Have you ever had an everybody moment?
You know what an everybody moment is. – It’s the moment when something happens and with no prompting or scripting, everybody does the same thing.
EGS OF EVERYBODY MOMENT
It may have been a rock concert when the performer holds his or her mike to the audience, and with no screens with words of song sheets being handed out, everybody sings together in absolute unison.
Or maybe it’s the local pastor who stands at the back of a warehouse on Friday evening in the beginning of November and with no work lists or task assignments, everybody just gets stuck in and gets to building a church.
Or perhaps it’s that moment a musician starts playing a song really well, and everbody, whether they are keen on that genre of music or not, turns to give the music the attention it deserves.
Or maybe it’s the moment in praise and worship, when without cue cards or a conductor, everybody raises their hands in praise of our God.
But you know what an everybody moment is.
LINK FROM EVERYBODY MOMENT TO CUP AND BRICKS
We are going to get onto an everbody moment a little later, but I just wanted you to put a name to this strange people phenomenon called an Everybody moment.
One of the most powerful everybody moment is described in the old testament. But to understand the context of this everybody moment, we need to to take a look at two props. The first is this goblet or cup…
THE CUP – CUPBEARER POWERFUL MAN IN KINGDOM
Well, let’s start with the cup.
In ancient times, the person who looked after the king’s cup, or cupbearer, was a very special person. He was seen as the head of security, the chief of police or in our day, the Director of the Secret Service. He was there to protect the king from calamity, to see that the kings food and drink was not poisoned. He would set up 24 hour surveillance to make sure no ill intent came the way of the king. He was in short, the most trusted man in all the kingdom of the king he was serving.
ARTEXERXES AND NEHEMIAH
Now one such king who had a cupbearer in his service was the most powerful king of the time, he was the king of Persia. His name was Artexerxes. You can read about him in history books and you can certainly read about him in the bible - He was ruler over the entire known world at the time. I could not find a world ruler who was as influential as this man by todays standards. His cupbearer was an Israelite Jew. His cupbearer was Nehemiah. The same one who had a book in the bible named after him. Now it was rather strange that this all powerful Persian king would have an Israelite as his chief of security. But the very fact the Artexerxes had this Israelite as his cupbearer, shows just how extraordinary a man Nehemiah was.
THE BRICK – THE WALLS – BROTHERS VISIT
And now the brick.
Nehemiah received a visitor, his brother from Jerusalem. His brother had come up from Israel to Persia, to let Nehemiah know of what was happening in Jerusalem.
Babylon had captured Jerusalem and plundered the city and lead off all of Gods people into captivity in to Babylon. Then while they were slaves, Babylon was overthrown by Persia and the Persians had no need for all these slaves and so let some of them return to their home land and start to rebuild the devastation left by the Babylonians.
So Nehemiah was keenly interested and was asking his brother how it was going with the Jews were in fact re establishing themselves reconstruction of homes and businesses, AND Nehemiah’s brother turns to Nehemiah and says “Not Well my Brother - In fact he summed up the distressing situation in 5 words:
THE WALL IS IN RUIN
Nehemiah knew straight away that this was not good news.
WHAT WALL IN RUIN WOULD MEAN IN OUR DAY
Now that may not mean a whole lot in our culture and day and age, but back then a city without a wall was a grave.
Today when tragedy strikes, and we just have to look at the Tsunami, we say things like the power has not been restored, and then we know that there is still a whole mess on the ground and things are not how they should be.
Back then, if city did not have a wall, and its gates were in ruins, the people living in that city were in deep trouble. Bandits would come in and thieve. Enemies would wait until things were available in the market place and then go in and plunder everything in the market place.
They were vulnerable to every conceivable evil. So when Nehemiah knew when his brother says – The Wall is In Ruin
They were to put it mildly, in deep trouble.
NEHEMIAH REACTS – HE WEEPS NEH 1:4
Nehemiah does not take the news well. It simply says in Nehemiah 1:4, He weeps.
YOU CAN TELL A LOT ABOUT A PERSON BY WHAT MOVES THEM TO TEARS – SELF OTHERS GOD
Just an aside here. You can tell a lot about a person by what moves them to tears. If the circumstances of their own life have become heavy and strained, this can move a person to tears.
Someone with a little more compassion and a slightly bigger heart, with a higher empathy factor, and they will weep for the woes or problems that befall someone else.
Another type, someone with even higher empathy factor will weep when there is damage done to the name and reputation of their God.
