Good morning. I know its Monday and we all wish we could have stayed in bed a little longer—unless of course you were going on vacation this morning; in which case you probably stayed awake most of the night looking forward to morning.  I hope you had a great weekend. I know I did and that’s what I want to share with you.

We tend to find what we are looking for.  I was looking forward to a wonderful evening with friends and an evening of laughter when I headed out for Greensburg, PA.  I had no idea which direction I was headed but with a click of a few buttons and a printer I headed east.  In a little over an hour I was at my destination, The Palace Theater.  I found what I was looking for.  By the time the night was over my cheeks were hurting from laughing so hard. I found stomach muscles I never had.

Proverbs 17:22 (KJV) “22 A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.” 

Life is like this. If we are looking for a good time we usually have one. If we are looking for a fight we can find that to.  What are you looking for today?  May I encourage you to look for the God moments.  You probably thought I was going to say look for the good? I have found not all good is God.  That being said, look for the God.  What is He trying to show you today? As He speaks through His word, all of creation and what He has created you may be very surprised at what you hear Him say.

A few years back I was on my way home from vacation with my parents and we stopped to have lunch at a vineyard.  What surprised me was that at the end of every row of grapes there was a rose bush.  Because the roses were planted at the end of each row the grape vineyard looked like a rose garden.  I couldn’t understand why they would plant roses in a grape vineyard.  They were beautiful roses but the vineyard itself was beautiful enough. 

Curiosity got to me as I was eating my lunch so I proposed the question to our waitress.  To my surprise she said the roses are like the canary in the coal mines.  I asked what that meant and she said before there were air monitors in the mines the workers would have a bird in the mines.  The little canary’s lungs were so small and their respiration rate so quick that is poisonous gases were in the mines the little bird would quit singing and many times fall asleep or die.  The miners knew if this happened they needed to get out quickly or die themselves. She went on to explain insects and disease would attack the roses before the grapes.  If the roses started to look bad the vinedresser immediately treated the grapes as well as the roses and thus the grapes were spared.

Knowing one of the many names of Jesus was Rose of Sharon I thought about what He did for you and me.  Jesus took the diseases from us the grapes connected to the vine so that we would be spared.  It always amazes me how Jesus speaks to us through nature and how nature speaks of God.  The rocks need not cry out when everywhere we go we see the love that Jesus has for us. 

Stay connected and stay healthy.  Remind yourself you do not have to be sick in your body the rose of Sharon has taken your sickness and your disease and nailed them to the cross.

Song of Solomon 2:1 KJV “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.”

John 15:5 NIV “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

Any time you try to do anything significant for God, there will be problems. The enemy will see to that! We’ve already seen how Nehemiah dealt with the problem of the enemies. But also, he had to face the problem of the destroyed wall. He began with a realistic firsthand appraisal of the situation. In one place, the rubble was so bad that he couldn’t ride his horse or mule through the debris. As the leader, he needed to know exactly how bad things were so that he could develop a realistic, practical plan of action. Nehemiah didn’t gloss over the problems. He describes it to the people as “a bad situation.” Again, we need balance here. Some people are so sanguine that they refuse to acknowledge how bad things are. People in the trenches feel that that kind of leader is out of touch and so it undermines his leadership. Other people are so engulfed by the problems that they lose hope. Nehemiah realistically saw the problem and, as we will see, broke it down into manageable units in order to get the job done.

If he was afraid he did it afraid. He knew that he was expected to be perfectly content just to be in the presence of the king. Subjects who were sad or melancholy around the king were usually executed for “raining on the king’s parade.” Second, he was about to ask the monarch of the Persian Empire to reverse a written policy he had made several years earlier about Jerusalem’s reconstruction. This edict was recorded in Ezra 4:21: “Now issue an order to these men to stop work, so that this city will not be rebuilt until I so order.” Nehemiah knew it would take the power of God to get Artaxerxes to change his mind. I think I’d be afraid too. 

What are you afraid of this morning? Some of you might be afraid of the past. You’re worried that something you did long ago will catch up to you. Maybe you’re afraid of the present and find yourself crippled by the fear of people, snakes, or confined spaces. Others of you might be fearful about the future and even death. Do it afraid!

