Introduction
Find please, the Book of Nehemiah. And, we’re beginning, now, a series through this book. I want us to notice what I consider to be the verse that sets the tone for the book, in Nehemiah chapter 2 and verse 20. We’ll look at that verse; and then, we’ll go back to chapter 1, verse 1, and begin there. But, I love this verse. I believe it is so applicable to us today. In Nehemiah chapter 2 and verse 20: “Then answered I them, and said unto them, The God of heaven, he will prosper us; therefore we his servants will arise and build” (Nehemiah 2:20). Don’t you like that verse? “The God of Heaven, he will prosper us; therefore we his servants will arise and build.” We begin a new series, this morning, entitled, “Together We Build.” And, I want you to look now in Nehemiah chapter 1. Our message today is entitled this: “How to Turn Your Problems into Possibilities”—“How to Turn Your Problems into Possibilities.”
Anybody here ever have any problems? Oh, you do? Well, wonderful. Congratulations. Because, you see, a problem really is an opportunity in disguise. And, you need to learn this: that God wants you to see your problems as potentialities, and your adversaries, really, as opportunities. A Christian is not someone who sees a difficulty in every opportunity, but to the contrary, he’s one who sees an opportunity in every difficulty. And, that’s what we’re going to learn as we study together the Book of Nehemiah, under the general heading of “Together We Build,” and, today, particularly, “How to Turn Your Problems into Possibilities.”
Now, let me give you a clue, as we study the Book of Nehemiah, or study any book of the Bible. If you want to understand it, and if you want to make the Bible come alive to you, ask these three questions. Number one: What did it mean then? You study it in its historical setting. What did it mean then? Number two: What does it mean now? Because, you see, you have to take it from yesterday and put it into today. What does it mean now? But, you’re not finished yet. After you’ve asked what it meant then, and what it means now, ask the third question: What does it mean to me personally? Now, if you’ll look at the Scripture that way—what it meant then, what it means now, and what it means to me personally—then the Bible will burst aflame in your hand, and it will become a very living and a very vital book to you.
We’re going to look at the Book of Nehemiah that way: what it meant then, what it means now, and what it means to us personally. Whether we, as a church, are going to try to turn a problem into a potentiality, or whether you, as an individual, are transforming your problems into potentiality, we’re going to see that God has a wonderful plan for us.
I. Visualize
Now, there are three steps in getting ready to do anything great and glorious in the name of Jesus, three steps in achieving our maximum potential. Number one: We call this to visualize, to visualize. I want you to notice here, in chapter 1, the first three verses: “The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. And it came to pass in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace, that Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire” (Nehemiah 1:1–3).
Now, Nehemiah is in Persia, and he has seen certain brethren who have recently been in Jerusalem. And, they had no television; they had no radio; they had no newspapers, as we know them. They had no telephones; and so, he’s wanting some news. He said, “What is the city of God like? The people of God—what is their condition? I want to know. Tell it to me, so I can visualize it, so I can see it.”
And, they brought this report. They wept, I’m certain, as they said, “Oh, Nehemiah, you cannot believe the degradation. You cannot believe the desolation. You cannot believe the danger. You cannot believe the poverty. The city is in disarray. The gates have been burned with fire. The walls have crumbled. The streets are filled with weeds, and trash, and debris. The people are discouraged; the people are in poverty; the people are in hunger.” And, Nehemiah saw this: a city with walls that had crumbled. And, you’re going to find out that the Book of Nehemiah, a large part of the Book of Nehemiah, is the story of the rebuilding of these walls. And, that’s the reason I’ve chosen it, as we can preach together on this theme: “Together We Build.”
A. Walls Have Fallen
Now, these walls were literal walls in that day, but we’re asking a question: not only, “What did it mean then?” but, “What does it mean today?” Because, you see, walls are also symbolical. Walls stand for protection. Walls are symbolic of separation. Walls speak to us of conservation. Walls spoke of the glory of God. Walls, in the Bible, and especially around the city of Jerusalem, had a symbolic meaning. They spoke of the glory of God; they spoke of the salvation of God; they spoke of the protection of God over His people. And, the walls had fallen.
Now, what does this mean to us today? Ladies and gentlemen, we too are called to rebuild some walls that are in decay. And, I want you to think with me, for a moment, about some walls today that have fallen to the ground, some walls that are in disarray.
