The sermon 'Restoring True Worship in the City' by Scott Brown focuses on Nehemiah's burden to restore the worship of God in Jerusalem, as detailed in Nehemiah chapter 2. Nehemiah's sadness and fear before King Artaxerxes reveal his deep concern for Jerusalem's desolation and the compromised worship of God. Despite the risks, Nehemiah approaches the king, showing respect for authority while expressing sorrow for his people's plight. The sermon emphasizes the importance of Nehemiah's prayerful life and his reliance on God as he navigates the challenges of his mission. Nehemiah's story is a call for believers to prioritize God's burden for restoring worship in their hearts, families, churches, and communities. The narrative illustrates the power of prayer, the need for courage in the face of opposition, and the impact of planning and faith in executing God's vision. Listeners are encouraged to examine their burdens and align them with God's desire for true worship, emphasizing that real change is centered on the worship of God.

Nehemiah chapter 2, and it came to pass in the month of Nisan in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes when wine was before him that I took the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had never been sad in his presence before. Therefore, the king said to me, why is your face sad since you are not sick? This is nothing but sorrow of heart. So I became dreadfully afraid and said to the King, may the King live forever.

Why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my father's tombs lies waste and its gates are burned with fire. Then the king said to me, what do you request? So I prayed to the God of heaven. And I said to the king, if it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my father's tombs that I may rebuild it. Then the king said to me, the queen also sitting beside him, how long will your journey be and when will you return?

So it pleased the king to send me and I set him a time. Furthermore I said to the king, if it pleases the king, let letters be given to me for the governors of the region beyond the river that they must permit me to pass through till I come to Judah. And a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel which pertains to the temple, for the city wall, and for the house that I will occupy. And the King granted them to me according to the good hand of my God upon me." Let's pray. Oh Father, we thank you for this inspired word.

Lord, these words were breathed out by you, and they are profitable to us today. Yea, these things that we read in the Old Testament were written for us that we might know how to live in this present evil age. And so we ask, O God, that you would come and anoint Scott as he preaches. Give him strength physically, mentally, spiritually. Oh may he stand and be your mouthpiece today giving us your word and May he know the unction of the Spirit upon him leading and guiding him in the things that you would have him to say No grant us ears to hear come by your spirit Illuminate our dark minds open our eyes that we may behold wondrous things out of your law that your law might be a lamp to our feet and a light to our path that we might know how to go from this place today serving you we pray We thank you and ask that you would bless now your word to our hearts.

In Christ's name we pray, amen. You may be seated. Well the central matter that's before us in these verses is the appearance of a man with a burden, and his burden is God's burden to restore the worship of God in the city. This is what is hanging hard on this man's heart, And it's really a disclosure of the heart of God for his people, that he would draw near to them, that he would rescue them, that he would take them out of their burned out, broken down cities, and he would bring them into his own city and care for them and heal them and save them and this is God's hunger to restore true worship. God is always looking for worshippers who will worship him in spirit and truth.

And if you read the Bible, you know that worship is always the issue that God is addressing. There in the garden, with Adam and Eve, God was addressing their worship, and the devil appeared to Adam and Eve to distract them from the worship of the words of God. Then with Cain and Abel, the whole issue was worship. One brother brought worship that was acceptable to God. Another was not acceptable to God.

And with Moses and the law and all the things that happened in the wilderness, it was always a battle for true worship and when you turn to the kings of Israel and and and all of the prophets the issue is always the same thing God is always seeking to draw worshippers who will worship him in Spirit and in truth to deliver them from their own ways because we always drift and This very same thing happens at the very end of the Old Testament This theme is maintained right up to the very last words of the Old Testament that God is desiring to restore true worship in the city and that's why God has called us here to Restore it first of all in our hearts to restore it in our families and then to restore it in our church and to restore the true Worship of God in our communities by drawing worshipers, by evangelizing, by speaking to them about this glorious God who heals and saves this God that cannot forget about his people. And so he continues to send people year after year after year all throughout history from the very dawn of history until the very end.

Because God desires to draw men and women to worship him in spirit and in truth. And so here you have a man with this very same burden. It's the burden to restore the worship of God in the city, the true worship of God in the city. And he finds himself in a very threatening situation with King Artaxerxes, who could take his head off in a second for contradicting him and Nehemiah is going to contradict him. And so we find how in this chapter God uses a man, a man of prayer who brings a dramatic change about so that the worship of God is beginning to be restored in the city.

