Lessons on Asking
Nehemiah 2:1-9
In the second chapter of Nehemiah, we have a great lesson for our church today.
Setting: Nehemiah, a Jew, has risen to the important job of cupbearer to the King. As we studied last week, God has been working for four months to prepare him to be a leader. He has given him a great burden for the condition of Jerusalem and a dissatisfaction with his own life. Nehemiah is now ready to do what God wants and God is ready to move to the next step.
On this particular day, I believe Nehemiah is just going about his duties, not really expecting anything to happen when out of the blue… BAM… the door opens.
He is just handing the king a cup of wine when all at once his prayers are answered.
The scripture says the king asked Nehemiah a question regarding his depression.
But It was far more than just a question… Nehemiah heard the door creak open, just a little, but he recognized that God was doing something, He was answering Nehemiah’s prayer in 1:11, “prosper thy servant this day and grant him mercy in the sight of this man(the king).”
1:4 tells us that Nehemiah mourned, fasted and prayed “a certain number of days.” We don’t know how many days. I believe the prayer we have recorded in verses 5-11 of the first chapter is not a literal prayer prayed one specific day… I believe it is a prayer that represents what Nehemiah has been praying for many days or months.
He has been praying for just such an opportunity as this and when the king asks the first question, Nehemiah immediately recognized it as an answer.
That is why Nehemiah says, “Then I was very sore afraid.”
Was he afraid that God was going to grant his wish? NO!
I believe he was afraid because he recognized that God was in the place… the God he had prayed to and trusted was now REAL and really working. He had the same feeling as Moses at the burning bush and Isaiah in the temple when they realized they were in the presence of Almighty God… FEAR!!!
Plus, I believe Nehemiah was filled with a combination of excitement and fear. Like a backup quarterback who stands on the sidelines… waiting, watching, preparing and praying for his chance to get in the game. Then one day the coach looks at him and says, “Nigurski, get in there.”
Can’t you imagine the excitement, but also the butterflies in his stomach. On the one hand he wants to scream, “Alright” but on the other hand he thinks he might throw up.
There is the excitement that the prayer is answered but there is the fear that now that the big chance is here, now that he is actually going to get in the game… that he might botch it up.
Nehemiah is not afraid to get the chance… but he senses the incredible weight on his shoulders… he is afraid that HE might not be able, that HE might blow the chance.
When Nehemiah tells us he was afraid was when the King just asked about his spirit, his sadness.
BUT NEHEMIAH recognized this was just the beginning, and that God was about to do something BIG!!!
I can tell you that our vision casting meetings, the vision we have worked out… I am so excited because I sense God in it. I know God is going to do something big here.
The vision we see now… is just the beginning.
Like Nehemiah, when he surveyed the walls… he knew more than he was telling (2:12) and GOD HAS SHOWN ME MORE THAN I HAVE TOLD YOU!
The vision we have discovered, the plans we have made… they are going to be great and our church is going to move up and out to do things like we have never seen before.
But the plans God still has, that He has yet to reveal to all… they are mind-boggling!!!!
The lesson for us today is this…
GOD HAS HEARD OUR PRAYERS AND THE DOOR HAS CREAKED OPEN… OUR VISION IS GOD’S FIRST STEP… AND GOD HAS SO MUCH MORE FOR US.
The second lesson is found in v. 6 “And the king said to me, (the Queen also sitting by him)…”
Why does Nehemiah mention the Queen?
This is a very concise and brief account. Nehemiah has kept it to a bare minimum. He has only mentioned the necessities… except this.
Why does he take time to mention the Queen? She does not speak or act. She is just there.
I believe verses 5 and 6 have a TREMENDOUS message that is hidden from most and open only to those willing to mine it out.
A study of secular sources reveals that the King had some trouble in Syria, just north of Judah. One of the local rulers, a governor… but called a satrap… had rebelled against the King and caused much unrest. The King was in the midst of dealing with this and now here is Nehemiah, one of his most trusted servants, wanting to travel to that region. The king probably saw this as a chance to replace a source of trouble with a trusted servant.
