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00:00 Today we are going to continue our series after last week's break to talk about the ladies uh on Nehemiah. So
00:08 today we'll do Nehmiah chapter 2 men of action and men of prayer. So let's uh
00:14 start most appropriately with prayer. Lord, we ask that Neahhemiah that you
00:19 will speak to us through the life, the actions, the examples of Nehemiah so
00:26 that we too may be transformed into a people of prayer and a people of action.
00:32 We ask for Jesus' sake. Amen. Right. So, we're going to take you back to the
00:38 beginning of uh Nehemiah where the context is a terrible time uh where
00:44 Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians and the people were exiled thousands of
00:49 miles away to uh Babylon and then later that was captured by the Persian kingdom
00:57 and and Hermiah is now in Souza. Okay. And the scene starts off well way back
01:04 in Ezra chapter 1 where in the first year of the king Cyrus king of Persia
01:10 the word of the Lord by mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled. The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of
01:16 Persia so that he made a proclamation throughout his kingdom and also put it in writing. So here you have Cyrus a
01:22 king non-Christian king as well nothing to do with Israelites and God out of the blue this is what we call a miracle. All
01:29 right. Out of the blue puts upon this heart. The other the other person we see in the Bible like this is
01:34 Nebuchadnezzar, isn't it? But he had the benefit of um uh Daniel being there. But
01:40 here you have your Cyrus out of the blue. And Cyrus, king of Persia, says, "The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdom to earth. And he has
01:47 charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. of all the things that he would be interested in.
01:53 He wants you to build a backwater in a backwater town in a desolate place called Jerusalem. He wants it rebuilt.
02:00 So this can only be how God works in a non-Christian's heart. And then the
02:05 whole episode is about return from exile. How the people of Israel return from exile. And and then some modern-day
02:13 politicians liken themselves to be like Cyrus when they move the US embassy back
02:18 to Jerusalem. So that's why you had this little coin that Trump thinks he's like Cyrus. Um, but the Jews go back in three
02:26 different waves. The first wave is by a prince called Zerubbabel
02:31 535 BC. Uh, and they build back the temple and its foundations in Ezra 1
02:37 to6. 46 thou 47,000 Jews go back. But this temple which they rebuilt never
02:44 regained its former glory. You don't see the shikina glory come down onto this
02:49 temple, the second temple as it were the first temple. There was something missing about it. Um and then the work
02:55 was stopped and then again in Ezra is a priest full-time worker now and he is in
03:02 5858 BC years and years later on uh he goes back about 5,000 Jews are taught
03:08 with to reestablish the worshiing community there and the primacy of the word of God there. And that then falls
03:15 back into this uh this uh in into a period of quieten there's nothing
03:21 happening and then you've got Nehemiah 4:45 and he goes back to build the walls
03:26 at the city gates. So that's the threeprong approach when you go back and
03:31 the context here is the Persian king at Xerxes number one and he basically
03:37 there's a nickname for him called long gi manis. Do you notice anything about that anybody? What do you notice? Long G
03:45 manness long arm. The right arm is longer than
03:51 the left. All right. Very odd man. He's like Spider-Man. One is longer. So it's a nickname called Long Manis. So it's at
03:58 Xerxes. And they've got enemies in Judah that don't like you building back again because they want to claim the land for
04:04 themselves. The governor of Samara, Sanbalat, Ammonites, Tabaya, and and the Arab
04:11 called Gersham. They are all enemies. They actually caused the uh disruption of the return of exile and the building
04:17 of the temple last time. They caused all this. They spread rumors uh to actually prevent the return. And when we first
04:25 the date of the first bad news in Nemiah 1 was in the month of November, December called Chislev. Okay. And they came back
04:33 with news to Nehemiah. The remnant there in the province who survived exile are in great trouble and great shame. The
04:40 walls of Jerusalem broken down and its gates are destroyed by fire. The difference between a village
04:46 and a city is basically a wall. All right? So basically here you don't have a wall. If you don't have a wall,
04:52 marauders will come in. They will take things by force. They will attack you. They'll take the women away. They
04:58 enslave you. So they're in a really bad situation because although the temple was built up again, uh there was no wall
05:05 and it main gates were already destroyed. Now gates are not like automatic gate. You press button it open. The gate is a place is called the
05:13 central CBD central business district. We actually have judges there. It's a huge huge uh complex. So therefore