And so you have, you have, there are various barriers that Nehemiah has. First you have the most powerful ruler of the ancient Near East, King Artaxerxes. He is opposed to the worship of God, he's already shut it down with troops. Secondly, you have the Samaritans who'd compromise their worship. They want to mix as much of the world as they can, keep a little bit of God in it, and they're opposing the true worship of God.

And then finally, You have the pagan nations around them and we'll learn more about that next week as we go into the second part of this chapter but Nehemiah's desire, his burden was being hampered by those three forces that were upon the people of God. And we all carry burdens. Nehemiah was a man with a great burden on his heart. And I think we should ask ourselves, What are our burdens? Is our burden God's burden?

Is our greatest burden God's greatest burden? God's greatest burden is to restore worship, true worship, and to draw worshippers who will worship Him in spirit and in truth so that they would be healed, so that they would be refreshed and cared for all their life long throughout all eternity. And so I know it's been a month since we've been in Nehemiah. We've had this refreshing hiatus in the book of James. Wasn't that fantastic?

But now we're back in Nehemiah and I want to I want to sort of go back and refresh our memories since it has been so long and first of all I want to just remind us of the time frame you have an outline in front of you. We've already talked about the central matter. The central matter here in this text is God's burden to restore worship in the city. But you'll, I'd like to spend a little bit of time reviewing here, but as we come to chapter 2 verse 1 Nehemiah has already been praying for four months and there are two dates mentioned in Nehemiah so far in Nehemiah chapter 1 1 there's a date and then in 2 1 and this makes it clear that Nehemiah has been praying for somewhere between three and five months he's been crying out to God and praying praying patiently and Nehemiah is praying because because of his compassion for a broken people because worship has been compromised and he's willing to risk his life before King Artaxerxes and that's why you read in the very last verse of chapter 1 Nehemiah says let your servant prosper this day I pray and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.

Nehemiah knows he's going to have a moment with this man, and when that moment comes he knows that his head is on the chopping block. So there's much at stake in this burden that he's bearing. And Nehemiah is crying out to God for change you know there there are certain things that shouldn't stay the way they are and that's true in this church it's true in my house and it's true with all of us there are certain things that just need to change Nehemiah's burden is for that I pray that God would help us to have a burden for the things that really need to change. Because what was happening in Judah is that people just kept walking by the broken down walls and the broken down and the burned gates and the and the The temple that was in disrepair and they just got used to it that happens to us We get used to it. We get used to our problems and we give ourselves a pass We give We give our families a pass.

We might even give our church a pass. But there are certain things that should not stay the way they are. And Nehemiah here shows us really how God rebuilds hearts, families, churches, and cities. And he makes it very clear that all of these things are inextricably connected to the worship of God and the restoration of the worship of God. And let me just say it right here.

This church must be dedicated to the restoration of the true worship of God. Everything that we do ought to dovetail into that great thing. It is the thing, it is the main thing, to worship Jesus Christ and Him alone. To call ourselves, our families, call one another, and to call our communities to center everything in Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And that's the beginning of restoring true worship.

And then it continues with the establishment of true worship that is regulated by God and God alone. Now let's be very clear again as you may remember, what do the rebuilding of these walls mean? Well the walls are actually figurative of something greater. Everything in the Old Testament points to Jesus Christ. The rebuilding of the walls points to Christ's finished work on the cross in gathering his church and then exercising the power of the resurrection in their lives and drawing them to worship him that is what these walls mean and there there are many there are many subsets of of of meanings that we can that we can determine from this But it's God that raises up broken down walls and he he gathers broken down people So that he would build them up and that's why we're really gathered here today because there are things Certain things that just need to change and it's the worship of God that is the center of it.

If the worship of God is at the center of the change of your life, it'll be real and it'll be good. If the worship of God is not the center of the changes you're making in your life, it will be unprofitable and legalistic and really, really actually harmful in many ways. And so God is raising up Nehemiah. He's a broken man and he sees the brokenness in his city. And his burden is God's burden, and that is to restore the worship of God in the city and so he is a man with a tremendous burden in his heart I love the way this is expressed in Isaiah 58 verse 12 those from among you shall build the old waste places you shall raise the foundations of many generations and you shall be called the repairer of the breach the restorer of streets to dwell in this is our calling This is the agenda that God has put before his church, that he put before Nehemiah.

Now, you see the context and the flow. I'd like to sort of bring us up to speed. Now, I hope your Bibles are open to Nehemiah one and two. Now, as you look at chapter two, I want you to see how it's structured. The first eight verses of chapter 2 are a continuation of chapter 1.

