In the sermon 'Let Your Ear Be Attentive and Your Eyes Open,' Scott Brown explores Nehemiah 1:1-11, focusing on Nehemiah's heartfelt prayer for Jerusalem's restoration. Nehemiah learns from his brethren that Jerusalem's walls are broken and its people are in distress, prompting him to mourn, fast, and pray fervently. His prayer emphasizes God's covenantal faithfulness, reflecting a deep understanding of God's character. The sermon draws parallels between Nehemiah's persistence in prayer and biblical teachings on prayer, including Jesus's parables of persistent prayer. Scott Brown encourages believers to emulate Nehemiah's approach by looking up to God, examining their own sins, and trusting in God's promises for restoration. The sermon underscores the transformative power of prayer in rebuilding lives and communities, urging believers to actively participate in God's work through intercessory prayer.

Nehemiah chapter 1 verses 1 to 11. The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hakeliah. It came to pass in the month of Chislev in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan, the citadel, that Hanani, one of my brethren, came with men from Judah, and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who had survived the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. And they said to me, the survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.

So it was when I heard these words that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. And I said, I pray Lord God of heaven, O great and awesome God, you who keep your covenant and mercy with those who love you and observe your commandments, Please let your ear be attentive and your eyes open that you may hear the prayer of your servant which I pray before you now day and night for the children of Israel, your servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Both my father's house and I have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against you, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which you commanded your servant Moses. Remember, I pray, the word that you commanded your servant Moses saying, If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations.

But if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for my name. And now these are your servants and your people whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. O Lord, I pray, please let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer of your servants who desire to fear your name and let your servant prosper this day. I pray and grant him mercy in the sight of this man, for I was the King's cup bearer." Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this passage that is before us, for this book that you have brought us to as a church.

Father, as we sit under the instruction of your word, Lord, I pray that you would help us as a church to come in one accord and listen and learn. Father for help us also to survey our own lives, survey what is around us. Lord, for ravages of sin have indeed caused walls to be broken down. Father, I pray that you would show us these breaches. Lord, that you would cause us to turn to you in prayer.

Lord, that you would cause us to grieve and mourn over our sin. Lord, that you would cause us to also be energized and stand and rebuild. Lord, I pray that you would strengthen us. Lord, that we would not only depend on the arm of the flesh. Lord, but we do join you in your work.

Lord, that you would also, through the enablement of your Holy Spirit, cause us to do good works. Father, I pray that you would convict us today. Lord, that you would give Scott Brown your words. Lord, that it would be from you that we hear as a congregation. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Well, the scripture we've just read speaks of a man whose heart was full of compassion and loving kindness for a broken people, and he rose up and he prayed. He prayed for a long time. He's like that man in Luke 11 who's pounding on the door, I need some bread, I'm on a journey, please get me some bread. And the family's already gone to bed and they say, We've already locked the doors. Can you can you picture that we've locked the doors?

We don't know we're not coming into the door and then finally because of knocking and knocking and knocking and knocking He does come to the door and he grants the request and this this picture of Nehemiah is a is really a picture of that It's a persistent prayer for the building up of the people of God. And it's a prayer that springs from real life, from a real life situation that Nehemiah found himself in. And it really bears witness to this fact, and I pray we don't forget this as we go through this prayer. There are just certain things that should not stay the way they are. There are just certain things that should not stay the way they are.

It's true in my life and I know it's true in your life as well. And what we find here is Nehemiah, according to the power of God, is working a prayer of compassion and love. And Nehemiah teaches us how we participate with God to build his church how he rebuilds walls how he rebuilds personalities and lives and families and churches how he rebuilds institutions this is this is what is here and and how does it begin It begins with a man of prayer. Because there are just certain things in this world that should not stay the same. And the focus, of course, as we said last week as we introduced this book, is not really on man, but it's upon how God restores.

It's God and God alone who rebuilds broken lives. And so this whole story is about how God does it, and he uses men to bring hope in the midst of ruin. And this, the rebuilding of these walls is figurative of the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It points to the finished work of Jesus Christ, how He saves and then how He sanctifies His people, how He continues to rebuild their walls over many, many years, and how He engages that rebuilding process. Because this is what God does.

He builds up broken people. He raises up the brokenhearted. He raises up people who are dead. He even resurrects sinners who are dead in their trespasses and their sins. And when you read about the walls in Nehemiah, you're reading about all of that.

