A Prayer for a Big Ask | Nehemiah 1:1–11

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a

couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in

practical ways. Well, good morning, good going, we talked through

good morning, good morning to you and you and you.

You were born for this, yeah little jingle.

You know.

I can't believe that just became a thing. Yeah, I

don't know, it just it just somehow happened.

I think that's only second to what made Chris Matt.

I don't know what made Chris mad is the top.

People literally wait on the edge of their.

Se You're just like Jeff. You're just like Jeff. You're

just like kind of puff me up. So hey, uh, well, hey,

good morning. We are the Bible guys. This is Wesley.

I'm Chris, and today we're your Bible guys. Because Jeff

is uh out there, uh actually traveling. Where's he at Mexico?

He no, he well he was, he came back. Now

he's in Africa.

Now he's in Africa. Yeah, Holy Christmas.

That is just a short flight, you know, a couple

of hours.

Yeah, just a few yeah, yeah yeah. But he works

for also, uh for an organization called the Timothy Initiative,

which focuses on planting churches around the world that don't

know the gospel. Yeah, they focus on regions that have

never heard.

Yes, it's pretty unbelievable. Yeah, I think that that's amazing.

Yeah. So anyway, so this is two weeks in a

row that we have a guest. Uh. But that's okay

because Platinum Edition is is People's People's people Love Platum Edition.

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Yeah, so you want you want to? It says what's

something you thought? And this is from Sarah Kay by

the way, So Sarah Kay, if you're watching, thank you

for this question. What's something you thought was totally normal

until someone told you it absolutely wasn't. Yes, do you

have anything for that? When I have a small.

So many yes, so many?

Yeah, yours, so mine is super small. The first thing

that comes to mine is ketchup.

Yeah.

So when I first got married, Okay, don't judge me,

I just want to say this. When I grew up,

we put the ketchup just in the cabinet, in the

cupboard in the kitchen, after you opened it, after you

opened it. Yeah, we never put in the refrigerator. And

when I got married, my wife is like, what are

you doing? Are you trying to kill us? This is

going to a refrigerator.

How are you trying? So good?

But it's like, now, we always just put the mustard

in the ketchup, just in the cupboard. That's just what

we did. So yeah, I discovered that was not a

normal thing.

No, no, after you open it, Yeah, because you can

put it in there before we end. Yes, So that

is so funny. So I got I got one for you.

So I grew up Italian. Uh well, I mean I'm

obviously I'm still Italian. Let me clear, Let me clear,

let me clear, let me clarify that statement. My dad's German,

my mom is Italian. There was zero German culture in

our family. The only culture was Italian. I no longer

uh am a part of that culture. In my normal

hushole so that makes sense that I said it you

up Italian because I'm still Italian.

Changed, but it was it was so.

Italian in Youngstown, Ohio, and it so is now, right,

I mean, just you know. Anyway, the point is is

that you know, it was always all Italian all the time.

So for consequently, all through the entire city of Youngstown,

for Christmas, people make Italian food, and so there's so

many Italian it's so normal to say, oh, would you

have for Christmas meal? Well, we have ravioli, we had

manicotti or no ki, whatever it is, right, Yeah, So

so that was just a normal thing. And then and

then I went to college and I remember being, you know,

in Missouri in the Midwest, and I remember somebody saying

something like, oh, yeah, for Christmas, we had like ham

and turkey. And I said, what are you talking about this?

I said, that's thanksgivving food. And they said, they said,

what do you eat for Christmas? And I said ravioli?

And they go what And I was like, doesn't everybody?

I was like, but it's because everybody I knew, all

my friends, that would be a normal thing, right and uh,

and not saying that everybody's Italian from Youngstown because that's

not true. But a lot of the Italians hang out

with Italians, So for for my group of people, it

certainly was right. So anyway, I just I thought it

was normal until it wasn't. Yeah, that is hilarious, But

I got a funny one too.

It's very quick.

