OPENING: A magician working a cruise ship had recently purchased a parrot to be part of his act. However, the bird was not only clever but also annoying. It was constantly telling the audience how the magician accomplished each trick. For example, the bird would say to the audience, "He has the card in his pocket," or the "The card’s up his sleeve," or "It went through the hole in his top hat." One day there was a huge explosion and the ship sank. The parrot and the magician, both dazed and bruised, found themselves together on a piece of wreckage. For 4 days the parrot stared at the magician. Finally, the parrot said, "OK, I give up. What did you do with the ship?"
APPLICATION: There are times in our in our lives when we look at the difficulties we face or the hardships we encounter and we are tempted to turn to God and say "OK God, I give up, what have you done with my life."
The Israelites, in the days of Nehemiah, were faced with a situation that would cause many of us to say that very thing. They were a people of a once great nation, but now they were enslaved to foreign powers. The land was poor. And, while these people had worked hard to build the city walls back up - Jerusalem was still much in ruins.
But notice, they turn and look to God and say:
1. God you were faithful, just and true
2. We did wrong
3. Please, have mercy on us.
I. This is not the world’s way of responding to hardship.
The World often responds to life’s difficulties by saying:
"I don’t deserve this grief, this hardship, this loss. I deserve the good life, a long life, comfort and respect."
The World’s response contrasts the difference between deserving and desiring what one receives in life.
Romans 3:23 tells us "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God."
And Romans 6:23 declares "The wages of sin is death."
If we got what we deserved in this life… none of us would survive.
ILLUSTRATION: The World often responds to life like a new born child. The baby enters life with a grasping hand.
But the dead leave with open hand.
Mankind enters this world grasping for whatever they can grab and squirrel it away and declare it to be theirs... and when they die they leave it all behind.
But the world faces life often with the grasping hand, the expectation of getting the best they can grab hold of… and may God Himself be pitied if He takes anything away.
By contrast, a Christian poet observed:
One by one God took them from me,
All the things I valued most,
Till I was empty-handed,
Every glittering toy was lost.
And I walked earth’s highways grieving
In my rags and poverty
Til I heard His voice inviting
"Lift those empty hands to Me."
So I turned my hands toward heaven,
And He filled them with a store
Of His own transcendent riches
Till they could contain no more.
And at last I comprehended,
With my stupid mind and dull
That God could not pour His riches
Into hands already full.
The world often can’t accept this mentality.
Instead worldly individuals either reject or condemn God.
As God tells Job "Men condemn God to justify themselves" (Job 40:8 "Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself?")
Paul observed that many people shake their fists at God and declare: "Why have you made me thus?" (Romans 9:20)
ILLUSTRATION: Such people remind me of the story of the child and his doting grandmother who were walking along the beaches of Florida when all of a sudden a gigantic wave rolls and sweeps away the child.
Frantic in her distress, the grandmother cries out to God: "Oh, please God, save my grandson." And in short order another wave rolls and deposits the boy at her feet.
Inspecting the child closely to see if there were any cuts or bruises, the woman looks angrily toward the heavens and shouts: "When we came, he had a hat."
Because of such an attitude, many (who are even Christians) are tempted to fling God away.
ILLUSTRATION: In a sermon shortly after the sudden death of his wife, Arthur John Gossip said: "I don’t understand this life of ours. But still less can I comprehend how people in trouble and loss and bereavement can fling away peevishly from the Christian faith. In God’s name, fling to what? Have we not lost enough without losing that too? You people in the sunshine may believe in the faith, but we in the shadow must believe it. We have nothing else."
God’s people often rise above that mentality. Consider how the great men of God responded to adversity:
· Job lost all he had at the hands of Sabeans and Chaldeans then said: "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away." (Job 1:21)
· Joseph told brothers - "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good." (Gen. 50:20)
· David says of his tormentor Shimei "leave him alone; let him curse, for the LORD has told him to." (II Sam. 16:11)
· Jesus said "forgive them for they don’t know what they do." (they were unwitting agents in God’s plan).
II. "Humble thyself in the sight of the Lord" says James (James 4:10)
Notice that the Jews of Nehemiah’s day revered God
+ They spend the better part of the day worshipping Him
+ They openly declare their praises of their LORD
+ They recite the many mighty deeds they can remember of His power
By contrast, notice how they viewed themselves:
1. "We have sinned" they say (9:33)
2. They clothe themselves in sackcloth and ashes
3. They plead for mercy.
The only way to enter into God’s presence is to Humble ourselves (II Chron. 7:14). It is by realizing that we have nothing to offer God and deserve nothing good by His hand, but instead concentrating on what He has done in the past to carry us through that we can receive healing.
CLOSING ILLUSTRATION: Years ago, Texas had a very Godly and compassionate governor by the name of Neff. Once, as he visited a Prison facility to give a speech to the inmates, he offered to have private consultations with any of the prisoners who desired to talk with him. He assured them that nothing that they would say would be used against them in court.
Inmate after inmate came into the private room and through the glass they shared with the governor that they didn’t deserve to be behind bars. Either the witnesses in their prosecution had lied or the judge was prejudiced or some other form of injustice had caused them to be unjustly imprisoned.
Finally, a prisoner entered the room with an entirely different story. Yes, he had been guilty of what he’d been charged; yes, he deserved to be imprisoned, but if the Governor could only see his way clear to pardon him, he would leave the prison a changed man and would never do anything again that would merit the wrath of the courts again.... This was the man Governor Neff pardoned.