To serve God realistically, we must wait on Him for His timing, work with different sorts of people, and wrestle with problems. Just because it is the Lord’s work and He is on our side does not mean that everything will work out smoothly and effortlessly. We need both the idealism of what God wants to do and the realism that there will be major hurdles to overcome.  It’s worth all the hassles so wrestle and win. 

Any time you try to do anything significant for God, there will be problems. The enemy will see to that! We’ve already seen how Nehemiah dealt with the problem of the enemies. But also, he had to face the problem of the destroyed wall. He began with a realistic firsthand appraisal of the situation. In one place, the rubble was so bad that he couldn’t ride his horse or mule through the debris. As the leader, he needed to know exactly how bad things were so that he could develop a realistic, practical plan of action. Nehemiah didn’t gloss over the problems. He describes it to the people as “a bad situation.” Again, we need balance here. Some people are so sanguine that they refuse to acknowledge how bad things are. People in the trenches feel that that kind of leader is out of touch and so it undermines his leadership. Other people are so engulfed by the problems that they lose hope. Nehemiah realistically saw the problem and, as we will see, broke it down into manageable units in order to get the job done.

If he was afraid he did it afraid. He knew that he was expected to be perfectly content just to be in the presence of the king. Subjects who were sad or melancholy around the king were usually executed for “raining on the king’s parade.” Second, he was about to ask the monarch of the Persian Empire to reverse a written policy he had made several years earlier about Jerusalem’s reconstruction. This edict was recorded in Ezra 4:21: “Now issue an order to these men to stop work, so that this city will not be rebuilt until I so order.” Nehemiah knew it would take the power of God to get Artaxerxes to change his mind. I think I’d be afraid too. 

What are you afraid of this morning? Some of you might be afraid of the past. You’re worried that something you did long ago will catch up to you. Maybe you’re afraid of the present and find yourself crippled by the fear of people, snakes, or confined spaces. Others of you might be fearful about the future and even death. Do it afraid!

To serve God realistically, we must wait on Him for His timing, work with different sorts of people, and wrestle with problems. Just because it is the Lord’s work and He is on our side does not mean that everything will work out smoothly and effortlessly. We need both the idealism of what God wants to do and the realism that there will be major hurdles to overcome.  It’s worth all the hassles so wrestle and win. 

Ephesians 6:12 (KJV)”For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

Today we will look at three types of people Nehemiah had to work with. The first types are people with power and no presence. Nehemiah knew how to work with an unbelieving king.

This was an especially difficult situation in that the king was Nehemiah’s boss who literally had the power to make Nehemiah’s head roll! These are people that have earthly power but no presence of God. Power without presence can be deadly. That’s why Nehemiah was very much afraid when the king asked him why he was sad in his presence. You didn’t rain on this man’s parade without sometimes severe consequences!  Also, the king had previously stopped the work on the wall in Jerusalem (Ezra 4:21). The decrees of the kings of the Medes and Persians were proverbial about being unchangeable.

Now Nehemiah wants to convince this Persian king to reverse his policy about Jerusalem! It was no easy task! How did Nehemiah do it? As we’ve seen, he moved the king through private prayer. It is amazing how God can soften the hearts of the most difficult people if we will spend time asking Him to do so! Talk to God before you go to talk to a difficult person.  Nehemiah had gained the king’s respect through his competence on the job.                                                

The king’s inquiry about how soon Nehemiah could return shows that he wanted him to come back! Nehemiah’s trustworthy character and his loyalty to the king had been obvious over the time that he had worked for the king.

Every Christian should be a witness on the job first by godly character and competence, and only second by verbal witness.

Also, Nehemiah was tactful and sensitive in how he spoke to the king. He never mentions Jerusalem by name—that would have been a sore spot with the king! He refers to it in personal terms, as the place of his fathers’ tombs, a point that this pagan king could relate to.

If you have to speak to an unbelieving boss about a difficult subject, think about how he will receive it and speak in a manner that he is certain to identify with.

Also, Nehemiah knew how to relate to demoralized believers. The Jews in Jerusalem believed in God and His covenant promises, at least intellectually. But they had lost hope. They had tried to rebuild the wall, but had been shot down. They were likely to resist this outsider coming in and telling them to try something that they knew could not be done. Some may not even have seen the need. Others would warn that if you tried to rebuild the wall, you’re only going to stir up the opposition of the surrounding governors.