05:19 there's no real commercial activity going on there. As soon as I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned
05:25 for days and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. And that when this this word comes to
05:32 Nehemiah, it really strikes him because this is his people who are actually
05:37 suffering in the holy land. And you must understand the mind of the Jew. The mind of Jews stems from the promise God gave
05:44 to Abraham. If you look at Abraham by faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called out to a place where he was to receive
05:50 as an inheritance. He went out not knowing where he was going. By faith, he went to live in the land of promise as
05:55 in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob. shares with him of the same promise and who's looking forward
06:01 to a city that has foundations whose designer and builder is God. All of God's promises and hopes of the future
06:09 are actually encapsulated in that one single city where people would worship,
06:15 people would go at their festivals and that city is Jerusalem. It's supposed to be a place where his founders and and
06:23 designer is actually God himself. So in the mind of every Jew that is what he looks forward to. If the walls are
06:29 broken that vision, that passion, that dream is broken. Uh the walls of
06:37 Jerusalem, Jerusalem represents the future messianic king who would come. It
06:43 represents God's presence in a new temple. It represents God's kingdom from
06:48 Jerusalem through all all the world. the whole world, all his nations will stream to Jerusalem to worship God. That is at
06:55 the heart of every single Jew. And that is if you go to Israel today, that is
07:01 still their hope and dream. So if that wall is in disarray, it means that
07:06 vision is broken. Uh that their dream is dissipated. Now let's go back to our
07:12 chapter today. His specific prayer. Oh Lord, let your ear be attentive to the
07:17 prayer of a servant, to the ser prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name and give success to your
07:23 servant today. Grant him mercy in the sight of this man. Who is this man? The
07:30 one with the one arm longer, you know, he was serving. And the key is he's a cup bearer to the king. when you hear
07:37 this bad news and it suddenly dawned upon him that he is in a position he's
07:42 actually a cup bearer a politician of all people God will use politician 16%
07:49 of Malaysians trust politicians they're like worst of the you couldn't be worse than a politician in this country all
07:54 right they did the same poll this is October 2018 and the number one uh institution people trust is the army
08:00 actually and then it goes downward from there and the last one is a politician uh and here you actually have a
08:06 politician. All right? A cup bearer. You know what a cup bearer is? Cup bearer is very is next to the king himself. He if
08:13 anybody gives a poison drink to the king, he's the first one, the hero. He will drink it. If anybody if he dies,
08:20 then the king won't drink. If he doesn't die, the king will drink. All right? So, and but the fact that he was there uh uh
08:27 protects the king and he also has the ear of the king. He's in a very very strategic position uh to do something.
08:33 Now we're going to look at his prayer life. We prayed in chapter one. In chapter two, we're look looking at the
08:39 results of the prayer. How prayer creates a space in which God can act. Prayer produces opportunities. Prayer
08:46 overcomes fears. Prayer is where planning starts and prayer ultimately
08:51 produces action. So let's start where prayer creates a space in which God can act. here in the month of Nissan in the
08:58 20th year of the king Axis Xerxes when the wine was before him. Look at the
09:03 time. This is where he first started November December is Chislv and now is Nissan. Nissan which means it is four
09:10 months from the chapter 1 and chapter 2 is four months. You must not fail to
09:15 notice the difference. What was he doing in the four months? He was praying. He was creating a space in which God can
09:23 act. One of the most irritating things that you'll find in Christian service or in prayer is that you always got to wait
09:30 for God. Isn't it? God never answers your prayer straight away. If you ask, look at Abraham and Sarah. Waiting for
09:37 one baby takes 25 years. Moses before he's used for Exodus has to wait 40
09:44 years at the backside of a desert looking after cows and goats and what have you. David was chosen as a king in
09:52 his young age but had to fight for years hiding away from the real king which was King Saul. Rachel had to wait 14 years
10:01 sorry Jacob had to wait 14 years to marry the girl whom he loved which was Rachel. So why do you have to wait such
10:07 a long time? There are some people who misunderstand this waiting period. They think you you wait long prayer you pray
10:12 hard enough then God is obligated to to basically answer your prayer. Uh this is the called the law of accumulation.