It's the power of the resurrection to save and then to sanctify a people. And Nehemiah's prayer just reflects God's passion to redeem and to build up his redeemed people. Because they were a people in distress, as we'll read later, their walls were broken down, their gates were burned with fire. And as Nehemiah heard the news of this, he understood very clearly, there are just some things that should not stay the same. And so he prayed.

Nehemiah, in this prayer, he's very much like the Lord Jesus Christ in Luke chapter 13, where Jesus is going into the city of Jerusalem to be crucified. And there he cries out to God, he says, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets. Nehemiah's prayer is very much like that prayer in Luke chapter 13. And so Nehemiah hears of the trouble first of all and then second of all he brings the whole matter before God. Not the king, not the people, he brings it before God and that's telling And it ought to be helpful to us as we consider how we're involved in the rebuilding of walls.

There's much to learn from Nehemiah about prayer. And the book opens with prayer, and there'll be many occasions where there will be prayers or evidences of prayer Sometimes they're long prayers. This is a long one in chapter 9 is another really long prayer and Then there are little aro prayers that Nehemiah shoots up in different crisis points of his life because his heart is toward God all the time. And This prayer is hardwired to the prayers and the admonitions to prayer in the Bible that we read in other places. It really is hardwired to Luke 11 and that persistent man who kept knocking on the door and the People were saying, no, no, we've already gotten in bed.

It's a prayer that teaches us about confidence in prayer, like in 1 John chapter 5, verse 14. Now, this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. Nehemiah's prayer teaches us about the focus of prayer. As we read about in 1 Chronicles 16, look to the Lord and his strength, Seek his face always. You'll see that manifested in Nehemiah's prayer.

Nehemiah's prayer teaches us about persistence in prayer as we read about in Ephesians chapter six verse eight, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. Nehemiah's prayer teaches us about the context of our prayer, trouble. Often we pray the most when we're in the most trouble. You often think that perhaps God gives us trouble so that we would turn to him. I'm pretty confident that that's true.

If you're in trouble, God has put it there so that you would turn to him because there's no sweeter place to be. James 5.13 says, If anyone is in trouble, let him pray. Nehemiah teaches about the nearness of God in time of trouble that we read about in Psalm 145 verse 18 the Lord is near to all who call upon him to all who call upon him in truth he will fulfill the desire of those who fear him. He will hear their cry and save them. There's so many blessings that we see here that are connected to various other manifestations and instructions about prayer.

Nehemiah's prayer teaches us about our need for help in prayer through the praying of Scripture. In Romans chapter 8, 26, we learn that God helps us in our weaknesses because we don't know how to pray. Scripture helps us know how to pray. We'll learn that from Nehemiah in this prayer. Nehemiah's prayer teaches us about the refuge that there is in prayer.

In Philippians 4, 6, we read, 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 Christ Jesus. So this is a time where God has brought our church together so that we might learn how to pray and that we might pray more accurately and powerfully. And I pray that God, you know, builds us up in our weakness in prayer through this time. Now you have an outline in front of you and as you can see there are three major points but a major focus really on the prayer.

First of all in the first three verses there is this distressing report from home that the walls are broken down. Then we're going to cover verse four, which is Nehemiah's reaction and how he prayed persistently. And then thirdly, the prayer itself, which we find in verse five through verse 11. And what I want us to understand is that Nehemiah does several things that we should always do in prayer. First of all, he looks up, then he looks within, then he looks back, and then he looks forward.

And he gives us a way to prayer. This is such a helpful prayer for all of us. You know if you struggle with distraction as I do and I know many do, walking through sort of the general methodology that we find in Nehemiah's prayers is very helpful. It keeps us on track So there's much really to learn and let us be Stimulated to prayer as a result this because hey There are just some things in my life in your life and in the people's lives around us that just should not stay the same. And God has given us prayer that we would be involved in such a wonderful work in the world, that we wouldn't waste our lives on ourselves, but that we would be true intercessors like Nehemiah was.

Okay, let's dive into the text here. And first of all, we find this distressing report from home. The walls are down and the gates are burned with fire. That's in verses 1 through 3. The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hacaliah, It came to pass in the month of Chislev in the 20th year as I was in Shushan, the citadel, that Hanani, one of my brethren, came with men from Judah.

And I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who had survived the captivity and concerning Jerusalem. So the time is marked out here. It's in the month of Chislev in the 20th year. And The location is that he is in Shushan. Shushan was the citadel And the winter residence of Persian kings It's mentioned 18 times in the Bible in and Daniel 8 and in Esther as well It's 250 miles east of Babylon.

