A. Opening illustration: Rebuilding PCB
B. Background to passage: Recount briefly the historical setting of the captivity, and the returns of Ezra and Nehemiah under the reign of the Medo-Persian King Artaxerxes I. The year is 445 BC, the 20th year of his reign. Politically they were looking for some stability in the empire. Nehemiah, who name means “God comforts,” was a captive Jew who was born in Babylon and had probably never seen Judah. However, he gets word from his brother that things are bad there, and he is broken and determined to rebuild.
C. Over the past year at Western Heights, I have seen a longing for rebuilding, a longing to be strong again, a longing to fill this sanctuary again, a longing to be involved in missionary endeavors again, a longing for the anointing of God again. So, I want to look at some principles for that from the word as we close out 2018, and prepare for 2019.
D. Main thought: In the text we will see four truths about carrying a rebuilder’s burden.
A. His Intensity – Brokenness (v. 2-4)
1. When some men, including his brother Hanani, came back from a trip to Jerusalem, Nehemiah’s first concern was for his people and the holy city. When he heard the news that even Ezra’s rebuilding efforts were undone, and the city’s gates and walls lay in ruins, he broke down. The Hebrew word meant to weep and wail with great burden and intensity accompanied by spasms and convulsions. It also says that he mourned as if someone very close to him had died. He was grief-stricken. His well-being was affected by his burden and attachment to the things of God and God’s people.
2. Ezra 10:1, Ps 69:9-10, Zeph 3:18,
3. Illustration: Watchman Nee “Our spirit is released according to the degree of our brokenness. The one who has accepted the most discipline is the one who can best serve. The more one is broken, the more sensitive he is.” Cymbala concluded: “If the spirit of brokenness and calling on God ever slacks off at Brooklyn Tabernacle, we’ll know we’re in trouble—even if we have 10,000 in attendance.” In April 19, 1742, David Brainerd, missionary to American Indians, wrote in his diary: “I set apart this day for fasting and prayer to prepare me for the ministry. In the forenoon, I felt a power of intercession for immortal souls. In the afternoon, God enabled me so to agonize in prayer that I was quite wet with sweat, though in the shade and the cool wind. My soul was drawn out very much for the world: I gasped for multitudes of souls. I think I had more enlargement for sinners than for the children of God, though I felt as if I could spend my life in cries for both.”
4. We are rarely broken over anything in our lives that doesn’t have something to do with us. Usually when we are broken, it is over some personal loss or tragedy. We have a hard time feeling much for other people stuck in tragedy, let alone ideas and principles and institutions. However, if you want to see rebuilding going on in your life, or in this church, we must develop a burden, a brokenness. A concern that is connected to our hearts. Rarely do we ever shed a tear, let alone fast, but if we do, it is usually not about our church or about lost people or about the kingdom or about those that are going astray. Look around the sanctuary for the seats of those this year that have been empty for some time. Ask God to make you this broken. Brokenness comes before renewal, revival, and rebuilding. Sometimes before you can be broken, you must get an honest evaluation. Brokenness begins as much in our own lives as in our church.
B. His Inclusivity – Corporate Confession (v. 6-7)
1. Nehemiah shares with us the main prayer that he prayed that day and the days that followed. After “hallowing” the name of God, he begins with confession of sin. He confesses the sins of Israel of bygone years and he used the word “we,” and he wasn’t even born yet. However, the followers of Christ understand the corporate nature of sin, as Nehemiah did, and they identify with the sins of the people. Nehemiah said that their sins were his sins. He understood the seriousness of not following God’s instructions. He says that they have acted corruptly and sinned against God. He is willing to slay pride, humble himself, and call out to God for forgiveness.
2. Ps 106:6, Isa 6:5, Ezra 9:6-7,
3. Illustration: “We have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.” – Lincoln, 1863,
4. This wasn’t simply about rebuilding some broken walls, it was truly speaking about rebuilding broken relationships with God. The way that begins is through confession. In order to rebuild Western Heights or your personal relationship with God, corporate and individual confession of sin must take place. God will not mend your walls and our church until we get honest and sorry about our ignoring His Word, defaming His Name by our behavior, and entrenching our passions on 10,000 other things far less worthy than Him. These are very serious matters, ones that cannot simply be ignored and forgotten. You know as well as I do that stuff that is not dealt with adequately and biblically will come back and haunt us. I believe God would be honored and moved to act if we had the majority of this church truly broken over sin, compelled to pray, on their knees together regularly confessing their sin. We must deal with the past hurts, then let them become truly past. Apology and repentance are the doorway to renewal.
C. His Inspiration – The Word of God (v. 8-9)
1. Nehemiah exhibited his profound knowledge of scripture as his inspiration for prayer. He acknowledged that God had justly punished Israel but made provisions for their restoration upon genuine repentance. Nehemiah was so grounded in scripture that it bolstered his faith to pray this back to God. This is very bold, because it is like he is saying to God, “you promised.” Again, much like the disciples in Acts 4, and much like Daniel in Daniel 9, Nehemiah made the basis for his prayer God’s character and God’s word. He more importantly makes the ground of that request upon the most important thing to God—the fame of His name.
