All right, good evening everyone. Trust you've had a good day and that your week is going well. Always good to be in the Lord's house, always grateful for the opportunity to gather with God's people for our time of Bible study and then of course for the time of corporate prayer, which is very important as well. Let's ask the Lord's blessing on our time together tonight. Father, we thank you for the opportunity we have to gathered together in your house. Thank you, Father, for the many blessings that we do indeed enjoy at your hand. Lord, your mercy, your grace. Father, we thank you for all that you have done, and we thank you for all that you promise to do, and we trust that we would always live for your glory and honor. Father, we ask that you would help us tonight to learn from your word, You'll be challenged by it. And Father, I trust that you'll bless our time of prayer. May it be sweet and Christ-honoring. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. We won't say what the number is. But it's the number that's repeated twice. A number that's repeated twice. So you can kind of figure 22, 33, 44. Double nickels. There you go. Alright. We're in the book of Nehemiah tonight. Nehemiah. Surprise, right? We finished Ezra last time. Last year. we began looking at the post-exile experiences of God's people. And so we began by looking at two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, who were called to minister to that first generation of returnees to the land, who had successfully rebuilt the altar, which was good, that was the first thing they did, They put the foundations in for the temple, and then they got busy with life. And so we talked about the challenges, Haggai came along, and then a few months later, so they were actually contemporaneous with each other, Zechariah came along, and through their ministry to God's people, the temple was finished. Then we move to Ezra, because again, in the timeline, Ezra came along about 80 years, approximately 456, 458 B.C. So it was roughly about 80 years after the first group had come back. So we talked about his ministry. He gave a little bit of the history in the first part of his book and then of course what happened when he and a much smaller group returned to the land. Now we come to Nehemiah and Nehemiah is the next book that we have in series in the Bible. Nehemiah is a contemporary of Ezra, so we're going to read about Ezra as we study through the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah is coming on the scene approximately 12 years or so, 444 BC. So that's easy to remember, right? 444. Not an attorney's phone number, don't want to confuse you, but 444 BC is that date that we would associate with the beginning of his ministry that led to really some major steps forward in terms of Jerusalem and Judea, in terms of the physical needs of that place and the spiritual needs of that place. And so we want to unpack, if you will, what is in the book of Nehemiah. Now, I'm going to give you what my own title for the book of Nehemiah is. I'm sure you'll find others that have their own titles. But when I think of Nehemiah, I think about moved to action. Here's a man who was moved to action. He wasn't satisfied to see the need and do nothing. He saw what was necessary. And as we're going to be noting tonight, it moved him to prayer. And then God called him to be the answer to his own prayer. Interesting how that works out, isn't it? And so we have a gentleman who was moved to action. He did something. He didn't just say those poor people over there in Jerusalem. He did something. And we want to note not only what He did, that's important, but for our purposes and for the application, as we study through this book, we're looking to see, okay, what does that mean to us today? What does this mean to me personally? What am I supposed to take from this that should affect the way that I live my life today? And hopefully, we will be able to glean some principles that will aid us in our own walk with the Lord. I'm gonna read the first chapter. There are only 11 verses, so it's not overly long. But I think this is important as we establish the context of the book. And so we find in Nehemiah 1, verse 1, the words of Nehemiah, the son of Hekeliah, and it came to pass in the month of Chislew in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace, that Anani, one of the brethren, came. He and certain men of Judah. And I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity and concerning Jerusalem. And they said unto me, the remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem also is broken down and the gates thereof are burned with fire. And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and more in certain days, and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven, and said, I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him, and observe his commandments. Let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee, both I and my Father's house have sinned. We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses. Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandest thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations. But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them, though there be of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there. Now, these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power and by thy strong hand. O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, unto the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name. And prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man, for I was the king's cup-bearer. We can begin tonight with an assumption that I think is true for everyone here, and that is the simple fact that we all want to be used of God. Is that fair to say? Wouldn't we all tonight, would you in your own heart of hearts before the Lord say, Lord, I want to be used by you to bring glory to your name." Now, the added assumption there is that you know Jesus Christ is your Savior, that you've trusted in His shed blood to cover your sins. You can't serve the Lord until you've done that. So, that's a given. I think, again, that's true of those of us here tonight. If you've done that, the Bible is very clear. As we're studying through the book of 1 Peter, when we get into chapter 4, we've touched upon verses 10 and 11 in the past, that in the manifold grace of God, He has given gifts, He has given talents, He has given abilities to every one of His redeemed people. God has gifted each one of us and we are to exercise that gift. I think most often there's more than one gift, but whatever. If you only have one gift, you're to use that gift, that talent in service to Him. And so, when we come to the book of Nehemiah, it is with acknowledgement that yes, I am a child of God, and yes, I know that God in His divine providence has given to me something that He has gifted me with that I can do for Him, and I am yielding my gift to Him. So whatever it is that God has chosen to use me to accomplish, Lord, here I am. And I'm yielding myself to you for your service. And really, isn't it a great blessing when you see the Almighty God in His providence using you in some capacity to serve the Lord Jesus Christ? Isn't it encouraging? to know that God not only can, we know He can, but that He desires to use every one of His saints, every one of His children. He desires to use us in service in some way, in some manner. And the beautiful part of that, or at least another beautiful part of it is, we're not in competition with each other. Serving the Lord is not that I do more than the next guy or that I do better than the next guy. It's that I use the talent, the gift that God has given me to the best of my ability to honor him. And God won't hold me accountable for whether I am as gifted as somebody else. I was walking a family through the school on Monday. and was talking to one of the boys in this family, you know, you have a choice, you can have music, you can have art, art. Oh, you want art? Yes, I like art. Oh, good for you. I like art, but art doesn't like me, and so I was teasing him about some of us, you know, we wish we could say we like art, but not everybody is gifted to actually make something that looks good, right? But somebody who has that ability can make it look so easy because they can exercise that gift. We're not all going to be judged on the giftedness to say we were, you know, Michelangelo's or, you know, you name some artist. It's that whatever gift God gave you, you can use that gift to bring honor to Him. And that should be true for all of us. It should be our desire. But there's more to serving God than just talking about it. It's easy to talk about, right? Oh yes, I want to serve the Lord. Great! But it should go beyond simply the saying, the acknowledgement. The Bible says that we are to love not in word only, but in deed and in truth. And if I could borrow from that, our service is to be not in word only, but in deed and in truth. Now it may involve words, surely, verbally seeking to be a blessing, to encourage, to build up, to edify, But there is action. It's not just words. It's what can I do? So God wants to use each one of us. He wants to use each one of us. But here's what we have to understand. To use us means that he is developing us. we are being molded into the likeness of our Lord Jesus Christ. We talk about sanctification, right? The work that God is doing within each one of us, drawing us closer to Himself, taking care of the rough edges, if you will, rubbing them off, which It's a process of friction, so it's not always a pleasant experience, but we know on the other end, as we go through trials, James chapter one, we let trials have their perfect work. We come out being perfect and entire, wanting nothing. That's how God matures us. That's how God is able to develop us as we go through the varied circumstances of life. And as that happens, we become more usable to him. That's the beauty of it. I may not wish to go through a trial, but I can have joy when I go through different kinds of trials. Again, James chapter one, because I know God is using that in my life to make me more usable to him. He is developing me. so that in my service for Him, I can be more fruitful. I can accomplish more things, greater things for having gone through that particular circumstance. So God wants to use every one of us. He is developing us as His children, sanctifying us, molding us, shaping us. And as He does that, He is making us usable to Him. Now, I say that as we come now back to the book of Nehemiah. When we look at the life of Nehemiah, we are going to gain a picture, if you will, of the qualities necessary for service and for leadership. And leadership could be defined in many different ways. I think perhaps the most basic definition is influence. we can influence others as we serve the Lord. We can influence others that they will also choose. to serve the Lord. That the greatest leadership that I can have is encouraging someone else to exercise their