? I know if I started praying for the people my first point would be to ask God why or how this happened. That’s not what Nehemiah does. Before he does anything he confesses the sins of himself and his people in Jerusalem as that is what likely led to this destruction. He calls himself out in Nehemiah 1:7.

Nehemiah 1:7 CSB

We have acted corruptly toward you and have not kept the commands, statutes, and ordinances you gave your servant Moses.

He ends his prayer with this: Nehemiah 1:11

Nehemiah 1:11 CSB

Please, Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant and to that of your servants who delight to revere your name. Give your servant success today, and grant him compassion in the presence of this man. At the time, I was the king’s cupbearer.

What is he asking success for?

Remember earlier when I asked you about how you’d respond if the walls of your town had been destroyed? I’m going to ask you that again, but with a couple more caveats. You still have no resources like a phone, but now you don’t have access to transportation. So the only way you could get home is to walk or ride an animal. Would you go to help your town? Yes. Okay now pretend it’s in Texas, would you make the journey? Look how far that is! I wouldn’t want do it! That’s a 20 day walk if I never stopped. Here’s the thing, that is exactly what Nehemiah was about to do.

In Nehemiah 2:1-8 we see Nehemiah go to King Artaxerxes, say Artaxerxes, and ask him for permission to go to Jerusalem. Remember, Nehemiah works for the king, the most powerful man in Babylon. He already prayed for months before asking the king and even right before he asked him, he prayed again. The King not only let him go, but provided him with a lot of help for the journey! The rest of chapter 2 shows Nehemiah in Jerusalem, checking the walls and preparing to rebuild.

Nehemiah 2:1–8 CSB

During the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was set before him, I took the wine and gave it to the king. I had never been sad in his presence, so the king said to me, “Why do you look so sad, when you aren’t sick? This is nothing but sadness of heart.” I was overwhelmed with fear and replied to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should I not be sad when the city where my ancestors are buried lies in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire?” Then the king asked me, “What is your request?” So I prayed to the God of the heavens and answered the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor with you, send me to Judah and to the city where my ancestors are buried, so that I may rebuild it.” The king, with the queen seated beside him, asked me, “How long will your journey take, and when will you return?” So I gave him a definite time, and it pleased the king to send me. I also said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let me have letters written to the governors of the region west of the Euphrates River, so that they will grant me safe passage until I reach Judah. And let me have a letter written to Asaph, keeper of the king’s forest, so that he will give me timber to rebuild the gates of the temple’s fortress, the city wall, and the home where I will live.” The king granted my requests, for the gracious hand of my God was on me.

Alright, that was a lot, let’s recap! Tonight we saw this seemingly random guy, Nehemiah, hear about the destruction of his home’s protection. When he heard about it, he immediately wept and turned to God. He felt pain for them and confessed their sins in response to this news; He humbled himself before God. Then we saw him pursuing God’s call to go to Jerusalem; he was being obedient to God. What got him through this? Prayer.

I told you we were going to answer three questions tonight, remember? I’ve already given you the answer, so let’s see if you got it.

Question 1:

When we find ourselves in hard times, what do we do first?

Pray to God for guidance

The bible tells us over and over again to pray. There are verses like 1 Thessalonians 5:17 that literally say:

1 Thessalonians 5:17 CSB

pray constantly,

The word “pray” (and the words that include it), is mentioned 375 times throughout the bible! If we are to “pray constantly”, why wouldn’t we enter times of trouble in prayer? This prayer that Nehemiah prays comes from the instructions we see a couple books earlier in 2 Chronicles 7:13-14

2 Chronicles 7:13–14 CSB

If I shut the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the grasshopper to consume the land, or if I send pestilence on my people, and my people, who bear my name, humble themselves, pray and seek my face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.

Here we see God give Solomon instruction on prayer in times of trouble, which followed. This brings us to question 2.

Question 2:

How do we approach God? (Anyone know the answer?)

Humbly

What is humility? (Ask)

Humility is the absence of pride or arrogance. We humble ourselves before the Lord by letting go of our pride and, like we saw with Nehemiah, understand how our sins can effect our circumstances.

We see many examples of humility throughout the bible, but there are two key times we are commanded to be humble before God. Our first example is James 4:10.

James 4:10 CSB

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

When we come before God, we put aside our pride and come honestly and openly.

Second, Paul tells us that we are to humble ourselves as a reflection of the way Jesus’ character!

Philippians 2:3–8 CSB

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. Everyone should look not to his own interests, but rather to the interests of others. Adopt the same attitude as that of Christ Jesus, who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death— even to death on a cross.

Jesus humbled himself more than any of us ever can. Though he was God, he served God as his servant on earth. This takes us to our final question for tonight.

Question 3:

How do we respond to God?

We respond again, reflecting the character of Jesus we just saw explained; in obedience.

Can anyone tell me what obedience is? Obedience, is simply obeying and following what we’re told. So when your parents ask you to empty the dishwasher and we do it, we’re being obedient! How many of you guys do something right when your parents ask? So you’re telling me every time they ask you to clean your room you go and do it right then? I didn’t think so. I’m gonna let you guys in on a little secret I learned, delayed obedience is disobedience. When you say, “I’ll do it later”, that’s disobedience. If we are to respond to God in obedience then we are to say yes to what he commands. Jesus says in John 14:15,

John 14:15 CSB

“If you love me, you will keep my commands.

We can also see the catastrophic effects that obedience and disobedience can have in Romans 5:19

Romans 5:19 CSB

For just as through one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so also through the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.

Because Adam and Eve were disobedient in the Garden, we live in a world of sin, but because Jesus was obedient we are saved from that sin!

Jesus, the son of God, is a perfect example of how we respond in trials! Throughout his life and ministry he prayed to God His father in times of trouble. He constantly went before God in humility. He humbled himself in obedience to God when he went on the cross and died for our sins that we may turn from them and be saved. But it didn’t end there, he rose again three days later and told us that He would return for His followers one day. Our hope is in Him that we may live in eternal life with God and all of our fellow believers.

Pray.