Nehemiah: Rebuilder of the Broken

If you brought your Bibles today, I want you to turn to two passages: Hebrews chapter 11 and Nehemiah chapter 1.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention Nehemiah 1 · chapter mention

A New Testament and an Old Testament passage.

Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, if you need some direction there.

Hebrews 11 and Nehemiah 1.

We're in a series called Heroes.

And we've been looking each week, we've been presenting individuals whose heroic acts are a part of the heritage of our faith.

The first week, Pastor Dave Smith talked about our hero John the Baptist.

He made himself no issue in order that Jesus Christ could become the issue in people's lives.

And then last week, Pastor Preston talked about Noah, a man who, in the in the midst of a crazy situation, he made a decision of obedience that led to the deliverance for himself and his family and for mankind.

And today I want to talk to you about my hero, Nehemiah.

Now we've defined hero in this way.

A hero is an ordinary person who does extraordinary things.

Everyone in this room has the potential of being heroic in our behavior.

I think that a hero, if I were to expand on that, I would say a hero is someone whose action has such impact that it changes the course of a life or a group.

Or it's someone who applies their abilities and resources without consideration of personal risk to make a dramatic difference.

Now I don't know about you, but uh, as I've been thinking about this message today, but also just the series, it's taken me back to my childhood hero.

And uh, of course, I'm coming up on 60, so uh my childhood hero wasn't Thor or Captain America.

Uh it was Superman.

I mean, who wouldn't want to be faster than a speeding bullet?

Able to stop a locomotive, more powerful than a locomotive.

Uh I mean, come on, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound.

There's only one problem with this, and this is what I realized when we started doing this series.

That's a romantic idea of a hero.

Superman never lived.

Superman wasn't real.

Uh there's some nice concepts and some things that I can I can take, but what we've been looking at week after week is real people.

The heroes of the Bible lived on this earth.

They breathed air like we do, they ate and slept like we do.

They are real people, ordinary people in that sense, and because they said yes to God, they have done extraordinary things.

Now, just to prove what I'm saying, or maybe as a demonstration of it, if you're there in Hebrews 11, let's read about it, verse 32.

And what more shall I say?

For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put armies to flight.

Ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

Women, verse 38, received their dead by resurrection.

Some were tortured, refusing to accept release so that they might rise again to a better life.

Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment.

The Bible is filled with real people, ordinary people, who said yes to God, and as a result of saying yes, they did extraordinary things.

A life lived in obedient response to God is a heroic life and leads to extraordinary acts.

We can't measure the impact of our acts in the moment that we're doing them.

They're only looked back on.

But I can tell you today, you have the potential of being a heroic person based on real people that lived and responded to God.

Now, uh, the reason Nehemiah is my hero is because he's a rebuilder of the broken.

That's what I've titled this message, Nehemiah, a rebuilder of the broken.

We live today in a society with people all around, circumstances, people are hurting, things are broken and need to be repaired.

We need some Nehemiah-type heroes to rebuild the brokenness in our lives and society today.

Now, uh the book of Nehemiah is 13 chapters, and uh I would recommend, if you want some quiet time reading, that you do a little study in Nehemiah.

The things that we're going to talk about today, I'm going to give you a kind of an overview of and draw some principles from, but the whole book is a spectacular book.

The book opens, Nehemiah, the children of Israel were in captivity.

Nehemiah is a prisoner of war, and he's serving Artaxerxes the king.

He's a cupbearer to the king.

Nehemiah did what God put in his heart to do.

That's the story of Nehemiah.

And God did amazing things through his life.

That's the summary of Nehemiah.

And the reason, Nehemiah not only built the walls of Jerusalem, he restored the spiritual vitality of the lives of people who lived there so that God could once again bless their life.

So here's the question: what does it take to become a hero like Nehemiah?

That's the question I have for us.

I, if I could say, if I could write my epitaph today, if I could say, what would I like my life to count for at the end of my life?

I would like to be a man like Nehemiah.