2. Deut 4:25-31, 30:1-10, Pro 13:13, Matt 24:35,
3. Illustration: A journalist asked the remarkable Christian, G.K. Chesterton, what one book he would want to have along if he were stranded on a desert island. Chesterton paused only an instant before replying, "Why, A Practical Guide to Shipbuilding, of course." Steve Auterburn reports how a Wycliffe Bible translator in a remote village in Papua New Guinea reported the power of God’s word. He wrote, “When the opening chapters of Genesis were first translated into the native language, the attitude toward women in the tribe changed overnight. They had not realized or understood that the woman had been specially formed out of the side of the man. Without even hearing this concept developed, these people immediately grasped the ideas of equality between the sexes and began adjusting their behavior. The people heard. They believed. They obeyed. They changed. Just like that.”
4. If we are honest many don’t know enough scripture to pray, but let me encourage you to write it down, print it out, and use scripture as a guide for prayer. Pray through a passage. If we are to rebuild lives or our church, it will be done through prayer, and upon the foundation of the character of God and his inerrant, infallible, inscrutable word. The fame of His Great Name. Yet very few of us feel a burden to pray, very few of us feel a burden to use scripture in our prayer time. If you want to rebuild or build your prayer life, get into the word. We claim to be people of the book, but looking at most of our lives, we don’t give many of our 10K thoughts a day to thinking about it.
D. His Impulse - Sacrifice (v. 11)
1. Nehemiah, much like the early church does get around to asking for something. In his request, we get a window into his heart. We get honest with God in prayer. Nehemiah asked for two things, then he makes a statement, and this is where we realize how deep his commitment really is. He asks God to remember His people whom He has redeemed, to hear their prayer, and to give him favor in the eyes of the king. So, he says that the king is going to be key in the rebuilding process. He just mentions that he is the cupbearer. This is really significant, because it was a position of influence and ease for life. He had it made in the shade, and if he is going to rebuild the walls, he must give up that position.
2. Deut 9:29, Pro 21:1,
3. Illustration: King Frederick William III of Prussia found himself in trouble. Wars had been costly, and in trying to build the nation, he was seriously short of finances. He couldn’t disappoint his people, and to capitulate to the enemy was unthinkable. After careful reflection, he decided to ask the women of Prussia to bring their jewelry of gold and silver to be melted down for their country. For each ornament received, he determined to exchange a decoration of bronze or iron as a symbol of his gratitude. Each decoration would be inscribed, “I gave gold for iron, 18l3.” The response was overwhelming. Even more important, these women prized their gifts from the king more highly than their former jewelry. The reason, of course, is clear. The decorations were proof that they had sacrificed for their king. "Prayer is reaching out after the unseen; fasting is letting go of all that is seen and temporal. Fasting helps express, deepen, confirm the resolution that we are ready to sacrifice anything, even ourselves to attain what we seek for the kingdom of God." –Andrew Murray,
4. If you want to know how deep a person is with Christ, listen to their prayer consistently for a few weeks. The thing about Nehemiah’s impulse is that he is willing to sacrifice all of the perks and personal gains and influence for the opportunity to go back and work extremely hard with a depressed stubborn people. Rebuilding is going to call for personal sacrifice. It is going to call for single-minded purpose and a war-time mentality that leaves unimportant things alone and fixes its eyes upon the eternal. Some of you are not going to be willing to sacrifice your own personal comfort and preferences to see your own lives or this church rebuilt, or the kingdom of God advance. Don’t fall victim to Satan, who will tell you that it is not worth the effort. He wants this church and your lives to remain in apathy, disregard for God’s truth, and spiritual laziness. He wants a business as usual, maintenance, self-satisfied attitude. Rebuilding the church, the kingdom, and your life is vitally important to the glory of Christ. We must evaluate whether we, like Nehemiah, have what it takes and are willing to sacrifice what needs to be sacrificed to accomplish it.
A. Closing illustration: Recently I was asked this question: “What have you sacrificed lately in light of all the sorrow, desolation and bloodshed that have gripped the world?” It was a challenge from a friend of mine who regularly gives to charitable causes and has always considered it his personal task to make others aware of opportunities to do and to give to others. I cited the gifts that I make possible through my church. I also cited a check that I recently sent to a charity that focuses on rebuilding houses that have been destroyed in natural disasters. These, along with my regular gifts to the Salvation Army, the Red Cross and several pro-life organizations, I felt well-qualified me as one who “sacrifices.”
Then he posed this question: “What did these gifts cost/replaced in your life?” I thought for a moment and answered, “I don’t know. They probably haven’t really cost/replaced anything.” “Then,” he frowned, “you have not sacrificed at all. While you have truly given, you have not sacrificed.”
B. Rebuilding will take a body of people with a burden who are willing persist in prayer, to confess their faults and disregard for God, recommit firmly to His word, and sacrifice whatever is necessary to see Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
C. Questions and Answers, and possibly an invitation…
