I'm trying to figure out what's the best way to give you something to take home, maybe put in your Bible and take home with you. I did a handout tonight, but my handout two weeks ago was probably a little bit long and I hate to see you get too stuck in it. So I cut it in half and put it at the information center tonight. So don't feel like you have to write everything down. I did write the main points on there for you. It's probably in Tracy Fressel wordiness, but at least it's something you can take home with you and put in your Bible. And I just thought, no, we'll put it at the information center. So you want it, you can pick it up there. Two weeks ago, we looked at a man in the Bible. His name was Caleb, all right? And Caleb right here, Caleb Newman. You all know Caleb right in the middle. I was thinking about him all the time while I was preparing that message, Caleb. What did we learn about Caleb two weeks ago? Was he young or old? just hitting his prime, right? 85, he's just hitting his prime. And what did he do? He finished what God had told them to do. Hardly anybody finished. They started, but Caleb finished. And don't you wanna be a Caleb? Caleb in the Bible, not Caleb Newman. Okay, yeah, we wanna be a Caleb, don't we? Well, he's not bad, but he's no Caleb in the Bible, right? He's not 85. Don't you wanna be a Caleb? To finish what God's given you to do. Again, God gave him opportunity and God might not give us 85 years, but we wanna finish what God's given us to do. So we looked at Caleb, but understand this, that it's not automatic. Sometimes, you know, you get in the church world and it's almost like you're in the business world. And if you just do this and this and this, you're guaranteed to have success. And if you're not successful, it must be because you're not doing something, okay? And we've gotta be careful. Tonight, I want us to look tonight and the next couple of weeks to see what is it then that drives us forward? What is it that helps us to do God's work God's way? Caleb was a guy who finished. He came to the end of his life and he did God's work. I want us to look at one of the characters of the Bible that sometimes is looked at as almost a model for business in the church, and ask ourselves as we look at this book and this person, what was it that God used in his life that really advanced God's work? God does remarkable things through those who are devoted to him, and Caleb was devoted to God. In this passage, in this study, in this part of the Bible we're gonna look at tonight, we're gonna really see it's through prayer, through prayer that God displays his powerful glory in individuals' lives. Caleb was just one guy and he finished. We're gonna look at one person. who was a person committed to prayer, and God really advanced his work for his glory. So you know where we're going, right? The book is Nehemiah. So turn, if you will, with me to the book of Nehemiah. And I think the point of this is tonight that God does an amazing work through one person who's devoted to him who cultivates a powerful prayer life. If you want to be a person who God uses mightily, then it really begins with your time with God, your time with the Lord, your own personal prayer life. We meet Nehemiah in Nehemiah 1. And it's really the memoirs of Nehemiah that are recorded. Nehemiah is part of Ezra, Nehemiah, sometimes it was viewed as one book together. We're just gonna look at seven chapters, not tonight, but we're gonna look over the next few weeks at seven chapters. Nehemiah is longer than seven chapters and Ezra comes before it and they're kind of linked together, but we're gonna take one drama seven chapters and see how God advanced his work for his glory through a person who is committed to God in prayer. Cultivating a meaningful prayer life really is the first step. to do God's work, God's way. If you want to see God work through you, then really the first step of that is to cultivate a personal, vibrant, growing prayer life. And we see that in Nehemiah. Really what we'll look at in the first chapter and a couple of verses is really how do we cultivate that prayer life. If you want to do something for God, if you want to figure out what God wants you to do and start out doing it, then you have to cultivate that prayer life. What do you think about when I say the word cultivate? That garden you're thinking about next year. This year, it didn't go well, did it? But next year, you know, next year we're gonna have a great garden. What are you gonna have to do? You're gonna have to cultivate the ground. You put some stuff in there and you get, and you're just thinking about that, right? in a spiritual sense, a far greater way, we just can't do what comes naturally in our prayer life. We have to, by God's grace, because we have indwelling sin in us, right? We have to cultivate, by God's spirit, the kind of prayer life that God wants us to have. And we're gonna see tonight how God starts the work in prayer. If God gives the opportunity next week, we'll see how God continues the work in prayer. And then in two weeks, Lord, we'll learn how God really is celebrated. He completes the work and we see prayer at the heart of that. So tonight is just one part of it. Again, a bigger picture, a lot more things you could study, but we're just looking at these seven chapters and saying, how does God advance his work and do amazing things through prayer? And I just want us to see that tonight. And tonight really answers the question of how can you cultivate that prayer life as you undertake God's work? So four ways that we cultivate that. Verses one through 4a is really the first way that we can cultivate a meaningful prayer life. And they start with the letter A. So think about this. The first one is we have to attend to the needs of God's people and turn those needs into a conversation with God. You with me? We have to, what's attend? Eyes open, ears open, we have to be attentive or attend to the needs of God's people. And when we hear those things, what do we do with them? We turn it into a conversation with God. I want us just to look at this passage because we see it here in the passage. Nehemiah 1, verse 1, the words of Nehemiah, okay? And it's almost like he starts in the middle of the verse, it says, it happened in the month of Shezlef. in the 20th year while I was in Susa, the capital. It's right about this time of year, kind of November, December is when this happens. It's in the 20th year of the king. It says that Hanai, one of my brothers and some of the men from Judah came and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped and had survived the captivity and about Jerusalem. And they said to me, the remnant there in the providence who survived the captivity are in great distress and reproach. And the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and the gates are burned with fire. I came about when I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days. Nehemiah is not with the children of Israel with the Jews. Many of them had gone back and had began to rebuild there, the temple and all the work there. And they were stopped from that work. And Nehemiah asked one of his, it says his brother, probably a blood brother, but maybe not. Maybe just one of the brothers or one of his people. He comes and he asks him how the work is going. Nehemiah is in exile. He's in a foreign country, held there in a place he'd rather not be. But we know that his heart is always tuned into Jerusalem. He was longing for Jerusalem. It was the place of God's provision. It was the place of the burial of his fathers, of his grandfather, great grandfathers. And listen to what Psalm 73 says. It's really the reflections of an exiled Jew. It says, by the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept. One remembered Zion upon the willows in the midst of it, we hung our harps. For there our captors demanded of us songs and our tormentors mirth saying, sing us one of the songs of Zion. How can we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget her skill, may my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, if I do not remember you, if I do not exalt Jerusalem above my chief joy. That's the reflections of a Jew in exile. They longed for Jerusalem. They wanted to be there. They were tormented as they were in captivity and really, you know, scoffed at by their captors. And we see in this passage that Nehemiah longs for that. And yet it's almost like it starts with once upon a time, you know, as good stories begin, once upon a time, one of Nehemiah's brothers comes and he says, how's it going, Hananiah? How's it going? And Hananiah, his brother tells him the truth and says, not good. It's not good. It's not good, Nehemiah. The Jews had returned to rebuild the temple in the city and the work had been ordered to be stopped. And now what's the condition of the people? It's half built. It was destroyed and half rebuilt and stopped. Do you remember the Sears Plaza on Dixon in Southfield? It was shut down for a while. And what was happening with that building? Boarded up windows, doors that were boarded up, why? because there's no wall around it and people are getting into it. I think you could have watched videos that people took of going inside the Sears and it was just, it was sad, wasn't it? I mean, someplace that was thriving many, many years ago, just sad and broken down. Imagine though that that was your family's prized property. It was part of a promised land. It was a final burial place of your father, your grandfather, or your great-grandfather. And now it was a disgrace. It was in disrepair. What would that be like if that were your family's place? Would you be discouraged? Yeah. And that's what the Jews were facing. And Nehemiah hears it's not good. And Nehemiah is discouraged. Remember Psalm 37, the tormentors are saying, how great is your God? Sing us the song of Zion. And they said, we can't sing the song of Zion in a foreign land. God's name was being disgraced. And how much did it affect Nehemiah? Look at verse four, it says, when I heard about this, what did he do? He sat down. He literally fell to the ground. You ever had bad news given to you that just takes your breath away and your knees buckle? And it's almost like Nehemiah hears about this and he says, I can't believe it. And he falls to the ground. So the question then is, what is he going to do? There's work to be done. The Jews are discouraged. It's dark and it's dank there. And Nehemiah is a person who just has to do something. So the question is, what's he going to do? Well, we see what he does. And what does he do? He goes to God first. And remember what I said. God's work, God's way, it's accomplished so people are devoted to God. But it starts with our prayer, with our personal prayer, a meaningful prayer to God. And how do we cultivate that prayer? Number one, we have to attend to the needs of God's people and turn that into a conversation with God. And that's what Nehemiah does. If we're gonna do God's work, God's way, we must cultivate a meaningful, genuine, vibrant prayer life. That's how God starts the work in us, and that's how God intends to meet the needs of his people and to show his glory. Are you attentive to the needs of God's people here in this church family? When you hear things where people are struggling, do you turn it to a conversation to God? Maybe in your family. Did you spend enough time with your family this week, right? And you get to do it in three weeks again, right? It's gonna be great. And when you hear those things, does it drive you to God? For Nehemiah, he turned those into a conversation with God. Number two, not only is he attentive to those needs, number two, acknowledge your part in the needs of God's people. Acknowledge your part. in the needs of God's people and ask for God's healing and help. And we see verse four, the second half of the verse, it says, and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. And we read much of this earlier, verses five through 11. He says, I beseech you, O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God. He reminds God of who God is. And he says, God, we need your help. God, we need your healing. What's interesting is you see in verse six, let your ear now be attentive to the prayer, be attentive in thy ears open to the, hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night on behalf of the sons of Israel, thy servants confessing the sins of the sons of Israel, which we have sinned against thee. I and my father's house have sinned. You know, what's our first thing to do when we hear about the needs of God's people? Imagine you have a friend who is struggling to go God's way, and they went out after work today, and they were drinking, and they wrapped their car around a tree, and now you hear they're over at Oakwood Hospital, and they're all cut up, and they got broken bones. And our first thought is, you're an idiot, right? And when we talk to God, we remind God of these things. But what does Nehemiah do? These people had sinned. And what does Nehemiah do? He says, hey, listen, I bear part of the responsibility of this. Me and my father's house, he acknowledged his part of it. And maybe even thinking about that friend of yours, maybe you sit and say, if it weren't for the grace of God, there's me, right? Certainly. but maybe I wasn't doing everything I could have been. And are we quick to think about ourselves and how we contributed? And we see Nehemiah acknowledging his part of the problem of God's people and asking God to help them. I think what's interesting about verses five through 11 is you have a pattern. you have a pattern of prayer in five through 11. Do you see the pattern? I mean, I talk about it. You know, our natural spot is to go to our need first. What do we see in five through 11? There's really a pattern. Are patterns good? Can they sometimes be trite and overused and empty? Yeah, sometimes. But a pattern is good. Jesus gave us a pattern for prayer. And I think Nehemiah here in 5-11 gives us a pattern for prayer. What is the pattern? Well, we see that Nehemiah in 5-6a, that Nehemiah worships God for his glory and his goodness. 6b-7, he acknowledges his and their sinfulness and their stupid choices. In verse eight through 10, he roots his request on the promise of God and God's glorious display of grace. He really roots it in three verses because verse 11 then is asking for God's favor and granted him success, but it's rooted in eight through 10 in the promise of God and the display that God had to redeem his people. And I think if we've been here this fall through prayer meeting, I think we all would say that it's been very helpful for a pastor to remind us as we pray, that it's a good thing for us to root our requests in God's word and his character and his promises. And Nehemiah does that here. So you see him worshiping God first, acknowledging his sinfulness, rooting the request, which will follow in the promise of God and asking for God to grant success. And I just challenge you with that pattern, helpful. And that's what Nehemiah does. So I say this tonight, if we're going to see God's work advanced in an awesome display of God's power, which he did in Caleb, he's gonna do here in these seven chapters, where does it start? It starts in us cultivating the prayer life, our personal vibrant prayer life. And how do you cultivate that? What's the stuff you put in the soil to cultivate that? Number one, you have to be aware. You have to be attentive to the needs of God's people. And when you see those needs, you turn it into a conversation with God. Number two, you have to acknowledge your part in the needs of God's people and ask for God's help and God's healing. And again, we don't have time to look at all this. We read it, but you see that pattern. Look in verse one of chapter two. It came about in the month of Nisan, the 20th year of King Artaxerxes. This is about four or five months later, March, April, we'd call it. that Nehemiah has been praying for four months about this. And God in chapter two, verse one says that this is now the day that I will answer your prayer. I think verses five through 11 in chapter one are really a summary of the prayer that he prayed every day. for those four months. I don't think it's a one-time prayer. I think it's a summary. In fact, if you look back, and I didn't show this before, look at, if you will, verse number, well, yeah, it's verse 11, right? Verse 11 says, in the middle, may thy near be attentive to the prayer of thy servant and the prayer of thy servants who delight to revere thy name and make thy servant successful. What, what's the next word? Today. And it's like he's prayed every day for four months. God, is it today? Today? Is today the day? And he prayed it over and over again. And then chapter two, verse one, it's like, okay, this is the day. What kind of day was it? It was just a regular old day in the palace, okay? Nehemiah was doing his job. He was a cup bearer. He took the cup and made sure there was no poison in it, a very trusted position, but it was just his regular work day. But God said, this is going to be the day. And so let me just say, number three, if we're gonna cultivate the kind of prayer that starts doing God's work, God's way, then you have to allow God to form your burden, your prayer burden. Allow God to form your burden and patiently seek his favor as you plan the work. Let God form your burden and patiently seek his favor as you plan to do the work. For four months, Nehemiah's praying. and God doesn't answer his prayer. It wasn't today, it wasn't tomorrow, it was like over a hundred days later. Why do you think God waited? Why didn't God just answer the first day he prayed? Why do you think God waited? You didn't think about that? Yeah, what'd you say? I said he wants us to learn that he needs us. I mean, don't you learn that as you pray over and over again, that God, I need you? Do I really want this? Is it a flash in the pan? And I'd suggest to you, I think while Nehemiah is praying, I think he's planning. He said, God, give your servant success today. And while he's waiting, he's planning. How do you know he was planning? Because when you see in chapter two, when King says, what do you want? He didn't skip a beat. He prayed and he gave the king an answer. He said, this is what I want. And this is how long it will take. And this is what I need. And where was that cultivated? Where was that formed over the past four or five months while he's praying and waiting? So I think if we're going to be the kind of people who cultivate the kind of prayer life God wants us to have is we begin to do God's work. We have to allow God to form that burden, to sharpen it. You know what? I was praying today about something and I was praying throughout the day about it. And like halfway through the day, the Lord just kind of hit me upside the head and said, you're an idiot. Okay. And he said it in the right way, but because I was more concerned about a temporal thing. than the eternal matter behind the situation. And that just came because through prayer, and prayer and the Spirit's work in my life, He forms the prayer burden of our hearts. And that's God's kindness to us to help us to put him in his place and us in our place and to learn what the true need is of the moment. So allow God to form your prayer burden and patiently seek his favor as you plan the work as you pray. And then number four, it's ask for God's help. and step through the God-given opportunity to do his work. And that's what I think chapter two through one through nine is about. Verse one, it says that Nehemiah at the end of verse one, now I had not been sad in his presence before he was faithfully doing his work. But verse two, so the king said to me, why is your face sad though you're not sick? This is nothing but sadness of heart. Then I was very much afraid. I think he was faithfully doing the work over these months while he's praying. He'd never been sad in the King's presence before. Some people say, well, he was kind of working this one a little bit. He kind of manufactured this and made it happen. I don't think so. I think he was just so overcome by the burden of his heart that he was sad in the King's presence. And all of a sudden, this is the day. Why are you sad? And the answer is, I'm transparently with, how can I not be sad? The place of my father's death, the graves are all burned down. The walls are broken down. And the king says, what do you want? And this is what he says, and I'll let you look at that, okay? But the point is, he was aware or he was attentive to the needs of God's people. And what did he do with that? He turned that to a conversation to God. He acknowledged his part. He acknowledged his part in the problem. He had failed and he had not followed God and God had kept his word. He was gonna send them, you know, he's gonna disperse them. And Nehemiah acknowledged that and asked for God's healing in this help. Nehemiah allowed God to form his burden through the patience of unanswered prayer. And he planned as he was waiting for God's work. Number four, when God then opens that door, ask for God's help and step through the God-given opportunities to do his work. So tonight, let me just challenge you. We looked at Nehemiah, we looked at Caleb a couple weeks ago. We're gonna look deeper now into Nehemiah. And Nehemiah isn't all about, you know, formulas. Do this, do this, and do this, and you'll have success. Nehemiah is about a person who is committed to cultivating his prayer life with God. And God did amazing things through him, really to start the work, to start the work. And tonight, if you're saying, God, I wanna be a part of something great here. You know, inner city turns 75 next year. Do you know that? Don't you want to see God do something great through our church in the future? Or are the best days still in the past? I want to see God do something great in the future. Don't you? Where's that going to start? And us as individuals being the kind of prayers that we ought to be. So I challenge you tonight in these four ways that you can cultivate that kind of personal prayer that starts the work of God doing something amazing for his glory. I hope you're excited about what's in front of us and let's be committed to praying, to cultivating, to seeing God's work advance through our prayer life. Again, There's a handout at the information center if you want to pick up some of these things. Maybe that helps you stick it in your Bible. We'll come back next week and we're gonna answer the question, how do we continue? How do we continue seeing God to advance his work if God gives us the opportunity to do that?