I'd like to be a rebuilder of the broken, a healer to those that are hurting in situations.

And we all know them.

We all know people, situations, circumstances.

We may be living in a situation that's broken right now.

And we need a heroic act in obedience to God in order to put the brokenness back together that we encounter.

Well, here's the first thing.

If we're going to be a hero like Nehemiah, we need to have an outside focus.

If you're in Nehemiah 1, let's read verse 1.

Now it happened in the month of Cheselev, in the 12th year, that I was in Susa, the citadel, and Han and I, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah.

And I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped who had survived the exile concerning Jerusalem.

Okay, so just get the picture.

This group is traveling through.

They come to the place where Nehemiah is a prisoner of war, serving in the king's court, and he finds out they've come through the Israel, come through that area of Palestine.

And he says, Well, tell me, tell me what's going on with the exiles.

Tell me what is happening there, and how is Jerusalem?

Now, think about this for your own life.

Have you ever asked a question that began you on a journey?

It might have been an innocent question.

You ask somebody how they're doing, you ask how their business is, how their physical life is, how their kids are doing.

You ask a simple question, and that simple question explodes something of concern and care, compassion in your life.

This is what happened for Nehemiah.

Tell me how the exiles are doing.

Tell me how the how Jerusalem is doing.

A simple question leads him on a journey to an extraordinary experience.

Now, I I don't think that the question was a polite question.

You know how we are sometimes when people uh come along our way and you say, Hey, how you doing?

Have you ever asked somebody that?

You know, hey, how you doing?

You don't care how you're doing, it's a way of greeting him.

Hey, you know, they said, I'm terrible.

Oh, that's great.

See ya.

No.

I don't think it was a polite question that Nehemiah was asking.

I think it was a sincere question.

Uh, if it would have been uh a polite question, his response might have been like this, you know, oh man, that's too bad.

I remember how beautiful Jerusalem was.

I remember that with fond memories, my experiences there in Jerusalem, oh man, it's just a shame that I remember my friends growing up, he would have reflected on things in the past and then moved on to his current life.

I'm comfortable in the king's palace and I'm a cupbearer to the king, and it's unfortunate that they're in that situation, but too bad.

See, an outside focus doesn't take into consideration who we are or where we are at the moment.

It looks at the condition around us, the condition we're confronted with, and said, What can I can what can I do?

with compassionate care.

When these men answered Nehemiah's question, it created for Nehemiah what I call uh a Popeye moment.

You know what that is?

For those of you that don't remember Popeye, it used to be Popeye's a character, cartoon character, and he used to get beat up by Bluto.

And he would get to a place, having been just annihilated by Bluto, that he would say, That's all I can stand, I can't stand no more.

And then he would pull out of his shirt a can of spinach, open the top, suck it down his pipe, and then this this weakling, mealy-mouthed guy that had been beat up, all of a sudden becomes his powerhouse.

We arrive at a Popeye moment when we ask a simple question.

How are you doing?

How are your kids?

Tell me what you're dealing with, with your physical life.

And as they unfold it, compassionate care rises up within us, and we say, that's all I can stand.

I can't stand anymore.

You need help, and I'm gonna be the one that I'm gonna step forward.

I hear God stirring something in my heart.

That's what happened with Nehemiah.

Now look in verse 3, because in the answer they said a couple of things that really stirred him.

They said to him, the remnant there in the providence who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame.

These two words, trouble and shame, are something that I think we experience when we ask the question to our family members, co-workers, friends.

So, how are you doing?

Well, I'm in great trouble and shame.

The word trouble there means anything causing pain or distress or calamity.

Do you know somebody that's in pain?

Distress or calamity today?

Nehemiah becomes burdened simply by two words in the response.

They're in trouble.

They're suffering.

Isaiah 26, 16 says this, O Lord, in distress they sought you.

They poured out a whispered prayer when you did when uh your discipline was upon them, like a pregnant woman who writhes and cries out in her pangs when she is near to giving birth.

So were we because of you, O Lord.