10:18 Revelations 5'8. When they had taken a scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb,
10:25 each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which were the prayer of the saints. So here you have a vision in heaven which John tells us about. And
10:33 we've got an apostle called Maldino Gulam who was here in Kalanas about two
10:38 years ago. He had a rally there and this is what he says. Have you prayed for certain things that you still haven't
10:44 seen manifested? If you offered prayers that were to be fulfilled in the future, they have accumulated into one of those
10:49 heavenly bowls like a bank account. They're earning interest and growing and
10:55 they're about to be poured out. Even though they may not be manifest until the prayer bowl is full, it may be that
11:00 there is not enough spiritual matter accumulated to give shape to a miracle in a natural realm. Therefore, continue
11:06 depositing prayers, making offerings, fasting until time is fulfilled and your
11:11 bowl is ready to be poured out. Isn't that interesting? How many of you been
11:17 filling your bowls more than the beef noodle outside? Okay, hopefully you'll be filling your bowls. Uh if you want to
11:23 bring heaven to earth, that's not how it will happen. Your faith and prayers have sufficiently accumulated, the
11:30 manifestation will take place easily. And then he say for instance the resurrection of the dead is a powerful
11:35 miracle that characterizes King Jesus ministry which is his ministry. However, it is not something that happened
11:41 overnight in my daily prayers. The Holy Spirit showed me that it was this was the next level of power I would receive
11:47 in ministry. From that moment I started to accumulate prayers in that direction and look for the power of the
11:54 resurrection. When I had accumulated through prayers, the bowl overflowed and resurrection begin to take place. It was
11:59 glorious but it took a lot of prayer to reach that new level. Sounds like mway
12:04 right? You reach this pearl diamond. So in spiritual thing if you spend enough
12:10 time you reach a kind of level and and you got kind of gravitas and god basically is obligated to listen to you.
12:17 Why? Because you reach diamond level ma right. Is that how prayer works?
12:22 Sometimes we we think the problem with that kind of theology is that you you
12:27 actually controlling God. That means your prayer bowl chup full right then God has obligated to answer you and
12:33 that's not how it works. We have a lot of people who pray. I mean Abraham prayed for years to see his Jerusalem.
12:39 He never he died without receiving the promise. Many of the saints died without receiving the promise. Don't tell me the
12:44 bowl half full is it or filled with just noodles. All right. So uh look at this passage. This this picture is very
12:51 painted by the one of the uh old masters. It's about Genesis chapter 22.
12:56 You've got Abraham. He's got this knife and he's putting it onto the neck of his
13:02 son Isaac. Now, if you look at the faith of Abraham, was his faith entirely
13:10 focused on the promise God gave him? How many you think it's focused on the
13:15 promise God gave him? Put your hands up. Yeah, some of you would think that well
13:20 if you look at the if if the whole promise of giving him you know he look up in the sky and then God say you will
13:26 you know your descendants will be like the stars in you know it all starts with what one son right if he actually
13:34 believed that God would give him he believed God only for the promise why do you think he put his son down here with
13:40 a knife bit odd isn't it you're going to extinguish your only promise there he
13:46 wasn't root rooted his faith was not rooted in the promise of the descendant
13:52 with 25 years he he had faith had been so transformed it may have been
13:57 initially rooted on the fact that he's going to get a son but after 25 years of
14:02 waiting it is now rooted on the promiser the one who gave him the promise it's not the outcome it's actually the
14:09 promise god makes us wait because if we don't wait if we get it straight away
14:15 then our faith is that he would fulfill his promise and we're only out to get his promise. Right? By making us wait,
14:22 it's the process that's important. He transfers our faith from the promise itself to the one who gives the promise.