My youth pastor used to sing very famous songs that

everybody else crossed the nation knows. You know, in my

little youth group growing up, we always have the same jingles, yea,

and most of them how you would sing with kids

ministry back then with high school ministry, That's what we

used to do. Like for instance, you ever heard the song,

oh you can't get to Heaven on roller skates? You

me hear that? No, I'd playing get to Heaven? Okay,

en roller skate? So you can't get to heaven on

roller skates? Oh you roll right past those pearly gates.

All my sins are washed away, Praise the Lord.

No, I don't know that one.

So anyway that in my group of church people, they

didn't sing that right. So anyway, for some reason, my

pastor used to take very popular songs and he would

change them how he saw that saying, and there would

just be a little bit of change, and so we

would would would know them, we would know all the songs,

but the rest of the world knew them like that,

they would know the normal way. So this song that

I just sang to you has on the third of course,

it goes, can't get to have an on there's a pause.

Can't get to have an on roller skates is a pause? Right?

For some reason, my pastor's saying, oh, you can't get

to heaven on roller skates. Oh, you can't get to

heaven on roller skates instead of on roller skate a

theatrical with it. Yeah, he's like roller skates. I don't

know why he's just changed it. And apparently I'm the

only human and the people in my church are the

only humans who know that song but know that version

of that song. So I met Baptist Baba College. We're

sitting around with a group of like two hundred people,

and he's like, hey, everybody know this one done? Done? Oh,

he's going for it, and he goes and you get

to that part he goes on roller and everybody pauses.

It's really quiet for a second, and I'm going on

roller skates and everybody looks at me like what is

God doing?

What is he saying?

Yeah? And by the way, I found doubt that. It's

like ten different songs. Yeah, I learned ten different like

major songs. Wrong.

Yeah, it's like and it's like what and so oh

that's I'm singing them with people.

I have to realize. I'm like, yeah, like he did

it again. He embarrassed me again.

Yeah, oh man, that's good.

So changed there it is. So there's there's my thing.

That's good.

Yeah. That was super embarrassing, all right, and you know,

you know what else was embarrassing? What was that this

moment where Neamyah had to uh go before the king

and ask him this really dangerous thing there there we're

going there.

Say it worked, Yeah, it worked. We're reading Neamyah.

Yeah, Nemiah, which, by the way, Neamayah is in a

lot of ways in a pretty obscure passage for a

lot of Christians. Yeah, right, I mean there's not a

ton of sermons on Nehemiah. There's not there's not a

ton of history. So if you don't know who Neiamiah is, uh,

he was a cup barrier to the king. Uh, just

to give you a little bit of context before Wesley reads, So,

like Babylon had taken over the world, right, remember the

story of Daniel, where where they had stolen all the

goods from the temple, and they had taken all the

princes and everything, and then they took people all the

way up to Babylon, and and and and and so

there was like this exile of the Jewish people and

and this and this whole captivity thing. Well, well it

was it was over. Everything was everything was over. And

and so they they had allowed people to go back

to Jerusalem in waves, and some people had gone back,

but they had discovered that Jerusalem was in ruins. In fact,

it was the city walls were down, it was unprotected,

and of course the city that's unprotected is open for siege.

And and and so these people who are trying to

rebuild their lives, uh, you know, we're talking like a

whole generation or so later, uh, you know, for them

trying to get their footing and their culture and their people.

And so Neamiyah was a Jew and and and he

was he was you know, uh, he knew and remembered

as a boy. Uh, you know, his his great city

and his father and his family and everything else. And

so now he's an older man and he has favor

working for the king as a cupbearer, and he's about

to learn something about Jerusalem, and he ends up basically

going to the king saying, will you please allow me

to go back and rebuild the walls around my city?

Will you please? Will you please allow me to do that?

And so that's the story of Nehemiah.