We were pregnant, we writhed, but we gave birth to wind.

We've complicated it, we've accomplished no deliverance in the earth, and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.

He what he's mourning is this.

He tried everything.

The statement was in the in the middle of difficult sick circumstances, distress and pain, they tried everything they knew and they couldn't do it.

Do you know somebody that they, if you talk to them, maybe they poured out their heart to you and they said, I don't know what to do.

I've tried everything.

I I've I've come to church, I've prayed, I've sung, I I don't know, I've tried everything I know to do, I don't know what to do.

They need a hero.

They need an ordinary person to do an extraordinary thing in their life.

Romans 2 9 says this there will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and the Greek also.

God shows no partiality.

Jesus said it this way in John 16, 33.

I have said these things to you that in me you may have peace.

In the world you'll have tribulation, suffering, trouble.

In the world you'll have tribulation, but take heart.

I have overcome the world.

When someone is in distress, when they're in trouble, what they don't need is a judgmental finger pointed in their face that said, Well, you kind of made your own bed.

Why don't you lie in it a while?

What they need is a hero to step forward and say, I'm just an ordinary person and I don't know what to do, but I'm gonna work with you, I'm gonna come alongside you, and I will take up the mantle of your distress.

Shame was the other thing that was mentioned.

The biblical concept of shame is basically that of humiliation due to sin.

When I was early in my pastoral ministry, I used to think that part of my responsibility as a pastor was to make sure that people didn't get into sin, or if they were in sin, that they got out of sin.

And so I began to try and apply pressure when I thought they were doing the wrong thing.

I would apply pressure.

I would move them or attempt to move them to the right place, and uh, I'd have to say, mostly with little success.

We individuals make choices, and that choice, the choices we make have consequences, and if they're sinful choices, shame is the result.

It's not because God hates you, not because God's mad at you or judging you.

Sin has its own penalties.

Shame was upon the the exiles and upon the city, Jerusalem, because of sinful choices that they had made.

Hosea 4 and verse 6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

Because you've rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me.

And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will forget your children.

The more they increase, the more they sinned against me, I will change their glory into shame.

Sin has its own penalties.

Proverbs 14, 34, righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.

No one in this room today was further away from being a hero than Nehemiah was that day.

A prisoner of war, a cupbearer to the king.

He had no status, he had no standing, he simply was being moved with compassion and care about a situation that was taking place.

It's interesting, his name, the word Nehemiah, means the Lord comforts.

Is there somebody in your life today that's in a distressful, shameful situation?

And what they need is the Lord's comfort.

They need a hero today.

Are you in a Popeye moment?

Is there something stirring in you that you need to respond to?

When our family, our personal life, or circumstances are broken or in confusion or chaos, it's most likely most likely the reflection of some spiritual condition that needs help.

It needs a hero to step forward.

Where brokenness exists, a hero is needed.

Someone willing to risk position and reputation as Nehemiah was to step forward.

It takes an outside focus in order to be a hero.

Here's the second thing.

It takes faith.

A foundation of faith.

It's the urging of a response.

When things have come into our life, we ask a simple question, the answer we get stirs compassion, care, uh, moves us toward an action.

We need a foundation of faith as we move forward.

Nehemiah chapter 1 and verse 4 there.

Nehemiah 1 · chapter mention

As soon as I heard these words, I sat down and wept, mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

Faith grows like a plant, a seed that gets planted of something that God needs to do.

It may start with a statement like this that says, somebody ought to do something about that.

Why is this condition existing?

Why are they allowed to carry on like this?

Somebody ought to make a difference.

And all of a sudden there's a little stirring in our heart.

Grief turns us inward to start praying, God, would you make a difference?

God, would you do something?

God, would you reach out?

And I don't know about you, but sometimes when I've been stirred like this, my first response is no, not me.

Somebody else needs to do this, not me.

I'm too busy.

I've got other things to do.

I I'm not I'm not the one.