1. Walls of National Security
I think, for example, about the walls of national security. Are you listening? The walls of national security. We must face the grim fact that America is in danger. Now, whether you like it or not, that is true. And, you may think, this morning, that I am an alarmist before I’m finished, but I am grieved for America. I believe that America has a general trend, which is toward Sodom and Gomorrah. And, I believe that the wrath of God is in the imminent foreground for America, unless we repent and get right with God. We are losing our freedom in America by degrees every day that we live, and freedom is like help: You must lose it, sometimes, in order for it to be appreciated.
John Philpot Curran said, in 1808, that “eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” But, we have forgotten to be vigilant, for we have forgotten God. And, what has been the result? You look around us. We have seen the collapse of morals; we have seen the disintegration of the home; we have seen the highest crime rate of all time, and the bloodiest century in human history. This is the harvest that we’ve reaped, because we have forgotten God.
The communists are lurking in the shadows. It is their doctrine that they will take America without firing a shot. They believe that we will fall off into their hands like an over-ripe piece of fruit. And, I want you to learn this about communism: Many of our young people are not learning in school and college the danger of communism. I want you to learn that communism, contrary to popular opinion, is not primarily a political party. It is not even an economic theory. It is a form of perverted religion. Karl Marx is the messiah. The Bible is Das Kapital. And, it is a religion with a missionary emphasis. And, the missionaries of communism are encircling the globe, preaching that there is no God. And, they have to say this, because if they did not say this and did not preach this, every other plank in their platform would fall. Communism is godless.
You see, once you’ve done away with God, then man doesn’t really matter anymore. Man is simply matter in motion. A human being is not someone made in the image of God; he is more of a glorified machine. And, if he must be liquidated, he can be liquidated. And, as I stand here this morning, thousands upon thousands of people are being slaughtered in Cambodia, right now, by the communists. I wonder where Jane Fonda is now. Communism is unspeakably immoral and murderous in all of her ways. And, the communists feel that, one day soon, they’re going to take over America. And, if man is but an animal, why not treat him as so? And, the communist strategy has been to ridicule our national leaders, corrupt our youth, and drain our natural resources.
Wilbur Schwartz says that the communist recipe for taking over America can be found in these words: “External encirclement plus internal demoralization plus thermo¬nuclear blackmail equals progressive surrender.” And, that’s exactly what we’re doing: surrendering a day at a time, a step at a time, stepping backward, backward, backward, backward to communism. But, what a lot of people don’t understand is that communism is an idea. And, you cannot kill an idea with a bullet. The only thing that will shoot down an idea is a better idea—and that better idea is not capitalism, but it is Christianity. And, we need to be preaching and teaching the Lord Jesus Christ. And, the only answer to militant godlessness is militant godliness. And, what we need in America is a sweeping revival of the Christian religion. I’m talking about the old-time religion that made America the great nation that she is. But, those walls are crumbling before our very eyes.
And, you’ve heard this before, but they tell us that the average age of the average nation in civilization is 200 years. We’ve just passed our 200th birthday. And, they tell us that nations decay, and the walls of national defense fall, in nine cycles. And, here they are: number one, people go from bondage to spiritual faith; number two, from spiritual faith to courage; number three, from courage to liberty; number four, from liberty to abundance; number five, from abundance to selfishness; number six, from selfishness to complacency; number seven, from complacency to apathy; number eight, from apathy to dependence; and, number nine, from dependence back again to bondage. And, I believe we’re somewhere, right now, between number seven and number nine. That’s where we are. And, the walls have crumbled. And, I’m telling you, ladies and gentlemen, that it is time that some of us took our place along the walls and rebuilt the walls of defense that God wants us to have for our nation. And, I’m not just simply talking about more armament. I’m talking about moral armament and spiritual defense.
2. Domestic Walls
Now, secondly, not only have national walls fallen, but domestic walls have fallen. We talk about being a disaster area. Parts of Whitehaven, because of the tornado being a disaster area… May I tell you, ladies and gentlemen, the American home today is a disaster area. In 1870, little more than 100 years ago, only 3% of our homes ended up in the divorce court. Today, in 1978, over 40% of our homes end in the divorce court: 40%—from 3% to 40%.
