(To open this sermon I showed a picture of the rubble from 9-11. I stated “The rubble from 9-11 or any catastrophe is not a pretty sight. Maneuvering through rubble is not easy. However, the good news is that we can rise above the rubble. All of us have or will have rubble in our lives. There is the rubble of family problems. There is the rubble of financial problems. There is the rubble of high gas prices. There is the rubble of a slow economy. There is the rubble of bad decisions. There is the rubble of our failures.”)
The important question is this: what will we do with the rubble? In Nehemiah 1 we find a group of people who were struggling with some rubble. One translation of the Bible says their city lay in “rubble.” Look at Nehemiah 1:3. “They told me, ‘The exile survivors who are left there in the province are in bad shape. Conditions are appalling. The wall of Jerusalem is still rubble; the city gates are still cinders.’ (Neh. 1:3 TMSG) If you look at other translations of this verse you will find other words that will help you connect with their condition. Listen to other words that describe their condition: they were in trouble, shame, distress, reproach, disgrace, and faced insults. God helped them rise above the rubble. What can we learn from them?
I. God wants to help you rise above the rubble in your life. Before considering how to rise above the rubble, I want to ask a question. How are you handling the rubble in your life? There are many kinds of rubble. There is family rubble. There is financial rubble. There is work rubble. There is relationship rubble. Rubble represents all of our failures and disappointments. God wants to help you rise above the rubble in your life.
People respond to rubble in one of several ways.
A. Some people respond to rubble by becoming bitter. After losing virtually everything in his life, Job became bitter. "Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.” Job 7:11
Illustration: There was a merchant who had identical twin sons. The boys worked in their father’s department store. When he died, they took over the store. Everything went well until the day a dollar bill disappeared. One of the brothers had left the bill on the cash register and walked outside with a customer. When he returned, the money was gone. He asked his brother, "Did you see that dollar bill on the cash register?" His brother replied that he had not. But the young man kept probing and questioning. He would not let it alone. "Dollar bills just don’t get up and walk away! Surely you must have seen it!" There was subtle accusation in his voice. Tempers began to rise. Resentment set in. Before long, a deep and bitter chasm divided the brothers. They refused to speak. They finally decided they could no longer work together and a dividing wall was built down the center of the store. For twenty years hostility and bitterness grew, spreading to their families and to the community. After twenty years a man pulled his car in front of the store, parked, walked in, and asked the clerk, "How long have you been here?" The clerk replied that he’d been there all his life. The customer said, "I must share something with you. Twenty years ago I was ’riding the rails’ and came into this town in a boxcar. I hadn’t eaten for three days. I came into this store from the back door and saw a dollar bill on the cash register. I put it in my pocket and walked out. All these years I haven’t been able to forget that. I know it wasn’t much money, but I had to come back and ask your forgiveness." The stranger was amazed to see tears well up in the eyes of this middle-aged man. "Would you please go next door and tell that same story to the man in the store?" he said. Then the man was even more amazed to see two middle-aged men, who looked very much alike, embracing each other and weeping in the front of the store. After twenty years, the brokenness was mended. The wall of resentment that divided them came down.
(Contributed to Sermon Central by Johanna Radelfinger) Bitterness had done a work!
B. Some people respond to rubble by living a defeated life.
Illustration: Sometimes we take a defeatist attitude in the midst of struggle. Many of you may remember when the New Orleans Saints were a horrible football team. They have yet to win a Superbowl but at least now they are winning some games. In their worst days many of their fans took on a defeatist attitude. They wore bags over their heads.
The Israelites got to the point where they wore a bag over their heads. They were embarrassed! They were ashamed! One Bible translation said they were disgraced.
C. Some people respond to rubble by living in bondage.
Men who trap animals in Africa for zoos in America say that one of the hardest animals to catch is the ring-tailed monkey. For the Zulus of that continent, however, it’s simple. They’ve been catching this agile little animal with ease for years. The method the Zulus use is based on knowledge of the animal. Their trap is nothing more than a melon growing on a vine. The seeds of this melon are a favorite of the monkey. Knowing this, the Zulus simply cut a hole in the melon, just large enough for the monkey to insert his hand to reach the seeds inside. The monkey will stick his hand in, grab as many seeds as he can, then start to withdraw it. This he cannot do. His fist is now larger than the hole. The monkey will pull and tug, screech and fight the melon for hours. But he can’t get free of the trap unless he gives up the seeds, which he refuses to do. Meanwhile, the Zulus sneak up and nab him.
