Principles of Prayer

Well, hi everybody and welcome to this morning's online message in which we are continuing

with our studies in the book of Nehemiah.

And today we're thinking about Nehemiah's amazing prayer in chapter 1 and trying to

glean for ourselves what principles in prayer we might discover here that would help us

in our own walk with God today.

But before we dig into the text, why don't I pray for us?

Lord, thank you very much indeed for your word and we thank you that our Lord Jesus taught

that your word is truth and that your truth can set people like us free.

And so we ask, Father, even through this weird online medium of communication, that you would

send your Holy Spirit upon our hearers, Lord, that they might discern your truth and your

truth might indeed free them to be the people that you call them to be.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

I want to take as a text the very last half of the last verse of chapter 1, which is the

final petition of Nehemiah's prayer.

And Nehemiah prays these words.

Give your servant success today by granting him favour in the presence of this man.

So this man that Nehemiah refers to, we think, is King Artaxerxes I.

Some modern scholars have raised doubts and asked whether this was actually Artaxerxes II.

But I think that most scholars, and I'm not a scholar, but I certainly think that it probably

was Artaxerxes I, partly because it makes most sense of the implicit timeline of the Old Testament.

So Ezra the scribe goes back to Jerusalem first and restores the temple.

And then it's followed up by Nehemiah with his great quest to rebuild the walls around Jerusalem.

Some of you may be asking yourselves, and it's a great question in many ways, but the question

is something like this.

Why would I think that a book written 2,400 years ago or thereabouts would have anything

to say to me in my modern, sophisticated life in the 21st century?

I think that's a great question.

And I hope just to show you very briefly in my introduction now that in fact there are factors

around at the time of Nehemiah which are not dissimilar from some of the factors that exist now.

And in showing you these, I hope that you will think that Nehemiah might have something to

say to us.

And Nehemiah was credited, incidentally, with being the person who not only got Judaism into

some kind of recovery, but kind of set the tone of Judaism, which means it's lasted the

course and is here with us today, thank God.

So, Nehemiah was around at a time of real crisis for the Old Testament people of God.

They were in exile, their temple had been restored, they got news of this, but perhaps in a way

that we don't quite grasp.

The seriousness of the walls being at a demolished state was a massive problem at the time.

Nehemiah stopped the earth.

Why was that?

Well, it was because in those days a lot of regimes were very lawless.

They didn't think twice about slaughtering wholesale populations.

And a war around the city was a way of protecting, it was a barrier that meant that the city could prevail

when under attack.

So, of course, the reverse is true.

When the walls are broken down, the city is very vulnerable.

And as we'll see in a moment, Nehemiah is deeply moved when he gets the news that the walls are broken down.

Why would that be?

Because he understood the seriousness of it.

The big challenge of being in exile is the challenge of maintaining your kind of distinctive identity and culture

when you are in a land where the culture and identity is entirely different and based on entirely different principles.

The Old Testament people of God were monotheists.

They believed in one God.

The people of Assyria and the people of Persia were idolaters and they were what's called polytheists.

That is, they worshipped a range of different gods.

Sometimes those gods would be animals.

Sometimes, as we read in the early chapters of Daniel, they could be effigies of a king,

that the king in Daniel insisted that all the subjects should bow their knee to his effigy

and those who didn't would be dealt with harshly.

For instance, Daniel and his three friends who were put in the red-hot furnace for their disobedience.

The big deal is, in an environment where your culture is completely taken away and transplanted into another culture,

how do you retain your identity?

How do you retain your religious culture?

That was a massive question for those Jews in exile.

And you remember, there's a verse in the Psalms where the question is asked,

how should we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?

How do we retain our culture and our identity in this very strange place where people don't think like we do?

Well, of course, you've only got to say that to realise that our culture has changed and continues to change.

And a lot of those changes have been good changes, but some of them have been changes which have marginalised faith,

have certainly cut down the number of worshippers who worship in the 21st century.

And of course, as we've thought about before on our Sunday messages,

there's a good deal of anxiety around about following COVID.

Well, what will the church look like after that?