Yeah, that's it. Yeah, let's dive in. That's Nehemiah chapter

one versus one through eleven. It says, in late autumn,

in the month of Kiss Lev in the twentieth year

of King Arta Xerx's reign, I was at the fortress

of Susa Hannah, and I one of my brothers came

to visit me with some other men who had just

arrived from Judah. I asked them about the Jews who

had returned there from captivity and about how things were

going in Jerusalem. They said to me, things are not

going well for those who return to the province of Judah.

They are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of

Jerusalem has been torn down and the gates have been

destroyed by fire. When I heard this, I set down

and wept. In fact, four days I mourn, fasted and

pray to the God of Heaven. Then I said, O, Lord,

God of Heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps

his covenant of unfailing love with those who love him

and obey his commands, listen to my prayer. Look down

and see me praying night and day for your people Israel.

I confess that we have sinned against you. Yes, even

my own family and I have sinned. We have sinned

terribly by not obeying the commands, decrees, and regulations that

you gave us through your servant Moses. Please remember that

you told your servant Moses, if you are unfaithful to me,

I will scatter you among the nations. But if you

return to me and obey my commands and live by them,

then even if you are exiled to the ends of

the earth, I will bring you back to the place

I have chosen for my name to be honored. Verse ten.

The people you rescued by your great power in stronghand

are your servants. Oh Lord, please hear my prayer. Listen

to the prayers of those who listen to the prayers

of those of us who delight in honoring you. Please

grant me success today by making the King favorable to me.

Put it into his heart to be kind to me.

In those days, I was the king's cup bearer.

So, first of all, what a great way to start

a chapter. Yeah right, I mean, just an unbelievable, you know,

epic setup to what is about to unfold. And if

you want to go back and read the rest of Nehemiah,

what a great story and what a great accomplishment that

God has done through Niemiah. Which, by the way, did

you know that the Wall of Neemiah is still there today?

Yeah?

And they've uncovered this wall and honestly, it it looks

like children built it.

Yeah.

It is not a work of architecture.

Yeah it is.

It is thrown together with like rocks and and and

and mortar and and and uh. And it does not

look flat or polished. It looks you know, it's like

it's like, how is this thing still standing?

Yeah?

And it has to be that God wants to preserve

this unbelievable symbolism. You know what this represents. Yeah, this this,

you know, everything done in the Old Testament is a

model for us on how to behave or or it's

a foreshadowing of what God wants to do in our lives.

And so this, this, this importance of Neamia's wall that

he ended up building, uh in such a small amount

of time is a great accomplishment. But God still today

two thousand and seven hundred something years later. In fact,

I think it's even more than that, isn't that? Uh?

Neemiah is is a couple of thousand years old, isn't it?

Uh?

No, No, no, Isaiah namayah. Wait. I don't actually have

my SyRI on because because of uh, I want to

I don't want to buzz. Yeah, all right, I'm doing

this in the microphone. Hey, when was the Book of

Niamiah written?

Here's an answer from bible hub dot.

Com fourty five BC. So two thousand, four hundred years

ago ish? Right?

Yeah.

So and then that while still there is still there,

isn't that amazing? Yeah?

Yeah, that's awesome. There are two things early on it

that I want to dissect a little bit as we

get into this. In verse five, it says, then I said, O, Lord,

God of Heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps

his covenant. And I like that line, right, there the

fact that God is a god who will do what

he said he will do. If God said he will

do it, we can take that to the bank. It's certain.

It's sure, doesn't matter what it looks like. There have

been times in the Old Testament where God it may

have told a group of people to take a village

or to take a town and they're like, well, God,

we're out numbered. If God told you to do it,

he will equip you to carry out what he told

you to do. So God is a god that will

keep his covenant. So when you're reading the Bible, keep

that in mind. I think that's super important to know

that if God promises us something in the Bible, he

will do what he said he would do. And that

gives me great confidence. But the other thing in there,

in verse six, it says, I confess that we have

sinned against you, And I absolutely love that. Pastor Kevin

here at Heritage Church where we both attend, he says,

when you mess up, fess up, and fess up fast.