Nehemiah’s careful, secretive preparations once he got to Jerusalem show that he anticipated some resistance to his proposal. So he spent three days doing his homework and thinking about how to present this in a way that would overcome the objections. After that he called the Jewish leaders and people together and began by stating the problem very plainly (2:17): “You see the bad situation we are in, that Jerusalem is desolate and its gates burned by fire.” He also identified himself with them in the problem. It wasn’t their problem; it was our problem. He didn’t blame them for things but neither did he gloss over the fact that we have a problem. Then, he appealed to a need that they all felt, “that we may no longer be a reproach.”  They all knew that a defenseless Jerusalem was a joke to the surrounding neighbors. They sensed that Nehemiah had come to seek their welfare (2:10). Perhaps he showed them the letters from the king and the requisition for the timber. Their instant response was that of hope: “Let us arise and build!”

There’s an art to working with people and learning to motivate them to accomplish great things for God. Some leaders err by becoming people-pleasing politicians. They want everyone’s approval, so they tell people what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear. But they erode trust because people quickly realize that they are manipulative and do not speak the truth. Other leaders err by telling it like it is, but without sensitivity and tact. They don’t take the time to listen to people and understand where they’re at and how they feel about things.

The third group of people that Nehemiah had to work with was the enemies.

·        Sanballat (his name means Sin) was the governor of Samaria to the north.

·        Tobiah, (he is Sanballat’s junior colleague) whose name is Jewish (“Yah-YOU is good”), ruled the Ammonites to the east.

·        Geshem (Name means Rain) was the leader of the Arabs to the south. They all opposed a fortified Jerusalem because it threatened their political positions. They didn’t care at all about the plight of the Jews, much less about the name of the Lord being exalted in Jerusalem. So they were very displeased (2:10) and joined together to ridicule the project and accuse the people of rebellion against the king (2:19).

Nehemiah demonstrates both wisdom and courage in dealing with these enemies. He was wise in that he sensed, “This is no time for diplomacy. I need to meet these enemies head-on.” Any meeting to hear their concerns or to work out a compromise would have been a mistake. So Nehemiah courageously confronted them and drew the line between them and God’s people so that they could not join the project with the goal of sabotaging it. He didn’t use the clout of the king’s letters, but rather spiritual clout: “The God of heaven will give us success” (2:20).

Any time God’s people say, “Let’s arise and build,” the enemy will say, “Let’s arise and stop them.”  “There is no winning without working and warring. There is no opportunity without opposition”

A godly leader must have the discernment to know when to work with people and when to confront and oppose them. Thus to serve God realistically, you must learn to wait on Him and to work with people.

To serve God realistically, we must learn to work with people.

It’s easy to be idealistic about serving God until you meet the actual people that you have to work with! Suddenly you realize the truth that Linus shouted, “I love mankind; its people I can’t stand!” Nehemiah was sensitive to people and he responded with tact. But when needed, he confronted with uncompromising strength.

See when we have compassion it is a springboard to obeying God. Then we learn to cooperate with God--we begin to have confidence in God which comes from our cooperating with Him, praying to Him and speaking to Him, listening to Him communicate with us and we develop courage which develops from refusing to compromise and having a conviction that you know that you know God is going to see you through.  He will answer that prayer, take care of that Boss, and watch over those children, all while you are dealing with people.

When you work with people you have to trust God.  Fear will fight us but our faith must be greater than our fear. When you trust there is no fear! In the bestselling book called, “Who Moved My Cheese,” the author asks a very penetrating question, “What would you do if you weren’t afraid.” He points out that fear often keeps us from taking the steps we know we need to take. Fear can paralyze us.

Fortunately, Nehemiah’s faith was greater than his fear. How about you? Who do you put your trust in? To trust someone you must really know them and to know them you must spend time with them.  Today spend some time with Jesus.  Get to know Him a little bit better and you will see your trust level rise.

Whenever we want to build anything we will encounter the opportunity for three things. Today we will look at just one of those three things.  We will encounter a period of waiting, a situation where we will need to work with people and finally we will have to wrestle with problems.  Whether it is building a life, a marriage, a family, a work history, a home, it will require us to wait, work with people and wrestle with problems.  Do these three things well and it will still not be easy but you will successfully build. Let’s look at the first point waiting.

Isaiah 40:31 (KJV) “31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”

Have you had to wait for God to answer a prayer? In Nehemiah’s prayer journal, nothing was entered for four months because nothing happened. Friends, waiting time is not wasted time. Quiet reflection may have provided Nehemiah with fresh insight about how to approach the king. God wants each of us to get real familiar with this tool ­ we’re going to have to use it a lot.