There is a militant war being waged against the home. The feminists today are anti-home, many of them. Let me read what one of them has written. And, here is a leader of the feminist movement who has written in a declaration of feminism, “With the destruction of the nuclear family”—but, she means by the nuclear family, a family where there’s a father and a mother and children living under one roof—“With the destruction of the nuclear family must come a new way of looking at children. They must be seen as the responsibility of the entire society rather than individual parents.” They are saying, “We need to take your children, and teach your children, brainwash your children, indoctrinate your children to the new society, the new way of doing things.”
Dr. Mary Jo Bane, another leader in the feminist movement, has written, “The fact that children are raised in families means there is no equality. It’s a dilemma. In order to rear children with equality, we must take them away from families, and communally rear them. Divorce makes for a better family life.” Now, that’s right. It would be laughable; but it’s sad—it’s sad. And, the truth of the matter is these are not just a few people out here on the periphery. Here is a mighty, militant, dynamic movement in America.
3. Decency Walls
But, we need to visualize. We can’t be like an ostrich with our heads in the sand. Walls of decency are decaying. Look what’s happening to us. Pass the newsstand in the average corner drugstore, and pornography will stare you in the face as if a broken sewer line were overflowing in the newsstands. We have ceased to be shocked. And, what used to amaze us, now, just simply amuses us. And, what was horrible yesterday is acceptable today, and has become a stepping-stone for something worse tomorrow— if it can get worse.
And, some of us believe that we’ve almost reached the bottom of the garbage pail, as we laugh and make jokes about the flaunting of God’s holy commandment that says, “Thou shalt not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14). We have accepted pornography in America like we have accepted taxes and hot dogs—pornography! Oh, people tell us, “Well, it doesn’t make any difference. Pornography doesn’t affect our children. Pornography doesn’t affect our marriages.” How foolish can you get? How stupid to say that pornography does not affect the mind!
Can a man go upon hot coals and his feet be not burned? Can a man take a fire in his bosom and be not burned? (Proverbs 6:27–28). Can a person feed on garbage and it not affect his health? They say that what the kids watch in the movies does not affect them. They say what the kids watch on television has no affect. If it has no affect, then, would you tell me please, sir, why industry and commerce spends millions and billions of dollars in advertising, if what people see has no affect on them? Would you tell me why that people will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for one minute of television time to tell about their product, if what they see has no affect on them?
And, you cannot tell me that someone sitting there and watching some sex-saturated show for one hour is not going to be affected, if someone will pay $100,000 for one minute. Of course, they are affected by what they see. As a matter of fact, what we see makes us what we are. It’s the stimuli that come into our minds and into our beings. But, I’m telling you that moral decency has decayed, and that wall has fallen.
Look, if you will, at the decency in our educational system. What’s happened to our educational system? Why are students running wild? I’ll tell you why. We have put prayer out of our schools. We put God out of our schools. And, with the Bible out, and with God out, evolution is in, homosexuality is in, illicit sex is in, murderous abortion is in, venereal disease is in, and God is out.
Now, I feel sorry for a school teacher who stands up and tells kids “You must do right,” and, they say, “Teacher, what is right? And, where do you get right from? Who says what is right? And, who says what is wrong, unless there’s a God in Heaven who does?” We’ve got to get back to God. How can we morally govern anybody, unless we come back to the moral foundations? The Bible says, “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (Psalm 11:3).
In 1960, 150,000 high school girls went from the school desk to the maternity ward— 150,000. By 1965 now, that 150,000 has changed to 1/4 of a million. And then, we continue until today over a million high school girls are becoming illegitimate mothers. One million. In just such a short time. And, God only knows how many abortions are taking place. What’s happening in America? We have forgotten God.
The liquor dealers are having their way. Beer is an acceptable thing. We can have gospel singing and a beer bust on our mall in our city at the same time and nobody
seems to know the difference. Everybody thinks that’s wonderful. They forget to tell us, dear friend, that we have more alcoholics in America than we have dope addicts. Every twenty minutes someone is killed on the highways of America because of a drunken driver. We have more bar maids in the United States of America than we have college girls, and we have eleven saloons for every church. And, we sing “God Bless America,” why should He? Why should He unless we repent?
