A HOLY ANGUISH

Introduction

-{Nehemiah 1}

-Today I want to talk with you about having a holy anguish. The word anguish means to have extreme distress over something. That doesn’t sound like a good thing. It definitely does not sound like a holy thing. But it is holy depending on what it is you are distressed or anguished over.

-Too often we get anguished and distressed over trivial things—things that hold no weight in the grand scheme of life. How many of us have become anguished or distressed over TV shows or movies? How many ladies here were anguished each week over what was happening on THIS IS US? Or for us guys who like sci-fi/fantasy/adventure movies, how many of us were anguished at the end of AVENGERS: END GAME when Tony Stark died after giving his life to save the universe?

-During sports seasons, how many of us are anguished over how are sports teams are doing? How many Alabama fans here were in anguish after the National Championship game? How many are in anguish whenever the Atlanta Braves lose?

-We get so distressed over these trivial matters, and do you know how many of those things are actually really important in life? None of it! None of that stuff deals with life or death! None of it has any bearing in eternity whatsoever! 100 years from now nobody is going to remember or care about our entertainment or sports. We are called to a different kind of anguish—a holy anguish.

-A holy anguish is being distressed over things that pertain to God and eternity and the gospel. When we see the world growing darker by the moment and literally going to hell, that’s where our anguish comes from. After we celebrate the overturning of Roe v. Wade, but then see all these people picketing in the streets with t-shirts glorifying how many babies they killed through abortions, knowing how lost they are, there ought to be some anguish there. When we see these so-called parents introducing their young kids to all sorts of sexual perversions or mutilating their kids to change how God had created them, knowing the lostness of all those involved, there ought to be some anguish there.

-But the specific holy anguish I want to call us to today is a holy anguish over the state of the church. The modern church is in chaos and is dwindling fast. Not only are there less people (percentage-wise) going to church than ever before in the history of the nation, wokeness and false-teaching in the name of the church seem to abound more and more. And the real church, the Bible-believing, gospel-preaching church, has cloistered itself in its four walls instead of reaching out to lost community that is condemned to eternal judgment. Even our own Southern Baptist Convention has not been immune to the devastation of our times. We ought to be in anguish over the church because Christ Himself is jealous for His church.

-But how many of us are more concerned about our lives and comfort and money and entertainment and sports and toys than we are about Christ, His church, and eternity? Today we are called to a holy anguish over the church; that it would be brought back to life and power in the Holy Spirit; that it boldly proclaims the gospel of Jesus Christ (that Jesus died for sin, and rose again, and all who believe in Him have true life and joy).

-In the passage that we are looking at today, Nehemiah had an anguish over the sad state of his people, such that it caused him to earnestly seek God for their betterment. And what I want us to take from the passage is that the weak and worldly and compromised state of the modern church ought to cause an anguish in our souls that moves us to earnestly seek God’s face for its revitalization.

Nehemiah 1:1–11 ESV

1 The words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah. Now it happened in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Susa the citadel, 2 that Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah. And I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem. 3 And they said to me, “The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.” 4 As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. 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, 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. 7 We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses. 8 Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, 9 but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.’ 10 They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. 11 O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.” Now I was cupbearer to the king.

-{pray}

-I want to quickly give some context to what we see here. The Jews had been taken into captivity by Babylon because of their disobedience to God, and Jerusalem was destroyed. Eventually the Babylonian Empire fell to the Medo-Persian empire, and Cyrus the king allowed the Jews to start returning to their homeland. He decreed that the city of Jerusalem could be rebuilt. But years later, we see in the book of Ezra, some enemies gave a bad report about the Jews to king Artaxerxes, who then made a decree to stop the work of rebuilding Jerusalem.