There's no break, okay? There's a chapter break, but there's no break in the narrative it's one situation and in between verses 8 and 9 look at your Bibles now look at verses 8 and 9 between verses 8 and 9 Nehemiah leaves the Susa or Shushan the citadel of Ancient Assyria and he and he he goes to The Jerusalem he travels 1500 miles between verses 8 and 9 Okay, so these first verse first eight verses focus on Nehemiah. He's still in Shushan. And in verse nine, he's going to take a six-month trip, probably maybe five. It's a 1, 500-mile trip.

Here's where it is geographically. Here's Jerusalem. Here's Babylon, about 950 miles away from Jerusalem. And here is Shushan, maybe 12 or 1300 miles away from Jerusalem. And it's a straight line west to get to Jerusalem now to get there You don't go a straight line because you've got to circumnavigate some deserts stuff like that But that's what's happening here in this narrative and so today is as we pick up in in chapter 2 verse 1 we're just going to go up to verse 8 in this in this thing okay now let's go back to chapter 1 because I want us to pick up the flow of the context we read Nehemiah's prayer this morning I hope that was helpful But the first thing that happens in Nehemiah 1 is that Nehemiah hears a distressing report from travelers who just got back from Jerusalem.

It actually might have been one of Nehemiah's own brothers and some others that were in Jerusalem and they made that long trip and they gave a report to Nehemiah because he asked for it and the report was that the people are distressed, they are in reproach, the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, its gates are burned with fire and that touches off a great burden in the soul of Nehemiah and that's in verses 1 through 3 in verse 4 Nehemiah reacts and he prays and he prays for many many days Probably three to five months he's praying and then in verses 5 through 11 is a description of the prayer like it was a it was the prayer that he was praying these same kinds of things all the time for three to five months I don't know if you've ever written down your prayers and seen oh I'm I pray about the same things I've been praying about this for a year and a half well that's kind of what was happening with Nehemiah's prayer and then this prayer is recorded in verses 5 through 11 and Remember what he does in his prayer.

There are There are four things that he does first of all, he looks up he glorifies God in verses 5 & 6 Second he looks within and he confesses his sin and that's in verses 6 & 7 thirdly, he remembers God God's promises he looks back and and gazes upon the faithfulness of God and recognizes how good and gracious God is. And then fourthly, he pleads for his people on the basis of God's power. In other words, he looks ahead. So He looks up, he looks within, he looks back, and then he looks ahead in his prayer. And this is the burden that God has laid upon him.

And it's summed up in this one thing. God's burden and Nehemiah's burden are to rebuild and restore the worship of God in the city and and so it's it's it's such a significant prayer you know it was a selfless prayer it was It was a prayer for the glory of God. So many times our prayers are just about our own comforts and our own prosperity. And I'm not here to say that we shouldn't pray for those. The Lord has told us through the Apostle Paul, let your requests be made known to God.

That's the right thing. But Nehemiah's prayer is helpful to us because it's a prayer for the glory of God it's a prayer for the rebuilding of worship in the city and And so that's that's what is on the table here for us now. Let's dive into the text here And you have an outline in front of you. It's quite expensive in many ways. And what I want you to see here are these eight points that really follow the narrative.

With each one of these points, I'm going to throw out some applications. So listen for the applications. There's going to be an application for every one of these points, I hope and But I want us to just follow the the progress of this situation that Nehemiah is in and I want you to transport yourself there Do you have the same burden and And how did God use that burden You and Nehemiah. Okay. So first of all Nehemiah appears before the king to make his requests known.

And remember, he is very attentive to this moment. He's actually afraid of this moment. And that's why the very last verse in chapter one makes it very clear that Nehemiah is anticipating a very very difficult meeting he's going to ask the king to do something that he's not sure the king wants to do and he's really putting his life in danger. Now first of all see Nehemiah is sad in the presence of the king that's in verse 1 and it came to pass in the month of Nisan in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes when wine was before him that I took the wine and gave it to the king now I had never been sad in his presence before so Nehemiah is a cut bearer he's a working man he has He has an exalted position for the protection of the king, King Artaxerxes. He makes sure that no poison gets to the king.

Quite likely it wasn't just the wine that he was controlling. It's real possible that Nehemiah was controlling the entire supply chain of everything that went into the king's mouth. And he had to taste it first. If you had to make sure that everything was clean and wouldn't kill the king and you were going to taste it first, you would control the supply chain. You would control the growers and the transporters and everything.