4. Doctrine Walls
I’m saying that the walls of decency have crumbled. Walls of doctrine have fallen. I believe with all of my heart there’s not a lot wrong in America that could not be changed, if we had a generation of preachers who would stand in the pulpit and preach, “Thus saith the LORD” (Jeremiah 29:4). I believe that with all of my heart.
But, we have many ministers who are preaching the gospel—and I thank God for them; but we have many who no longer believe that the Bible is the inerrant, infallible Word of God. And, many times, the congregation doesn’t know that, because they don’t have enough courage to stand in front of people and say, “I no longer believe this book.” And, they’re taking their salary under false pretenses. They ought to get out. They’re cumbering the ground.
Liberalism is a parasite. It has no power to build. It doesn’t build orphanages, and colleges, and churches. It is a parasite that crawls into institutions that have been built by Bible-believers. And, I’m telling you that walls of doctrine and walls of theology have crumbled, and it is time that God’s people started to rebuild them.
And, I know what you’re thinking now: “Brother Rogers, we must be tolerant. Certain things we must tolerate.” Well, friend, if you keep on tolerating, before long, you will evaporate. That’s right.
Now, I’m not saying we ought not to love people as individuals—whoever they are, wherever they are, whatever their philosophy, whatever their creed, whatever their race, whatever their color—they are to be loved, for Jesus Christ loves them. I don’t care who they are. But, we are not to tolerate godless philosophies that are taking our country apart a stone at a time. The walls have fallen; and it is time that we open our eyes, and that we saw. And, the thing that motivated and moved Nehemiah so long ago was that he was able to visualize. He saw the situation as it was.
II. Agonize
Now, the second step: If you would change problems into possibilities, not only must you visualize; but, secondly, you must agonize. Continue to look here, in the Scripture. We left with verse 3, so let’s begin in verse 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” (Nehemiah 1:4).
A. A Prayer of Contrition
What kind of a prayer was this? It was a prayer of contrition. It was a prayer where Nehemiah wept salty tears over the condition, as it was. Do you know what’s wrong with our society? Society has forgotten how to blush, and the church has forgotten how to weep. No longer do we weep.
When was the last time you spent a night in prayer? When was the last time you fasted and prayed? When was the last time you shed a tear over some soul that was mortgaged to the devil? Oh, my dear friend, we pray without crying; we give without sacrifice; we live without fasting. Is it any wonder that we sow without reaping? Weeping, fasting, praying, seeking the face of God, has become a lost art. But, there is no way that America will come back to God, until God’s people begin to pray a prayer of contrition—a prayer of brokenness. One preacher preached a sermon entitled, “A Dry-Eyed Church in a Hell-Bent World.”
B. A Prayer of Confession
But, not only was Nehemiah’s prayer a prayer of contrition; it was a prayer of confession. I want you to look, as he prays. He says here in verse 6: “Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father's house have sinned” (Nehemiah 1:6).
Now, I want you to notice the confession in this prayer. It was national and personal. He said, “Israel has sinned, and I have sinned.” And, I tell you, ladies and gentlemen, we must pray for our city. We must pray for our state, for our nation. And, we must nationally repent. But, that is no good unless we individually repent.
Have you repented? Don’t you sit here and weep, and mourn, and bow your head, and mourn over the condition, unless you’re willing to repent, because, if you don’t repent, you’ll never be a part of the solution—you’re a part of the problem. And, it’s not enough just to weep salty crocodile tears.
C. A Prayer of Confidence
Nehemiah prayed a prayer of contrition, and he prayed a prayer of confession, but I want you to go on and notice that he prayed a prayer, ladies and gentlemen, of confidence. Notice in verse 8: “Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations: but if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there. Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand” (Nehemiah 1:8–10).
Do you notice what he’s doing? Do you know what he’s doing? He’s saying, “God, You remember what You said in Your Word? Do you remember those promises You made in Your Word? God, I’m holding You to Your Word.” Isn’t that great? You see, that’s what real prayer is.
Real prayer is not just letting your mind wander and thinking up some things that you want and going to Heaven with a little shopping list. Real prayer is rooted in the rock-ribbed promises of the Word of God. It is finding a promise in the Word of God and standing on it. God says, “Concerning the work of my hands command ye me” (Isaiah 45:11). Nehemiah audaciously came to the Father, and, he said, “Father, I am praying a prayer of confidence. I am believing You, God, because You promised. And, because You promised, Lord, I am holding You to Your Word.”
