Dealing with a Burden
Griffith Baptist Church – 11/8/09
P.M. Service
Text: Nehemiah 1
Key verse: Nehemiah 1:4 - And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven,
Premise: When God presents us with a burden, we can either embrace it or run from it and it all says tons about our character.
The Introduction
The Order of the books and the years involved are this:
o Esther (478-464 B.C.)
o Ezra (455 B.C.)
o Nehemiah (445 B.C.)
Nehemiah was the king’s cupbearer – equivalent to a personal press secretary and valet
Here is what happens in this first chapter:
1. Nehemiah is in the palace in the capital – 1
2. Hanani, a flesh and blood brother of Nehemiah (7:2) and other men had come from Jerusalem and Nehemiah overhears them talking and asks them about two things. - 2
a. The Jews that had been liberated (escaped)
b. The condition of and situation concerning Jerusalem
3. The report – 3
a. The people are in great affliction (misery; calamity) and reproach (disgrace; scorn)
b. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down
c. The gates of the city are burned with fire
4. Nehemiah’s Reaction - 4
5. Nehemiah’s Prayer – 5-11
Here, Nehemiah is presented with the stark reality of his Jerusalem and it hits him like a ton of bricks. This is his burden now.
There are two types of burdens – (1) the burden of sin that weighs us down, and (2) the burden God gives us in our lives pertaining to His will and ministry.
The problem in our lives and churches today is that we have not learned to deal with and carry our burdens.
Today’s church has grown lukewarm and soft because truth has been watered down with mainly those things that build a healthy self image and rarely build the body of Christ: This takes labor, sweat, and sacrifice. Some people just don’t have it in them.
These are Carnal Christian, and carnal Christians are burdenless
o They don’t yearn for God to work through them
o They don’t have a genuine concern for the lost and their condition
o They don’t serve with a whole and submissive heart
The only burdens that they carry are the weights of sin, frustration, anger and selfishness.
The godly carry the burden of pleasing their Lord and submission to His will.
When God says go, they go. When He says stop, they stop.
But what are we told to do in Scripture?
Matthew 11:29-30 – 29Take my yoke upon you . . . 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Mark 8:34 – . . . Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
I know of a guy who saw an ant carrying a piece of straw much larger than he was. The man thought, "How interesting that the little ant can carry something so much larger than himself."
So he watched the ant in fascination. As he watched the ant, the ant came to a crevice in the ground. The crevice was too big for him to go down into and it was to wide to cross. The ant took the straw. Laid the straw down over the crevice. Walked across the straw and then picked up the straw and went on his way. The man thought to himself, "The ant turned his burden into a bridge.
That’s what God wants us to do with our burdens! - Mike Minix
What can we learn from Nehemiah about how to deal with our burdens?
Body
1. When you are burdened, it is personal – 4
A. Pastor E. V. Hill was talking about the racial violence in downtown Watts, in the Los Angeles area. He is as a Baptist Preacher and was caught up in that kind of tension. There was another of the black pastors who had already been killed because of their involvement in this racial tension. E V Hill got a threatening phone call and he was told that if he did not cease his involvement in the racial conflict that he would be killed. They told him that they would put a bomb in his car. The next day when he woke up he noticed his wife was not there. When he looked out into the garage the car was gone. He looked out the window and saw his wife was driving up in the car. When he asked her what she was doing she said, I just wanted to be sure any bomb would not explode on you. She was personally involved in his protection.
B. Nehemiah sat down, wept, mourned, fasted and prayed
C. This was a personal concern of Nehemiah, he was affected by the condition of His home city
D. We ought to be touched by the conditions around us
E. There are walls that are broken down in our own lives:
i. The wall of godliness – living the way we want, one foot in the world
ii. The wall of unity – being divided in what is important in the church
iii. The wall of soul winning – we see people as objects instead of hell-bent souls
a. By the way, when we see people as potential tither’s or what they can contribute to the coffers of the church instead of souls, we are in deep trouble.
b. God does not bless our church because of money but because His people are about His business.
iv. The wall of friendship – not treating everyone in the body of Christ with love but being selective in our treatment of others. (James 2:1-7)
v. The wall of service – wrong motives in service or not serving at all
vi. And so on, ad infinitum . . .
F. Do we get affected personally, or are we standoffish and figure someone else will do the work
2. When you are burdened, you pray – 4
A. Dr. R.G. Lee said, "If you trust in administration; you will get what administration can do. If you trust in hard work; you will get what hard work can do. If you trust in your sparkling personality; you will get what personality can do. If you trust in prayer; you get what God can do."
B. Nehemiah knew this and the burden led him to spill his heart out to the Lord
C. Prayer is the fundamental element of the Christian life that takes us into the presence of God
D. This is the act of a righteous man – James 5:16 - The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
E. Burdens do that to a person:
i. We are compelled to pray
ii. We are driven to seek the face of God more than anything else
iii. We are not satisfied till God answers and shows us the way
F. When was the last time your prayers were a gut-wrenching experience?
G. This is how personal, private prayer ought to be, not an exercise that is approached haphazardly:
i. It should be deep and heartfelt
ii. It should be done with sympathy or even empathy, as if each request were for ourselves
iii. It should seek God’s glory as it’s end
H. I wonder if the reason the prayer life of God’s church today is so often ineffective is because of a lack of urgency and depth.
3. When you are burdened, you are more perceptive to your sinfulness – 5-7
A. A young couple rented a vacation cottage for a week. One afternoon the husband looked out a window at the swimming pool and exclaimed, "Let’s change our clothes and go get some exercise!" His wife, who was washing the dishes in the kitchen and looking out the window watching some people play tennis, quickly agreed. While she dressed for a tennis match, he put on his swimming trunks. The window a person chooses to look out at the world often determines that individual’s perception of reality. Lyle Schaller, Activating the Passive Church, p. 19.
B. Nehemiah prayed and look what He confessed:
i. The mercy of God - 5
ii. Utter helplessness and open confession of transgressions – 6
iii. Admission of the rebellious nature – 7
C. We ought to be sensitive our sin – Read Psalm 51:1-13
D. We should be:
i. Immediately responsive to our sin
ii. Confessing and forsaking our sin
iii. Claiming for the forgiveness of God in our lives
iv. Ready to serve again and bring glory to God
4. When you are burdened, you plead on behalf of others – 6-7
A. Intercession - In 1517 there was a great riot in London, in which houses were sacked and a general insurrection reigned; guns in the tower were thundering against the insurgents, and armed bands were assailing them on every side. Three hundred were arrested, tried and hanged; five hundred were cast into prison, and were to be tried before the king, Henry VIII. As he sat in state on the throne, the door opened, and in they came, every man with a rope about his neck. Before sentence could be passed on them, three queens entered, Catharine of Aragon, wife of the king; Margaret of Scotland, sister of the king, and Mary of France. They approached the throne, knelt at the feet of his majesty and there remained pleading until the king forgave the five hundred trembling men.
B. NOTE: This is not you having the power to pray their sins away
i. Every person is responsible for their own confession of sin
ii. We cannot absolve anyone’s sin
C. What this prayer is here concerns one of national sins.
i. They had all turned away from God
ii. They had all sinned against God
iii. He was praying for healing and forgiveness as a nation
D. When we intercede for others, it may be for a number of reason:
i. For the concerns of one another – Romans 12:15 - Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.
ii. For the return of an erring brother
iii. For the concerns of a church
E. Their burdens are your burdens – Galatians 6:2 - Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
F. Rather than praying for the judgment of God, you are praying for their restoration
5. When you are burdened, you present yourself to meet the need – 11
A. Volunteering - Elmer Towns tells about a member of a motorcycle gang who was converted to Jesus Christ dramatically and the first Sunday he did the only thing he knew he should do and so he went to church. Nobody in the church knew him and he walked down to the second aisle and sat in the seat. And the people stared because he looked the part; big burly, bearded, long hair, black jacket, tattoos. It came announcement time and the minister got up and made an appeal for nursery workers. He said, “We need someone to work in the nursery.” But no one would volunteer. He asked a second time, “We really need someone to go be with our kids.” But no one would volunteer. And the cyclist prayed, “Lord, I want to do what you want me to do and if you want me to go work in nursery just have the preacher ask a third time.” And a third time the preacher said, “Please we need someone to work in the nursery.” And the cyclist raised his hand, nodded his head and started toward the nursery. Immediately, 50 mothers volunteered to work in the nursery.
B. Nehemiah saw the need and prayed for success and mercy.
i. No looking around for someone else to meet the burden
ii. The one He burdens is the one He calls
C. It is seen throughout Scripture. Let’s take the example of Isaiah – Turn to Isaiah 6:1-8 - 1In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. 2Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. 3And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. 4And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. 5Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. 6Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: 7And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. 8Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.
D. There are two many assigners in the body of Christ. They see something that needs to be done and say:
i. “Somebody needs to get that done.”
ii. “The Pastor needs to get over and see that person.”
iii. “I wish these people would invite others to church.”
iv. “Why doesn’t this person or that person do this? So what if they already have five other Christian services.”
v. And here you sit doing nothing; all the while God speaks to you and gives you a burden.
E. God doesn’t always call the most talented, the most influential or the most attractive. But He does call the most available.
I would like to close with this simple poem:
My burdens keep me humble and they teach me to pray.
If I murmur, if I grumble forgive the words I say.
Give me strength to just carry my load day to day.
Just don’t take my burden or my cross away.
With the cross on my shoulder my feet cannot stray.
For my cross leads me onward to my home so far away.
And I’ll never question the price I must pay.
But don’t take my burden or my cross away.
For I would grow careless and idle I fear.
My eyes would be dry I’d never shed a tear.
Lest I forget that I need you today.
Don’t take my burdens or my cross away.
Conclusion:
What do you do when God gives you a desire to make a positive difference?
Do you run or close your ears?
Are you fearful of what it might cost you?