NEHEMIAH WAS SUCH A PERSON
NEHEMIAH HIGH EMAPTHY FACTOR
Here was this high capacity guy, with everything, and this high amount of power in the courts of this king, HE HAS AND INCREDIBLEY SENSITIVE HEARTand he breaks down and sobs with empathy not only for the people who were living in such a dangerous situation, but also feels even worse for the damage and mockery being imposed upon his God.
Mockery because outsiders to the city of Jerusalem were saying that the Jewish God was so weak that something as basic as rebuilding a wall could not be completed. They were saying that the Jew needed a God Upgrade.
What a pitiful excuse for a supreme being!
Their words cut Nehemiah to the core.
And so Nehemiah breaks down, not for his own situation, he could not have been in a better situation, but he breaks down for the needs of others and the mockery of his God.
So you can tell a lot about a person by what moves them to tears.
GROW HEART THREE THINGS CAUSE YOU TO CRY
And just before we get back to our story, maybe this morning you are pondering over what makes you cry.
Are you only moved to tears over you own personal pain.
but maybe the story of Nehemiah will move you to grow your heart a little so that you begin to shed tears over the plight of others someone elses marital problem or job loss, and maybe the Spirit will move you to grow further still so that one day you will weep over the mockery that is going on as to your God.
Maybe you will one day say may my heart break over whatever breaks the heart of God
You see God is being mocked today, and we need to get to the point were not only does it move us to tears, but it also moves us to be faithful followers showing others that God is a God that can be trusted. And we show that he is a God that can be trusted, by doing simply that, we show others that we trust in him and we do not think our ideas and ways of dealing with issues are greater than that which our God has to offer. For as soon as we do that, we are simply shedding tears for ourselves and we are not proving that we serve a God that can be trusted.
We can’t be considered as representatives of a trustworthy God, if we ourselves don’t find Him trustworthy.
WHAT DOES NEHEMIAH DO - PRAY
But lets get back to the story.
So here is this really powerful guy, weeping over the plight of others and the fact that his God was being mocked.
He was aching with pain.
Let’s look carefully at what He does next. He does not sit down and rely on his own wisdom. No at the lowest moment, the worst possible thing is happening; he turns to his God in prayer and asks what it is he must do. WHOLE OF CHAP 1 Prayer
THEN HE LISTENS AND DOES
God speaks back. Nehemiah hears what he is to do because his heart is so open to the direction from God, that he did not miss it. We sometimes think we are turning to God for help, but then believe we have found the answer but all we have done is put words in Gods mouth. Nehemiah listened.
And so God told Nehemiah to leave the pleasures and comforts and go to Jerusalem for a time to provide leadership to a people who were lost to a city without a wall.
You can almost hear Nehemiah say “You gotta be kidding me I am in a place better than that, I have escaped all that.” And yet the tears and his tears and the genuiness of his faith brought him to a place to say God if that’s what you want that’s what I will do. HE MAKES A COURAGEOUS DECISION
INTO THE PRESENCE OF THE KING
And so Nehemiah goes into the presence of the King. Now back then if you coughed too loudly in the presence of the King you were put to death. You had to be very careful how you addressed the king. Too cocky and you would loose your life.
So he walks into the presence of the King and very humbly he asks for 3 personal favours that he needs the king to grant. He explains the situation in Jeruslaem. And then asks first I a leave of absence, Secondly he asks for a military escort so he would arrive safely in Jerusalem and then thirdly he even asks for access to the Kings forest to cut down wood to rebuild the gates that had been destroyed.
Nehemiah was really pushing his luck. He was risking his life. And shock of shocks, the King grants all three things.
ASK
LISTEN
DO
SPIRITUAL INTERVENTION – GRACIOUS HAND OF GOD
Nehemiah tells us in the latter half of NEH 2:8 why he was spared and granted everything.
Read it with me.
He credited God for this supernatural intervention.
When things went well he gave the credit to God. He did not believe in his own wisdom. It was the gracious hand of God on his life that he attributed to being successful in his requests.
APPLICATION OF GRACIOUS HAND OF GOD
We are called as Christians to be constantly aware of the gracious hand of God in our lives. By being aware of when the gracious hand of life is on our lives. We give credit to god and not our own deeds or decisions.
But that’s not all we have to do to show we trust in God and his gracious hand. Remember if we are not telling others, we are not stopping the mockery. We need to shout out the stories of Gods gracious hand. We need to do this because when we tell the story of how Gods hand is working in our lives, lives change. It’s difficult to mock a sincere person. It is difficult to mock the God of someone who is telling you of their walking living proof that God exists. So get out there and tell your humble story.
Show that you are relying on his wisdom. “God provided this or that for me, or God opened a door for me, Or God showed me the answer to a situation or God convicted me of this or that.”