So you have Jerusalem, Babylon, and Shushan. There's a direct line from Shushan through Babylon to Jerusalem to the west. And this location has been in ruins for centuries the beasts of prey Wander around this place as was predicted in Ezekiel chapter 32 Particularly in verse 24 Nehemiah is going to end up traveling 1200 miles on foot to Jerusalem he's gonna lay aside the opulence and the favor and the beauty of the palace of Shushan and he's gonna go back to a city that's in rubble because God called him to do such a thing the messenger to Nehemiah is Hanani He says he's called brethren in chapter 7. He's called my brother. He might likely be his blood brother and he comes back with a bunch of men and Nehemiah asks them, hey, what's going on in Jerusalem?

And they bring a report and they give this testimony of what's been happening in Jerusalem, this sad state of affairs. And the message of course is that the walls are broken down. Now I want us to look very carefully at verse 3 because we'll understand what a church in disarray looks like through the eyes of Nehemiah and perhaps you know as you as you look around and think about your own life of prayer and intercession where does this exist where does this exist this These kinds of things should stimulate us to prayer. First of all, there's distress, great distress. And this term in Hebrew that Nehemiah uses means unpleasant, adverse, or difficult.

Someone in an adverse situation. Secondly, reproach. A person who is shamed or taunted or scorned you know anyone who is being shamed or taunted or scorned rise up and pray for for that that individual for those people number three the wall is broken down That means that they're unprotected and then the gates are burned with fire. That means that they're vulnerable and just anything can come in and out of that gate. And as we've spoken of before, the walls represent this whole matter of the rebuilding of people's lives beginning at salvation and continuing on and so these this rebuilding this prayer for rebuilding you know has to do with that with that whole matter of the walls.

And, you know, today we're not protected by city walls. But we do have walls in our houses. But imagine if the walls in your own house were broken out and there were no walls at all in your house. And people could just walk in at night or whenever. I don't know how many of you lock your doors at night?

You know, most people lock their doors at night. There are very few that don't why do you lock your doors at night? Because you need your walls. That's why and this this whole Testimony in Nehemiah just gives us such a poignant illustration of why we need walls in our lives in our houses in our hearts and why they need to be built up. So Nehemiah's reaction is recorded in verse four, and he weeps and he prays for many days.

So it was when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned for many days. I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. What we encounter in verse four are four very powerful verbs. Weeping and mourning and praying and fasting and there's such a there's such a reaction because there are just Some things that just should not stay the same and it's so easy that we lose a passion for those things And nehemiah had that passion and I think he has it there for us, to draw us in his direction, to teach us to be like him, and to really to be like the Lord Jesus Christ, who cries out, Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem. Now, I want to give you six observations from Nehemiah's reaction, and the first is this.

This is a prayer of love. This is a prayer for a broken people, from a man who has love for his people and Nehemiah is Like Nehemiah has the heart of Jesus Christ for his people. He's moved with compassion for the city of Jerusalem. And what I think what we find here is that is really a principle and that is that loving ears hear and loving ears pray. Love cares.

Nehemiah has put on a heart of compassion. He understands what the Apostle Paul meant when he said put on a heart of compassion. Compassion for the struggles and difficulties of those who are around us. And I think the question, the application is, who needs our compassion? You know, who have we forgotten about?

Maybe somebody told you about something, maybe this week and you've already forgotten about it. Has that ever happened to you? Someone said, please, I have this trouble, please pray for me, and you've already forgotten about it. It's legendary that we do that in people's lives and you know when the Apostle Paul said put on a heart of compassion he was assuming that God's people will lose a sense of compassion for one another. The next observation from Nehemiah's reaction is that this prayer is arising out of his feelings over the trouble.

He prays about the things that have touched his feelings and really broken his heart. And I think what we learn from this is that prayer is something that arises out of reality. It arises out of what you really feel and who you really are. It's not fake. It's not put on.

It's something that really is real in your soul. And there was something that gave him great concern and his prayers sprang from that great concern. And we don't pray out of a sterile environment. We pray out of real things. And this is really where a real relationship with God intersects with the real life that you are experiencing.

Because what God does is he gives people burdens and then he calls them to come to him. That's why Jesus said, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He doesn't say, hey, come to me when you have everything together. Come to me when your life is not messy. Come to me when you're thinking straight about everything.

No, come to me. All you who are weary and heavy laden, come to me. And the prayers will arise out of that soil of reality in your life. We come before God real, not fake. We don't come to God and put on a sheen of who we want to try to present to him.