Nehemiah had an exalted position with the king. And now Artas Xerxes would be very sensitive to his protection. Cup bearers were very critical. Artaxerxes own father, Hazur, or Hazur-Weris, who was the king during the days of Ezra, also known as Xerxes, well he was killed one day when one of his servants murdered him in his bedchamber so kings were really sensitive to their vulnerability as as was this king now here's an application he's working he's working in Shushan but his heart is in Jerusalem His prayers are always going back to Jerusalem. He has a significant job but you cannot take his love for the restoration of the worship of God out of his heart.

Now this is a really good kind of distraction we should always have in our hearts the restoration of worship. We have jobs that keep us very busy, but you know as we go throughout our days are we shooting up those aero prayers for the restoration of the worship of God, not only in our own hearts, the hearts of our children and our families and the people in our church and the people in our city. He was a working man in Shushan, but You couldn't take his heart for Jerusalem out of him because he loved Jerusalem. He loved God's people. Secondly, in this narrative, the king asked Nehemiah about his sadness.

Therefore, verse 2, the king said to me, why is your face sad since you are not sick? This is nothing but sorrow of heart. Now there are two emotions that we find Nehemiah experiencing, sadness and fear. We're going to take these one by one. But Nehemiah has the sadness for his people.

He wishes for a better life for God's people. The word sad here in this context though, actually can mean troubled with evil. And it's possible that the king thought that maybe there was some evil on Nehemiah's heart it's possible but whatever was his countenance had fallen and we know we know that he had a burden for his people. We know that it was not acceptable to grieve in the presence of the king. It was very dangerous.

You can see how dangerous that was in Esther chapter 4, verse 4. But Nehemiah is sad. I believe he is a picture of Jesus Christ. He's the man of sorrows. He's acquainted with grief.

His heart breaks for the brokenness of his people. And It was an appropriate kind of sadness that he had. There's a sinful kind of sorrow that we can have, but I don't believe this was a sinful sorrow that Nehemiah was experiencing. Nehemiah was like Jesus Christ who was weeping over Jerusalem. Remember how Jesus wept over the death of Lazarus, the shortest verse in the Bible, right?

Jesus wept. So there are things that are worthy of our sadness and you know the grievances that the church experiences is really worthy of our own sadness and our grief. We don't die in our sadness, in our grief, but there's a right kind of sadness. And here's the application. Sadness for the brokenness of the worship of God is a good kind of sadness.

It's good to be broken there and to be sad there. And then number three here, the third element in this narrative is Nehemiah reveals his fear. So we move from sadness to fear. So I became dreadfully afraid. Do You see that word dreadfully?

This was a really really difficult moment for Nehemiah. He was dreadfully afraid and this is the second emotion that Nehemiah is experiencing here before the king. The first is sadness, and now the second emotion is fear. And it seems that it's fear for what might happen to him at the capricious hands of King Artaxerxes. And at the very end of chapter one, we see his anticipation of this moment.

Here's what we have. We have a godly man who is struggling with fear now again in the same way that there are there's a there's a godly sadness and an ungodly sadness there's a godly fear and an ungodly fear and fear actually can be a good instinct you know if something really dangerous is happening around you like the wall is falling down you should fear and run that's what you should do Somebody walks into your house with a gun, fear is reasonable. So fear can be a good instinct. Nehemiah's fear drives him to prayer. And he was dreadfully afraid and he had good reason to be afraid.

This is the same Artaxerxes who had just recently sent troops to stop the work. And there's some evidence that Artaxerxes' troops did some damage to those gates and to those walls and to that temple. And you read about that at the end of Ezra chapter four. But we know around here, we've been around here long enough, if you've been in this church long enough you've heard it said many times the most often repeated command in the Bible is do not fear that one command is repeated more than any other command in the Bible do not fear why is that we are so susceptible to fear We often go back and forth between an ungodly and a godly kind of fear. And Nehemiah, I believe, is experiencing a godly kind of fear.

Here's an application. Let your fear drive you into the refuge of God alone. A true Christian might experience times of fear. Maybe that's you right now, but you have to ask yourself is it a godly fear or is it a godly fear? Is it a fear that drives me to God to depend on him, to love him, to trust him, to find all my hope in him?

You know, is it the kind of fear that David had when he said, when I am afraid, I will trust in you. When I'm afraid. Not if I'm afraid, when I am afraid. In our human weakness, we're going to have times of being afraid are you afraid right now what are in the world are you afraid of but when you are afraid will you trust in him David said do not hide your face from me in the day of my trouble. Incline your ear to me in the day that I call.

Answer me speedily. That's Psalm 102. And so Nehemiah reveals his fear. What about your fear? What kind of fear is it?

