I don't know how familiar you are with the book of Nehemiah or the character of Nehemiah. Nehemiah is quite a favorite character of mine. He seems such a wise man, a clever man, a bold man, a man who was able to do many different things. The book of Nehemiah has been included in the canon of scripture probably for many reasons. It helps us click together the history of Israel. There's factual things in there, particularly of course as you read through the book, about the building or the rebuilding of the walls and the gates of Jerusalem. It also gives us encouragement to be a people for the vision of the glory of the Lord. Nehemiah had this vision. It gives us, as we read through, we're not reading those passages tonight, but it also gives us an example of revival and the pattern you see in the revival in the book of Nehemiah is a pattern that you see repeated throughout scripture but also in the history of revivals that we can read about in our own land and indeed in other places. So there's a great example there of revival. I think it also encourages us to be a people who pray rather than just say our prayers. Nehemiah was a great man of prayer. I think also it encourages us to be a people of God's book. Nehemiah goes back time and time again to see what God said, to see what should be done. And that was his guide. And sometimes he had people that were within his own grouping, with his own community that were against him, but it was the book that had to be right. He had those that were outside of the community that were against him, but he always stuck to that which was right from God's word. I think also it encourages us to be a people who put their shoulder to the work. Nehemiah, in theory as it were, needn't have got involved in all of this, he needn't have done all this, but in fact he threw himself into the work and the Lord blessed him for it. I think also it may encourage us to see what it is to be a person of discernment. Nehemiah had to be very discerning at times as to what was right and what was wrong, what people were genuinely helping and what people weren't. And when something went wrong, he had to have a measure of discernment as to how it should be put right. I think it also encourages us to see whether we're on the Lord's side or not. There is gospel truth found even in this book of Nehemiah. And we could go on as to the reasons why Nehemiah is there and the things that we can draw from it. The point is that it is a book of challenge. And one of the challenges to us, I think, which I hope ties in a bit with this morning, is whether we're a people to rise to that challenge, the challenge that the Lord puts before us even in this little book here. Are we a people that can see what God can do and be willing to be a part of that work? Now, to link it in a little bit with this morning, here are people who had never heard of the fact that Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, was the light of the world, but they were a people, those that were with Nehemiah and working with him, they were a people who knew the light of the gospel shining back, as it were, from Calvary. He was a people, and particularly this man, Nehemiah, who rose to the occasion and refused to walk in darkness, but walked in light and showed what God can do with a man who is totally for the Lord. Nehemiah didn't find everything easy. You find some really difficult situations that he had. He found it quite opposite of being easy. It was a difficult task, but he was blessed for it. And those years that he spent with his shoulder to the work, grappling with all these difficulties, grappling with the problems that the people had, they were spent in the light of eternity. And that's a thought, isn't it? The things that we do, our lives that are being lived, they are being lived, whether we like it or not, in the light of eternity. And what will that reveal? Now, just to put this in context, about 150 years before this account was when Israel had been taken into captivity to Babylon. And they were there, you remember, 70 years in exile. And that 70 years was well up. This is 150 years later. We're almost double that. We're beyond double that time. And since that 70 years was up, some of the Jews had returned to Jerusalem and to their own land. Some had firstly returned under the hand or the guidance of Zerubbabel and others with Ezra. And they had rebuilt the temple. And that took a bit of work to be done and you can read about that in some of the prophets and indeed a little in the book of Ezra. But they'd run out of steam as it were. They had not rebuilt the walls of the city. They'd lost their enthusiasm. They'd lost the vision that their forefathers had. And as I say, you can read about some of those who returned earlier in the little book beforehand, the book of Ezra. And there is a 13 year gap between the book of Ezra and the book of Nehemiah. And although Ezra and Nehemiah were of a different character, Ezra was more a scribe. These were two men of God and they both had a great work to do. And while the temple was being rebuilt and the people were going back, we find that Nehemiah is still in Babylon. Indeed, he was almost certainly must have been born there. So whether he had been to Jerusalem at any point, I don't know. But he has an important job in Babylon. The scripture says he is the king's cup bearer. That was the very last sentence we read in chapter one and he tasted the king's food and he tasted the king's wine before the king ate it in case it was poisonous. I can't say it was a job that I would apply for but it was an important job. And he was a man who must have been trusted. And he was a man who had the ear of the king. Stan Evers, who's been here to preach, he's written a commentary on the book of Nehemiah. And Stan says that his position, looking at the culture of the day, was very similar to the position of prime minister. He wasn't just a food taster. He had a lot more influence than that. So let's pull a few things out here that might help us tonight. The first thing I want to underline tonight is that we need to be afflicted or at least affected in our hearts when we see the state of the things of God. And that's what happened to Nehemiah here. Some weeks ago, I preached on the challenge of whether we are a people of comfort or a people of the cross. And I think I pointed out that generally speaking, include myself there, generally speaking we are a people that are inclined to choose comfort rather than the cross. I don't mean we're a people that don't love Christ of the cross and we're unconverted, what I mean is we have a natural inclination to choose the comfortable rather than that which are the claims upon us from the cross of Christ. We might even choose to do things that are for the Lord and might even be quite dramatically useful in that sense rather than actually do something more humble that the Lord wants us to do. Well here Nehemiah is going to have to decide, is he going to stay in his comfortable position which we may not think eating and drinking, testing boys and he's comfortable but it was a comfortable lifestyle he would have been well paid for what he did and You know, it was a fairly good job that he had or was he going to do what the Lord wants him to do? That doesn't mean he wasn't where the Lord wanted him to be it was He was put there for a purpose but for a time He wasn't going to stay there forever. The Lord wanted him there for this purpose and in one sense the Lord often brings about his purposes in a way that is unlikely. That's a thread that really goes through the whole of scripture. Why should a Jew in Babylon have such an important job? And it's because the Lord wanted him there. God had a job for him to do. And you remember the Lord did a similar thing for Daniel. Daniel was in Jerusalem. He was one of those that was taken into exile, wasn't he, as a young man. And if you read his account in the book of Daniel, he's in favor with some kings and the next king comes along and doesn't even know his name. He's found down a dusty corridor somewhere, still working as some kind of civil servant, I suppose we'd say today, but he was pulled out, wasn't he? And he had to interpret the visions and the dreams and all sorts of things that he did there. And one of his jobs appears to have been preserving some of those things that were taken into captivity, maybe the silver and gold, because they were found intact. Maybe some of these scrolls and writings of scripture. But he was a man in the right place and God used him. Unlikely that Daniel, a Jew again, should be put in such a place. Look at Joseph. Very familiar with the story there. Here he is in a pit. Can't get out the pit there. He's sold as a slave, isn't he? Falsely accused of rape, put in prison and all the things that you're very familiar with, he ends up as prime minister. He was meant to be in the pit, wasn't he? He was meant to be in prison. All of these things the scripture says God meant it for good and Nehemiah is in the right place but God doesn't want him to stay there. God wanted Nehemiah to return to Jerusalem to encourage those that were there to build up the walls. The Lord says I want these walls built now who's going to do it and so you know we were talking about the eyes of the Lord scanning the whole earth the eyes of the Lord as it were scans the whole earth he said I've got my man Nehemiah in place there. You see the walls was something they needed to protect themselves, but it also had a significant PR exercise. Those people in the nations roundabout could just laugh at the Jews because well, they've been in exile, they built this temple thing, but look at the walls, they're all down and broken, the gates are burned, and they would laugh at the Jews. But if they could build their walls, that would be something. And remember, this is Jerusalem, it is the city of God. God had put his hand upon that city and said so. So the job the Lord had Nehemiah down for actually matched his name. Nehemiah means Jehovah comforts and Nehemiah was going to be a great comfort to the people of God. So how was it that a man who had probably never been to Jerusalem had lived his entire life in Babylon was concerned about Jerusalem? Why would he bother? He was comfortable in Babylon. He'd heard stories about that, but that's at the forefathers. Well, Nehemiah has a visit and it says from his brethren. I think those who know better that was actually his brother and his brother comes along. He's been to Jerusalem and he gives a report. He says, I asked them, those who were with his brother there, concerning the Jews that had escaped, or those that had gone back, those that were left of the captivity. But he asked concerning Jerusalem. And they said, the remnant that are left in the province are in great affliction and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem also is broken down. The gates thereof are burned with fire. Notice his concern is not so much about the wickedness of the nations round about. His concern is for Jerusalem, the city of God, the city of God's people. He's concerned about the people of God and their situation. That they should be a light to the other nations. They should be the land that shows the other nations what it is to live under the authority of God. But instead of that, they were a monument of decay. And this is a pivotal point in Nehemiah's life. The reaction to his brother's news changed his life forever. Nehemiah was never going to be the same again. He'd got a fresh job to do. And what happened here? This report touched his heart, didn't it? That was the first thing that happened here. He didn't roll up his sleeves and say, right, I'm off to Jerusalem. What needs to be done? His heart was touched first. Unless his heart was touched, he wouldn't have done that. And that is, excuse the pun, it's the heart of the matter, isn't it? We will never be on fire for God unless our hearts are touched. For the heart is the fountain of action, isn't it? You know, we have to say, sadly, we get used to things, don't we? Nehemiah could have said, well, I know the walls are down. They've been down for years, haven't they? They've been down since they were burnt when we were taken into captivity. That's how things are. I suspect they are looked upon as a reproach by the nations round about because they're a poor lot. And a lot of those that were left, well, they've gone and people have gone back, but they've not really been rebuilt as much as they should have done. And in any event, I think it's Haggai, he says they built their houses before they looked after the things of God. That's what we're used to. And that's it, isn't it? We can get used, even subconsciously, and become anesthetized to the things that are around us. We get used to hearing of religious leaders who deny the word of God. And I have to say, I get used to it. If I turn on the radio, if I'm in the car, and I hear someone talking about some moral issue or whatever, and then they come on with the religious person, and he says some rubbish, I just think, well, that's what I expect from him. Is my heart touched as it should be? Doesn't mean I can immediately do something about it, but if my heart is touched, my eyes then might flow before the Lord in prayer. We're used to people who call themselves evangelical, shaming themselves in immorality. We're used to the gospel being preached, even when it's preached faithfully, not really having much effect. We get used to the fact of seeing churches close around us. Now, to be fair, there may be a basket full of reasons why some of those things happen. But, and it's a big but, isn't it? We should still be touched in our hearts. Nehemiah could have said, well, I know why the walls are down. I know why the gates are burnt. But no, his heart was touched. And our hearts should be touched when we see things that belong unto God being hampered with. When we see the laws that have changed in our land, we say, well, that's the last days. We expect that. And that is true. But it's still the heritage that belongs unto us. It's still the holy things of God. They aren't just laws, they're things that belong to God. They're not for us to change. We see really the glory that should go to our God is given to others. We could travel into the New Testament and we look at the Lord Jesus Christ as an example. There were times of course when he turned over the table of the money changers, but there was other times where we read his heart was full of compassion. when he saw the people without a shepherd. And my friend, we look at people, lots of them today have gone to places that are religious places, and they should be Christian religious places, and maybe someone has led a service, but they're not a shepherd. They haven't fed the people with the word of God. And when we look at that situation, we should have the same compassion as Christ, that they are people without a shepherd. There are a lot of people who've gone to church today who don't know the gospel. tempted to say it's not their fault. It's their fault in the sense they have access to a Bible. It's not their fault in the sense that they are being taught something different. In human terms, why would they not believe the person who is teaching them? Oh, we need a great intervention of the grace of God. So that's the first challenge of this book, I think. Are our hearts touched, affected when we see the state of the world, but in particular, the state of the things that belong unto God. Secondly, Our natural reaction should be to go to the Lord in prayer. When you read through the book of Nehemiah, you will find he was a great man of prayer. And so we made this a matter of prayer. We bring this before the Lord, he says that a word similar a number of times through this book. Now he was a man who liked to get things done. You follow the story and he goes out and looks and surveys the situation, puts it into action, tells people what needs to be done. He's a great delegator, he's a great arranger, he's a great manager. He's a multi-skilled person. But his priority, before he does anything here, his heart is touched, he prays. But more than that, it says in verse 4, prayer was just one of the raft of reactions. He wept. He mourned. certain days. He didn't hear of this, oh that's sad, have a few tears and get over it. No, he mourned certain days, he realized the significance of all of this, he fasted and he prayed. So Nehemiah is a man who gets his priorities right, stop and pray and that's where we need to be isn't it. Notice he didn't complain about the situation, He doesn't complain about the people who may have been in someone's mind at fault because they hadn't got on with the work or whatever. He simply gets on with the task of prayer. Now that's a short point because I want to bring it into the next point. I want us to look at the pattern of his prayer. You know there's great lessons to be learned here. There's so much for us to learn about prayer, and yet it's something we all do. And we've done it all of our Christian lives. But it doesn't matter how long you've been a Christian, there's always something fresh to learn. And I think we're a bit like the bowling ball, that we're always biased eventually to drift from the place we should be when it comes to prayer. Prayer is described, isn't it, in the hymn as the Christian's vital breath. stop praying, then spiritually we go down. A couple of weeks ago Terry and I went to a class and that class was to teach people how to breathe. And you say well, I mean I was only a driver but I was with Terry and I observed some of these things and it was interesting. Terry has some difficulty in breathing sometimes. But you see, the people that were there, they've been breathing all their lives. Of course they had. If they stopped breathing, they'd be dead. But there was something more for them to learn about breathing, to increase their capacity for breathing. And I learned things while I was there. And, you know, I've been breathing all my life. And spiritually then, there is always ways to improve our spiritual breathing, however long we have been praying. And you know one of the reasons they have these classes for people who struggle with breathing is so that if they could breathe correctly, the rest of the body reacts to that in a positive way. It affects the well-being of the whole body. It's true here isn't it? When we are able to pray aright, when we come together as a body of people or whether you're praying individually, it helps, individually it helps us and as a fellowship it helps us throughout. Now we're not called in scripture to merely copy people's prayers. But we can learn from them, that's one reason why they're there. And on a Tuesday when we have a prayer meeting we might often look at one of David's prayers in the Psalms or somewhere where it talks about prayer. The scripture is full of instruction on prayer. But I stopped as I read this passage and saw how Nehemiah prayed. This was a prayer that the Lord placed in his heart, because the Spirit of God does that, draws from our hearts a prayer. And this is a prayer that God the Holy Spirit had put into print, so it's here for a reason. And I just want you to notice this pattern of prayer. Now our pattern doesn't have to be identical, but there are principles here. And when you get to verse five, let me read verse four. It came to pass when I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned at certain days and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven and said, so we go straight, you've got words that he used in prayer. And the first thing he does is ascribe greatness to the Lord. And that's a great thing in prayer, isn't it? That we don't just go in and say, Lord, I need this. There may be times when we do that as a real kind of emergency prayer, but generally speaking, we need to stop and just think now, I'm coming before the great God of heaven. Oh, Lord, God of heaven, the great and terrible God that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments. And it's good to stop and remember who we're coming before. And when he's done that, he confesses sin. Can we confess sin too much? I think not. It is a good thing to do, isn't it? He asked the Lord to be attentive to his prayer, but he says that, uh, thy servants, and he says, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have seen. That's always a difficult one. Can we, as a church confess the sins of our nation? We can confess them, we can state them, we can't confess them in that true confessional way because there is no repentance. Confession has to come with repentance, but we can confess our own sins and we can come as a body of believers and ask the Lord to forgive us for our many failings. Nehemiah we would say from what we see here, and I know we haven't got much information on that first page, but it would appear that he is a godly man. He is a man in a right place, placed there by God, ready to do a great work, but he knows that there is sin and he knows there is sin in his community. What does he do next? Well you get down to verse 8, he claims some promises. Remember I beseech thee the word that thou commandest thy servant. They weren't all good promises in the sense that he points out here that if we were against the Lord, then the Lord would be against us in his actions towards us. But he also claims those good promises. And it's a good thing to do is to claim the promises of God. As Spurgeon said, it's to cash a check in, isn't it, at the bank of heaven. that the promise might be very pertinent to the particular affliction or need that you have. And that's where we need to know the word of God, to be able to say, Lord, thou hast promised in thy word. Maybe you feel lonely. Lord, thou hast promised never to forsake us nor leave us. Help me to feel that. Lord, I'm afflicted. Psalmist says thou wilt deliver us out of our afflictions. I have a particular need. says in scripture that they will meet all our needs according to thy riches in glory by christ jesus all of these promises and nehemiah claims the promises of god and then he makes his request so he ascribes greatness to god he praises god he confesses sin he claims promises and makes his request But actually he doesn't seem to be asking for a direct request here, reading between the lines I suppose, but we'd have to go into the next chapter for that. But he's asking for a way to be made. He doesn't know the way yet, a way to be made to get the work going in Jerusalem. And then he finishes his prayer, we get down to verse 11. What does he do? He asks for mercy. He realizes he doesn't deserve any of this. He doesn't deserve his sins to be forgiven. He doesn't deserve to have the ability to ascribe greatness to God. He doesn't deserve the promises of God. He doesn't deserve to have a way made for him to do this work. And so he says, O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thy near be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, to the prayer of thy servants who desire to fear thy name and prosper. I pray thee, thy servant this day, grant him mercy in the sight of this man, for I was the king's cupbearer. I think it's a lovely pattern for prayer. In fact, you may not notice, but I deliberately used that pattern tonight in our public prayer. So I doubt if many of you noticed that because you wouldn't know where I was going. But all I suggest to you is you probably didn't notice that there was anything odd or unusual about that prayer. I hope it flowed. It was just an example of using this. Now, I'm not saying we should do that every time. We're not to be slavish in this way. Our situation is not always going to be the same as Nehemiah's, but it is in the sense of principles we have there. And because some of our prayers, they are private prayers, they wouldn't be suitable for public utterance. And when we pray publicly, there are things that we need to embrace that we perhaps wouldn't pray for so much privately. But whether our prayers are short or long, public or private, Nehemiah's prayer is a helpful guide in scripture for our help. Fourthly, will you notice the providence of God? We've already noted that this was the very fact that Nehemiah had this job and gave him the ear of the king. But providence is a part of every Christian's everyday life, isn't it? And also it's tied up and we see it here and it's tied up for us too, although perhaps in a more distant way with the decrees of God. It's tied up with prophecy. It's tied up with all the things that the Lord is going to do because what God says is going to happen will happen. and the usual pattern that God has is that he plants things in the hearts of Christians that we pray for things that are within the will of God and they are brought about. God doesn't as it were if I'm saying this with respect snap his fingers and it's done he can choose to do that and he certainly spoke the word when it comes to creation but his normal work of bringing about providence is through the prayers of his dear people and indeed here God had decreed that Jerusalem would be rebuilt. He had already decreed, of course, that the people would return, and this was still a part of a long-term process. And he is using the prayer of Nehemiah to bring about what he wants to achieve in the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. So God moved Nehemiah to this key job. He moved that this particular king should be there at the time and that this particular king, as you can see in the next chapter, is receptive to the prayer of Nehemiah and to the answer to Nehemiah's prayers. And we can say tonight that it is no accident that God has placed you where he has. The people you met last week were not by accident. One has said there are no accidents with God. There are only purposes. Your gifts, your talents, your prosperity, your education is of his making. What we have to ascertain daily is what do we do with that? The influence that you have is not by accident, no more than Nehemiah's was. That influence may be within your family, bringing up children. It may be within a business or a neighborhood. Nehemiah had a position, he had some prosperity, he had a measure of power and influence, all were brought about by the providence of God. And all of it was at God's disposal. And that's a challenge for us tonight, isn't it? It is all that we've got at God's disposal. Well, you say, well, the Lord can take anything. Yes, he can come and take it. But do we offer it to the Lord? Is it there for him to take? So what have we looked at so far? First of all, we need to be affected in our hearts when we see the state of things around us. And when we look at the things today, the walls are down and things are burnt down, the gates are burnt, and we do see a terrible situation in our land. Secondly, that our natural reaction should be to go to prayer. Then thirdly, looked at the pattern of prayer that Nehemiah had. Perhaps that's something we could look at in more detail in our private quiet times. And then very briefly, we just touched on the providence of God, that God brings about his providential decrees by the prayers of God's people. So a little bit of application, we've made some as we've gone through. Let's seek to be sensitive. Sensitive to the things of God. To have a Christ-like sensitivity. To feel in our hearts the sorrow that Christ would feel as he looks around and sees the state of the church and the state of the world. Can't switch that on, no more than we can switch on a love for sinners. And that might be it. The first prayer that we have before we pray in this way is to say, Lord, give me that sensitivity. Lord, cause me to have such a love for sinners that my eyes do flow with tears for them, that I might feel these things. I know pastor says the Bible says we need to pray for sinners, but there's one thing to pray for sinners because the Bible says so. It is another thing to pray for sinners because the Bible says so and the Spirit of God touches my heart that I plead for them at the throne of God, that I might have the same compassion that Christ had. That might be our prayer for the coming week. And then by application too, we need to be in the right place, don't we? To seek him for the right things in prayer. In other words, we need to be in tune to God, to know what to seek. The Lord has a great plan. He had a great plan for Israel. Nehemiah was going to be a part of it. My friends, the Lord has a great plan for this world, for this nation, for this church. We are all part of that plan. We don't know which part it is. It may be a very small part, but we're a part of the plan of God somewhere. Let's reflect on Nehemiah's prayer, perhaps in our private time. perhaps particularly to think, well, am I out of balance when I pray? I'm always asking God for things, but I don't really stop to praise him. Or maybe I'm quoting lots of scripture and praising God, but I don't actually plead with him for things. And then finally, we could ask tonight, are we, or do we have a part in these things? You see, there were still those who had settled in Babylon. They wouldn't go back. Because they were quite comfortable. They'd never been to Jerusalem. And why would they want to go there if the walls are down and the gates are burnt? Quite comfortable now in Babylon. I was born here. I've got my family here. It's a two-month journey to go back to Jerusalem. I'm quite happy they chose not to return. And that's a bit of a picture of the gospel, isn't it? As we hear the gospel, we hear that Christ died for sinners. We need the Lord to make us to turn, don't we? To leave that old life, to be willing to follow him, to seek those gifts of repentance and faith. You see, the people who are not spoken about here, the people that were in Babylon that we don't get a lot of mention of, who just stayed there, they were born and they lived and they died and that was about it really. You don't want to be a people that's born and lived and died and goes off to judgment. We want to be a people of God. We want to be a people that in eternity it can be written that this man was born here, this was done and that was done, not to our glory, but for the glory of God. I think I might have quoted this in a meeting during the week, but I was speaking to a man in a village week before last, I think, and I'm sure I mentioned this, but I'm going to mention it again. And he said to me, he's a truck driver, and he drives not just trucks day by day, but he's got a show truck. And I've seen it, it's a great big red thing and it is a beautiful beast as it were. He said, I've got an appointment to go down to Essex and he's going down to my old town. So I took a bit of notice going down to Raleigh. He said, I've got a job. He said, I'm going to a funeral. I said, you're going to go in a lorry? He says, well I'm being paid to go. He said, I'm taking a coffin on the back of the lorry. He doesn't put the trailer on, it just fits, they've got a special attachment, it fits on the back of the lorry, and they get a number of bookings to take coffins to funeral. And we discussed different things that he'd been involved in, what people want for funerals and things, and just interested to chat that through. And then I made the point, I said, you know, it's really sad that people make so much trouble and arrangements and novelty, as it were, for a half-hour occasion where they're not even going to know what's going to happen. when they make no provision for all eternity. And I know this man reasonably well, as it were, and he said, yeah. But his eyes were saying, I don't know what you're talking about. Well, I pray perhaps the Lord would take that. But you see, we prepare for all sorts of things, but we need to prepare for eternity. And Nehemiah, in the little work that he did, it was actually a great work when we see what he got up to, but in the work that he did, it was all a part of preparing for eternity. He was a man of God, and that's where we need to be, to seek the Lord, to be men and women ready for eternity and serving the Lord. And there is nothing, nothing more important than that in this world. May the Lord so help us. Amen.