And in this sense, Nehemiah gives us a tremendous role model for understanding that. Jesus welcomes the weary person. Jesus welcomes the person that doesn't have any more answers. Jesus welcomes the person that doesn't really know what to do. Like they've run out of solutions.

And so He says, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden. And this is just one of the reasons that trials are so good for us is because they drive us to that. Here's an application. An unruffled life is often a prayerless life. An unruffled life is often a prayerless life.

An unruffled life is often a prayerless life. And I'm pretty confident there are people here today that are ruffled. I'm pretty ruffled about a few things. And the unruffled life is a prayerless life. The stoic careless life is where we end up not praying.

Careless meaning we could care less. We could care less about other people. We could care less about our own sins. We'll get to that later in Nehemiah's prayer. But we just could care less.

We've just gotten used to broken down walls. We just don't care anymore. We've just gotten used to seeing the rubble. You know how that goes. You know, you, maybe if you've ever built a house, you know, maybe you recognize how this works you know you build a house you get about you get about seven eights done and There's just this there's just this trim over here that just hasn't been put on you just and you get used you just walk by it You know you walk by You've been walking by it for eight years now, but your wife walks by it and she usually thinks a little bit differently about it.

She still sees it. But no, you're just blind to it because we just get used to the rubble. But here, it's the ruffled life that's stimulated to prayer. And Nehemiah felt things that we need to maybe feel. We need to learn to feel again in some ways, you know, to feel compassion for people.

It was a church that was broken down that he had feelings for. He had very deep feelings for the church when it was weak. And he wasn't just content to hear about that old broken down wall and do nothing about it. There are just certain things that shouldn't stay the way they are. Here's another observation, the third observation.

This is a private intercessory prayer. Jesus said, go into your closet and shut your door. And here, Nehemiah stands before God alone, interceding for his people. And in the same way that the Lord Jesus Christ intercedes for us day and night, He never ceases to intercede for us. But here Nehemiah goes and he has a private life before God Not just a public life Here's the next observation the fourth observation about Nehemiah's reaction This is a trusting prayer not relying on man or the power of man to rescue.

So for three to five months, Nehemiah delays asking for help from others, and he speaks to God. And there doesn't seem to be any self-pity. He looks under the hills from whence his help comes and he sets his mind on things that are above. And when there are things that should not stay the way they are, We need to realize that only God's power can do that. The next observation, the fifth observation, is that this is a prayer for restoration.

And I think we should Think about this prayer, or at least this verse, verse four, in terms of Isaiah 58, where Isaiah speaks about two things. He speaks about fasting, the power of fasting, and the power of the celebration of the Sabbath. And he speaks of those who fast and he says of those people, 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. Nehemiah was fasting, he was rebuilding broken down streets and walls.

And fasting is critical. Jesus said this kind doesn't come out by prayer and fasting. You remember that story? The disciples encounter a man who has a demonized son and he's throwing himself into the fire. It's a horrible situation.

And the disciples and Jesus have just come down from the Mount of Transfiguration. And the disciples, And there's this question, why couldn't your disciples cast it out? Why? Why couldn't they cast it out? Well, Jesus says, because this kind doesn't come out by prayer and fasting.

But he wasn't saying, you need to fast right now. He's saying, You weren't fasting. You didn't have a lifestyle of fasting. You don't just deal with these things in the moment. God somehow uses our fastings over time to be a blessing to the trials and difficulties that we face in a moment of time.

The sixth observation is this. This is persevering prayer. This is persevering prayer. He was praying three to five months And so this prayer here is what we find in this chapter is really kind of an explanation of the kinds of things he was praying about during that three to five month period. I don't think this is the exact, I don't think this is one single prayer.

I think that this is a declaration of the kinds of things that he prayed about. And you just might ask yourself, what have you been praying about for the last three to five months? And what are we laying before the Lord in our church over the last you know three to five months and so I you know we should be careful to recognize what those things are you know over long periods of time so he hears and and he prays he hears this story of what's going on in Jerusalem you know one of the great missionaries in the history of missions William Carey was really stimulated by the hearing of news from Captain Cook. Captain Cook was sailing around the world and seeing all kinds of debauchery and terrible things happening from one island to another, one continent to another. And he read the stories of Captain Cook and it broke his heart and it launched him to be really one of the most effective missionaries in the history of missions.

You know when you hear something what do you do? You know do you do anything? Do you care at all? Well, Nehemiah did. And he launched into this season of prayer because there are just certain things that just should not stay the same.