(SOURCE: Charles Swindoll, Living Above the Level of Mediocrity, p.150ff) Bondage is a terrible master.
D. Some people respond to rubble by blaming others.
Illustration: Some time ago the Orlando Sentinel reported on a man by the name of Timothy Pilgreen. Timothy was being held on 2 charges of murder and 4 charges of attempted murder after driving over 6 Outlaw Biker gang members on their motorcycles. Later, he blamed his rage on a history of drugs, alcohol and childhood abuse. He said he was abandoned at age 4, had been in and out of juvenile detention by 14 and spent nearly a year in prison for stealing a car when 18. My friends, God will not accept your excuses. There are many people today who claim they act the way they do because of their environment. They act the way they do because their parents acted that way. They say, “It’s not my fault. I was brought up that way.” Or, “If you knew what my home life was like, then you would understand. We live in a society where people try to make excuses for the way they act and the decisions they make. They want to say it’s their parents’ fault. They didn’t love me enough, or they pressured me too much, or I was potty-trained too soon, or my parents something. If you only knew the bad breaks I’ve had, if you only knew the way people have treated me and cheated me. If you’ve been through what I’ve been through, then you would act the same way. My friend, your situation, your background, your environment, does not give you an excuse for rejecting Jesus Christ, and it does not give you an excuse for living in sin. You cannot blame your laziness in following Jesus on others. You cannot blame the sin in your life on your environment. You cannot blame your bitterness on your spouse. You cannot blame your anger on your boss. You cannot say, “The Devil made me do it.” The Bible says it is your own choice. (Contributed to Sermon Central by Gene Gregory) You may be blaming the rubble in your life on someone else. Rise above that temptation.
Understand that living amid rubble is not God’s ultimate plan for your life. He may let you live there for a while but that is not His ultimate plan for you. Jeremiah, an Old Testament prophet who prophesied in the same general time period as Nehemiah, shared God’s desires for His people. “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Jer. 29:11 NLT I encourage you to rise above your rubble. God wants to help you. So, what do I do?
II. Take your burden to the Lord. When you have a burden or problem you have two options. You can work to solve the problem on your own, or you can take your burden to the Lord. There is an old gospel song entitled “Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.” That is what Nehemiah did.
Warren Wiersbe shares an encouraging outline of Nehemiah chapter 1. This is the outline of Nehemiah’s life.
1. He cared enough to ask. (1:1-3)
2. He cared enough to weep. (1:4)
3. He cared enough to pray. (1:5-10)
4. He cared enough to volunteer. (1:11)
Nehemiah prayed about his burden. In fact you find twelve recorded prayers that Nehemiah prayed. (1:4-11; 2:4; 4:4,9; 5:19; 6:9,14; 9:5; 13:14,22,29,31) The most extensive of the twelve prayers is the one in chapter 1. We can learn a lot from it.
A. When you carry your burden to God, get real with God. Notice verse 4. “So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.” Nehemiah wept, mourned, and fasted. We can get so caught up in the challenge of those three practices that we miss the essence behind them. The essence of weeping, mourning, and fasting is that you are real. There is no cover up. There is no faking it.
Illustration: When we carried our son and daughter-in-law to the airport in Birmingham, as they left to go overseas, I cried. I had told myself not to cry. Get this picture. My oldest son felt led of God to spend his life serving in southeast Asia. He was about to leave. I knew that for the rest of his life I would only see him for short visits. I knew that I would never spend extensive time with my grandchildren. I had the audacity to tell myself that I was not going to cry. When they started through security I cried. I didn’t just cry. I wailed. People were staring at my as if there was something wrong with me. There was something wrong. My heart was broken. I cried! There was no pretense. There was no cover up. People could read me like a book. That is what happens when we get real with God. We bare our soul to Him.
