Even though a year has passed since Hurricane Katrina, stories about people who experienced that disaster are still surfacing. A few weeks ago, a pastor told me the story of a church in Louisiana. The members of that church were forced to leave their homes and when they returned, they found their neighborhoods destroyed. There was no running water or power. All the plants had died.
Their church building was severely damaged. The flood waters had come churning in all the way up to the eaves of the building, Somehow a tractor had ended up on the roof. Everything was a mess.
When church disaster workers got there, they found the pastor near the church building, sitting in his car, weeping at the devastation in front of him. Everything looked like a total loss. The building was unusable and church members were scattered. The situation looked hopeless. And he was feeling the pain.
From our scripture passage today, we learn that it must have been something like that for Nehemiah.
To understand who Nehemiah was, we need to go back about 500 years before the time of Christ. Remember that God’s people had lived in Israel for several hundred years. God had told them: “If you obey me you will live in the land for a long time. If you disobey me you’ll be carried off into captivity.” Unfortunately, they disobeyed. The Babylonians came in and took many of them into captivity. This is what we call the Exile.
But now, after 70 years, their punishment was ending. We learned from the book of Ezra that these Jews were given permission to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and the city. They rebuilt the temple, but 10 or 12 years later, the city walls had not been rebuilt, mostly because of opposition. As a result very few people lived in the capital city. Jerusalem was still in ruins.
At this time, Nehemiah, one of those Jews, was living in Susa, the capital city of Pesrsia- or today’s Iran. He was a thousand miles away from his homeland.
At the end of Chapter 1 we learn something very important about Nehemiah. He was the king’s cupbearer. This was no small responsibility. His job was to taste the king’s wine and food at each meal to make sure it wasn’t poisoned. Maybe you wouldn’t want that job. But keep in mind that anyone in that position would be close to the king and could even have influence the king.
In the first part of the chapter, though, we learn something even more significant. As Nehemiah was performing his duties one day, he heard something painful about Judah. (Read vv. 2-3.)
And Nehemiah’s pain moved him to tears.
The report about Jerusalem was bad news. What was once a great city was still a pile of ruins. What was once a hopeful nation was depressed and hopeless. And it moved him to tears.
Listen to verse 4. “When I heard those words, I sat down and wept, and mourned for days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven.”
I don’t think it was just the crumbled walls and the broken bricks that reduced him to tears. It wasn’t just the rubble that got to him. It was the failed promises, the unfulfilled vision, the broken dreams that tore at his heart strings. He knew that his nation was to be a light to the world, but it didn’t happen. As he thought about what could have been, he had to reckon with what was. It broke his heart and the tears flowed as he wept about Jerusalem.
Nehemiah was not the only one to weep over Jerusalem. In Luke 19 we read that Jesus wept as he sat looking out over the city. He wept and gave his life for it.
Weeping is where vision starts. Vision comes from anguish of soul, from feeling the pain of what you see in front of you compared to what should be. Nehemiah’s pain moved him to tears.
When you look through your spiritual eyes at the needs around you, what moves you to tears? What makes you pound the table in frustration and cranks up the level of your anguish? What makes you weep? It may be concern for youth. It may be concern for people who make wrong choices. Pay attention to those feelings because God may want to use you in ministry to meet those needs.
My sister told us that her pastor had challenged the congregation to act on a ministry need that they felt passion about. Afterwards, she told the congregation about the anguish she was feeling about shut-ins who feel forgotten. She was feeling compelled to do something about it. And she asked others to speak to her afterwards if they were feeling the need to minister in that way. She was astounded when nine people came to her and wanted to join her in that ministry. Three were men.
If your soul is in anguish over some issue that needs attention, don’t ignore it. Let God move you through your tears to do something about it.
2. Nehemiah’s pain moved him to prayer.
In the past few days, the topic of prayer came to my attention several times. Prayer must have been on God’s mind last week. One was when I talked with a teenager who lives on our street and is facing lots of challenges in her life. I reminded her that several weeks ago she had asked about coming to church and I told her not to forget that when God speaks, she should act. She replied, “I pray every night.” I told her there are people here who would be glad to pray with her.
Then I met a woman in Wal-mart whom I had not seen for a long time. She told me that she doesn’t go to church, but she prays a lot. I invited her to come pray with us.
On Friday, Sue forwarded an e-mail article to me from Rick Warren that outlined the prayer that Nehemiah prayed here in Chapter 1. (pastors.com / Ministry Toolbox / Issue #275) The article says you can learn a lot about a person by the kind of prayer he prays. I want to highlight a couple of his observations from Nehemiah’s prayer that can help us pray. Let me suggest that later today you take the time to meditate on this prayer and see how it can become a model for the way you pray.
a. Nehemiah based his request on God’s character
Nehemiah began by acknowledging who God is. He started off by getting the right perspective. Listen to v. 5. He expects God to answer his prayer because of who God is. God is a faithful God, a loving God, a merciful God – all these things the Bible tells us he is. We can base our request on God’s character. God answers prayer not because of who we are, but because of who He is.
b. Nehemiah confessed the sin in his life.
