MELVIN M. NEWLAND, MINISTER RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS, OK
(This is the second of a Leadership series featuring Nehemiah. Some ideas & illustrations in these messages were based on or benefited greatly from, to varying extents, the book “Hand Me Another Brick” by Charles Swindoll.)
(The Powerpoints used with this sermon are available free. Just email me at mnewland@sstelco.com and request PP #316.)
A. In every area of life there almost always seems to be someone who is above us someone with authority over us. Like it or not, virtually everybody has someone, somewhere, to whom he or she is answerable.
So, how do we handle that? How do we deal with that one who is over us?
Usually we're a lot better at being leaders than we are at being led. That's the reason the saying, "Too many chiefs & not enough indians" is still around today. We all would like to be chiefs because few of us really like to submit to the authority of others.
B. Now, to lead our thoughts to the major point of my sermon this morning, I want to read Proverbs 21:1 as found in the American Standard Version of the Bible. It says, "The king's heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord." Now you need to realize that when it mentions "channels of water," it is talking about irrigation channels.
So what that proverb is saying is that the king's heart, regardless of how powerful & strong he might be, in the hands of the Lord is like water in an irrigation channel. The Lord can change the direction the water flows. And He can change the way that king thinks & the way he responds.
And if the Lord can do that to a king think what he can do to those who have authority over you.
PROP. Now what does all this have to do with Nehemiah? Let's look at the book of Nehemiah once again.
I. NEHEMIAH HAS A PROBLEM
A. Nehemiah has a problem. He is cupbearer to King Artaxerxes, the ruler of the Persian Empire. Now, "Cupbearer" may not be an impressive title, but the cupbearer is a very important person. His task is to taste the king's food & wine to make certain that no one has poisoned it.
The king's life is in his hands. So the person who serves as cupbearer must be someone the king trusts completely & without reservation.
Historians say that the cupbearer oftentimes was the king's closest friend & advisor. Probably no one else, with the possible exception of the queen, had more influence on the king than his cupbearer. In the eyes of the people Nehemiah is an important man!
He is very important in King Artaxerxes' eyes too, because it is not easy to find someone you're willing to trust with your life. And when you do, if you are a king, you never want to let him go.
That was the big problem for Nehemiah. You see, Nehemiah is a very devout Jew who lives in Sousa, far from Jerusalem. His brother had just returned from there, telling him that Jerusalem is still in ruins, & the Jews there are in desperate straits.
As a devout Jew, Nehemiah is concerned about his homeland, & is so disturbed by the news that he mourns for days. He stops eating & starts praying to God for Jerusalem, asking, "What can I do about Jerusalem?" Somehow, some way, he must go to rebuild Jerusalem!
B. Now history tells us that King Artaxerxes, whom Nehemiah served, was a very autocratic ruler, stubborn & strong willed, & very difficult to deal with. We have all known people like that, haven't we?
Well, that was the attitude Nehemiah faced. So how was he going to get the King’s permission to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem? And how was he going to get King Artaxerxes to let him go to supervise the work?
How? Is Nehemiah going to walk into the king's presence & say, "You can take this job & shove it?" Or should he just submit his resignation, give 60 days notice, & then join the earliest caravan for Jerusalem? What should Nehemiah do?
II. WHAT DID NEHEMIAH DO?
A. Well, the first thing Nehemiah actually did was to pray, & that prayer is recorded in Nehemiah 1:5-11.
1. He begins his prayer by praising God for who He is. He honors Him as one who keeps His promises to those who love Him & obey His commands. Listen to vs’s 5-6,
“O Lord, God of heaven, the great & awesome God, who keeps His covenant of love with those who love Him & obey His commands, let your ear be attentive & your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day & night for your servants, the people of Israel.”
2. Next, in vs’s 6-7 Nehemiah confesses his own sins & acknowledges that the sins of his people caused all the mess that they are in.
3. Then in vs’s 8-9 Nehemiah asks God to remember the promises He had made to Moses & the people of Israel. God had said, "If you are unfaithful I will scatter you among the nations, but if you return to Me & keep my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon I will gather them & bring them back” …
Nehemiah says that the people are obeying God once again so he asks God to let them go back & rebuild Jerusalem.
4. In vs. 11 we read Nehemiah's prayer concerning the king, "O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant & the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man."
Nehemiah realizes that before he can go to Jerusalem & rebuild the walls that the king must approve of it. So he prays, "Change the king's mind & give me favor in his sight. God, I cannot do it myself. You must do it for me."
III. THE RESULT OF NEHEMIAH'S PRAYER
A. What happened after Nehemiah prayed that prayer? Nothing! Absolutely nothing at least not instantly. Later on something happened. But when Nehemiah first started praying that prayer, nothing seemed to happen.
APPL. Does that sound familiar to you? Have you ever fervently prayed, "God, please take care of these problems in my life just take them away!"
We pray & we pray about them, but nothing seems to happen. "God, are you asleep up there? Don't you hear my prayers?" Weeks may pass & nothing seems to happen! So what do we do? We usually stop praying.
B. Well, Nehemiah learned a lesson. He learned that prayer & waiting go hand in hand. He started praying in December, & continued praying until April. For 5 months he prayed, "God, please change the heart of the king." And it took 5 months before Nehemiah saw any answer to his prayers.
IV. GOD CHANGES THE KING
A. And we find that happening in the 2nd chapter of Nehemiah. We find that God's Spirit had begun to work in answer to Nehemiah's prayers.
Nehemiah 2:1 says, "In the month of Nisan in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought for him, I took the wine & gave it to the king. I had not been sad in his presence before..."
Do you see the picture? The king & queen have just finished a sumptuous meal. The fragrant aroma is still in the air. Now it is time for them to partake of their favorite vintage. Nehemiah tastes it to make sure that it is all right & then he serves them.
Nehemiah adds this little postscript, "I had been praying for 5 months, but I did not let anyone know that I was sad." I like Nehemiah for that!
Nehemiah was in mourning, but nobody knew it. Most of us are different in that respect, aren't we? When we're distressed about something we usually let everybody know. But not Nehemiah! He walked around with a smile on his face. He was the same old Nehemiah as far as the king was concerned. He did his job & he did it well!
B. For 5 months that went on until finally we come to the 2nd verse & suddenly everything changes.
Nehemiah says, "I had not been sad in his presence before; so the king asked me, `Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart.' I was very much afraid..."
Evidently, Nehemiah is experiencing a blue Monday. He has prayed & borne the burden for so long. And as he comes into the presence of the king even though there is nothing physically wrong with him – Nehemiah’s appearance makes it obvious that something is weighing heavily on his heart.
And this powerful, arrogant, stubborn, self-centered king notices it & asks, "Why are you sad? Why are you remorseful this is nothing but sadness in your heart." This concern for someone else was totally out of character for King Artaxerxes!
C. Nehemiah tells us, "I was very much afraid." He had reason to be afraid. Persian history tells us that anyone who upset the king was subject to execution. If the king was displeased, he could execute Nehemiah just for bringing sadness into the king's life on that day.
D. But God was working on the heart of the king, & vs. 3 says, "I said to the king, `Let the king live forever!'" Nehemiah is not only a prayer warrior he is a master psychologist! "Let the king live forever!" That is a good way to begin.
Nehemiah continues, "`Why should my face not look sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruins, & its gates have been destroyed by fire?' Then the king said to me, `What is it you want?'"
For 5 months Nehemiah has been praying for God to open the King’s heart. He had committed the whole situation to God & now the king asks the exact question that Nehemiah had been waiting so long to hear, "What is it you want?"
So how does Nehemiah respond? He prays. Listen, the king asks, "What is it you want?" & in vs. 4, Nehemiah says, "Then I prayed to the God of heaven."
He didn’t just jump in with his answer, "King, I have been waiting for you to ask that question & here is what I want you to do." Before he opened his mouth & said the next word he prayed. "God, guide my words. Make sure I don't put my foot in my mouth. Don't allow me to fumble the ball."
So after silently praying that kind of prayer, in vs. 5 he says, "If it pleases the king..." Notice how courteous he is. "If it pleases the king & if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my fathers are buried so that I can rebuild it."
This is the request that Nehemiah wanted to make for so long but he has patiently waited for God to bring it all together. How does the king respond?
E. Vs. 6 says, "Then the king, with the queen sitting beside him, asked me, `How long will your journey take, & when will you get back?' It pleased the king to send me; so I set a time."
You see, the king was telling him, "You can go, but I want to know how long you'll be gone." That tells us that the king didn't want to lose him. Nehemiah's heart wasn't in his job but he still did the best that he could do. Good cupbearers are hard to come by, & the king wanted to keep Nehemiah. "How long will you be gone?'
Nehemiah said, "I gave him a definite time." Nehemiah had not only been praying about it, but he had been preparing his plans, too.
So he is prepared to answer the king & say, "Well, I can be ready to leave immediately & when I get to Jerusalem I hope to accomplish this the first week & then this & this. Then when it is all done I'll come back."
I really like that about Nehemiah. I have dealt with people who have come with pious looks on their faces, saying, "I walk by faith." Now, there is nothing wrong with walking by faith. But sometimes the answer, "walking by faith" is simply an excuse for sloppy planning.
Can you imagine what the king would have said if Nehemiah had answered, "Well, King, I don't know when I'll be back. I'm just walking by faith. Whenever the Lord tells me to go, I'll go. When the Lord tells me to come back, I'll come back. I'm not really sure about it at all."
If Nehemiah had said that, Artaxerxes would have said, "You're not going to Judah. You are going to stay right here." But because Nehemiah had a definite plan, that wasn't the case. You see, faith & organization go hand in hand & it is important that we realize that.
F. Now, in vs’s 7-8 we see how carefully Nehemiah had made his plans. "I also said to him, `If it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of Trans Euphrates, so that they will provide me safe conduct until I arrive in Judah?'
"And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the king's forest, so that he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple & for the city wall & for the residence I will occupy?' And because the gracious hand of my God was upon me, the king granted my requests."
You see what Nehemiah was doing? He is making sure that all of the bases are covered. Before he leaves he is making sure that he has everything he needs to carry out the mission before him. He had prepared well!
G. But all is not rosy on the horizon, for vs. 10 introduces 2 people who are going to play an important part in the rest of our study of Nehemiah. It says, "Now when Sanballat the Horonite & Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about this, they were very much disturbed that someone had come to promote the welfare of the Israelites."
Let me tell you something, people. Whenever you walk in faith, & whenever you organize your plans, & whenever you are committed to God there will almost always be Sanballats & Tobiahs in opposition saying, "It won't work. It can't be done." There will almost always be critics, & we’ll be dealing with that in the next few weeks.
CONCL. But today, in closing, here are the 4 things that we need to learn from this sermon. Take them home & lock them in your memory:
#1. You & I are not in the business of changing peoples' minds or wills. The more we try to do that the more likely we are to get ourselves in trouble.
If you're having problems with someone, learn a lesson from Nehemiah. Go to God & ask Him to change that person's mind & heart because that is God's specialty! And look inside your own heart, also, because there may be a problem there, too.
#2. Learn that praying & waiting go together. Praying & patience go hand in hand. Keep on praying & keep on waiting because God hears & He will respond. But the wheels of God don't always turn at the speed at which we would like for them to turn. So pray & then wait!
#3. Learn that faith & organization go together. Walk in faith, but also prepare for those things that you want God to work in your life. Plan, organize, walk in faith they all go hand in hand.
#4. Whenever you do that there will be opposition. There will always be Sanballats & Tobiahs saying, "I don't think you ought to try that." Get ready for it because the opposition is always there.
Jesus knew all of this because He was in the people changing business. He changed Simon into a "rock" & called him Peter. He changed Saul, the persecutor, into Paul, the apostle & servant of Christ.
Jesus also knew that praying & waiting go hand in hand. Countless times in Scripture we find Him going to the mountain, or to the garden, & praying & then waiting for God to move & to answer His prayers.
God has a plan for our salvation. Jesus came to earth for a purpose to "seek & to save the lost." That goal has never changed. Jesus gave Himself on the cross that we might be saved from our sins.
There were those who opposed Him. We hear them shouting "Crucify Him, crucify Him!" But He never took His eyes off of His goal. He kept on going & we must do the same.