Illustration: I went to a dermatologist a few weeks ago. I had several spots I wanted the doctor to check. Suppose I had had a serious problem and covered it up. The first thing the doctor asked me to do was take off my shirt. The doctor examined my upper body, my arms, my head, and then asked if there were any other areas of concern. Suppose there had been a large black mole on my leg with funny little spirals coming out of it. If I did not shown the doctor that mole the doctor could not have helped me. I had to be honest. When you bring your burden to the Lord you must bear your soul.
Illustration: I read a story about three preachers who argued about the best position for praying. One preacher said “Kneeling is definitely best.”
A second preacher said “No, the best results come when you stand with your hand outstretched to Heaven.”
A third preacher said “You’re both wrong, the most effective prayer position is lying prostrate, face down on the floor.”
A repair man was standing there overhearing this conversation. He said “Hey, fellas, the best praying I ever did was hanging upside down from a telephone pole.”
The repairman got real. There was no pretense in his prayer.
B. When you carry your burden to God, get real with God. Second, when you carry your burden to God remember that God loves you and is faithful to those who follow Him. Look at what Nehemiah prays in verse 5. "I pray, Lord God of heaven, O great and awesome God, You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your commandments.” God loves us and has a wonderful plan for our lives. God loves you so much He sent His only son to bear the burden for your sins.
Illustration: “The 1989 Armenian earthquake needed only four minutes to flatten the nation and kill thirty thousand people. Moments after that deadly tremor ceased, a father raced to an elementary school to save his son. When he arrived, he saw that the building had been leveled. Looking at the mass of stones and rubble, he remembered a promise he had made to his child: “No matter what happens, I’ll always be there for you.” Driven by his own promise, he found the area closest to his son’s room and began to pull back the rocks. Other parents arrived and began sobbing for their children. “It’s too late,” they told the man. “You know they are dead. You can’t help.” Even a police officer encouraged him to give up. But the father refused. For eight hours, then sixteen, then thirty-two, thirty-six hours he dug. His hands were raw and his energy gone, but he refused to quit. Finally, after thirty-eight wrenching hours, he pulled back a boulder and heard his son’s voice. He called his boy’s name, “Arman! Arman!” And a voice answered him, “Dad, it’s me!” Then the boy added these priceless words, “I told the other kids not to worry. I told them if you were alive, you’d save me, and when you saved me, they’d be saved, too. Because you promised, ‘No matter what, I’ll always be there for you.’””
(Contributed to Sermon Central by Dennis Lawrence)
Our Heavenly Father will also keep His word. He loves us and will not fail us.
C. The third and final lesson we learn from Nehemiah is this: get your life in alignment with God. Look at verses 6-7. “We have sinned against You. Both my father’s house and I have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against You, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses.” Living in rubble is the perfect time to realign your life. Realignment means you submit to God’s will and correct any failures. God will use rubble to discipline us (Heb. 12:1) and develop us but He does not want to destroy us.
Warren Wiersbe wrote a book called Victorious Christian about a woman named Fanny Crosby. Crosby was the author of over 8000 songs including several that we sang today. In fact she wrote so many that she had to write under pseudonymns just so she could get more of her songs into the hymnbooks. At 6 weeks of age Fanny Crosby developed a minor eye inflammation and was taken to a local doctor for treatment. However, the doctor who treated her used the wrong medicine on her eyes and she became totally and permanently blind because of his carelessness. Interviewed years later, Fanny Crosby said she harbored no bitterness against the physician. In fact, she once said, "If I could meet him now, I would say thank you, over and over again for making me blind." She felt that her blindness was a gift from God to help her write the hymns that flowed from her pen. How could Fanny Crosby, blinded by a tragic failure of a careless doctor –still be filled with such joy and power in her songs? She kept her heart focused on God. She looked to God rather than around at her disability and weaknesses. As with Paul, she was convinced that she could do all things through Christ who gave her strength. (SOURCE: Jeff Strite in "We’ve Got A Secret" on www.sermoncentral.com.)
This dear lady gave her burden to God, she trusted His love and faithfulness, and she aligned her life with God’s will. She rose above a horrible pile of rubble to be a victorious follower of Jesus Christ. You can do the same.