Don't try to hide it. God saw you when you

did it, so there's no hiding it or trying to

put it away or no, that wasn't me. Yeah, everyone knew,

All of Heaven knows that it was.

You.

Just fess up, come clean to God. And if you

confess your sins to him, he is just and faithful

to forgive you for your sins and cleanse you from

all unrighteousness. Yes, so I love that.

That's great for Shohn one nine. Forget first that was

ever quoted to me, by the way, by my wife. Never. Nonetheless,

the uh, you know, it's it's some context to us

to that prayer as well. So the two things you

mentioned in that prayer that were awesome is the fact

the first thing that Neamia said was I want to

recognize God that you were God that keeps your covenant. Well,

think about the context, So Nea, excuse me. Neemyah is

among the group of people that were most likely very

discouraged because their whole people were exiled. We're talking people

were captured, kidnapped, slaughtered, killed, imprisoned, chained, I mean just

all these different wicked things.

Yeah, they've lost everything, they've lost everything.

And yet what Neiamiah is acknowledging is his responsibility. And

he's acknowledging that his people's responsibility because he's like he's

a God, he's like, yeah, our whole people. Some of

them are mad at you. Some of the are mad

that you know our lives are so terrible. But understand

that I'm recognizing you warned us, right, This is you

keeping your covenant. You said that if we dishonored you,

that we would be scattered among the nations. And guess

what you did. You kept your promises. And then he says,

we have sinned, and he's acknowledging his responsibility. And I

think that's important because he's the context is he's acknowledging

the fact that even his family have their part in

dishonoring God. Right, Like, he's responsible part in part for

the exile and the capturing of Jerusalem in the walls

being burned down. So when he hears that the city

walls are destroyed by fire, he's thinking, I did this.

These are consequences in part to my sin and my

family's sin. So he's like, God, even though that you

know I can complain, I could look at how bad

my life is. We can all do that. We have

to acknowledge our part in it. You warned us, we

didn't obey, So you're a covenant keeper. You did exactly

what you said, and guess what, I own my responsibility.

We are sorry for what we've done. And then what

does he do is he sort of capitalizes on God's faithfulness.

He capitalizes on then God's promises, and he says, God,

you said this, but God, guess what you also said this? Yes, right,

so you said this is a warning, but you also

said this is a promise. If we came back to you,

then you would be with us. Look at me, I'm

praying for my people. You see me, You see my

earnest prayer, you see my sincerity, my heart. I'm weeping

because I'm broken over this, and I am coming to

you and I'm asking you to keep your promises. And

so therefore, God, here's my request. And then he goes

to God with his request, right, ask the king to

be favorable to me. And what an unbelievable request. But

Niamiah backs it up with scripture and he reminds and

he reminds himself of God's promises.

Yeah, and I would say, Chris, that's super important and

it's very subtle. He had to know the promises to

the promise is up, that's right, which means that he

had to know the scriptures which is why it's so

important for us to read the Bible daily, to know

what those promises are, to know what God said he

would do, and to know what God said to avoid,

because it's yeh, it's good to know what blessings he

will give you, but it's also good to know what

to avoid, right, But you only get that from reading

God's word on a consistent basis.

That's right. Yeah, I have a model that I've always

lived by. So my number one spiritual gift is faith,

which is odd for a skeptic. I'm a skeptic at heart,

but actually it's true when every time I take the

spiritual gifts tests. There's a spiritual gift test you can

take online. Yeah, actually several versions of it, but you

can google it and find a free one. But I

took a spiritual gift test actually on and off throughout

my whole life, and almost always faith is either number

one or number two. But it manifests itself in my

life during struggle. So like whenever I wrestle with something,

whenever I'm having a hard time with something, whenever it's

something very big is going through my life, faith just

rises to the top. And I have a lot of

faith and confidence. So God has given me that is

my gift. And sometimes it's hard when the struggle is small.