And a no, as God begins to work in my life and and begins, faith begins to move and generate from a seed to a little plant, from a plant to a stalk, and then to bear fruit, it moves from a no to a maybe.

Oh maybe.

Maybe I'm supposed to do something.

And then it grows a little more and maybe turns into, well, probably it's me.

Probably I need to do something.

And then that probably turns into, okay, I will.

Are you in a faith-growing moment?

And the reason I ask this question is I think sometimes we're we're in a moment and we feel, we're made to feel guilty because as faith is growing, we we we don't want to act prematurely, but we don't want to get stuck in the middle when God is saying something to us.

Are you stuck today?

Has God been stirring your heart?

Have you been moved by a condition or a circumstance to that Popeye moment and then you go, I don't know, I don't know.

And and you know, if I sleep on it for three or four days, maybe it'll go away.

No.

Let it go.

Let your no be moved to a maybe.

Let your maybe today be moved to a probably.

And if you're a probably move from probably to yes, Lord, I will.

If God's stirring your heart, it takes a foundation of faith.

Now turn over to chapter two of Nehemiah and look what happened.

Because when our faith begins to be stirred, it moves us to a response that pushes everything in.

Verse 2 of Nehemiah chapter 2.

Nehemiah 2 · chapter mention

Well, the king said to me, Why is your face sad, seeing you're not sick?

This is nothing but sadness of heart.

Then I was very much afraid.

Nehemiah went, Oh no.

He knew that sadness before the king was a life-threatening situation.

If it made the king upset, if it was a bad day, if he and he made brought gloom into the king's presence, it could cost him his life.

I said to the king, let the king live forever.

Why should not my face be sad when the city, watch him, he's pushing it all in, the place of my father's graves lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire.

If he kills me, he kills me.

I'm all in.

And what the king says is, What do you need, Nehemiah?

Nehemiah saw something that we need to grab for ourselves.

He saw that his position, his place of influence, his place was not a place of comfort.

It was not a place of personal benefit, it was a place of influence.

He used his position as cupbearer and his voice into the king to ask for the help that the burden of his life required.

What influence do you have today?

What faith has been building that if you use the platform of your influence, you could actually move something forward?

Nehemiah saw more than a city with broken walls and people who were in suffering and shame.

He saw spiritual brokenness.

Is there an urging today in your heart to act?

It's that urging of faith.

If we're going to be a hero like Nehemiah was a hero, we have to have an outside focus.

We have to have a foundation of faith that urges us to act.

Because let me just say we're not talking about uh good deeds.

You can do good deeds apart from God.

I'm talking about life-changing, eternal impacting things.

Those are done in response, in obedient response to God.

Here's the third thing.

If we're going to be a hero like Nehemiah, we need faithful actions with unwavering resolve.

Turn to chapter 6 there.

As this story unfolds, Nehemiah, he says to the king, I need some help.

When the king says, What do you need?

He says, Well, I need some resources.

The king says, Okay, here's a pass for all the king's treasury, for the money, the forests.

You can have what you need to rebuild.

I need protection.

Okay, I'll send some army with you.

He finds favor with the king and the resources that he needs in order to fulfill God's purpose.

He didn't get it beforehand.

He got it when he risked everything and pushed everything in.

And so we come to Nehemiah chapter 6.

Nehemiah 6 · chapter mention

The work has begun.

All excited, can you imagine?

Maybe you felt this as well.

You say yes to God, you begin to move forward, and doors begin to open, confirmation begins to take place, and then all of a sudden, boom, you hit a brick wall.

It's like, what?

What happened here?

I thought God was in this.

We need unwavering resolve.

Verse 1, chapter 6.

Now when Sanbalad and Tobiah and Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies heard that I built the wall and that there was no breach left in it, although up till that time I had not set the doors in the gates, Sanbalad and Geshem sent to me, saying, Come, let us meet together at Hepkeparum in the plain of Ono.

And I wonder if that was Onoh or Oh no.

But they intended to do me harm.

Listen to me.

We need unwavering resolve to accomplish the things that God has called us to.