-Nehemiah was cupbearer to Artaxerxes, and a brother of Nehemiah’s visited and told Nehemiah about the sad state that Jerusalem is in—it’s still in ruins and without its city walls it is left defenseless. Nehemiah was in anguish over his people and his city. And because of that anguish, Nehemiah did something about it. He didn’t hear this bad news and just say “oh well” and go along his merry way, living out his own life, fulfilling his own dreams. He was in an anguish that led to an action!

-And so, what does it say he did? In v. 4 it says that he wept and mourned for days, and continually fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. Nehemiah didn’t merely have anguish, but it was an anguish that caused him to seek God over and over and over again until God did something about the sad state of the people.

-And therein lies our lesson. We need to have an anguish over the sad state of the modern church such that it causes us to seek God in prayer over and over and over and over again until we see renewed life breathed into the church, and we do not stop until it happens. Our anguish ought to lead to our intercession. And there are several aspects of Nehemiah’s prayer that I want to touch upon to encourage us in our own anguished prayers for the church:

1) We base our prayer on God’s character and attributes (v. 5)

-Nehemiah began his prayer in recognition of who God is, because who God is directs the rest of the prayer. We don’t just wander up to God and start spouting off our desires like it’s some sort of Amazon Wish List because we aren’t dealing with a mere internet merchant. We are dealing with the God who created everything that exists. A God who is holy and righteous and perfect in all of His ways.

-Specifically I want to focus in where Nehemiah says God is a God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with the people who love Him. This is so important. God makes covenants/agreements with people and God keeps His word. God made a covenant with Israel that if they followed His law they would prosper in the land. They didn’t follow the law. They are the ones that broke the covenant, and yet God would still keep His part of the covenant. The word for steadfast love is the Hebrew word CHESED which speak of God’s loyal love to those that He is in covenant with. God is loyal to what He has said and done.

-When we know the character of God, we can direct our prayers rightly. God is a covenant-keeping God who remains loyal to those He is in covenant with. God is in covenant with those who have trusted in Jesus Christ, the true church. God will not give up on His church. God will not throw the church to the side. And God is powerful and awesome enough to breathe new life into His church. And that is exactly what is needed. God’s character and attributes point to the fact that God is devoted to His people and has the power to make them the kingdom-building megapower that the church was always intended to be. But there is another aspect that we have to include:

2) We fill our prayer with confession of sin (vv. 6-7)

-Nehemiah knew that if God was going to act in the midst of the people, that he would need an extended time of confession. The reason that the people were in the mess that they were in was because of their sin. And it is only after confession and repentance that God would act and restore. Sin brings a barrier, and you take that barrier down through confession and repentance. And the church is in the same boat. Yes, we have a covenant relationship with God, but our sin has caused a barrier in the fellowship, and so our sin needs to be dealt with.

-Notice that he confesses the sin of the entire people, recognizing that by their actions they brought God’s judgment upon themselves and it was their fault that they were in ruins. But then Nehemiah gets more personal—he acknowledges that he himself and his household have contributed to the problem.

-So, first, Nehemiah acknowledges that he is part of a group or system that contributed to the ruin. He is a Jew who was part of a people that did God wrong. And we are part of a church system that has done God wrong. We have been part of an evangelical movement that got fat and happy and decided that the best thing for the kingdom was more programs and more buildings and more entertainment, while neglecting evangelism and discipleship and holiness and personal devotion. We have been part of a system that has wed itself to the world and allowed worldly values to creep in and push out a true, biblical worldview.

-But then it has to get a little more personal. Nehemiah confesses that he sinned and contributed to the problem, which is interesting since he hadn’t even been born yet when the Jews went into captivity. And yet in his time his sin contributed to the ongoing problems the people were having. We have to acknowledge that we ourselves have been part of the problem. We have to acknowledge and agree with God that our sins have contributed to the sad state that the church finds itself in. The problem is, we don’t like to do that. We like to compare ourselves to others to make us feel like we’re alright. But we are never called to compare our sins to others.