When it's bigger, faith seems to be more prominent when

it's smaller, I get caught in the weeds. And so

yesterday I was actually talking with someone on our staff,

and I was very discouraged and disappointed in some things.

And I always want to focus on my part whenever

I feel like God has called me to do anything.

I feel like if I've not done my very best,

then I feel like I've let God down, right, And

so I was talking about you know, it doesn't matter,

but I was just talking about how I feel like

I have not done my best and these are mistakes

that were avoidable, and these are mistakes that should not

have been made. And I was a part of it.

And the person I was talking to, I said, he

was a part of it, and we were all a

part of it and we should have done better and

and God asked us to do this and we didn't

do our part, you know, And I was just super discouraged,

and I'm like, what are we gonna do? What are

we gonna do? You know, And just like you said,

you have to know the promises, right, You have to

know the promises. So last night I went home and

I'm praying. I'm like, okay, God, like okay. I vented.

I had some discouraging moments and say, okay, God, let's

let's pray through this. And God reminded me of all

the promises that I already know. And through the years

I have formulated a motto from these promises, and I

love this motto. And so I texted to him this

morning and I said, hey, God reminded me, and I said,

I said, here's my motto. God is bigger then, not

surprised by, and in control of all circumstances. Right. And

so you take it. You take all those promises and

lump them in the big bull of stew Right. You

can you can call that pot that God is. God

is bigger than, not surprised by, and in control of

all circumstances.

Right.

So think about how that applies to your life.

And that's good, Chris, because I think sometimes because we're

surprised by it, whatever it is for the listeners, we

think that it caught God off guard. I didn't catch

him off guard. He's God, He's all knowing.

One of my best friends made fun of me one

time when I was worried about something, and he goes, Chris,

do you actually think God's on the throne, going oh no, yeah,

oh no, I didn't expect this. How I'm going to

get out of this?

Like, oh man, how did that happen? And I don't

know what I'm gonna do? Yeah to fix it?

Yeah, It's like I always laugh when I think about that,

and since then he's passed away, he's in heaven laughing

with me now. But but yeah, think about how that

applies to your life. God is bigger than not surprised

by an in control of all circumstances, So which means

bigger than means means your problem is not bigger than

God's ability to solve it. Yeah, right, not surprised by

it means he's not on the throne worried like you are,

and it's not like he's trying to figure out a

solution in the same way that you are. And and

then in control of means that God can and is

able and in a lot of cases wants to do

great things to fix these things. If we just align

with his will, go to him, trust him, depend on him,

lean on him, and eventually you got to get to

the point to where you open your hands and say, okay, God,

that's it. I recognize at this point, regardless of how

we got here, which you know, again, I can talk

about my part, my ability or inability to do you know,

what I should do or didn't do, what I didn't do,

all that. You know, you can talk about that all day.

But the reality is, in every circumstance of our lives,

we have to recognize only God can do what God's

going to do. Right, so only like only God. I

can't manufacture you know, hearts being changed as a pastor,

neither can you. You can't manufacture mirrors, you can't manufacture

you know, blessings and in great things. None of us

are in charge of any of that.

Yeah, that's God's side of the fence. That's his job responsibility.

Yes, yeah, and so and so you just sort of

you're reminded and you say, Okay, God, remind me, this

is this is all you and it has been the

whole time anyway. Yeah, right, I mean, I'm doing my

part only because you asked me to. But but in

the end, you're you're you're in control. So anyway, it's

a great reminder for alls.

Yeah. And I would say if we could leave the

listeners with a challenge, I challenge everyone watching just to

take five minutes, five minutes per day reading God's word

and start in the New Testament. Start with the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke,

and John.

Yeah. I would even I would even go further and

say start with John. Yeah, start with John and move

your way forward.

Yeah. Yeah, And that's a great place to dive in

to begin to soak in God's word and get his

word on the inside in your heart.

Yeah, that's right, that's great. Hey, that's it's a great

place to end. That's our time and hopefully we'll see

you again on the Bible guys. H