What Do We Do When In Troublee

“REBUILDING THE WALLS”

What do we do when facing troubles (Part 1)

Nehemiah 1:1-4

Pastor Jeff Seaman

Illus: Once, a man was taking a stagecoach across the country. When he went to buy his ticket, he was informed that first class seats were $50. Second class seats were $30. Third class seats were $20. The man looked in the stagecoach and all the seats looked the same to him, so he bought a third class seat. The man congratulated himself on saving money.

Well, after a while, the stagecoach started up a mountain road. After about 30 minutes, the bus came to a steep hill. The stagecoach stopped and the conductor stood up and said: "First class passengers, please remain seated. Second class passengers, get out and walk. Third class passengers, get out and push!"

The church around the world today has too many FIRST CLASS PASSENGERS —

People who just sit back and let others do the work.

And the church has too many SECOND CLASS PASSENGERS —

People who just walk away when there’s work to be done.

What the church needs is more THIRD CLASS PASSENGERS —

People who’ll get out and push!

People who will help with the work of the church.

People who will sacrifice some personal comfort and pleasure for the sake of the work of God.

Today we’re beginning a new series of Sermons from the book of Nehemiah.

And as we look at this Old Testament book, the theme for our series is going to be all about “Rebuilding The Walls”

The first thing we need to do in our new series is look at some historical background:

Way back, about 1,000 years before Jesus was born, David became king of Israel.

After David, his son, Solomon was king, but after Solomon, the kingdom was split in half: the southern half became known as Judah and the northern half was still called Israel. Well both these kingdoms had bad king after bad king. Both kingdoms were worshipping other gods and living immoral lives. But the northern kingdom was a little bit worse than the southern kingdom, so God punished them first.

God allowed the Assyrians to conquer the northern kingdom, but not the southern kingdom. But even after the northern kingdom was disciplined by God, the southern kingdom still didn’t learn their lesson, so God allowed them to be conquered as well — about 130 years later. But by that time, the Assyrians had been conquered by the Babylonians. So it was King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon who carried the southern kingdom away into exile.

Well, 47 years later, the Babylonian Empire was conquered by the Persian Empire under King Cyrus. So the Jews, who had been the slaves of the Babylonians, now became the slaves of the Persians.

So the events of Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther took place during the same period in Jewish history.

Actually, in the Hebrew Bible, Ezra and Nehemiah are the same book

because they’re basically telling the same story:

Ezra tells the beginning, Nehemiah tells the end, and the story of Esther takes place in between.

So, just so we’re clear, the Jews were carried away into captivity by the Babylonians,

but were allowed to return by the Persians.

Have I totally confused you? I hope not, but in any case, let’s take a look at our scripture for today — Nehemiah 1:2-4

Hanani,(Han-a-n-e) one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem. They said to me, "Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire." When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.

First, let’s look at Nehemiah’s response to the news that people and the city of God, were in trouble:

1. He sat down and wept. (This shows us his heart for God work)

Let me ask you this:

Do the things that break God’s heart break your heart?

When Nehemiah heard that the people of God were in distress, it broke his heart.

When he heard that the city of God was in trouble, he sat down and wept.

Do the things that break God’s heart break your heart?

"Well, (you might say) I don’t know. What kind of things breaks God’s heart?

I did some studying in the Bible last week to find the answer.

And as I looked in the Bible, several things stood out to me;

I found that God’s heartbreaks when his people are in trouble.

I found that God’s heartbreaks when his people disobey him.