gifts, their talents, their abilities in service to the Lord. So it's not leadership in the sense of, I'm the boss, you do what I say. Because truth is, we don't want other believers to do something because they're told to do it. We want them to grow in Christ where they choose to serve the Lord out of the willingness of their own hearts, that it's something they want to do. And I think in terms of Christian leadership, Some of us have better organizational abilities than others. So some may be able to, from an organizational standpoint, lead better than others, but that doesn't mean that they're leading in a biblical sense better than the guy who's not as organized. I hope you understand what I mean by that. Not downplaying organization, but I'm saying leadership is influence. And we're going to see Nehemiah as he influences the people the men, the women, the children, some of whom have been there for 90 years by the time he gets there. But his influence upon them is positive. So we're gonna note these qualities. There are two broad sections to the book of Nehemiah. The first seven chapters are focused on rebuilding, physically rebuilding Jerusalem. And we know that that centers upon the wall It's necessary for the physical city itself to be rebuilt, the walls. Beginning in verse eight through the rest of the book is also rebuilding, but it's not rebuilding of physical walls, it's rebuilding of people. And so the second half of the book is talking about the importance of the leadership that Nehemiah has brought and this is where we see Ezra who's now been there for some 12, 13 years. Ezra now is partnering with Nehemiah and they are impacting the people of their day. So, Nehemiah, excuse me, has arrived. I say arrived, it's around 444 BC when the events in this book began and of course they're gonna stretch over that 44 into 45 BC. So it's about 13 years roughly after Ezra returned. Nehemiah is a great leader whom God uses to pull off a phenomenal feat. He instilled a vision. When Nehemiah came along, he instilled a vision in God's people that they could rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Now, I think we have to, and we'll talk more about this as we work our way through this, but in our introduction tonight, remember when that first group came back in 538 BC, And they have the altar, they lay the foundations, then they get busy and it's 520 BC when Haggai and Zechariah come along. So they've been there now, it was 18 years before when they started back and they were there for about 16 years after they finished laying the foundation and they've done nothing. Nehemiah comes along, and I'm using this simply as a contrast. Nehemiah comes along with his burden and instills a vision, and they rebuild the walls. Now, how long do you think it would take to rebuild walls around a city? I mean, isn't that kind of a big task? Rebuilding doesn't mean they just patch them up. It means taking the stones that were not left one upon another and putting them back on top of one another. And all the while having to also, as we're going to be studying, a trowel in one hand and a sword in the other. Because they weren't doing this with no pressure. They had threats from those people groups around them that said, we're not gonna let you do this. It took them 52 days. Now, I just want you to think about that. They accomplished rebuilding those walls in 52 days in an environment where they're not just focused on the work because they also have to be ready to fight. It is almost mind-boggling to think they could have done that. Nehemiah's leadership. God used Nehemiah to influence these people to believe not only is it God's will that we do this, but it's His will that we get started and we work hard. If anybody could have made an excuse to, you know, we'll do some work here when we're not working out in the fields. You know, they could have easily justified stretching it out. That's what happened for 16 years before they rebuilt the temple. They didn't do that. They put their shoulder to the plow. They got busy. So the temple had been rebuilt for about 70 years by the time we get to Nehemiah. The walls were destroyed in 586 BC. It's now 444 BC, so 142 years before. For 142 years, these walls have been lying broken. It's not just something that happened a few years before. We're talking almost a century and a half later. Ezra chapter 4, we noted briefly that they had made an attempt to begin rebuilding, remember? And what happened in Ezra chapter 4 when they began to try to rebuild? You remember the pagan residents of the land got upset? They began to complain. They sent word to the king, Artaxerxes, about these people who were really just trying to rebel against him. And the king made a decree that said, that's it. Don't work on those walls. Don't rebuild Jerusalem. And so that's where things are when we come to Nehemiah 1. Nehemiah 1 is roughly November, December 444 BC. So it's in that late second half of November, early December. It would have been in that time frame in 444. Nehemiah just happens to be the cup bearer of the very same Artaxerxes who over a decade before had said, you can't work anymore on rebuilding Jerusalem. He had a conversation with his brother Hanani and some other men who had made a trip out to Jerusalem and then they had come back and Nehemiah inquires about the condition of the city and their response in verse 3, "...the remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach." The wall of Jerusalem also is broken down and the gates thereof are burned