Pray God would help us to understand if we have any ungodly fear lingering Fear that Fear that drives us to despair rather than dependence upon God. You know when James said consider it all joy when you fall into various trials for the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. You know what that means? It means that God brings trouble into your life so that you would be perfected.

It's good that he brings threatening situations into our lives and we can praise God for them. Usually we don't praise God for them that much until it's over but the truth is once it's over there's another one coming. You're either on one side of fear or the other. You're either in before a moment of fear, in the middle of a moment of fear, or there's one coming. And so God helps us with our fears.

And then the fourth element in this narrative is in verse 3, Nehemiah responds to the king. And I said to the king, may the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my father's tombs lies in waste and its gates are burned with fire." And so he has a two-fold message here to the king. First was a message of respect for authority. I hope you see that.

May the king live forever. Now, this wasn't the most godly king that anybody ever worked for. And, but Nehemiah respected his authority. Nehemiah was working for a corrupt king. Now I know, I know many of you are working for corporations and bosses who are corrupt some of them Incredibly corrupt some of them are on the forefront of some of the greatest elements of apostasy and the rejection of God that exists in our culture today, our global culture.

And you work for some of you, some of you work for people like our desertsies. And everyone who does has to recognize that every authority has been given by God. God has placed every authority over your life and he did it for his own glory. He did it to test you, to teach you, to help you. But learn from Nehemiah, may the King live forever.

I think this statement to the king is a statement of his respect for authority, not an embracing of everything that he's about. And that's a really important thing to learn about authorities. There are no perfect authorities. Some of them are really super duper imperfect. But every every authority is imperfect.

Your parents, you children who are here, your parents aren't perfect authorities. They really aren't. They're sinners. They're on a trajectory of sanctification. They have a lot to learn.

You know, they have some flaws. All of your parents are that way but your your submission to your parents and your honor to your parents cannot be based on their perfection it must be based on your honor toward God that he gave you those parents you didn't choose those parents God chose them for you but the first the first response that Nehemiah has is respect for authority. And I think the application is, Do we need to grow in our respect for godly authorities and ungodly authorities? And again, you know, Nehemiah in the midst of his respect does not lose his burden for the restoration of the worship of God in the city. Respecting your bad authorities doesn't mean that you've lost a sense of the worship of God.

And then the second part of his message was really a message of disagreement and sorrow. Sorrow for what Artaxerxes did. And now this is the critical moment where Nehemiah could lose his head because he says he says this to Artaxerxes and remember Artaxerxes had recently sent troops to stop the rebuilding of the city. Artaxerxes did not want that city to be rebuilt. He did not want the worship of God to be restored.

And so this is why Nehemiah says, why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my father's tombs lies waste and its gates are burned with fire now if you want to learn what artis Xerxes did we won't turn there now but write this down turn to Ezra chapter 4 and look at verses 18 to 23 and you'll find out what happened Ezra 4 is a 117 year description of the opposition of the people of God from the time that Zerubbabel arrived to clean up the rubble to the time of Nehemiah to rebuild the walls. That 117 year period and the verses that I just gave you describe what Artaxerxes was doing to persecute the Church of Jesus Christ during that time so when Nehemiah speaks to the king he's speaking to a persecutor of his people and we need to be very clear about that so it was a very dangerous thing. Here's the application risk your neck for the advance of the true worship of God risk your reputation for it and Nehemiah did that he risked his neck before the king on what? About what? About the restoration of the worship of God in the city.

He risked everything on that one thing. It's the most important thing. That's why the whole Bible is about this one issue of bringing people to the feet of Jesus Christ to worship Him in spirit and in truth. It's worth risking your neck, it's worth losing your job, it's worth losing your reputation and your favor with people in this world. Nehemiah knew it was worth it.

And he cared for the worship of God more than he cared for his own life. And you know when you think about your own burdens, you know, is this your burden? Is this the driving burden of your life? Or you being pushed around emotionally and physically by all kinds of other burdens. Well this is God's burden.

And then the fifth element in this narrative is the king replies look at verse 4. The king said to me What do you request? What do you request? And Nehemiah now has his moment, because this has been burning in his soul and I think I think it should help us to recognize a truth about life and that is often often we we anticipate the worst possible thing happening and it doesn't God of course God's in control but we often prejudge situations but here's the application don't prejudge situations wait for the Lord to work he might really surprise you and that's exactly what happened here. Don't prejudge situations.

