Sermon Tone Analysis

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.

-{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.