Take your Bibles, please, and turn to the book of Nehemiah, chapter 2. Nehemiah, chapter 2. We're going to read the first 10 verses. Let's hear God's Word. It came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, that I took the wine and gave it to the king. Now I'd never been sad in his presence before. Therefore the king said to me, why is your face sad? Since you are not sick. This is nothing but sorrow of heart. So I became dreadfully afraid. and said to the king, may the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my father's tombs lies waste and its gates are burned with fire? And the king said to me, what do you request? So I prayed to the God of heaven and I said to the king, If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my father's tombs, that I may rebuild it. And the king said to me, the queen also sitting beside him, how long will your journey be, and when will you return? So it pleased the king to send me, and I set him a time. Furthermore, I said to the king, if it pleases the king, Let letters be given to me for the governors of the region beyond the river. They must permit me to pass through till I come to Judah. And a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest. He must give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel, which pertains to the temple, for the city wall, and for the house that I will occupy. The king granted them to me according to the good hand of my God upon me. Then I went to the governors in the region beyond the river and gave them the king's letters. Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me. When Samballot the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard of it, they were deeply disturbed that a man had come to seek the well-being of the children of Israel." Now let's pray. We plead, our God, that by your Holy Spirit you would open the truth of the scriptures to us. Lord, our minds are dark. We would not gain much profit, mere head knowledge, unless we are taught by you and taught by your Holy Spirit. Therefore, we pray that you would lead us in the way of truth, in the ways of obedience, the ways of faith, the ways of prayer and depending upon you. Lord, help us. Then we pray for Christ's sake. Amen. Nehemiah's prayer at the end of chapter one ends and climaxes in one specific request. Let your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. This man being King Artaxerxes, who was the greatest king in the world at that particular point in time. He was the king of the Persian Empire. and there was no one like him and no one who had authority like him. You may remember when we looked at this a few weeks ago that Nehemiah had been in great distress. News had been brought to him from a man called Hanani, one of the brethren with men from Judah and they related the state of the people and the state of the nation and particularly Jerusalem. Jerusalem was in although the temple had been rebuilt, the walls and the gates were in pretty much the same condition as Nebuchadnezzar and his men had left them when they burnt the city. So the city was vulnerable, the people were distressed, they were hounded and they were in a dreadful state and condition and Nehemiah when he heard this he resorted to God. He fasted, he prayed and then he poured out his heart to God in prayer. And at the climax of his prayer he asked, give me favour in the sight of King Artaxerxes. The rest of the book of Nehemiah is an answer to Nehemiah's prayer. But all answers to prayer have a beginning, and we're looking at the beginning of this answer to prayer. We read in chapter two and verse eight, at the end of that chapter, the king granted them, the end of that verse, I'm sorry, the king granted them to me according to the good hand of my God upon me. And that really is our theme this evening. How the good hand of God was upon Nehemiah. Now you may recognize that phrase because we've worked our way through the book of Ezra and it occurs several times in the book of Ezra, in Ezra's life. It occurs twice in chapter seven and three times in chapter eight. And it occurs again in chapter two of Nehemiah and verse 18. And I suggested when we looked at that phrase briefly that it indicated several things. Overall it indicated the personal involvement of God in the affairs of Ezra and the nation whom he represented. And so we can say well this represents again the personal involvement of God in the affairs of Nehemiah and the nation. But I suggested then that it indicated also three things, protection, provision, and prosperity. Divine protection, divine provision, and God's blessing, his prospering Ezra and the nation. In other words it's a phrase which says Ezra and now Nehemiah enjoy the special favor of God. The good hand of my God is upon me says Nehemiah. And I want to trace the good hand of God in this section of scripture. And first of all we see the good hand of God in God's providence. How on earth is the situation in Jerusalem going to be changed when Jerusalem is under the rule of a pagan, idolatrous king who if you may remember the details of it in Ezra chapter 6 and verse 21 had passed a decree that all the work in Jerusalem regarding its rebuilding was to cease. He did add a proviso unless I change it. But at that point it had not been changed. He had issued his word, his decree. And