Go and speak the truth and love and let God do the rest. And that's what Nehemiah did. I don't know if there's any situation in your life like that where you need to appeal to someone but you've already written them off really and Maybe it's been two years or a year or two months and you haven't gone to them because you've already prejudged the situation You've already decided. It's not going to work out for you It's there's an element of faithlessness in that often I think there are times that there could there's can be some kind of wisdom in that in different situations but often it's just faithlessness and we just rather have things stay as they are and then the next element in the narrative is Nehemiah responds by praying a very short prayer in verse 4. So I prayed to the God of heaven.

Do you get how this works? What do you request? And between the question and the answer that Nehemiah gives, he prays. And there are five things I want us to learn about prayer from this very simple phrase. So I prayed to the God of heaven.

And the first is this, his first impulse is to pray and he prays between the question and the answer and remember he has such a right and in beautiful burden on his heart to restore the worship of God in the city You know I preached on this passage of scripture 36 years ago when I was 26 years old as a pastor in California and I can't remember who it was but I read during that time that this this the the the the commentator called this an arrow prayer an arrow prayer that you just shoot up in the moment in between a question and an answer just this momentary connection with God to you know to cry out to him and Now notice this this is not the kind of prayer that we had in Nehemiah 1 which was prayed over a long period of time That's the kind of prayer that Jesus speaks of in Matthew chapter 6. Lord teach us to pray and he teaches them to pray and he says you know pray like this our Father who art in heaven hallowed be thy name. Well This prayer of Nehemiah is not like the prayer in Matthew 6 and it's not like the prayer in Daniel 9 or in Ezra 9 Or in Nehemiah 9.

This is a short prayer. It's a very different kind of prayer and and so it's it's one of the arrow prayers in the Bible you know there are many short prayers like this in the Bible you know one cries out in Luke 23 Jesus remember me when you come in your kingdom in Revelation 22 come Lord Jesus these are just short short prayers the blind man he says oh Lord have mercy on me oh Lord son of David and and so here Nehemiah is praying a prayer that really speaks of his dependence, his moment by moment dependence upon God. You know, I was reading the sermon that I preached way back there in 1981 and I quoted Spurgeon I think it's such a great statement prayer pulls the rope below and the great bell rings above in the ear of God some scarcely stir the bell for they pray so apathetically others give an occasional pluck at the rope but he who would bring heaven down is the man who grasps the rope boldly and pulls continuously with all of his might and that's what you find. Nehemiah is always pulling the rope. He's pulling it continually.

He's bringing heaven down. He's storming the gates of heaven and he's not losing his consciousness with God. This is the sweetest thing that can happen to a person so the first thing we learned about prayer is that his first impulse is to pray secondly Nehemiah's prayer teaches us about teaches us about the refuge that there is in prayer. You know how Paul spoke of it in Philippians 4? He said, be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication.

With thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, Will guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ Don't worry about anything But pray about everything tell God what you need You know our first impulses often to react and respond You know and to enter and to fret about things, but it's such a good thing for us to pray pray in the moment like that you know I don't know if you've if you can recall moments with people who pray a lot and they pray a lot of error prayers but it's such a good thing to be with people who pray before they talk you ask them a question and they bring it before the Lord before they shoot their mouth off How often do we just shoot our mouths off? I shudder to think of it. But just how we respond off the top of our heads when it's so much sweeter to have prayerful conversations with God before we respond. Wouldn't it be a blessing if we became a people like that?

What would happen in our lives if we really cried out to God before we shot our mouths off the thing at the top of our heads? Somebody said there are three kinds of prayers. Save me, help me, and thank you. Those are probably the three. This one is save me and help me right here.

And here's an application. Pray before you talk. Pray before you talk. You know, why was his reflex so swift? It didn't come out of thin air.

It grew out of the pattern of his life. The prayer that you see in chapter one and the patient and importunate nature of that prayer was what created the soil of his heart. He had a heart full of prayer. He was always praying, so he was always praying. That's how it works.

He was just doing what he would already been doing. His first impulse to pray because his everyday reflex was to pray. It was the inclination of his heart And it made him trigger arrow happy is what it did. The third thing about prayer is that God has granted his children instantaneous access. Now I want to read you a phrase out of Ephesians 3, it's in verse 12, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in him and I think the application here is that God is God is granted because God has granted his children instantaneous access The center of the Christian life is fellowship with God through Jesus Christ through faith in Jesus Christ, And he has given us instantaneous access.

And what we learn from this is that all doctrine, all doctrine is meant to be put in action. It's not designed to be a theological principle that just sits in your head there and rots. It moves you, it makes you a certain kind of person. You know, doctrine that doesn't walk in the world isn't profitable at all. It's just mind games and doctrine is designed to take motion in our lives and through our conversations and we have to ask you know do I do I do I really do I enjoy communicating with God on is it free is it real am I putting on airs when I pray is it with confidence now Paul says that our prayer should be characterized by boldness.