And we often, because we pass by things that are broken all the time, We just lose a sense of compassion. We lose a sense of urgency for it And it's just like it's just like that piece of trim that you've walked by so many times. It's not done It's not finished. It needs to be done and and Nehemiah heeds that call And then let's look at the prayer itself beginning in verse 3 Versus 3 11 And again as you'll see in this outline that you have before for you first of all he looks up in verses 5 and 6 Then he looks within and at the end of verse 6 and verse 7 and then he looks back in verses 8 and 9 and then he looks ahead in verse 10 and 11 so we're gonna walk through this representative prayer and So let's let's first of all look at verse 5. First of all, he glorifies God.

He looks up. And I said, I pray, Lord God of heaven, oh great and awesome God, you who keep your covenant and mercy with those who love you and observe your commandments." Now he prays to God. Now you can always turn somewhere And very often we turn in the wrong place. We turn to man. We turn to books.

I'm not denigrating counselors in books or anything like that. But only God can do something like this. And Nehemiah doesn't even start with the problem. He starts with God who ordains all problems. And he very much is praying the way that the Lord Jesus Christ taught his disciples to pray.

Our Father, who art in heaven. He turns to God first. Often we want to talk to others and we want to talk to ourselves. And it can be very dangerous. I read a book on prayer some time ago and the author said this, quit talking to yourself.

Quit talking to yourself. Talk to God. That's exactly what Nehemiah did. And one of the great blessings of being saved by grace and praying to God is that God helps you to quit talking to yourself and quit obsessing about your own self and your own self talk and to talk to God. And so the question for us is are we taking our concerns to God or are we just jabbering about it to everyone else and we're talking to ourselves all the time.

It would be really interesting if we had some kind of a chart divinely revealed to us that was accurate. And if there was a said problem, God would show us how many words and how much time have been spent talking to others and ourselves and how much time has been spent talking to God. Here's my guess. The talking to God part wouldn't be all that much. But that's the way that we find ourselves in this world.

We take our concerns to God or we're taking our concerns just to ourselves You know You know the Apostle Paul said don't don't worry about anything, but in everything give give give thanks and pray It's such a life-giving thing it keeps us It keeps us from the spirals of disappointment and self-obsession and bitterness and the things that hurt us the most. And when we're just involved in self-talk and talking to others, it often just erodes our trust in God. But Nehemiah doesn't start with the needs of man, he starts with the majesty of God, and he talks to God. Also I think it's very clear in this verse that he he's praying out of his knowledge and experience of God Again, he's praying out of a well of reality the way that he knows God and He's very personal here. He's talking.

He's talking to God about God Do you see that? He's talking to God about God. Do you see that? He's talking to God about God. He's talking to God about the way he knows God.

And he's speaking very directly to him. He wasn't just saying his prayers. He was actually praying. He wasn't praying by rote. He was praying out of his knowledge of God.

He looks back and he sees how God has blessed him and how he knows God and he speaks the doctrine of God that exists in his own heart. And that's why he has confidence in God and he has confidence that God listens to him do you see that you can see his confidence in God in verse 4 or verse 5 you know he didn't have any confidence in talking to King Artaxerxes. He had a lot of confidence in talking to God. He knew that when he talked to Artaxerxes, as we'll read about in the last verse, then we understand that he believed that only God could help him before our deserts cease. He's just like Daniel.

Daniel 9 we have a prayer that begins the same way. I pray Lord God of heaven great and awesome God. Now notice the words that he uses here. Lord. You see that word Lord?

It's the word Jehovah, and it is the covenant name for God. The never changing, always can be counted on God who is the same today, yesterday, and forever. That's the God he knows. He's praying to the Lord, to Jehovah, the one who always is and always will be. And then he uses the term Elohim for God, and El, when he speaks of the God of heaven, he uses Elohim, which emphasizes his power.

And he, first of all, He speaks of the God of heaven and he's talking about the God of the universe And then he speaks secondly of the great God he's great in quality and great in size and majesty. This is his God Third he speaks of God as being awesome, and what that means is astonishing. He believes God is astonishing. He's not astonished by his problems as much as he is astonished by God. And that really makes a difference.

You think you're going through something really astonishing, remember that God is more astonishing. And he speaks of the God who keeps his covenant of mercy. And so he knew God as the supreme authority over all things. He knew God as faithful. He saw God as one who speaks and works and intercedes and who is attentive.

This is not a prayer of a sick kind of despair at all. It's a prayer of believing brokenness. It reminds me of That song we sing out of 1 John, now this is the confidence that we have in him. That if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. This is prayer rooted in confidence in God's faithfulness.