Compared to other men in the Bible whom God used, four months was a pretty short wait. Abraham waited over 25 years for God to give him Isaac. Joseph spent time as Potiphar’s slave and then two years in prison before God elevated him to second beneath Pharaoh. Israel was enslaved for 400 years in Egypt. Moses spent 40 years in the desert before God used him to bring Israel out of Egypt. Then the nation spent 40 more years in the wilderness. David spent his twenties running from King Saul. The apostle Paul spent three years alone in Arabia and more years in obscurity in Tarsus before the Lord began to use him in a more significant manner. Those whom God uses must learn to wait on Him. Waiting is hard! It seems like life is too short, anyway. Time’s a wasting! And then, God puts you on hold. What do you do while you wait? Nehemiah did three things; he prayed, developed patience and planned. 

I tell the ladies that attend Remarkablewoman.org that when they have to wait, “Don’t stew—Do”.  Do something while you wait that will prepare you for when the waiting is over.  Waiting is not wasted time it is preparation time.  God is preparing you to win the battles yet to be faced. Jesus is still waiting to return for His bride and for those that have not yet accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior—they are so glad He has had to wait. Someone is glad that you are being fashioned for your destiny; you’re moment in history too.

Hebrews 10:24-27 (KJV) “And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:”

James 1:4 (NIV) “Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

Nehemiah’s concern about the problem he had heard about led him to brokenness. While he was weeping and fasting, he expressed his conviction about God’s character. As he focused on the greatness and awesomeness of God, he was quickly reminded of his own wickedness and therefore cried out in confession. After owning his role in the nation’s depravity, he prayed boldly and with confidence in God’s promises, which lead him to get involved. Most of us don't get past the complaining about what we see stage so we never get to the "Lord use me stage."

Nehemiah 1:11: “O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man. I was cupbearer to the king.”

It has been said that prayer is not getting man’s will done in heaven but getting God’s will done on earth. However, for God’s will to be done on earth, He needs people to be available for Him to use. While Nehemiah was praying, his burden for Jerusalem became greater and his vision of what needed to be done became clearer. He didn’t pray for God to send someone else ­ he simply said, “Here am I, send me!” He knew that he would have to approach the king and request a 3-year leave of absence and so asked God for “success,” which means “to break out or push forward.” He wanted to see God break out on his behalf when he goes in front of the king to make his request. He was claiming yet another promise from God.

Proverbs 21:1: “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord; He directs it like a watercourse where He pleases.”

Someone has said that the key word in this book is the word, “so,” which occurs 32 different times. Again and again, Nehemiah assesses the situation, is moved to concern and “so” is compelled to action. The true measure of our concern is whether or not we are willing to make a commitment to get involved.

“Pray as if everything depends on God, then work as if everything depends on you.” Martin Luther

In continuing our study in Nehemiah we see he spends time in broken confession, he doesn’t wallow in a prolonged introspective examination of his failures and those of his brothers and sisters. He owns what he did wrong and then he quickly expresses confidence in God’s promises.

Nehemiah 1:8-10 (NKJV) “Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my name.’ They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great strength and mighty hand.”

In this part of his prayer, Nehemiah recalls the words of Moses about the danger of Israel’s apostasy and the promise of divine mercy. His words are a skillful mosaic of great Old Testament warnings and promises, with quotes coming from Leviticus, Deuteronomy, 1 Kings, 2 Chronicles and Psalm 130.

What was the promise Nehemiah was getting at? It was twofold. First, if Israel disobeyed, they would be sent to a foreign land. That had been fulfilled. The second part was that when the captivity was over God would send them back to Jerusalem. They were still waiting for that to be fulfilled. Nehemiah prayed, “Lord, the first part is true. We’ve disobeyed and we’re in captivity. But Lord, you’ve made a promise to bring us back home and protect us there ­ and that has not happened yet. I’m claiming your promise that you’ll make it happen.”

Someone has calculated that there are over 7,000 promises in the Bible. The better we know the Word of God, the better we’ll be able to pray with confidence in God’s promises.

1 John 5:14 (NKJV) “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.”

Are you as confident of God’s promises as Nehemiah was? If God said it in His Word, you can believe it and claim it. Nehemiah knew God would keep His covenant of love with his people. He also knew that, even though God did not need his help, he was ready to make a commitment to get involved.