And what we need to realize is the purpose of God in our life has enemies.

Enemies that won't go away.

It would be easier if the enemies of God would show up in a pointy tail and a pitchfork and a red suit.

We go, I know who you are.

This was San Balad and Tobiah.

People in the land.

I imagine they were people that kind of came alongside and said, Hey, Nehemiah, good job.

Man, we've been waiting for somebody to come along.

Way to go.

But Nehemiah knew, and their encouragement wasn't real encouragement.

Hepkeparum, that place, is really comes from two Hebrew words.

The first word means to cover or hide.

It came to indicate the covering over of sin that was accomplished by the Jewish sacrifice.

By extension, it referred to a ransom or the price of a life.

The second Hebrew word was a word that was translated young lion.

And we don't know exactly what was done, what function took place at Hebkeperim.

It might have been a place where the remains of sacrificial animals were discarded.

It could have been a place that was inhabited by wild animals.

The name is significant.

The enemies of God's work in Nehemiah's life sought to draw him to an isolated place, thinking that it was going to be a good thing.

Let's just draw away and talk about this, Nehemiah.

Let's talk and hear what God is saying.

And the intention was to lull him to sleep in a compromise and then disqualify him from God's work.

They wanted to get him to a secluded place and quietly dispose of him.

They were the wild animals and he was the sacrifice.

Is someone calling you to hepkeparum?

Hey, come away.

Hey, no one will know.

Hey, we need to talk to you about this.

Nehemiah's response was, the work I'm doing is too great.

I can't be pulled away.

Just realize that the enemy will disrupt the purpose of God in our life by complacency.

Inviting us to an isolated place, convincing us that risky and dangerous things around us won't hurt us.

No stage of progress in God's assignment for our life will bring rest from the enemy's attempt to disqualify us, distract us, or stop the work.

1 Peter 5 8 says this be sober-minded, be watchful.

Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

Are you in a compromised place today?

Or are you in a place of unwavering resolve?

I'm going to stay here, I'm going to accomplish what God said, and He's going to provide, and no enemy will stop me.

We have a work too important to do.

That was Nehemiah's statement.

You see a need or a burden, a concern around you today?

Like Nehemiah, if we'll get involved and use our influence to serve God, say yes to Him, we'll be surprised.

No, we'll be shocked.

Even more than that, we'll be amazed at what God will do through our ordinary life to do something extraordinary.

Would you bow your heads and let me just ask you a question we ask every week here at Gateway?

What's the Holy Spirit saying to you?

It's simple, really.

We only want you to make a response to God.

Maybe in this message, uh, God's been speaking to you, a word caught your attention, and and uh you've been thinking something entirely different than the direction of this message.

It's okay.

If God's been speaking to you, will you say yes to him?

Maybe, maybe there's something been stirring, maybe there's this just comes as a confirmation to some things in your life.

Will you say yes to God?

If you're here today and you've never made a commitment of your life to Christ, will you allow Jesus Christ to wash away your sins, remove the shame that comes with those, and would you put Him as the leading place, first position in your life today?

In a minute, I'm gonna pray, and after we pray, our our ministry team is gonna come down here and we're gonna come back into one song of worship.

Just a response.

Maybe you need to stay right there in your chair and close your eyes and say yes to God.

Maybe you need somebody to agree with you.

And you need to come down here.

If you're in the upper level, there'll be people by the exits that you can go to and pray, or you could come down here.

The point is, if you have a need today, we want to pray with you.

Would you just say yes to God?

Let God do his work in your life.

Father, we thank you.

We thank you, Lord, for your presence.

We thank you, Holy Spirit, that you speak specifically into the circumstances of our life.

And for every person, Lord, who is being stirred with some situation of concern, Lord, would you clarify that for them?

Lord, would you move them to a place of no to maybe to probably to yes in you today?

Lord, would you give us unwavering resolve as we serve you in the assignments that you've given?

And would you enable us, ordinary people, to do extraordinary things for your kingdom?

In Jesus' name.