-We go around all proud of ourselves: WELL, AT LEAST I’M NOT OUT THERE PRAISING ABORTION. AT LEAST I’M NOT OUT THERE PROMOTING A PERVERSE LIFESTYLE. It’s good you’re not doing those things, but you still have sins in your life that have contributed to the church being in the shape that it’s in. Instead of excusing our sin, instead of trying to pass it off as not being so bad, confess to God that you are part of the problem in the evangelical community and repent of it.

-And notice that he didn’t mince words about what sins he and the people committed. He didn’t try to water down their guilt. He didn’t try to give sin cutesy names so it doesn’t sound so bad. He called it out specifically for what it is. WE ACTED CORRUPTLY. WE BROKE THE COMMANDMENTS. WE HAVE NOT KEPT YOUR RULES AND STATUTES. Nehemiah didn’t go around confessing that he made mistakes or had low self esteem. No, he confessed exactly what he did. Until we get real with the sin in our life, we will continue to contribute to the problem. So, instead of focusing on anybody else’s sin, or blaming the problems of the church on this person or that person, confess how you contributed to the problem.

3) We season our prayer with promises from God’s Word (vv. 8-9)

-Our prayer includes praying back to God His own Word. You notice in vv. 8-9 Nehemiah repeats back to God His own Word coming from Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Lord you said through Moses if we are unfaithful you would scatter us, and you did. But you also said if we repent you would bring us back. Lord, you made this promise in Your Word, and so I am going to pray in agreement with your Word, make it happen in the midst of your people.

-We don’t have time to go over every promise in Scripture for the church, but when I was reviewing some of them I was amazed at the number of promises about power and authority, which is something the church is not living in right now. We are not living in the power and authority that God says that He gives us in the Word, and maybe that’s why the church is in the shape it’s in.

-We’re told in Matthew 16:18 that the gates of hell can’t prevail against us. We’re told in Luke 12:32 that we have been given the kingdom. We are told in Ephesians 1:23 that we have the fullness of Christ in us. Ephesians 3:12 says that we have boldness and complete confident access to God through faith. We are told in Ephesians 3:20 that God is able to do in us and through us exceedingly and abundantly above all that we could ask or think according to His power that works in us. And on and on it goes.

-Look at the church of today. Do you see that power and authority at work? Why don’t we? Unbelief? Sin? Lack of prayer for it? God gave these promises, and our anguish for the church ought to cause us to cry out to God to make these things a reality in the church.

4) We offer ourselves as the answer to our own prayer (vv. 10-11)

-I’ll make this real quick, but what we find in the last few verses of our passage is that Nehemiah asked for success in being the answer to his own prayer. He was going to approach the king to ask that he be able to do something about the sad state of the people and the city. This was a dangerous thing because he was going to ask the king to change his earlier decree that stopped the work in the city.

-But you notice it emphasizes that Nehemiah was the king’s cupbearer. This was a pretty prestigious job. Nehemiah has a good job, making a good income, living a comfortable life. It would have been easy for him to just sit back in ease and leave it up to somebody else to deal with the problem. But the anguish he had wouldn’t allow it. His anguish caused him to step up and say I’M GOING TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

-Who do you think is going to fix the modern church? The pastor? The theologian? Why not you? You are the church. If you are distressed about the state of the church, what makes you think you can just take a back seat? You need to be the answer to the prayer given in anguish. When are you going to take spiritual things seriously?

Conclusion

-I just want to end with a quote from the late pastor David Wilkerson, most famous for writing the book The Cross and the Switchblade. It is a very long quote that I am going to read, but I think these are words we really need to take to heart:

I look at the whole religious scene today and all I see are inventions and ministries of man and flesh. Its mostly powerless. It has no impact on the world. And I see more of the world coming into the church and impacting the church rather than the church impacting the world. ...Obsession with entertainment in God’s house, a hatred of correction and a hatred of reproof, nobody wants to hear it anymore.