Will people come back?

Well, we really hope you will, but we don't know if you will just yet.

So the big issue for the church today is standing in the face of the tsunami of secularism

and strange ways of thinking to the minds of many biblical Christians.

How do we retain our identity and our culture when it seems like a lot of the policymakers

and decision makers in our country work with an entirely different set of assumptions

about what a civilised society would look like?

That's why I think the book of Nehemiah has something to offer us today,

because it's dealing with the whole issue of retaining kind of cultural identity.

And retaining cultural identity has always been important for Christians.

We've always felt from the days of the early church that the life we're called to lead

in Christ with God is a distinctive life.

It's different.

It's meant to be different.

So here we are.

Here's Nehemiah.

He's heard that the temple's been rebuilt and he gets news at the beginning of chapter one

that the walls are still in a state of demolition.

And what does he do?

Well, we're told in verse four,

When I heard these things, I sat down and wept.

For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.

I wonder when was the last time you were moved to tears by something in your life.

I mean, it might have been something, a great sadness.

It might have been a big disappointment.

It might have been a soppy movie on the TV or at the cinema.

What I mean is, when were you so moved with passion that you just broke down?

I remember years ago during the anti-Vietnam demonstrations,

and somebody had a placard in one of the many crowds that we observed in the USA on university campuses.

And the placard said,

War?

War?

Question mark.

It's not worth dying for.

Writing his great apologia some years later for the Christian faith, Charles Colson,

asked the question,

What do people think is worth dying for these days?

Because real passion inevitably is evidenced by sacrifice.

Well, I wonder if I were to ask you the question,

When was the last time you were so moved with passion for the church?

I wonder what your answer would be.

I wonder when you look at the state of the church in the 21st century,

and the cultural conditions in which we're forced to think about what we really do believe.

When you hear of diminishing numbers,

when you hear of financial problems in the church,

how moved are you to do something about it?

Well, we're talking today about Nehemiah as a man of prayer.

I want to say that he was a man of prayer,

but he was also a man of passion and purpose.

And also, as we read in the early verses of chapter 2,

he was a man who had a plan.

He understood that if he was going to get his people from A to B,

he needed a plan to do that.

And it was, by all accounts,

a very high-risk plan.

I'll explain that in a moment.

But he understood this,

that passion, purpose, planning would go nowhere

if it wasn't earthed in prayer.

And in Nehemiah's case, a confident prayer.

I mean, this was a guy

who didn't think twice about praying

that God would grant him success

in what he was about to have a go at.

So the prayer is an amazing prayer.

And I love the confidence in the prayer,

but there are a number of aspects of the prayer

which I think are worth reflecting on.

The first thing is,

Nehemiah understands that the plight of the people of God

in exile was a result of their disobedience and wrongdoing.

And so his first move in the prayer

is to pray for repentance.

Listen to these words.

I confess the sins we Israelites,

including myself and my father's house,

have committed against you.

We have acted very wickedly towards you.

We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws

you gave your servant Moses.

Listen to me.

I want to ask you this as a serious question,

but is there anything in your indifference,

maybe, to the church,

your lack of concern,

your lack of commitment to it,

is there anything in there

that makes you feel

that when you come before God in prayer,

you need to begin

by confessing

the stuff in your life that's not right.

And I know what it's like.

I know that it's much easier to confess other people's sins.

We can see that very easily in them.

But what about your sin?

Nehemiah, of course,

was bold enough

not just to seek God's forgiveness for his sins,

but at the same time,

he was very happy to

pray on behalf of his people,

say, you know,

we've got this wrong, Lord,

and please forgive us,

and hear our prayer.

Repentance isn't just about saying sorry.

I mean, it certainly is,

but it also means turning away from your sin,

turning away from the life you've been living,

and turning towards God.

And there's little doubt when you read Nehemiah's prayer

that that is his intent.

It's not just looking for a quick kind of

sorry about this, Lord,

you know,

we're human,

you know,

we might not be perfect,

but, you know,

we're doing okay, thank you.

No.

That's not Nehemiah.

