God Uses Our Pain Points Series

Feb 22, 23, 2020

Sermon

God uses our pain points.

Nehemiah 1:1-10

What does surfing champion Bethany Hamilton have in common with Nehemiah who rebuilt the wall around Jerusalem 2500 years ago? Both of them have left their mark on the world. We are going to work our way through the book of Nehemiah over the next eight weeks discovering how God used him to make his mark and how God can use us to make our mark on the world.

Making a mark is a longing in many of us. It is also a calling for all Christians. Making our mark is an invitation from the God of the universe to be a part of what God is doing because God doesn’t do anything without it making a difference, making a mark. Who among us hasn’t wanted to make a difference, to make our mark on the world? Maybe not the whole world. Maybe just our own part of the world or even just our own family. Most of us would say we want to make a difference. We want to know our purpose. This desire may be strongest in young adults in their 20’s and 30’s who overwhelmingly report that they want to make a difference, support companies who make a difference, and work for organizations that make a positive contribution to society.

Most people who know the book of Nehemiah in the Old Testament will say it is about a man who led God’s people to rebuild the wall around Jerusalem. That’s a fair summary but there is so much more.

In this book there are heroes and villains, and many setbacks. There is a king who could be trouble for Nehemiah. God is clearly involved from beginning to end.

His experience is really intense and few people are ever called to be leaders like Nehemiah but his experience speaks to our experiences and our desire to make our mark. That is the theme of our entire series – Making our mark on the world. Today we are going to start at the beginning before Nehemiah was a champion of his people, before he had laid everything on the line for his passion to rebuild the wall and his nation’s hope.

And, guess what? Nehemiah’s journey to making his mark begins at the same place Bethany Hamilton’s journey began, with a pain point. Both of them had painful events in their lives that set them on a new trajectory for their lives that eventually led them to making their mark.

So what’s a pain point? Well, we all have turning points in our lives. These are life changing or significant events. They might be things like graduations or weddings, or promotions. Some of our turning points are the best moments in our lives. And some are painful moments and events we wish never happened. These might be the loss of a loved one, or the loss of a job instead of a promotion. I call these hurtful turning points pain points in our lives.

Bethany Hamilton grew up in Hawaii, surfing all her life. When she was thirteen years old she was on her surfboard, waiting for a wave when a 14 foot tiger shark attacked her. She survived but lost her left arm. That was Bethany’s pain point. Just two months she was back on her surfboard. The shark attack didn’t stop her from surfing but it did something else. It changed the trajectory of her life. Whatever she planned to do with her life changed. It was as if that shark attack caused Bethany’s life to take a hard right turn. She had been going in one direction and her pain point turned her in what seemed like a completely different direction.

The same thing happened to Nehemiah.

I’m going to read the beginning of Nehemiah’s story from Nehemiah chapter one. I would like you to listen for where Nehemiah’s pain point and his hard right turn show up.

Nehemiah 1

These are the memoirs of Nehemiah.

In late autumn, in the month of Kislev, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes’ reign, I was at the fortress of Susa. 2 Hanani, one of my brothers, came to visit me with some other men who had just arrived from Judah. I asked them about the Jews who had returned there from captivity and about how things were going in Jerusalem.

3 They said to me, “Things are not going well for those who returned to the province of Judah. They are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem has been torn down, and the gates have been destroyed by fire.”

4 When I heard this, I sat down and wept. In fact, for days I mourned, fasted, and prayed to the God of heaven.