Oh, listen—we serve a great God. And, someone has well said that, “Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance; it is laying hold of His willingness.” Find a promise in the Word of God that means it’s something God wants to do, and then, stand upon it. And, pray big prayers. “
Thou art coming to a King,
Large petitions with thee bring;
For His grace and pow’r are such
None can ever ask too much. (John Newton)
And, so he prays a prayer of confidence.
D. A Prayer of Commitment
But, I want you to notice also, and pay attention—He also prays a prayer of commitment. Look in verse 11: “O LORD, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was the king's cupbearer” (Nehemiah 1:11).
Nehemiah had a very important job; he was the king’s cupbearer. Here was a fantastically, lavishly wealthy king, so wealthy that he had a cupbearer who would come in with his wine and with his goodies everyday, and offer them to the king. This was a job that paid well. This was a job, a very high-elevated job, because you were right there with the king in his most intimate moments.
And, here was Nehemiah, the king’s cupbearer, and he had a job of luxury. He was so far removed from the poverty, and the degradation, and the fallen walls. Here he was in his little place of security. Here he was in his own little warm nest. But, he couldn’t stay there. God had burdened him. And, when he saw the condition of the fallen walls, he said, “By the grace of God I’m going to get involved.” And, he says, “Lord, I’m starting to do something. Lord, I feel a fire burning in me. Lord, I feel something welling up in me. God, You’re calling me now, and You prosper me, Lord, in what I’m about to do. Because I’m about to get out of my warm nest; I’m about to get committed.”
Now, let me tell you something, friend: It’s not enough for you to pray the prayer of contrition, the prayer of confession, and the prayer of confidence, unless you’re also willing to pray the prayer of commitment. Prayer is no substitute for commitment. Prayer is not a smokescreen in which you can hide your lack of commitment.
Do you think we are going to be able to do what we’ve called ourselves to do, and what we feel God is leading us to do? We can, if you’ll do more than pray. You can’t do more than pray, until you’ve prayed. But, you should do more than pray after you’ve prayed; you should be committed. It will take all of us. Not equal gifts, but equal sacrifice, a commitment. So, many of us don’t want to get out of our little warm nests. But, I tell you, your nest may disappear before you know it, sir. And, you won’t have a nest to go back to, anyway. It’s time that we got committed.
Flip Wilson, the comedian, in one of his little monologues, said, “Somebody asked me what my religion was. I told him I was a Jehovah’s Bystander. He said, ‘What?’ He said, ‘Yeah, they wanted me to be a Jehovah’s Witness, but I didn’t want to get involved.’” Remind you of anybody you know? I know a lot of folks who are just Jehovah’s Bystanders. They don’t want to get involved; they don’t want to get committed. But, here was a prayer of commitment.
III. Organize
Now, look—the first step in turning your problems to opportunities is to visualize. The second step is to agonize. That’s what Nehemiah did. The third step—are you listening?— is to organize. You know, sometimes people get so spiritual that they fail to do anything practical. And, the thing I like about Nehemiah that he was deeply spiritual and intensely practical. And so, when God began to move in his heart, and he saw that the walls were in disarray, and he saw that there was a need, his mind began to work, and he started to plan. And, he was thinking the thoughts of God after Him. And, he made some plans. We, as a church, have made some plans. And, these plans have been soaked and saturated in prayer. And, we believe that our plans are God’s plans, for we have the mind of Christ. And, we’re thinking His thoughts after Him.
There are some people who don’t want to plan. There are some people who think that, if you organize, you’re unspiritual. You’re unspiritual, if you don’t organize. You’re unspiritual, if you do not plan. God is a very practical God, and God said, “Let all things be done decently and in order” (1 Corinthians 14:40). And, you’re going to see, in just a moment, the plans of this man, Nehemiah.
Look here, in chapter 2, beginning in verse 1: “And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, that wine was before him: and I took up the wine, and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been beforetime sad in his presence. Wherefore the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Then I was very sore afraid” (Nehemiah 2:1–2).
Why would he be so afraid just to look sad? I’ll tell you why: No cupbearer, or no servant at all, for that matter, would dare to come into the presence of an oriental king with a sad face. That would be to make the king sad—to rain on the king’s parade. And, it was an unforgivable sin, punishable by death. No wonder Nehemiah was afraid. The king says, “You’re not sick. Why are you looking so sad?” Nehemiah had a burden on his heart so big he couldn’t hide it. And, what was on his heart came out on his face.