you know that the law of the Medes and the Persians, well it's not supposed to alter. But he left himself a loophole. But at that point he had decided, he had decreed no more rebuilding. Nehemiah knew this. And how on earth were things going to be different? How could a man who was 800 miles away from Jerusalem do anything? How was the situation going to change? Well the answer is found there in verse 11, the very last phrase of chapter 1. I was the king's cup bearer. Nehemiah happens to be an Israelite. He wasn't born in Jerusalem or Judah. His parents, perhaps his grandparents certainly had been born there and been driven out with all the other exiles. But in the providence of God he always has the right man in the right place. Nehemiah is that man, the cut-bearer in the king's winter palace. It was the same with Esther, wasn't it? You know the story of Esther? And her uncle said to her, you've come to the kingdom for such a time as this. You're the woman, you're the only one who can go to the king and plead on our behalf. It was the same in Ezra's day and it's the same in Nehemiah's day. Now supposing that man Hanani came from Judah and he said he went to the king. Do you think the king would be likely to listen to him in the way he was willing to listen to Nehemiah? Nehemiah was the king's cupbearer. And we said last time that meant he was a trusted, loyal, faithful, well-known servant of the king Artaxerxes. Nehemiah was held in high esteem by the king. Nehemiah was a man who excelled in his work. One of his duties would be to taste the wine before it was given to the king to make sure that no one had poisoned it. So you trusted a man like that. So you see in the providence of God, when Hanani comes with this distressing news about the people of the state of Jerusalem, everything is in place. He is the man, Nehemiah, the king's cupbearer who has a ready access to the king. That's an indication of the good hand of God that is upon him. You know, from your own experience at work, with neighbours, friends, colleagues, you're far more inclined to listen to someone you know and you trust than someone who's a complete stranger. Or someone you know has a reputation for being a bit of a wheeler-dealer. Someone whose word cannot be relied upon. Nehemiah then has this ready access because he is a loyal and trusted servant of King Artaxerxes. Now I think there's a lesson for us to learn from this straight away. We believe in God's providence. We believe in God's wise ordering and governing all our affairs and all the affairs of the nations. But that does not mean that we then sit back and do nothing. It does not mean that Nehemiah sat back, folded his arms and said, right, God's in charge, I can leave everything in his hand, I don't need to do anything. No, he was a man of prayer. He was a man of action. But supposing Supposing for one minute he became and was known as an untrustworthy man, a man who failed in his duties, a man who was lazy, careless, would Arthur Xerxes have listened to him? Would he have favoured him? So you see you believe in the providence of God, you believe that God is in control and he makes all the ultimate decisions and choices and he rules and he governs but that does not mean you just say well It doesn't matter then what I do, how I live. If Nehemiah had not been a faithful man of God, what happened in chapter 2 would never have happened. When God works things out in his providence, he doesn't do it contrary to righteousness and holiness in his people. Nehemiah had prayed, Lord grant me mercy in the sight of this man. And that meant that he continued to be a faithful man of God. Between the time of him getting the news from Hanani and the time when he actually went into the king was a period of about four months. The month Nisan is March-April time. When Hanani came it was Chislef which is November-December. So you've got a period of about four months. Nehemiah believed in the providence of God and he continued to serve Artaxerxes well. And he made his request and it may well have been a repeated request that he made to the God of heaven. He continued to pray and as we see, we'll see later, he not only continued to pray but he was drawing up plans in his own mind for the day when he would appear before the king. Nehemiah was a determined man, he was resolute, he did not give up in his faith and far from hindering him because he believed in the providence of God, that was a spur to him to continue in the way of serving God. But when you believe in God's providence, Then you also believe in God's protection, God's provision and that God will prosper you and the cause, the righteous cause that you are involved in. But then also notice the very fact that you may believe in the providence of God and the very fact that you may pray to God with a measure of confidence and faith and you believe that God will hear and answer you when the day comes it doesn't necessarily deliver you automatically from fears notice in verse 2 of chapter 2 when the king asks him why is your face sad since you are not sick this is nothing but sorrow of heart he becomes dreadfully afraid. Dreadfully afraid. That's a strong phrase. It wasn't just, well, you know, he was afraid for a few minutes. He was dreadfully afraid. Now why was that? Well, we're not told. We'd