4.2.29 6.13.2021 Nehemiah 2.1-8 Ready to Return
Restoring Hope by Renewing our Focus • Sermon • Submitted
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Series: Restoring Hope by renewing our Kingdom focus
Series: Restoring Hope by renewing our Kingdom focus
• Entice: If God gave you what you ardently asked for, are you ready to do it? At least 4 months have passed since the events recorded in Nehemiah 1. In Nehemiah 2 we find out in greater detail exactly what Nehemiah means by praying, fasting, mourning.
It does not mean passive whining.
It does not mean lamenting and longing for the past.
It does not mean blaming others for bad stuff,
and stomping off in a huff to do nothing.
• Engage: God could do every, single thing Himself.
Through the death, burial & resurrection He has provided a wonderful salvation.
The Bible resources our Christian walk. The Indwelling Spirit sanctifies us for service.
The Church gives us a sense of participation, belonging.
The same is true of the foundational studies we read in the OT. God speaks and acts. God calls and equips. In both contexts: faithful people cooperate in the process. In doing our part we give God the room He needs while not leaving every, single thing up to Him. He expects us to do our part which is smaller but necessary, nonetheless. Expand: All that praying, fasting, planning, thinking, and clarifying Nehemiah had done prepares us for the exchange in
1 In the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence.
2 And the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of the heart.” Then I was very much afraid.
3 I said to the king, “Let the king live forever! Why should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ graves, lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”
4 Then the king said to me, “What are you requesting?” So I prayed to the God of heaven.
5 And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ graves, that I may rebuild it.”
6 And the king said to me (the queen sitting beside him), “How long will you be gone, and when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me when I had given him a time.
7 And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, let letters be given me to the governors of the province Beyond the River, that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah,
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 of the temple, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall occupy.” And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me.
• What would Nehemiah tell us, what would he say directly to us if he could speak down through the ages?
"Before you Ask to go back you need to make sure your'e ready to return."
"Before you Ask to go back you need to make sure your'e ready to return."
• Excite: We need to act in responsive concert to God's word and will. Ministry is cooperative and reflexive. Nehemiah knew that more than 400 years
before Jesus.
How have we forgotten?
How have we forgotten?
• Explore:
God empowers and expands our actions.
God empowers and expands our actions.
Explain: How should we be prepared to behave if we want God to bless us?
Nehemiah's approach suggests three necessities
First we need....
1. Personal Engagement.
1. Personal Engagement.
1.1 Vulnerability.
1.1 Vulnerability.
• Transparent.
• Fearful
1.2 Boldness.
1.2 Boldness.
• Courteous
• Direct
Next we must be able to articulate..
2. Practical Expectations.
2. Practical Expectations.
2.1 Prayerful Focus.
2.1 Prayerful Focus.
2.2 Clear Purpose.
2.2 Clear Purpose.
3. Pointed Explanation.
3. Pointed Explanation.
3.1 Clarity of Purpose
3.1 Clarity of Purpose
• Send Me
• That I may rebuild it
3.2 Duration
3.2 Duration
• How long?
• When Return?
3.3 Means to complete.
3.3 Means to complete.
• Personel
• Material.
Shut Down:
"Pants-er’s" and "Planners."
"Pants-er’s" and "Planners."
The former is the shortened form of "flying by the seat of your pants." Nehemiah was not a pants-er, he was a planner. He had prayed, fasted, contemplated for months. What appears to be a brief, off-the-cuff conversation had been stewing in prayer, fasting, planning, and conversation.
• We live in a world in which many pray for miracles. Largely because they have done nothing or refuse to do anything which gives God room to work.
These people need miracles because their prayers have been shallow and vague. They need miracles because the cannot describe or define what they actually need or need to have done. Their need for miracles is essentially the primitives need for "big magic."
My Dad (and many others)often said "God helps them that help themselves." It is not a witticism about rugged individualism or works driven approaches to righteousness. It's about our behaviors and actions that give God room to work. It's about knowing God and the way He operates so well that we are faithful participants in what He is doing.
• The World needs disciples who pray and prepare and focus and think and engage and act. Nehemiah knew that when faithfully do what God appoints for us He get's the ultimate glory and Kingdom flourishes.