Also in verse 6 the queen mentioned MIGHT BE Esther. Esther was the wife of Xerxes, the father of this king, Artexerxes. Was she his mother? If so, then Esther might have been there and the Queen mother could be called the Queen.
Esther was told by her uncle, Mordecai, when she became Queen, “Who knows, perhaps you have come to the throne ‘for just such a time as this.’”
I believe the political trouble in Syria and the presence of Esther when the king offered Nehemiah a blank check are both instances of GOD WORKING BEHIND THE SCENES…EVEN BEFORE THE TIME.
That is our second lesson… God knows what you need even before you ask… and very often God is already working, behind the scenes, to prepare things, people and situations for the answer He is going to send.
I believe God has been planning to bless this church and has been working all kinds of things behind the scenes and unseen to us.
EX: I was out of a church, and Rick Love just happened (Huh) to speak to a mutual friend who gave him my number. He just hooked us up… and God has already done good things.
You needed a pastor… I needed a church. We were both looking for a couple of years. Why did He not bring us together earlier? Was God working out some things and getting things ready???
I believe many of you have prayed for years that God would bless this church. Could it be this vision is God’s answer? Has He been preparing the church, the community, the situation?
3rd lesson GO BIG OR GO HOME!!!!
When the king offers him the blank check… “What do you want?”
Nehemiah prayed to God. What do you think he prayed?
I think he prayed, Oh God… please don’t let me blow this chance… DON’T LET ME ASK TOO LITTLE.
It is not often that the greatest king of the greatest nation on earth (at that time) opens his checkbook, licks the pen and asks you… HOW MUCH?
Nehemiah recognized this as the hand of God… God was saying, “OK Nehemiah, I heard your prayer, I’m giving you what you need, NAME IT!
There are stories of other people in the bible who got a chance like this
Herodias was offered “up to ½ of Herod’s kingdom. What did she ask? The head of John the Baptist. REVENGE. She blew it… she asked too little.
One man was told to ask anything of God and God would give it. What did he ask? NOTHING… he tried to act pious. HE BLEW IT. And God punished him.
A blind man named Bartimaeus was called before Jesus and Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do?” He did not ask for alms or food or even riches. He asked for the one thing he wanted more than anything else… I WANT TO SEE!!! And he did.
Nehemiah knew the job was big, the needs were great. He could have cowered down and been ashamed to ask for all he needed. He could have said, “Well King, I don’t want to be greedy. Maybe, you could kind of just give me some materials to help with the walls. I’m not asking for all the materials, mind you. Just whatever you think would be right.”
THAT IS WHAT MOST PEOPLE WOULD DO?
THAT IS WHAT MOST PEOPLE DO… DO!!!!!
God wants to do something GREAT in us and we expect and ask so little.
WE DO NOT SERVE A POOR GOD OR A WEAK GOD OR A STINGY GOD!
WE SERVE A GOD WHO IS RICH AND POWERFUL BEYOND MEASURE AND WHO WANTS TO DO GREAT AND MIGHTY THINGS THROUGH AND FOR US!!!!
We often limit God because we expect… and trust Him for so little.
I do not want our church to be guilty of that. I want our church to ask and trust God for MIRACLES.
We need to pray to God like Nehemiah did, “Oh God, Please don’t let me limit you, by asking for too little.”
Look at what Nehemiah asked for…
1. Leave of absence- Paid vacation for 12 years. That is how long it took. and verse 6 says Nehemiah maned a certain time.
12 years… if your boss knew you needed time off to take care of family or your house or something and he was gracious enough to offer paid leave… how long would you ask???
Would you ask for 12 years?
Nehemiah did.
Why? Was he taking advantage of the king’s graciousness? NO!
He knew how long it would take.
2. Royal Authority. Nehemiah asked for official travel documents.
He knew it would be dangerous to travel through vassel states. He asked for the king to give him safe passage.
3. Building Materials
He asked for what was necessary to build the walls… “A letter unto 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.”
He asked for material for the walls and the fortress.