like to know the full reasons, but we're not told. Perhaps, and I say perhaps, This was a gathering of a royal feast and everybody would be laughing and smiling and having a good time and here's this cup bearer with a face that's long and sad. Well if you appeared before the king like that you could end up like Pharaoh's butler or baker. You displeased the king and you could end up in prison or losing your life. Was that what he was concerned about? If he fell foul of the wrath of a king, perhaps he knew that proverb of Solomon, that such wrath is a messenger of death. It's not easy, is it, sometimes to speak to others about the Lord Jesus Christ. You expose yourself. Nehemiah was exposing himself to danger. And sometimes when you come to speak about the Lord Jesus Christ to others, you are exposing yourself, you're making yourself vulnerable. Whether it is at home, at work, in the open air, at school, at university, you're vulnerable. Some of you will have heard of Hugh Latimer. He was the greatest English preacher during the days, the early days of the Reformation in England. And there were several occasions when he had to go and preach to Henry VIII. Now you know what reputation Henry VIII had. He was the one who had eight wives and most of them ended up dead. He had them removed. And Latter would remind himself, you're going to speak in the presence of Henry VIII. But then he would remind himself he was in the presence of a greater king. And he could not hold back. John Knox was the same. preached to Mary, Queen of Scots, made her tremble and shake. Whitefield and Wesley took to the open fields and the streets to preach. They were pelted with all kinds of things, animal manure, rotten fruit, stones, sticks. They made themselves vulnerable. Nehemiah is to go before the greatest king on the face of the earth. He's not a God-fearing man, but he has a specific request regarding a righteous cause, regarding the cause of the people of God, the cause of Christ. And you have a righteous cause to promote the honor and glory of Christ by making Christ known as a church and as individuals. And I would suggest that like Nehemiah of old, If we would do anything, let alone great things for God, you must be ready to hazard all for Christ, to lose your reputation and in perhaps in extreme cases to lose even your life for the sake of Christ. Perhaps it was some of these things that made Nehemiah dreadfully afraid at that particular point. But we will see his fears soon evaporated and your fears too quickly evaporate when you see that God is with you and blessing you and favouring you. But while we feel exposed and vulnerable, we feel dreadfully afraid at times. And though we believe in the overall providence of God, although we may say yes the good hand of God is upon me, it doesn't automatically deliver you from being desperately and dreadfully afraid at times. We are called to exercise faith in God and to trust in him. So here is the providence of God and we see God's good hand upon him in that overall providence. But then there is a second way in which we see the good hand of God. And this is the very specific thing that brings us to the heart of this passage. He finds favor with the king. That is what he had asked very specifically. Grant me mercy in the sight of this man. And he must have realized pretty soon that Artaxerxes was not going to turn on him in wrath and anger and get rid of him. God was already working in the heart of this man and gave him a sympathy towards his servant Nehemiah. Nehemiah's very real fears turned out to be completely unfounded. When Artaxerxes sees this man's sad face, he wants an explanation. He realises something is wrong. It seems to me that Artaxerxes had a, shall we say, a soft spot for this man. He trusted him. He respected him. Yes, he was an Israelite and he was the great king who sat upon the throne of Persia. But this man he knew intimately. This man he saw almost every day. He entered into ordinary conversation with him. And he was concerned. This is one of my servants. Why is he so sad? And so Nehemiah begins to pour out his heart to Artaxerxes. He doesn't have to use flattery. The fact that he says, O King, live forever, is not flattery. That's the normal way of addressing someone who sits upon the throne of Persia. That's normal court etiquette, if you like, protocol. What does he do? He explains his personal grief. Why should my face not be sad, verse 3, when the city, the place of my father's tombs, lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire? Notice he's careful not to mention Jerusalem. Whether that would give him the wrong message or not, I don't know, but he's talking in personal terms. And he knows that Artaxerxes would respect his ancestors, and he's saying, well, you know, I respect my ancestors, this is where my fathers are buried, this city, and it's in waste, it's in ruins. And he speaks to him then, personally, in order to elicit the sympathy and the understanding of the king. And then, strikingly, in verse 4, what is your and say, that's what I've been waiting for. Because notice what he did. I prayed to the Lord. I realised this is the moment. This is what I've been waiting for all these weeks. This is what we've been praying for. And so he sends out a cry unto God. Some people have said it was a