Also notice that he prays the words of Scripture. He uses the words of God as he speaks about his problems and he prays the words of Moses and Solomon and Isaiah throughout this prayer. And he's communicating with God on God's own terms. He is praying sound doctrine that is derived from the scriptures itself. Daniel does this, Ezra does this, and now we see Nehemiah doing this.

In verse 8, he's quoting Deuteronomy 28 verse 64. In verse 9, he's quoting Deuteronomy 31 through 4 and Deuteronomy 12, 5. He quotes Moses on Mount Sinai in Deuteronomy 929. His mind is saturated by thoughts of God. He prayed out of the well of the implanted Word in his heart.

Knowing God is central to knowing how to pray you know we we often stumble in our prayers because we don't have the thoughts of God in our minds and we're just praying sort of free flow out of the meditations of our own heart it's it is important we pray out of the meditations of our own heart But what not Nehemiah goes far beyond that and he prays the words of God. There's a great book Written by Don Whitney called praying scripture. It's really short and it's also an audiobook. I highly recommend it But you know one of the great obstacles in our praying is not saturating our minds with thoughts of God. But Nehemiah fills his mind with God and he prays the words of God.

Here's another critical matter about this prayer. He's selective in his prayers. He doesn't pray for everyone. He prays for those who love you and observe your commandments his concern is for the redeemed and And and and he is he's interceding for the redeemed of Israel The next thing we learn here is in the second part of verse 6. He appeals to God.

He calls God to do something. Please let your ear be attentive and your eyes open that you may hear the prayer of your servant which I pray before you day and night for the children of Israel, your servants." He's saying, Lord, Lord, turn your ear, turn your eyes, look at me. Here I am in this world. He's appealing to God. He's doing what the apostle Paul commanded, let your requests be made known to God.

And he's crying out and he's actually, he knows he's familiar with God. He's a friend of God and so he says God would you come? He's like that man. He's a friend. He's knocking on the door and he's saying could you give us some bread?

He's a friend. He is at the door and he's a friend. And he treats God like a friend in that sense. And he actually asks God as a friend would ask a friend. And he was casting his burdens upon him.

And then we also notice he confesses sin. He looks within. He looks up, and then he looks within. And confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against you, both my Father's house and I have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against you, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which you commanded your servant Moses." So a heightened view of God gives one a heightened view of their sin.

When you see the holiness of God, you see the unholiness of yourself. And that's what happens with Nehemiah. And he sees how much the world has filled his own heart and the hearts of his countrymen. And he confesses his sin and he prays based on the knowledge of his own sins and in the sins of the people of God. And when we pray, we should always recognize this tendency that we have of self-righteousness.

And I think we can apply this by asking ourselves, are we approaching the problems that we see in a spirit of self-righteousness? We're a self-congratulating people. We have hearts that want to praise ourselves. And so we're often very blind to our sins, and repentance is one of the most difficult things. Very interesting, today I'm preaching on two subjects, prayer and repentance tonight in our Sunday night service.

Two of the most difficult things in our lives, in my life, Because we're so blind. I'm so blind to my sin. I just I'm astonished as the years pass how blind I had been to my sin and I I can go back 10 20 30 almost 40 years ago And I can see how blind I've been all along the way to my sin God's had such mercy But he he comes with a contrite heart And he recognizes his sinfulness in the midst of his prayer for people. So he looks within. And then he looks back.

This is verses 8 and 9. He remembers God's promises. Remember, I pray, the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations. But if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling place for my name." And of course he's praying scripture here. He quotes Leviticus 26, 23 there in this verse.

I'll just read it to you. I will scatter you among the nations and draw out a sword after you. Your land shall be desolate and your cities waste. He's talking about the Babylonian captivity. And then he says, then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths as long as it lies desolate, and you are in your enemy's land.

Then the land shall rest and enjoy Sabbath as long as it lies desolate it shall rest for the time it did not rest on your Sabbath and He's he then he quotes Deuteronomy chapter 30 and he did any quotes of Deuteronomy 28 The blessings and the curses And what he's saying is that he's really speaking of this of this fact that he keeps his promises. He did promise to remove them from the land if they remain hard-hearted, But he also promised that if they would return, if they would repent, then he would bring them back and he would bless them and he would have mercy upon them. Because God keeps his promises. And Nehemiah prays out of that sense of his heart that God keeps his promises. There's really no hope in this world unless you believe in God's promises.