with fire." 142 years after the event. Is this new to Nehemiah? This is, I think, important for us to acknowledge. Did Nehemiah not know this already? Well, how could he not have already known this? He knew there was a problem, but Nehemiah was born in Babylon. His entire life has been served and lived in the Babylonian and now the Persian Empire. He has a place of responsibility. The king's cupbearer is someone who is very trusted by the king. Why does the king have a cupbearer? Yeah, because the king knows there are people out to get me and one of the ways they're going to get me is to put poison in my drink. So I want this guy to drink it first. If he can drink it and he doesn't fall over dead, okay, then it must be alright. So he's got to have a lot of confidence in Nehemiah. So Nehemiah by the providential hand of God is in a place where potentially he might be able to make a difference. But is there any way the king's cupbearer could have anticipated the events that will spread out? We all know what's in the book of Nehemiah. Is there any way that Nehemiah could have orchestrated the events that we see as we get into chapter two when he makes his request No. He couldn't have orchestrated this. There's no way that he could have known that this is what was going to happen. All he knows is, he's heard about the troubles in Jerusalem, but now he has a first-hand account. Up until now, this is why I think this is important, up until you get to verse 3, I think, just giving you my opinion, reading in here, all right? I think that Nehemiah, like we sometimes do, would hear that there's a problem, but you know, it's kind of like way over there. I don't know it firsthand. I haven't seen it with my own eyes. It's almost unreal because if I'm not there to see it, how do I really know what it is? It's almost like gossip anyway. You know, people are telling stories and I don't really know whether that's true exactly that way or not. Those people, they're doing their best, I'm sure, and I'm doing my best. But now his brother comes along, who has been there, who's seen it with his own eyes, and his brother says, you know, they are in great affliction. And they are in reproach. And the walls are broken down. And hearing a first-hand account from his brother breaks his heart. And so we see in verse four his response to this. He was devastated, he wept, he mourned, he fasted, he prayed, he asked that God would do something to relieve the problems of those people in Jerusalem. He is moved, he is praying. And here's what I think is one of the important points that we want to take away tonight. Did God respond to his prayer? Book of Nehemiah, as it unfolds, is yes, God answered his prayer. God had those walls rebuilt. And he brought revival to the hearts of those people. But did God do that through someone else or through Nehemiah? Let me say it this way. When the Lord begins to burden your heart about some need in the body of Christ, you should be moved to pray. But don't be surprised. If in the process of truly, genuinely, sincerely seeking the face of God and praying that God doesn't say, you're right, I need to answer this prayer and I'm going to use you to be a part of the solution. That's what happened to Nehemiah. I'm not saying that that's gonna happen every time, but don't be surprised if God doesn't do something like that. So what we learn here is simply this, and this is really the uptake from what we get from this book. God uses someone who has a burden. You have to have a burden. If Nehemiah didn't care, There wouldn't be a book by his name in the Bible, right? I mean, he cared. He had a burden. That burden fed a vision. To put it another way, he saw what God wanted to have accomplished. His burden was that what God wanted, and was there any question but that God wanted Jerusalem to be rebuilt? I mean, we may be 142 years after the destruction. We may be, by the time you get to Nehemiah, coming into 90 plus years since that first group went back. But is there any doubt from a biblical standpoint that God ultimately wanted Jerusalem rebuilt? So Nehemiah saw and was burdened that something that he knew would please God and honor God and would be consistent with the will of God wasn't being done. He was burdened because this needs to happen. God, he prays, do something to help rebuild Jerusalem and to be with those people. So he's burdened, but it feeds a vision. Okay, it's gotta be rebuilt. We've gotta do this. I know this is God's will. My burden is that God's will be done. My vision is how can we do it? We want those walls rebuilt. And that vision led to a commitment. It's all focused on God's purpose. God's purpose, rebuild the walls. The vision, the walls are rebuilt. The commitment, I'm going to do everything I can to see that it's done. The purpose of God, the walls to be rebuilt. I'm going to do what I can to see them rebuilt. I'm making a commitment to do my part." So he saw the need, it burned his heart, he committed himself to see it through in spite of the difficulties. God uses those who have a burden. So it's very simple tonight. Do you have a burden? Perhaps there's a growing burden in your heart, something that you see that needs to be done. It could be some great work like rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, but it doesn't have to be a great work. Let me share two quick thoughts with you, and we'll pick back up on this next week, but I wanted to get these thoughts out to you. Talking about how we respond to a burden. Number one, don't