silent bullet prayer. I don't know what kind of prayer you want to call it, but he prayed to God. This is the moment Lord. Give me the wisdom now to speak to this man. This is what I've been praying for and pleading for. And so he makes his requests known. Now you see the good hand of God upon Nehemiah. Verse six. Then the king said to me, the queen also sitting there beside him, how long will your journey be? When will you return? So it pleased the king to send me. And I set him a time. I told him I'd go but I'd come back. But look what it says. It pleased the king to send me. Lord, you've given me favour with this man. He's heard my plea. He's heard my request. And what he had made was a daring request. My guess is his heart was in his mouth. It was a bold step of faith. Artaxerxes, you're the great king. If it pleases you, change your decision and let me go back and put Jerusalem together again. That's effectively what he was saying. He didn't remind Artaxerxes of that but he knew full well what Artaxerxes had said in a previous decree. You see, can you feel the tension of the moment? Can you realize how his heart must have leapt into his mouth and why he had to pray to God at that particular moment? And then he didn't stop there, emboldened by the answer of King Artaxerxes, he made a number of other specific requests. And we read in verse 8, which is the heart of the text we're dealing with, the king granted them to me according to the good hand of my God upon me. What were those requests? First of all, letters. with the royal seal of approval on them. Letters of giving him right of passage. He had to make an 800 mile or so journey from the Winter Palace in Shushan across the wilderness there in the Middle East and there all the way then down to Jerusalem. He would have to pass through a number of different territories that were all under the authority of the King of Persia. And he wanted no hindrance. He wanted people to see he had royal permission and royal authorization to make this journey. So he says, please may I have letters, which will give me a right of passage. But he's thinking even further ahead, when I get there, Please can you also give me a letter that I can take to Asaf, the keeper of the forests, so that I will have the materials I need to build the walls of Jerusalem, to do any repairs necessary to the temple, to the gates in particular, and even my own house where I'll live. Now you see I said earlier on that not only had he been praying, but he'd been planning. He knew when he got into the presence of King Artaxerxes and was given permission to speak, he knew exactly what he wanted. He'd worked it all out ahead of time. That's the man of faith. That's the man of determination. So he knew what he would ask. And see, there is the good hand of God upon him. God granted his specific requests. Say, he didn't sit down and say to himself, well, God will do his own work. There's nothing for me to do. There is a proverb, Proverbs 21.1, the king's heart is in the hands of the Lord like the rivers of waters. He turns it whichever way he wishes. That's true. That's true, maybe, maybe Nehemiah pleaded that. But again, it did not mean that he did nothing. He had prayed, he had planned, he was acting all the time in faith. He spoke boldly, he spoke with purpose before King Artaxerxes. No flattery, no beating around the bush. When he said, what is it you want? He said, right, one, two, three. These are my requests. And he was granted those requests. Why? Because the good hand of God was upon him. Believing, I want to drive this home, believing in the sovereignty of God does not kill off your activity as a man or a woman of faith. Rather it should make you bold and wise and drive you to prayer, drive you at times to take risks, to overcome fears, and to exercise a firm and strong and increasing faith in God. You prove Him in situations like this. So Nehemiah tells us, remember this is all in the first person, he's recording all these things. Nehemiah tells us, the king granted me letters. Good hand of my God was upon me. And then there was a bonus, which he hadn't asked for in verse nine. The king sent him captains of the army and horsemen on his journey. Now you may say, hang on a moment, when Ezra was making a long journey, he refused. So is this a lack of faith on the part of Nehemiah? No, I don't think so at all. It's a very different situation. Nehemiah didn't ask for this. The king said, I'm giving them to you. They're going. They will accompany you back to Jerusalem. And whereas Ezra felt it would have been a contradiction for him to have accepted the king's protection, in that situation, Nehemiah decided this is a royal decision. This is a royal offer, given the nature of the journey that I need to undertake. He didn't refuse it. I don't think there is any contradiction. I don't think this is saying, well, Ezra was a man of faith, now Nehemiah isn't. No, I mean, Nehemiah has been the man of faith all along. He doesn't suddenly depart from that way of faith. So you see then what is happening here. Yes, the good hand of God is upon him. The requests are granted. But here is a man, Nehemiah, a man of faith, a man of prayer, a man of expectancy. He has been waiting upon God. And the day came when he found himself in the presence of Artaxerxes and the king says, what is it you request from me? And the whole thing is clinched in a matter of moments. And you see, then Nehemiah prevailed with the most important man on the face of the earth. How did he do that? Because he had prevailed before the God of heaven. Before he ever went to King Artaxerxes, he went and knocked on the door of heaven and pleaded with his God. So you end up then with a man who is a pagan idolater, sending Nehemiah, a man of God, to Jerusalem, to the people of God to encourage them and to promote the cause of Christ there in Jerusalem. That's the fact, isn't it? Here is a king's heart who's been turned. Turned by God. Here is the prosperity, the good hand of the Lord upon him. He is prospering his servant Nehemiah because he desires to prosper his cause in Jerusalem. We know what is at stake. If Jerusalem disappears off the face of the earth, what will become of the promises? What will become of the days when Jesus Christ must come on the earth? If there's no people of God in one place there in Jerusalem, in Bethlehem, where our Lord is born, if all of this is in the hands of a pagan people and there are no people of God to be found, how can the promises of God ever be fulfilled? You see, God is watching over his own word, if I may use Jeremiah's terms. He's watching over his own word to perform it. And this is what we are seeing here. This is the providence of God, but this is the good hand of God. This is God protecting. This is God providing. This is God prospering. Nothing with God is impossible. Now it's easy for us at a distance to say, oh, well, you know, here's Nehemiah, he's the great king. Perhaps it would be like going to the ruler of China, and living in China. Or God be for the president of the USA. Those are two of the greatest nations, and two of the greatest powers on earth. This is the greatest power on earth in the ancient Near East. And God turns the man's heart, as Nehemiah has prayed, See, Nehemiah never sat back. Waiting on God does not mean you do nothing. Praying is right but it's not the only thing that you do. It is the first thing you do. But then you continue in faith and you begin to look for opportunities to promote the cause of Jesus Christ. And it will cost you. Nehemiah gave up, eventually gave up his job, his well-paid job in the royal court. Being a servant of Christ is not a part-time hobby. It cuts across your personal ease. It will destroy your comfort zones sometimes. You tremble about the thought of going into the open air to make Christ known? I'll put my hand up and say, my knees knock. Now there are very specific reasons why I don't preach in the open air. It's partly due, largely due to my hearing problem. But I have preached in the open air, but I still, I still tremble when I stand to talk to people about Christ. Because I don't know how they're going to respond. I don't know how they're going to react. It is out of my comfort zone. And I know it's out of a lot of your comfort zones as well. But I do it. I do that particular thing because I believe it is right to do it. And I want to make Christ numb. But I don't know what the consequences will be. I don't know who I'm going to talk to. I don't know if they're going to throw things back in my face, abuse me, curse me, swear at me. That's not pleasant. But is it worth it for the sake of Christ? Oh yes. Oh yes. And near my I knew that. And when we come to serve Christ, some of our excuses have got to disappear. Now I'm not having a go at anybody in particular. when I say these things, but we tend to say, oh, I haven't really got the time. There are lots of other things I've got to do. I've got something to do that is more important, or other people can do it. You know, if I don't do it, somebody else will. That's OK. Or the worst excuse perhaps we can make is, I can't be bothered. And I'm not just talking about open air. I understand that we've all got different gifts and abilities. And we're not all got the same places of prominence and the same opportunities. But are you prepared to work and to stand for the cause of Christ as a man, as a woman of God, a man, a woman of faith and resolute determination like Nehemiah. And to do it here in Medanbar. You don't need to go to the far reaches of the earth. To do it here, with your friends, with your neighbours, with your family, with your colleagues. Some of you will do small things, some of you will do greater things. Some of you will do things that no one else knows about. Some of you will do things that everybody knows about. It doesn't matter what it is if you are serving Christ and seeking to make Christ known. You are engaged in a righteous cause, the promotion of the honor and glory of Jesus Christ, your Savior, who has laid down his life for you. He loves you. And we are to love and serve him in return in whatever ways we can. And here is Nehemiah, a model of a man of faith. And then there is a third thing. We'll come to this in more detail later on. God's good hand is upon the Amayah, despite, thirdly, despite opposition. Verse 10, you have an introduction to these two men, Sam Ballat, the Holonite, and Tobiah, the Ammonite. Whenever you set your hand to the plow, Whenever you set out to do something worthwhile for Christ, Satan will not be far behind seeking to throw a spanner in the works to distract you, to stop you, to discourage you. to raise up other people to oppose you. Now Sambalat and Tobiah, when they heard, and notice the particular phrase here, they heard that a man had come to seek the well-being of the children of Israel. And what is their response? They are deeply disturbed. And that word not only suggests displeasure, but it suggests evil, wickedness, opposition, hatred, bitterness, resentment, a deep-seated prejudice. Now not everybody has agreed about the identity of these two men. There are a number of historical records. Slightly after this period there was Sam Ballat who was the governor of Samaria and it may well be that Nehemiah had to pass through the area of Samaria on his way to Jerusalem. But it seems to me the best way to understand this is to say that these two men, and I haven't time to lay out all the proof of this, but these two men were the representatives of the nations of Moab and Ammon. Now Moab and Ammon were no friends of the Israelites. No friends at all. They were the long standing enemies of the nation of Israel. Since the days of Moses, they were not allowed to come into the assembly of the Lord. Nehemiah is returning to Jerusalem. He seeks the well-being of the people. Sam Ballat and Tobiah say, no way, no way, no way is this man coming back and prospering Jerusalem and the people of God. They set themselves and we will see that they cause trouble for Nehemiah. Now, does that mean that the good hand of God is no longer upon Nehemiah. The good hand of God was upon him while he was in the court of Artaxerxes and a lot of the journey, and then when he got towards Jerusalem, the good hand of the Lord was taken away. No, no, no, not at all. Opposition is part and parcel of God's wise providence. Daniel and his three friends, did they have an easy ride in Babylon? Three friends ended up in the fiery furnace. They would not bow down and worship the gods of Babylon. It was the same for Esther and Mordecai when Haman, wicked Haman, plotted to have all the Jews removed. It was the same for Ezra. Rehum and Shimshai opposed Ezra. It does not mean that then the good hand of the Lord is removed at all. The fact that there is opposition is the real state of affairs, but that is all within the overarching providence of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, I will build my church. He didn't stop there, did he? The gates of hell or the gates of Hades will not prevail against us. There will be opposition. Jesus told his disciples, I send you out like sheep among wolves. Look at the church. Look at the church in Acts, the opening chapters, the first half of the book of Acts. The opposition to Peter, to John. The death of Stephen. The opposition of Saul of Tarsus before he is converted. James is killed. Does it stop the progress of the kingdom? No way. And when the gospel came to Antioch, and some men began to speak to the Hellenists, it's interesting, in Acts chapter 11 and verse 22, a similar phrase occurs. The hand of the Lord was upon them. Opposition, yes, that's very real. but it does not stop the progress of the cause of Christ. And we will see that Sam Ballett and Tobiah, despite their opposition, they cannot stop the march of the kingdom of God. There is no one on the face of this earth, there is no one like Satan, among the principalities and powers that can prevent the rule of Jesus Christ coming about in all its fullness. We've just completed our reading almost of the book of Revelation. The beast, the false prophet, Satan, are all cast into the lake of fire. They are removed from the scene. Christ's kingdom must go on. It will go on. Nothing will ultimately remove it. But while we live in this world, you can expect opposition. Persecution. You'll be looked upon as really people of no worth whatsoever. That is increasing the case in our country. You'll be despised. Well, wear it like a royal insignia. You belong to Christ. It's an honor to be despised for the sake of Christ. But you see, if you are a man or a woman of faith like Nehemiah, that whatever the opposition is that you face, if you have poured out your heart to God and laid hold upon God, and you say, in effect, I am not going to let you go, but even more so, God says, I will not let you out of my good hand. I will protect you. I will provide for you. I will prosper you. Hold on to me. Trust in me. Trust in my word. Trust in my promises. You've poured out your heart to me. I've heard you. I will answer you. You wait upon me and you will not be disappointed. You will not be ashamed. Nehemiah believed all that. and he acted accordingly. Well, may God give us the grace, the help, the strength to live our lives in such a way that Christ will be glorified in us and through us. Amen. Lord, we thank you for the example of your servant Nehemiah, a man who watched, a man who prayed, a man who was willing to take risks for the sake of Christ, who appeared before the greatest king on the face of the earth at that time and made his requests known, and you heard him, you prospered him. Lord, give us that similar expectation and that similar willingness to serve you and grant us, O God, faith and zeal and resolution and determination and courage to serve you and to speak boldly and plainly for the sake of Christ. We ask these things in his name. Amen.