Nehemiah starts with a prayer of repentance.

Secondly,

he prays a prayer of recollection,

that he recollects

what God has done

in his people's past.

Verse 8.

Remember the instruction

you gave your servant Moses.

Say,

if you are unfaithful,

I will scatter you among the nations,

but if you return to me

and obey my commands,

then even if you exile people,

even if you exile people

are at the farthest horizon,

I will gather them from there

and bring them to the place

I have chosen as a dwelling for them.

Repentance is followed

by a recollection of the way

that God has acted

in the past.

A reminder

that with God

there always remains open

an alleyway called hope.

And that's what Nehemiah

brings before God.

He brings his sorrow

at his behavior

and then he brings

alongside that

a recollection

of the good things

God has done.

I wonder

when you pray,

can you remember

to think back

over your life,

even if right now

your faith feels

a bit stale,

a bit stodgy?

Can you recall

the good times

in your life

when God acted

and you were in no doubt

about his action?

Well, that's what

Nehemiah does.

Repentance,

recollection,

and then

Nehemiah wants to pray

another prayer

and that is

he wants to pray

for a result.

This is a kind

of confidence

in prayer

that I think

many of us

don't sit terribly

easily with.

So he prays,

you know,

Lord, let your ear

be attentive

to the prayer

of this,

your servant

and to the prayer

of your servants

you delight

in revering your name.

Give your servant

success today

by granting him

favor

in the presence

of this man.

Well, we said

that Nehemiah

is a man of passion.

When he got news,

he wept.

We said Nehemiah

is a man of purpose.

He knew

what he had to do.

We said that

all this need

to be earth

in prayer,

but we said also

this is a man

with a plan.

And his plan

was he couldn't

just go to

Jerusalem and start.

Who was Nehemiah?

He was a layman.

He wasn't a priest.

He had very little

standing in one way

except in the court

of Artaxerxes

where we told,

as Clive reminded us

last week,

he's a cupbearer.

He is,

in effect,

the kind of,

how would you say,

the chief of

the king's security.

And he uses that

unashamedly

to go before the king

and ask permission

to leave

the city of Susa

and go to Jerusalem

and begin his task.

And let me just say,

this king is not

entirely straightforward.

He is some

bad hair days.

He had to quash

a revolt against Egypt

and he did that

in a rather

brutal fashion.

This was not a man

in whom there was

a kind of

guaranteed grace.

No.

This was a man

who could be

capricious.

Could be,

get him on the right

day,

good guy.

Get him on the wrong

day,

you could lose

your head.

I mean,

literally.

His plan was to

go before him

and the answer

to his prayer

is just staggering.

Not only does the king

give him permission,

not only does he

give him security

because travelling

was a dangerous

business in those days,

not only does he

do all this,

but he helps

provide materials,

the materials

they'll need

to rebuild

the wall.

And Clive reminded

us last week

that this task

took just

52 days.

Some of you

know what it's

like when you

have the

builders in the

house,

you know,

they never get

out on time,

do they?

Well,

none of the

Amirans,

co-hosts,

they got the job

done and they

got it done

thoroughly.

and they got it

done so that

the city of God,

Jerusalem,

was no longer

vulnerable.

Here's the most

important thing.

One,

Nehemiah was one

man who changed

the outcomes

of a nation.

Two,

he wasn't a

priest,

he didn't have

the same kind

of standing,

he wasn't a

prophet,

he had none

of that history

behind him.

But he stepped

up and he did

what was necessary.

Listen to me,

the church is in

a very challenging

time, a bit

like the people

of God were

at the time

of Nehemiah.

And God is

asking,

who will stand

up with me?

Who will be

moved with

passion?

Who will become

a person of

purpose?

But most

importantly,

who will

earn that

passion,

that purpose

and that

planning

in prayer.

Prayer which

shows God

we're dependent

on him.

Prayer which

releases things

that nothing

else would

release.

Prayer which

can really

make a difference,

not just to

your life,

not just to

the life of

the church,

but to the

life of the

world.

One man

and those

possibilities.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.