let the intensity of the need paralyze you to do nothing. You know, sometimes we can look and say, man, there's so much that needs to be done. I cannot even begin to fix that problem. And what does little old me, the little bit that I can do isn't really going to affect that need at all. And I'm paralyzed, I do nothing. Don't allow yourself to see a need and be burdened by it and then do nothing because you feel like you're unable to do it. Can I tell you a little secret? You're absolutely right, you're not gonna be able to do it. But don't shorten the hand of God or the arm of God. Because God can use weak earthen vessels like you and me to accomplish great things for his name. So don't shorten the arm of God. Number two, the second point is don't commit yourself impetuously to something just because there's a need. I'm not really trying to be contradictory here, all right? What I'm saying is needs are endless. And I can look and see them and be paralyzed and do nothing, or I can make myself think that I can do it all. And what's going to happen if I somehow naively think that I can fix everything? I'm probably going to crash and burn. And then say, well, I tried and I couldn't make a difference. Let me say this. And we're going to build on this hopefully as we go forward. Wait on God in prayer. until he burns your heart with a particular need that you can do something about. We need souls saved. Absolutely, we should pray for souls to be saved. But you know, none of us is going to go out without the grace of God and lead anybody to Christ, let alone spark revival in Western New York. But you know, we can pray that God would give us one person, that he'd bring one person across our path. One divine opportunity. Could He do that? And I could pray for that. Not trying to fix everything, but what little bit I can. Let me close by this. I want you to note with me in chapter 2, verse 1. And it came to pass in the month Nisan in the 20th year of Artaxerxes the king, and then it goes on from there. What we find in chapter 1 verse 1 to chapter 2 verse 1 is four months. You know, when we read through it, we might be, you know, reading and especially because they're not our months. So we look at and see the month Chislew and then see the month Nisan. And in our minds, you know, we just brush right over that. But when we realize we're looking at November, December in chapter one, verse one, we're looking at March, April in chapter two, verse one. There's about a four month difference. What am I saying? He didn't just jump up and go try to do something. He prayed. He prayed for four months. And then God gave him a divine appointment. And when we get to chapter two, we're gonna talk about that divine appointment. He did what no man was supposed to do. He stood before the king of Persia and he did not look happy. You did not come in to the king's presence and not show joy on your face at being privileged to be in the king's presence. You didn't come and show a sad face. He did. Now whether he did that calculatedly or not, I doubt if he calculated to do that. I think it's just the burden of his heart was just so obvious on his face. But it was a divine appointment. And everything else that flows from this book is because of that incident with King Artaxerxes. but that wouldn't have happened if he hadn't been praying for four months. So my prayer is that the Lord would burden our hearts, that we would have a burden for lost souls, but for the work of Christ in general, and that as our hearts are burdened, the Lord would help us to gain a vision of what his purpose would be in a given area, and that we would then commit ourselves to do what we can by the grace of God to fix that particular need, to do what we can. Maybe we can't fix it, but we could be a part of the solution, right? So, that's kind of the big, over-broad look at the book of Nehemiah. My prayer is that God will use this. Still talking about post-captivity, post-exilic, you might see in some commentaries, but the principles are just as true for us today. 444 years ago, 2440, yeah, you got my point. Get tongue tied. Over 2400 years ago, there we go. But the principles are the same because they are no different than us. They're normal humans like you and me. We can learn from them. May God help us to learn and to carry a burden and to have a vision. and to be committed and be used by God to accomplish something for His name. Who knows what God can do through any one of us that gets this and says, Lord, I want to be a Nehemiah in my day. What could God do? He could do something wonderful. Let's close in prayer. Father, thank you for the opportunity we've had to begin a look at the book of Nehemiah. I pray, Father, that We will be encouraged as we see the example of this man. I pray we would be challenged as we realize that we may not have the exact position he had or be called to do the specific thing he did, but the principles that motivated him, that moved him our principles that have application to us today. Help us to make that application and help us, Father, to be a people who exercise the gifts you've given to us and that, Father, we would be a people who carry influence for you in other people's lives, other believers' lives, and even influencing unsaved people. that through us you might draw them to yourself. So, Father, we just thank you for your care, your provision. Thank you, Father, for our time here tonight. Use us, Lord, to bring honor to your own name. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.