14:31 That is what prayer is about. This is a remarkable book written by a theologian in the United States called Klaus Isler
14:38 and he wrote this title of a book you must get read called wasting time with God.
14:44 Uh prayer means wasting time with God. How if I printed this pamphlet out,
14:49 people here would probably lynch me or crucify me. Wasting time with God. But he actually has a point. You know, when
14:55 you go for prayer, I you go to ICU where I see many patients ICU and many patients who are sick. Uh you know, they
15:01 they'll have an operation. Then the wife or the daughter or somebody will just put out a blanket and sit. They won't be
15:10 saying much. I mean the the daughters will probably be playing headphone but they're there like the whole day because
15:16 the papa is there or the wife is there, the boyfriend there, his girlfriend there. So they're wasting time, isn't
15:21 it? They could be at work earning money, right? But when you're
15:26 loved one is sick, you just sit in the ICU and you're what? Wasting time. It's
15:33 not wasting time because when you spend time with the one you love, it's not
15:38 what you do. It's actually being present. You never ask what did you
15:45 achieve when you are sitting there next to the one you love. That's what prayer
15:50 is about. Wasting time as it were. Look at Mary and Martha. Remember the two ladies who were with Jesus. One was
15:56 busy, you know, cooking biryani rice. The other running around like a chick without a head. The other was just
16:02 wasting time sitting in front of Jesus Christ and Jesus telling stories. she's a you know that is actually what prayer
16:09 is about and I think that's the hardest thing for someone like me to know and learn because I'm a very
16:15 actionorientated person and I can never sit still my friends will know I can never sit still if I even I'm praying I
16:21 got to have a list of people to pray for but finish that list I cannot sit there and waste time and I think Claus is
16:28 teaches me that prayer is just sitting with the one you love in ICU
16:35 and just spending time with one you love. And you see here you have a situation where I took up the wine and
16:41 gave it to king. I had not been sad and he said even though he spent time with God and he was sad and king said to me,
16:47 why is your fa face sad? Are you not sick? There's nothing but sadness in the heart and I was very much afraid. And
16:54 here we have Henry Noan. Henry Noan is one who's written many books on
16:59 spirituality. He's a Catholic theologian who actually taught in Notradam, Harvard and Yale for about 20 years. He's
17:06 actually an authority on prayer. So I was reading about how his approach to prayer is and I noticed he says without
17:14 prayer I become irritable, tired, heavy of heart. I lose the spirit who directs
17:20 my direct attention to the needs of others instead of myself. Without prayer my attention moves to my own
17:26 preoccupation. I become cranky and spiteful and often I experience resentment and a desire for
17:33 revenge and I reflect that exactly what I'm like when I actually not praying.
17:40 And then when he's praying he describes his hour of prayer in the chapel full of distraction, headphone ringing,
17:47 restlessness, sleepiness, confusion, and absolute boredom. Isn't it
17:53 describes my prayer life to a tea? And yet the next sentence he writes but he
17:59 noticed in retrospect that the days and weeks were different positively
18:04 different when he prayed without this one hour of for God my life would lose
18:10 its coherency I start to experience by days as a series of random incidents and
18:16 accidents. You see only when you look back to the weeks and the days of which you
18:23 had your prayer very subtle the days in which you didn't have your prayer life becomes like a series of
18:30 accidents and incidents all randomly string together and you react against it but the days in which you actually had
18:36 your prayer although you you don't remember particularly much about it it was like struggling with boredom and all
18:42 that it actually is a calming effect in your entire life. So like prayer, spending time with God is actually a
18:48 struggle. Because if you look at Psalm 13:es 1-2,
18:53 Psalmist comes before God and he says, "How long? How long, oh Lord, will you forget me? