A Mind That Prepared
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Today I want to talk to you about biblical strategies for sucess. We are using the life of biblical man by the name of Nehemiah for an example.
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We have already talked about Nehemiah as a man who had a heart that cared, and
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Knees that bent. I tried to explain that prayer sometimes is a very difficult thing. Prayer is often like revival, revival is not just the top blowing off, it is also the bottom falling out.
What do I mean by that? It is just as much a move of God when you feel miserable, as when you feel happy. Nehemiah wept and mourned and fasted and confessed many days.
In Daniel 9 we read:
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Da 9:24 "Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy [place.]
Da 9:25 "So you are to know and discern [that] from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince [there will be] seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress.
Daniel was told that after 69 groups of 7, which we understand to 7 years, even the Jews accept and teach this, after that period of time the Messiah would come and make atonement for sin. He is further told, that the clock would start ticking for this 483 years with the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem. So if you are the devil then you have been just told when the guy is coming who is going to clean your clock. You will do everything in your power to prevent the decree to rebuild Jerusalem, I think Nehemiah felt spiritual opposition when he prayed for his nation to be rebuilt. The heavens may have seemed as brass, and his prayers may have felt like they were getting no where. The truth, he was at the forefront of a battle much larger than he ever could have imagined.
Now the devil isn't the smartest guy on the block, but he also isn't the dumbest.
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1Co 2:7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, [even] the hidden [wisdom], which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
1Co 2:8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known [it], they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
In other words the devil didn't realize that killing Jesus would in fact be the key that provided for the forgiveness of our sins. If he had realized that he never would have helped organize Jesus' death. So he was dumb on that one.
But on this prophecy of 69 7's, I believe he clearly understood that as soon as a decree is issued to rebuild the city of Jerusalem his doomsday clock started ticking. So I believe he put out a decree to all his minions don't let them rebuild that city! The temple had a decree to be rebuilt 180 years before Nehemiah comes on the scene, but not the city. Jeremiah had prophesied they would only be in captivity for 70 years, yet 180 had gone by and the city was still not rebuilt. I think the answer at least for me is pretty obvious, demonic interference.
I think the devil did everything in his power to keep that from happening, because like I said, once it happened his doomsday clock started ticking. I believe that everyone, and everything that might have moved in the direction of rebuilding Jerusalem was seriously hampered and discouraged.
I think Nehemiah ran into a thunderstorm of spiritual harassment when he started to pray for the rebuilding of the city. I don't think he was aware of the cosmic significance of what he was doing. But the devil did. None of Nehemiah's prayers seem to indicate he understood the full significance of what was going on. He never prayed, lets get this wall built so the Messiah can come. But I really and truly believe his prayer time was hard sowing. When he prayed the heavens felt as brass, and I don't think he had the least idea of how important what he was doing was.
You may be praying for just a little neighbor boy, or girl. But their destiny may be to bring significant change to this world, and advancment of the kingdom of God.
Prayer in that kind of an atmosphere is such difficult plowing many fail to take up the cause.
Whatever is the hardest thing for you to pray for, pray for it, it is most likely the most important.
If the heavens feel as brass, don't quit persist!
PPT 6 - the thinking man
So today - I want to talk about a biblical strategy for success by having a mind that prepares.
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Ne 1:11 "O Lord, I beseech Thee, may Thine ear be attentive to the prayer of Thy servant and the prayer of Thy servants who delight to revere Thy name, and make Thy servant successful today, and grant him compassion before this man." Now I was the cupbearer to the king.
Ne 2:1 ¶ And it came about in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, that wine [was] before him, and I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence.
Ne 2:2 So the king said to me, "Why is your face sad though you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of heart." Then I was very much afraid.
Ne 2:3 And I said to the king, "Let the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my fathers' tombs, lies desolate and its gates have been consumed by fire?"
Ne 2:4 Then the king said to me, "What would you request?" So I prayed to the God of heaven.
Ne 2:5 And I said to the king, "If it please the king, and if your servant has found favor before you, send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' tombs, that I may rebuild it."
Ne 2:6 Then the king said to me, the queen sitting beside him, "How long will your journey be, and when will you return?" So it pleased the king to send me, and I gave him a definite time.
Ne 2:7 And I said to the king, "If it please the king, let letters be given me for the governors [of the provinces] beyond the River, that they may allow me to pass through until I come to Judah,
Ne 2:8 and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress which is by the temple, for the wall of the city, and for the house to which I will go. "And the king granted [them] to me because the good hand of my God [was] on me.
I have said in some of my other messages that Nehemiah was the perfect blend of spiritual and practical.
Most of us fall into extremes, there are the spiritual who all they want to do is pray, and there are the practical who put their energies into doing, to the neglect of praying.
Mary was a spirtual, and Martha was a practical. Martha wasn't wrong for being practical, she was wrong for being practical on that day.
Let me give you an example of a guy who was wrong for being spiritual.
Jonathon and his armor bearer. Saul calls for the ark of the covenant. It was a cover for his cowardice.
There is a time to pray and there is a time to work. Nehemiah in today's lesson is moving from water works to hard work.
I want to point out a couple of things that show Nehemiah had a mind that prepared.
1. Even though he was in a time of extended prayer he prepared by setting a deadline.
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Ne 1:11 "O Lord, I beseech Thee, may Thine ear be attentive to the prayer of Thy servant and the prayer of Thy servants who delight to revere Thy name, and make Thy servant successful today, and grant him compassion before this man." Now I was the cupbearer to the king.
How many of you noticed the word, "today," when we read this passage? How many of you have ever noticed the word today in this passage?
If you don't set deadlines you don't ever have to accomplish anything, because you don't have any criteria by which to judge your actions. You also deny yourself the incentive deadlines bring.
I am going to get a motorcycle someday.
I am getting a motorcycle before the summer is out.
I am going on a missions trip someday.
I am going on a missions trip in 2012.
In two of those scenearios you are forced to save, and you have something by which you can gage and hurry your activity along. In two of them with no deadline, all you have is wishful thinking.
Nehemiah gave himself a deadline. BTW a good deadline also has a start line. I am going to lose 20 lbs in 2012 is not near as good as I am going to lose 20 pounds starting today.
2. He prepared by thinking through what must happen if God were to answer his prayers.
Many of you are familiar with the play and movie, "Fiddler on the Roof." One of my favorite songs in that show is called, "if I were a rich man," parts of it go like this:
"Dear God, you made many, many poor people.
I realize, of course, that it's no shame to be poor.
But it's no great honor either!
So, what would have been so terrible if I had a small fortune?"
If I were a rich man,
Yubby dibby dibby dibby dibby dibby dibby dum.
All day long I'd biddy biddy bum.
If I were a wealthy man.
I wouldn't have to work hard.
Ya ha deedle deedle, bubba bubba deedle deedle dum.
If I were a biddy biddy rich,
Idle-diddle-daidle-daidle man.
I'd see my wife, my Golde, looking like a rich man's wife
With a proper double-chin.
Supervising meals to her heart's delight.
I see her putting on airs and strutting like a peacock.
Oy, what a happy mood she's in.
Screaming at the servants, day and night.
Here is the end of that song, and here is where Tevye the singer shares the most important thing he would do if he were a rich man:
If I were rich, I'd have the time that I lack
To sit in the synagogue and pray.
And maybe have a seat by the Eastern wall.
And I'd discuss the holy books with the learned men, several hours every day.
That would be the sweetest thing of all.
Here we have a man who has a plan in place if he became wealthy. In like manner, Nehemiah prepared by having a plan in place if he got the opportunity to help rebuild his city.
1. He decided on who would be a good person to get the job done. Send me.
2. He had thought through how long it would take... I gave him a definite time.
3. He had brainstormed about necessary resources and a possible source of them. Give me letters of authorization, and safe transport, give me lumber from the forest, for the gates, and for a house for me. I will be homeless when I get there.
It is clear Nehemiah put a lot of time into thinking and preparing ahead.
God honored Nehemiah's praying and planning, and the king added something Nehemiah hadn't thought about: the king gave him a detachment of soldiers. If you are faithful in praying and planning, God will take care of the details you haven't been able to think through.
He prepared by setting a deadline, He prepared by thinking through the situation:
3. He prepared by being prepared to adapt as necessary.
We already noted that Nehemiah set a deadline, in our text it was this very day.
I think he began that day, excited in faith, and perhaps a little bit nervous perhaps thinking he must be out of his mind with all these big plans he had.
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Ne 1:11 "O Lord, I beseech Thee, may Thine ear be attentive to the prayer of Thy servant and the prayer of Thy servants who delight to revere Thy name, and make Thy servant successful today, and grant him compassion before this man." Now I was the cupbearer to the king.
Ne 2:1 ¶ And it came about in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, that wine [was] before him, and I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence.
I want you to think about the end of verse 1 in chapter two: I had not been sad in his presence.
In chapter 1:11 he is praying give me victory today, and in the next verse he is sad. How did he go from glad to sad? We are not told, but what I think happened is that Nehemiah had some idea of how he thought things should work. Maybe he was expecting the king to say, "hey Nehemiah, what do you want to do when you retire?" (The Jews tell us he was 57 at this time). Every time the king called his name, Nehemiah that day, his ears perked up and excitement bubbled up, now it is going to happen. I think the day slipped away and was almost over and nothing had happened and finally when Nehemiah felt it wasn't going to work out, the disappointment flashed over the screen of his face.
Proper preparation doesn't mean you have all the details worked out. You have to be flexible.
The king sees he is sad and that was the key to open the door of opportunity and Nehemiah in proper fashion adjusted his idea of how things would work out and shot up an arrow of prayer.
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Ne 2:4 Then the king said to me, "What would you request?" So I prayed to the God of heaven.
I don't think the opportunity developed the way Nehemiah expected, but he seized upon it the way it was given to him, he adapted his plan.
We have several engineers in this church, and they can all tell us that structures that don't have flexibility built into them are much more likely to suffer catastrophic failure, especially in earthquake and high wind prone areas. You have to have flexibility.
Proper planning has to include the ability to think on your feet and adapt.
1. Set a deadline for your desires.
2. Think through what needs to be done.
3. Be adaptable.
Close: I need a deadline. I need to be able to think a plan through that I can work. I need to be flexible.
What is your area of shortcoming?