That means freedom from doubt and apprehension, boldness going into the presence of God, and then access. This has to do with entrance into the presence of God a friendly relationship it's like it's like entree before God he's ready to receive us and the doors wide open and then confidence that's based on our experience we have a conviction that God is a rewarder of those who seek him so we have confidence in him we've seen him answer prayer and what makes it all possible is faith through faith in him and Prayer is only possible when someone has been born again and has true faith. This is not psychology, it's true faith. It's because of salvation by faith alone. And you cannot stand before God in your own righteousness.

You can only stand before him in the righteousness of Jesus Christ If if you have repented of your sins and you believe in him Then he clothes you with his robes of righteousness and those robes of righteousness allow you to have access with boldness because it comes through faith. You know people go through life and they bang their heads against the walls in prayer and a lot of times it's because they're not converted, they never have had true faith. And they pray a lot, but the heavens are like iron and nothing gets through because nothing is getting through but God God opens the doors for saved sinners and he sends his son who keeps his law and then because of that you can go to him in confidence. When you go before him you come to him and you say, I believe in him, I am his, he is mine, I have God, I need God, I love God, I want God because your heart has been changed toward God this is the kind of prayer that's really only possible through a true conversion that's accomplished by faith and faith alone and God desires Sinners to come before him in the in in the robes of the righteousness of Jesus Christ You know prayer Prayer is such a blessing in that way.

The fourth thing we learn about prayer is prayer is the result of Christ's love for you. We have a compassionate high priest. He has mercy upon us. You know, A friend of mine today is preaching a sermon called Christ's Beautiful Heart in Heaven Toward His People. He's going to talk about this whole matter of the compassionate heart of Jesus Christ.

He's actually preaching his last sermon in his church. He's been there for 15 years and this is his last sermon. Christ's beautiful heart in heaven. I can't wait to hear that sermon. But it's, you know, prayer is really an act of God's love.

That's why James says, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all liberally, Because he loves you. He gives liberally. He doesn't hold it back. He wants to pour out his blessings. And without reproach.

In other words, when you pray for him, to him for wisdom, because you're not wise, because you are stupid, because you've made many errors, because you need his grace and you need his wisdom what does he do he gives it without reproach I was trying to explain this to children in my house this week and here's how we tried to explain it. Deborah and I did a little role play of asking for wisdom. And I said, you know, to receive God's wisdom without reproach is that God doesn't say, oh you're so stupid, Why did you do that? I've seen you'd like this all the time. That's not what God does to his children He gives it to them without reproach Isn't that amazing you think of all the lack of wisdom you've logged in your life And when you pray God promises to give you his wisdom without reproach That is amazing Because he doesn't count your sins against you He's buried them in the bottom of the sea He's put them as far as the east is from the west and so he doesn't approach his children with reproach This is the love of God, this is the grace of God That's why Jesus Christ Last words in Revelation 22 or let him who thirsts come and whoever will let him take the water of life Freely, it's why Jesus said in his ministry come to me all you who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest you know when you need rest Jesus doesn't say hey get out of here get back to work he gives you rest because he loves you prayer is an act of love and he opens the door the fifth thing about prayer is that God uses prayer Let me back up one last thing on this matter of God's love.

I want to quote from a book that Joe Beeke wrote, Come first to Christ and he will take thee by the hand and go along with thee and lead thee to his father. What a blessing it is to be a Christian and then fifthly God uses prayer to change things that need to be changed this this prayer was used of the Lord to secure a complete change in the heart of Artaxerxes And he turned away from his previous policy immediately, which was contrary to his actions in the past. And God does turn the hearts of kings. He holds everyone's heart in his hands. He can change anyone's heart.

And we fall into a helpless, hopeless hole of thinking nothing can change, but God is in charge of everything. And He'll change things when He wants to change them. And He'll give us grace to endure it. So the five things about prayer, His first impulse was to pray, secondly His prayer teaches us about the refuge of prayer, thirdly God has granted his children instantaneous access. Fourth, the prayer is the result of Christ's love.

And fifth, God uses prayer to change things that need to be changed. Now, number seven, the seventh element of this narrative, Nehemiah makes three specific requests. This is very interesting. Nehemiah is ready. He's been thinking about this a long time and he makes three very very specific requests.