Walk around with an ever increasing awareness of when the gracious hand of God is on you. Tell your stories. Lift up the reputation of our God.
ASK
LISTEN
DO
BE AWARE
TELL
OFF NEHEMIAH GOES
By lifting up the reputation of God first, and not ourselves, we are showing what kind of person we are by what moves us to tears.
So Nehemiah packs and with his military escort and wagons of wood, he arrives late at night in Jerusalem. It is worse than he thought. So he takes a midnight ride around Jerusalem to assess the damage. It’s bad. The enemies did not just knock a few holes in the wall, but they tore it down to mock the Jewish God. They ripped that place to pieces. Jesus had prophesied that not a stone would be left upon a stone.
It was bad.
And so he collapses on a pile of rubble. He breaks down. Listen to the humble cupbearer as he sits in the mess of the rubble and looks at the sheer hopelessness of the task.
PLAY TAPE 1 STOP ON 085
APPLICATION OF PILE OF RUBBLE
Some of you might identify with Nehemiah sitting on that rubble. Some of you may be sitting with situations that seem over whelming to you.
Some of you here this morning might be sitting on a pile of rubble right now. You may think that there is just no way you can rebuild the wall of your life. You are open to all sorts of problems and bandits and you are just sitting there taking the abuse of a life of rubble.
It may be your health, job, marriage, but whatever it is, you could do with some of that gracious hand of God in your life stuff.
When the pressure starts mounting up you feel like Nehemiah at the bottom of the rubble pile.
I’ve been there. Still go there sometimes. That rubble likes to rear it ugly head every now and then.
For those that have been there or even those that are there now – you know that at some point you need to make some decisions.
TWO DECISIONS
There are only two decisions Nehemiah could have made. There are only two decisions you can make.
You are either going to allow the size of the rubble pile to crush and defeat you, OR
You are going to allow the size of the rubble pile to deepen your resolve to overcome whatever obstacle you are facing in the strength of the most high God.
But you are going to have to make that decision. Its going to be one choice or the other.
Either you sit down on that rubble and give up. You accept defeat. Give in to the feeling of being crushed.
OR
You, like Nehemiah, deepen your resolve to overcome. You lean into Gods wisdom and not your own. You take strength from the Most High God.
Either you lie down and give up, OR you rise up in faith and figure out how You and God will deal with the mess and eventually overcome it.
For those of you sitting in those rubble piles today – it is your choice to make and only you can make it.
All of heaven is cheering you on right now to make the choice for faith.
The choice for discouragement and defeat leads to hopelessness and despair.
It leads you to a kind of living that’s beneath your privilege as a Christ follower.
The choice for faith no matter how hard it is no matter how much courage you need to reach down and find, will eventually – eventually lead to life. And lead to a provision of some kind from the gracious hand of God.
You have to make that choice
Nehemiah was sitting in the same place. He got up and made the choice of faith.
CONCLUSION ON NEHEMIAH STORY – CHALLENGE TO THE PEOPLE
So I say to you this morning, don’t lean on your own wisdom, choose the faith in God that leads to courage, choose the faith in God that eventually will lead to life. You make that choice this morning.
And so Nehemiah gets up and he chooses the path faith. He says he is a child of the most high God. He asks for Gods help in rallying the people together to challenge them to join in and rebuild that wall.
He is not going to give up. He is going to remind himself that Gods best miracles are still yet to be performed.
He stands in front of the people the next morning and challenges them to rebuild the wall for the reputation of God. He challenges the people to lean into Gods wisdom and not their own and in so doing rebuild the Name of the Most High
PLAY TAPE 2 STOP AT 146
CONLCUSION
I just love what happens next.
NEH 2:18 says in the king james version :And in one voice Everybody says – Let us begin the good work of rebuilding the wall
It was an everybody moment.
God stirred in the hearts of his people. And when ever that happens, whenever God stirs in the hearts of the people, whenever Gods people pull together in an attempt to achieve something great for His name, WATCH OUT Stand back, because a mountain is going to be moved and a miracle is going to happen and a rubble pile is going to be transformed into a rock solid wall.
Today I want to say to you stand up from your pile of bricks and rubble and begin to lean on the gracious hand of God, expect that Gods best miracles are still to be done in your life. Hearts will change, situations turned upside down, problems resolved, and spirits renewed.
God’s gracious hand is on your life. Accept that he will do and change things in your life so much for the better than you can ever do on your own or in your own understanding. Lean on his wisdom, trust in his gracious hand, and then stand ready for an everybody moment.