There isn't any hope at all for anything any of us are going through right now unless you believe in God's promises. Nothing. There is no problem you're dealing with right now for which there is any hope at all unless, unless the promises of God are true. And it's so helpful to just pray the promises of God. And he does, he is that, He's quoting Deuteronomy 28, which in verse 1, we read, Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, and observe carefully all his commandments, which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above the nations of the earth, and all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obeyed the voice of the Lord your God.

Blessed shall you be in the city, blessed shall you be in the country, Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground, and the increase of your herds, and the increase of your cattle, and the offspring of your flocks. Blessed shall you be in the city. Blessed shall you be in the country. Doesn't matter where you go. God promises to care for His people wherever they go.

He says, I'll never leave you or forsake you. These are promises. In the midst of the most troubled moment of your life, He will never leave you or forsake you. And Nehemiah is just recounting God's promises. And he quotes from his promises in various places in the Old Testament.

You know what he's saying? He's saying, Lord, you said you would gather us from the farthest parts of the world. You said, it's like he's saying, Lord, I know what you're like, and I know what I'm like, And I know what you always do with your people. And so he prays with a sense of confidence in God because of his promises. It's so helpful to pray the promises of God.

If you're lost in prayer, go to the promises of God. You don't know how to pray. You're confused. You're tired. You're distracted.

Pray the promises of God. Let God center you upon himself. And do what Nehemiah does. Pray to God about God and there's something about God he wants to build our confidence that's why he says this is the confidence we have in him it's in him And then he pleads for his people on the basis of God's power. He looks ahead.

Verse 10. Look at verse 10. Now these are your servants and your people whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand." And here he's quoting Deuteronomy 9 where God has delivered his people out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Remember, we've talked about the hand of God in this church a few times. We've run across that phrase in Isaiah particularly.

But he's he's harkening back to the way that God ransomed his people and he uses he uses the word Pada and he referred the ransom price you know those you have ransomed you've paid you've paid their slavery price and you've bought them off the slave market this is what salvation is you're redeemed God pays a price for your sin. You sin, you land in prison, you become a slave, And God pays for your release. And He paid for our release through His Son, through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He paid the ransom price for our sin. So that our sins would be punished on Jesus' back and not our own.

That's ransom. And you're set free to be redeemed by the blood of the lamb. The Apostle Paul spoke of it in Romans 8 where he said, But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. This is the power of redemption. In Ephesians 1, verse 19 to 23, he speaks of what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe according to the working of his mighty power, which he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places." And when Nehemiah is speaking about this power of God in the future.

Looking ahead, he's speaking about the power of the resurrection. And he's really speaking of what Paul cried out about in Philippians chapter 3, where he said that I may know him and the power of his resurrection. He's talking about the power of the resurrection being exerted in the future and he's pointing to Christ's intercession and Christ's work. And then also notice in verse 11 there's a very interesting phrase where he acknowledges that he's a fellow worker in prayer with other people who are praying. He says, and to the prayer of your servants who desire to fear your name.

Nehemiah is not the only one praying. The saints of God are praying with him and the saints of God are praying people and He didn't believe he was the only one left He didn't believe he was the only one who loved God He He didn't see himself as a loner or the last man standing. He wasn't like Elijah. Remember Elijah sinned when he said, I'm the only one left. It wasn't true at all.

There were all kinds of other people. And Nehemiah is not like that. Spurgeon preached a great sermon on this phrase. Go find it. I really thought it was helpful.

And he talks about how there are people who separate themselves from brethren, from true brethren, and think they're the only ones who are really praying truly. And how sinful that is, how inappropriate that is. And he talks about how good it is for brethren to pray, all different kinds of brethren, strong ones, weak ones, ones who have strong desire for holiness and maybe those who have a weaker desire. And here's what he said, I'll quote Spurgeon, a pinch of incense from each worshiper will fill the house of the Lord with sweet perfume. Small lumps of coal cast into the glowing furnace will still further the heat.

Do not think we can afford to lose your prayers, whoever you may be, but cheerfully contribute to the general treasury of the church's devotion. Now Spurgeon was talking about when the church gathers for prayer, He's talking about their prayer time, their night of prayer in their church. And he's saying, everybody should come. Weak, strong, wise, whatever. Rich, everybody come.

Throw a piece of coal into the furnace. Everybody. And he talks about this phrase too, your servants who desire to fear your name. And he expands on this and he just talks about It's the pastors and the deacons and the laymen in all stages of their life. And he says, if one of you should stay away from the prayer meeting and thus not contribute your share to the supplication of the whole church, because you think you're not a person of much consequence.