And I said to the king verse 5, If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my father's tombs, that I may rebuild it." Now these are the three requests, very specific. First, send me. Send me! Secondly, send letters. Send letters ahead so that I'll be protected Nehemiah was going to travel through many many miles and he wanted letters to go ahead of him so that the governors in those regions would protect him and so he says that in verse 7 furthermore I said to the king if it pleases the king let letters be given to me for the governors of the region beyond the river that they must permit me to pass through till I come to Judah it was a dangerous journey third he asked to be given authority to get materials to do the rebuilding and Verse 8 and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king's forest That he that he must give me timber to make now check this out beams for the gates of the citadel which pertains to the temple for the city wall and for the house that I will occupy.

Nehemiah has been thinking about this a long time he knows he's gonna need to have a place to live while he's there. It's going to take some time. Now once he gets going, it takes him 52 days to finish it. But he stays there for 12 years. You know the king asks him, how long are you going to be gone?

Well he didn't come back for 12 years. He stayed with that building project and the restoration of worship. Application. Are you ready? Praying without planning is faithlessness.

Faithful prayer should always create plans to execute those prayers We don't just pray things for nothing We pray things to do something in this world real things that change things You know there are often there are often a number of things that are defective with our vision for life and I'm going to give you two things that are often defective in our vision for our life. We often have a wrong vision. I have a wrong vision for the wrong thing. It's easy to have a really big vision for unimportant things. I'll say that again.

It's easy to have a big vision for really unimportant things. It's easy to have really big concerns about things that don't matter at all. What really matters is the restoration of the worship of God in the city. Is there anything in your vision for life or your concerns that rises above that? Like are you more concerned about other things than that?

Let me just urge us as a church, if we need to reprioritize our burden and our vision, we often have a vision for such things like that. Now this happened, we read about it in Ezra where Haggai the prophet comes 100 years earlier before Nehemiah after the first wave returned and they got all caught up in rebuilding their panel houses. And for 16 years, they stopped rebuilding the temple. They got discouraged from the opposition, and they just wanted to go build their homes. And they did not prioritize the worship of God.

And that does happen. And the second thing is we often have a small vision. Not only it's a wrong vision, but it's a small vision. And it's small because it maybe doesn't focus in on God's great heart priorities like the restoration of worship of God in the city but our visions and our concerns our burdens are often just all caught up in ourselves. There's a book that was written a long time ago called Give Up Your Small Ambitions.

There is one great and holy and healing ambition and that is to restore the worship of God in the city. And that begins in your heart and it flows out to your home and your worship in your family and then the worship in this church and then drawing sinners to come and worship God in spirit and in truth. You know A lot of times people have a vision but they don't have any plans. They see opportunity but they don't take any steps for it. Our calling and our opportunity is to make disciples.

Are we making steps in that direction? The center of our concerns as human beings living in this world, should be just like Nehemiah's. And that is to bring the Word of God into the world, to draw worshipers who will worship Him in spirit and in truth. It's the Word of God that we need. You know Martin Luther, he was reflecting upon the amazing things that happened during the Reformation.

He writes, he writes, I did nothing. It was the word of God that did it. It was the preaching of the word of God that did it. And that's exactly what I pray is the center of all what we're doing here. That is the center of restoring worship in the city, is to bring the Word of God into every area of our lives.

And then at the end of verse 8 we learn that the King grants his request and the King granted them to me. He granted all of them according to the good hand of my God upon me. Notice also the king's wife was sitting next to him. The queen was there. I think that's interesting.

I don't know why that's in the text. But, you know, it seems to be a private setting. Men are profoundly affected by the presence of their wives. There's a softening effect that a wife often has toward a husband. And there you have this man, but he's sitting next to that woman.

And that's a blessing. That's a blessing. How many of you wives can have that kind of influence on your husbands, if that's what's happening here? To soften their hearts for the things of the kingdom of heaven to help them to see how important it is and even to change a whole direction of life it's a blessing to have a wife sitting beside you like that so So here a king sends a man to go out and make disciples. And he's involved in the heart of the most important work that exists in the world today.

Now there's so many applications that we've passed by, you know, that there are certain things that should not stay the way they are. The question about our hearts drawn to the restoration of worship. You know, while our hearts are working for the King, is our heart drawn to Jerusalem? Do we have sadness and brokenness for the worship of God? Is it a good kind of sadness?

Is it a good kind of sadness? Is it a good kind of fear? Do we have the kind of fear that drives us into into our refuge of God alone? Do we have respect for godly authorities? Are we willing to risk our reputations and our necks for the true worship of God?

Are we always prejudging situations and holding back the blessing of God?