But he went farther… “and for the house which I shall occupy.”
When I read this my first thought was, “What gall, to be so selfish as to ask for his own house.”
My thought was that this was to be for God’s work… the walls… the city.
To ask for something so personal as your own new house seemed selfish and greedy. Why can’t he live in the same type of house the people live in. Doesn’t this make him look aloof and like he thinks he is too good to live in peasant housing?
Maybe there were no houses. I don’t know. But it was not wrong or God would not have blessed it.
And God did bless it…. look at verse 8. It says, because of God’s hand of blessing was on Nehemiah, the king granted him everything he asked.
Do you realize that the scriptures tell us that “God owns the cattle on a thousand hills.” That means God is the owner of everything. He lets people manage His stuff… like it is their’s… but He is in control.
If he wants to move some of His cattle from one hill (one person’s bank account) to another hill (to someone else’s pocket) HE CAN!!!!
That is what God did in Nehemiah’s case.
The king was managing some of God’s riches… he owned nothing.
God wanted to give some to Nehemiah.
So God did it by having the King give it to Nehemiah.
God can do it other ways too.
Say a Doctor has a lot of God’s money and God wants to give it to a plumber… God just has the doctor’s plumbing break.
Or God takes his money from one… by some unexpected expense… and gives it to someone else.
GOD OWNS ALL THE CATTLE. THEY ARE HIS TO MOVE AS HE SEES FIT
That is a lesson I want you to learn.
We are a small church. Many believe we can not ever do or accomplish anything.
They look at the numbers… attenders.
They look at the offerings
They look at the few talents.
Then they say, you don’t have the ability… the resources to don anything big. You will have to settle for little.
But I declare to you… Our God is NOT LIMITED by what WE have or can do.
If God wants to use us for something that will take more people… God will just move a few of His cattle to our hill.
And if God wants to do something here that will take more money than we have… He will just speak to some of his cattle and they will just send us some money.
OUR GOD IS AN AWESOME GOD!!!!!!!
Sing it with me… Our God is an awesome God, He reigns, from heaven above
with money, people and stuff, our God is an awesome God
We do not need to ask God for scraps… GO BIG… ask God for what we need!
Last lesson
Not only can God give us everything we ask for… but He will often go beyond.
Look at v. 9… “Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me.”
Read verses 1-8 and tell me where he asked for an army to accompany him. Where did he ask for cavalry?
He did not.
GOD GAVE HIM INFINATELY MORE THAN HE ASKED.
Look at the last of verse 8. Basically it says, “Because God’s hand was on me to bless me (He was determined to bless me) the king just opened up the royal coffers and said, “Take what you need.”
When Hanani came to Nehemiah, he was just one man. There is no mention of family.
And when Nehemiah pulled into Jerusalem in verse 11 wahat do we see.
One man… followed by such a large army that it required multiple captains… hundreds of soldiers
And a company of mounted cavalry.
And dozens of wagons filled with wood from the kings forest.
And following the custom of the time, when one ruler had dealings with other rulers… like the king sending his man to them… they carried gifts… usually flocks of animals and precious gifts.
Nehemiah probably had hundreds of animals, not to mention the shepherds to care for them.
As Nehemiah marches into town, leading his huge throng of followers… WHAT A PICTURE OF THE RICHES AND GRACE OF GOD
Just ONE man… But God decided to use him and so he outfitted him with everything he would need.
As we move forward, seeking God’s vision and God’s blessing…
Are we worried that we don’t have many people or large offerings or big staff, or anything else?
We need not be.
We are doing the work of a rich and powerful God
He is able to meet any need we have.
He is able to give us all we ask…. AND MUCH MORE!!!
Let’s recap, what are we to do?
1. God has opened the door and is going to do something great at Gourdvine.
2. God has been working behind the scenes before we ever knew it
3. When we ask God to bless His plan, we need to GO BIG and never be guilty of limiting God by asking for too little.
4. Our God is capable and willing to give us all that we ask… AND MUCH, MUCH MORE!!!