It may be that yours is the last prayer which is needed to complete the chain so that it would prevail, even as lots did. Anyway, Spurgeon uses this just to encourage the church to come together to pray. We need to pray because there are certain things that just shouldn't stay the way they are. They need to change. And a lot of times we walk by those things over and over again and we get used to them we get numb to them we just don't see them anymore maybe the Lord will help us see some stuff through going through this also notice it's a prayer for a specific meeting let your servant prosper this day I pray and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.

Now, there are two things I want to try to point out here. First of all, Nehemiah is praying in preparation to meet with Artaxerxes and he prayed a long time before he met with him and he knows he is going he knows he has a need at a moment of time There's a very important meeting with Artaxerxes. He knows he's going to have. It's going to happen and he's praying for that. And Nehemiah almost has like an out-of-body experience.

Do you notice that at the end of verse 11? He says, grant him mercy. Nehemiah is praying about himself. Grant him mercy. It's almost like Nehemiah can see himself in front of the king, and he's saying, grant him mercy.

There he is. He's standing in front of the king. Almost as if he's disconnected from the scene, you know. And prayer is like that. It's really his God's story.

He's doing something in the world, And we're just part of it. And prayer allows you to really pull back and see that it's God. It's a God that's doing everything. And you're not the prime manipulator of everything in this world. But that you're part of a drama that God is unfolding.

And you're in the story. And here, and I was saying, pray for him. Maybe you heard that story a long time ago. I think I read it in Reader's Digest when I was, my mother probably read it to me, you know, a long long time ago But there is this boy in church, he was cutting up and he was screaming and yelling. And his father picked him up, put him over his shoulder and started carrying him out.

And the boy said, y'all pray for me now. You know, it's kind of like that. You know, Nehemiah said, pray for the man. He's standing in front of Artaxerxes. He says, for I was the king's cup bearer, grant that man mercy.

Nehemiah says, I'm that man. You know, do you see how personal and how real prayer is? It's about those things that are really in your heart and they are the real situations of your life. This passage totally destroys all formalism in prayer. It destroys all ideas of say your prayers, mouth your prayers, You know, like at the dinner table, give us grace, give us food, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

I mean, this is totally opposite of that kind of prayer. It's the kind of prayer that really arises out of a man's heart before God. His real problems, the threats against his life, his concerns, the things that are discouraging him, the difficult moments that are ahead, and what he really truly believes about God. All of that's coming out. It's real.

And that's the kind of prayer that we have. Nehemiah knew that Artaxerxes was quite a personality and he was concerned. You know, he was sad in his presence and he knew what that might could mean. And he could lose his head over being sad in the presence of the king because kings don't like sad people They like affirming people they want to hear what they want to hear and they want everybody to be clapping That's what they want But Nehemiah came in one day and he wasn't clapping. And he needed mercy from God.

And so Nehemiah said, pray for that man. It's me. And then God gave him remarkable success. He came back and it took him 52 days to rebuild that wall and God blessed that prayer. Hey there are just certain things that should not stay the same.

And how do we How do we engage those kinds of things? Well, first of all, we look up, and then we look within to see our sin. And then we look around us, and then we look ahead to see those things that God does according to his promises. We don't want to be the kind of people who say, well that's just the way it is. I'm just gonna keep walking by that broken down wall.

No, that's not the life of a Christian. And Nehemiah helps us to see how good and how pleasant it is to recover a sense of reality in your life and to have your heart really break for things that are really heartbreaking and not just to walk past them and not just to quit suppressing the sense of your own sin and keep congratulating yourself about who you are and that we somehow find ourselves that we really care about the Church of Jesus. We really care about people who are in trouble and that we're really aware that God is present. And we cry out to God and we say, oh Lord have mercy on that man and that man is me. Would you pray with me?

Lord we thank you for showing us this remarkable relationship that this man had with you. We pray that you would give us such a rich friendship with you, that we would knock on the door, that we would treat you like a friend, that we would come to you as we really are, that we wouldn't be putting on airs in our prayers, but that we would come to you, all who are weary and heavy-laden, that we wouldn't come to you shining ourselves up, but to be who we are before you and to cry out to you for help. Lord, I pray that you would use us in this world to rebuild the broken down walls that are all around us. We thank you, O Lord, for the power of your resurrection. We thank you for a day to celebrate it all day long and to give thanks to you.

We look forward to many, many more resurrection days where we come together to remember how great you are, how kind you are to heal the sick and raise the dead. Lord use us in this. Amen.