As we continue to look at the life of Nehemiah we notice that after becoming concerned about the problem and expressing his conviction about God’s character, Nehemiah is now moved to admit his sin and the sins of his people.

Nehemiah 1:6-7 (NKJV) “Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s house, have committed against you. We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees, and laws you gave your servant Moses.”

It’s one thing to be concerned and to even have a firm conviction of who God is but it is another thing to actually confess the sin we see. Many of us never get this far. We might feel bad about our sins or be concerned about how things are going. We know things are bad and that God is good but we hesitate at this next step. 

Nehemiah boldly asks God to hear his prayer, which literally means, “to hear intelligently with great attention.” I see at least three key ingredients in his confession of sin.

Intensity. Overwhelmed by concern about sin and in awe of God’s character, Nehemiah gave himself to prolonged petition and intercession. He prayed day and night, spending every moment of time in God’s presence.

Psalm 88:1 (NKJV) “O Lord, the God who saves me, day and night I cry out before you.” 

Honesty. Nehemiah made no attempt to excuse the Israelites for their sin and actually owned his part in their culpability. He surveyed the grim record of Israel’s past and present failure, and he knew that he was not exempt from blame. Notice that he prays, “I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself…we have acted very wickedly…we have not obeyed…” This is remarkable to me. It would have been easy for Nehemiah to look back and blame his ancestors but instead he looked within and blamed himself. It’s so easy for us to blame others, isn’t it? We need to learn from Nehemiah and confess honestly, “Lord, I am wrong. I not only want to be part of the answer, I confess that I’m part of the problem.” 

Urgency. Nehemiah recognized that sin is not merely a stubborn refusal to obey certain rules, but is also a defiant act of aggressive personal rebellion against a holy God. He knows that they “have acted very wickedly.” He didn’t try to candy-coat his sin. He owned it and called it what it was. 


(MY Brother just retired from Boeing so I thought this story really funny…and no it was not my brother)

 A couple Boeing employees decided to steal a life raft from one of the 747s they were working on. They were successful in getting it out of the plant but they forgot one thing. The raft comes with an emergency locator that is automatically activated when the raft is inflated. So, when they took the raft out on the Stillaguamish River, they were quite surprised by a Coast Guard helicopter homing in on the emergency locator.

Trying to hide our sins from God is impossible. He knows all about them.

Numbers 32:23 (NKJV) “…you may be sure that your sin will find you out.”

Friends, we need to recognize that all sin, those things we have blatantly done or carelessly committed, or those things that we have left undone, must be identified and then confessed. Are you trying to hide anything today? It’s better to confess it now than to wait until your sin exposes you!

Nehemiah 1:5: (MSG) “O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant of love with those who love Him and obey His commands.” 

It’s easy to keep things in the proper perspective when we put God where He belongs. In our series on Nehemiah we find one of the successful traits that Nehemiah possessed was keeping the main thing the main thing.

Nehemiah called God “Lord.” He recognized the Lord as his master and the “God of Heaven.” He acknowledged that his God was beyond the earthly realm and above all other gods. God deserves to be honored, revered and feared by all because of who He is and that reminds us who we are. God is sovereign and we are servants.

Nehemiah’s earthly boss, “King Artaxerxes”, was the greatest and mightiest on earth, but compared to God, Artaxerxes was nothing. Nehemiah was in Susa and his concern is in far off-Jerusalem, but both cities ­ one rich, the other poor, one strong the other weak, one proud, the other broken ­ were like tiny specks of dust under the vast canopy of God’s heaven. Nehemiah’s earthly boss was unconcerned and unaware but His heavenly boss was very much aware and concerned.  So Nehemiah made God’s concerns his concern.  Friends, when we go to God in prayer, things get put into their proper perspective. 

Nehemiah knew that God was not only able, but also willing to respond to his prayer. He also knew that he did not deserve to have God treat him favorably. That’s why the next phase of his prayer is a confession of sin. Like Job, his encounter with an awesome God brings him to the place of repentance and confession.

If you are interested in putting things in proper perspective begin to put God first and foremost in all you do. When you pray recite who God is and what He is capable of.  Verbally recite aloud the promises of God that relate to the request you are making and watch God do for you what He did for Nehemiah.  You got this.