You can’t think about God without thinking about who you are. After Nehemiah based his prayer on who God is, he confessed his sins. He said, "We’ve sinned." Look at how many times he used the word "I" and "we." He said "I confess ... myself ... my family ... my nation…we have acted wickedly ... we have not obeyed." It wasn’t Nehemiah’s fault they went into captivity. He wasn’t even born yet. Still he included himself in the national sins. He said, "I’ve been a part of the problem."
Warren asks, “When was the last time you confessed the sins of the nation? Or the sins of your family? Or your church? Our society has taught us we’re only responsible for ourselves. And that’s just not true! You are your brother’s keeper. We are all in this together. How easy it is to pass the buck, to make excuses, and to put the blame on someone else. Nehemiah confessed that he was part of the problem.”
It is only later in the prayer that he prays fervently for the people and himself. But the thing we should note is that when Nehemiah felt the pain for his people, he prayed, not just for himself, but for them.
Last Friday, a middle school aged boy in our neighborhood did not want to go to school, so he made as much trouble for his mom as he could. He upset the garbage can. His mom made him clean it all up. They yelled at each other. His sister ran after him with a broom handle. He came back at her with a big stick. Eventually, he pulled out a cell phone and called the police to say he was being attacked. They picked him up and gave him a personal escort to his school. You can bet we have that family on our prayer list. We feel the pain.
If God is speaking to you about people in pain around you, pray for them. In Nehemiah’s case, the people’s pain became his pain and Nehemiah’s pain moved him to prayer.
Maybe God has given you a vision of what he wants to accomplish in this congregation. I want to challenge you to take it to God in prayer. Maybe his is calling you to become more active in the ministry functions of the church. Take it to God in prayer.
Just so you know, Sue and I pray for each of you and for all of you. Our passion is for this congregation to become a powerful witness for Christ and an inviting community to those around us. We follow the same prayer calendar you follow during the week. In addition to praying together at home every day, we have established the tradition to come over to the church on Sunday morning after breakfast and we go to each classroom where we expect activity that day and offer a prayer to God for what will happen there.
On board meeting nights, board members spend time in prayer. On Wednesday evenings we lift up the needs of the church. Right now we are in transition between the book of Colossians and the book of James and the thought came to us it would be a good time for a prayer walk while weather is still nice and before we begin a new study. The burden for this community is always on our hearts. So we ask you to come join us- to pray with us or just to walk and experience what God is going to do. We’ve had some special experiences before on prayer walks. So if you like to walk, we’ve got a route for you! If you can’t walk, we will have a way for you to pray as well. We invite any and all of you to join us.
If your soul is in anguish over some issue that needs attention, let God move you through prayer to do something about it.
Nehemiah’s pain moved him to action.
Nehemiah wept. He prayed. But he didn’t stop there. He acted. It was risky, but he acted. Chapter 2 says he appeared before the king with a sad face. Keep in mind that people in his position need to appear on top of things. Can you imagine what it would be like if Condoleza Rice showed up with a sad face?
Nehemiah knew he had a sad face. He may have done it to send a message to the king because in v. 2 he said, “I was very much afraid.” Keep in mind that in those days you didn’t just willy-nilly spill your guts out to the king. Anyone under the king needed the king’s permission to even speak and especially to ask for something. But when the king asked Nehemiah what his request was, he told him, but not before he spoke to God first. Verse 4 says he prayed.
Nehemiah knew what he had to do. He had to go to Jerusalem. It was a risky request, but with God’s help, he did it. And the king granted it. And that is not the only risk he took. We will see later in the book that he ran into opposition from people as well.
God may be calling you to take action to meet some need that he has called to your attention. There are a lot of needs around us and no one can solve them all. But God calls us to serve human need. It may seem risky. It may stretch you, but God will be there.
Some of you know that when we planned our Sunday school year, we were one teacher short of a full staff. During that time we learned that Randy had a burden for the junior high age kids. He has never taught kids in his life. But he took it to prayer and God moved him to accept the assignment temporarily. Pray for him and for all the classes.
If your soul is in anguish over some issue that needs attention, let God move you to do something about it. In Alaska we met a man who said he goes to a church that is dwindling in size. There are few kids. The budget is failing. He sounded ready to bail out. If only he could feel the pain Nehemiah felt and weep and pray and act to rebuild what has been destroyed, I believe God would honor that commitment and accomplish great things.
Nehemiah’s pain moved him to action. Physical pain is a gift to our bodies because it tells us something is wrong and that we must do something. Pain in the soul is also a gift. When you feel it you know you must do something. Allow God to work in you and through you.
Fortunately for the church in Louisiana, a group of people also felt their pain and they have worked together to provide resources to help that congregation come back together. One company provided the air conditioner. Other people provided funds. And through mutual aid, they are rebuilding the homes of members and the ministry of their church. God is still looking for people who feel the pain, who weep, who pray, and who act. Look around you and see what God may be asking you to do, then say, “Here am I, Lord—send me!”