But, Nehemiah had prayed, and he’d sought the face of God, and so, I want you to continue to read: “And said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchres, lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire? Then the king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? So I prayed to the God of heaven” (Nehemiah 2:3–4).
The king says, “What is it you want, Nehemiah?” And, ol’ Nehemiah, can’t you see him? He’s praying and talking at the same time. Have you ever done that? I do that when I preach. I’m up here praying and preaching at the same time, saying, “O God, help me to say it right.” And, here’s ol’ Nehemiah saying, “Oh God, here’s my chance. Lord, the king wants to know what it is I want.” Now, do you think he just suddenly blurted it out? For four months he’d been planning it. He knew exactly what he wanted. And, he asked for three things of the king that every one of us need to ask. Are you ready? Are you listening?
A. Ask His Permission
The first thing that he asked for was the king’s permission. Look in verse 4: “So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if thy servant have found favour in thy sight, that thou wouldest send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers' sepulchres, that I may build it” (Nehemiah 2:4–5)—“I want your permission to go.” Now friend, before you do anything in the name of Jesus, you’d better get His permission. It’s as dangerous to run ahead of God, as it is to run behind Him. And, so he asks for the king’s permission.
“Oh,” you say, “well, he didn’t need an earthly king’s permission.” Friend, it wasn’t the earthly king who was giving him permission. Don’t you know that an earthly king is controlled by the Heavenly King, the King of kings? The Bible says, “The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will”
(Proverbs 21:1). That’s the reason Nehemiah had just prayed to the God of Heaven. And, he was asking, number one, for the king’s permission.
B. Ask for His Protection
Number two: He was asking for the king’s protection. I want you to look in verse 7. He also says, “Moreover I said unto the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river, that they may convey me over till I come into Judah” (Nehemiah 2:7). He’s saying, “As I go, these people are going to say, ‘Who are you? and, What is your authority? What right do you have to travel here?’ And,” he said, “I want a letter that I can pull out. I want something that I can show to say that King Artaxerxes sent me. I want your protection.” My dear friend, aren’t you glad that, as His children, we have that protection? Aren’t you glad that He’s given us His letter, God’s Holy Word? Aren’t you glad that He has given us His authority? Jesus said, “Behold, I give unto you power…over all the power of the enemy” (Luke 10:19). “And, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20).
C. Ask for His Provision
He wanted the king’s permission; he wanted the king’s protection; and, he also wanted the king’s provision. Look in verse 8, and he says, “And 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 palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into.” He said, “I need some building materials, king, and I want you to give them to me.” And then, just put a star by the last part of verse 8: “And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God upon me” (Nehemiah 2:8). You see, it wasn’t this earthly king. This earthly king was only a tool in the hand of the King of kings. “The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever He will” (Proverbs 21:1)
Ladies and gentlemen, if you will visualize until God gives you a burden, and then, if you will take that burden, and agonize until you know that you’ve confessed your sins and made a commitment, then you have every right to come, and organize, and go to work. You have every right to look into the face of your God, and say, “God, I want Your permission; I want Your protection; and, Oh God, I want Your provision, because I am getting ready to rise up and build.”
Now, I’m not just talking about building a building, I’m talking about building a life. I’m talking about building a family. I’m talking about building relationships. I’m saying, ladies and gentlemen, it is time that God’s people begin to act like it. Well, the Bible says, “The people who know their God shall do exploits” (Daniel 11:32). May God help us; may God help me; may God help you, to ask: What did it mean then? What does it mean now? What does it mean to me today in this place?
Conclusion
Bow your heads in prayer. Father in Heaven, we just pray that You will lay upon our hearts a burden. O God, that we’ll not be content to be in our warm nest of security, but Lord, that we might do something to help heal humanity’s hurt. Oh Lord, that we might find our place along the wall—that we might say, “The hand of our God is upon us…Therefore, we, His servants, will arise, and build” (Nehemiah 2:18). And, Lord, help us to see that problems are also opportunities. And, help us to see, Lord, that our problem is a possibility and a potentiality, if we’ll only see it that way. In the name of Jesus, amen.