Whatever happened to anguish in the house of God? ... Its a word you don’t hear in this pampered age. ... Anguish means extreme pain and distress. The emotions so stirred that it becomes painful. Acute deeply felt inner pain because of conditions about you, in you or around you. Anguish. Deep pain. Deep sorrow. Agony of God’s heart. We’ve held onto our religious rhetoric and our revival talk but we’ve become so passive. All true passion is born out of anguish. All true passion for Christ comes out of a baptism of anguish. You search the Scripture, and you’ll find that when God determined to recover a ruined situation, He would share His own anguish, for what God saw happening to His church and to His people. And He would find a praying man and He would take that man and literally baptize Him in anguish. You find it in the book of Nehemiah. Jerusalem is in ruins. How is God going to deal with this? How is God going to restore the ruin? ... God found a man who would not just have a flash of emotion, not just some great sudden burst of concern and then let it die. He said “No. I broke down and I wept and I mourned and I fasted. Then I began to pray night and day.” Why didn’t these other men, why didn’t they have an answer? Why didn’t God use them in restoration? Why didn’t they have a word? Because there was no sign of anguish! No weeping! Not a word of prayer! It’s all ruin!

Does it matter to you today… does it matter to you at all that God’s spiritual Jerusalem, the church, is now married to the world? That there is such a coldness sweeping the land? Closer than that… does it matter about the Jerusalem that is in our own hearts? The sign of ruin that is slowly draining spiritual power and passion. Blind to lukewarmness, blind to the mixture that is creeping in. That’s all the devil wants to do is get the fight out of you. And kill it. So you won’t labor in prayer anymore. You won’t weep before God anymore. You can sit and watch television and your family go to hell.

Let me ask you… [has] what I just said convicted you at all? There is a great difference between anguish and concern. Concern is something that begins to interest you, you take an interest in a project or a cause or a concern or a need. Let me tell you something, I’ve learned over all my years… if it is not born in anguish, if it is not born of the Holy Spirit. Where what you saw and heard of the ruin that drove you to your knees, took you down into a baptism of anguish where you began to pray and seek God – I know now. ... Until I am in agony. Until I have been anguished over it. And all our projects, all our ministries, everything we do… where are the Sunday School teachers that weep over kids they know are not hearing [the gospel] and going to hell? You see, a true prayer life begins at the place of anguish. You see, if you set your heart to pray, God’s going to come and start sharing His heart with you. Your heart begins to cry out, Oh God Your Name is being blasphemed. Holy Spirit is being mocked. The enemy is out trying to destroy the testimony of the Lord’s faithfulness and something has to be done.

There is going to be no renewal, no revival, no awakening, until we are willing to let Him once again break us. Folks, it is getting late, and its getting serious. Please don’t tell me, don’t tell me you’re concerned… when you’re spending hours in front of internet or television....

{Wilkerson closes with this prayer} Lord, some need to get to this altar and confess… I am not what I was, I am not where I am suppose to be. God I don’t have your heart or your burden, I’ve wanted it easy. I just wanted to be happy. But Lord, true joy comes, true joy comes out of anguish. There is nothing of the flesh will give you joy. I don’t care how much money, I don’t care what kind of new house, there is absolutely nothing physical that can give you joy. It is only what is accomplished by the Holy Spirit when you obey Him and take on His heart. And build the walls around your family… build the walls around your own heart. Make you strong and impregnable against the enemy. God that’s what we desire.

-Let me ask you, is that your desire? Christian, if you feel some of that holy anguish, come to the altar and cry out to God to first work in your life, and let that spill over to the church.

-But maybe today you have a different kind of anguish. You are anguished over where your soul will go when you die. We were all headed to hell until God intervened by sacrificing His Son, Jesus. If you believe in Jesus Christ, you have eternal life, but if you haven’t believed in Jesus, you don’t. So, during the invitation, come down here and talk to me and I will introduce you to Jesus.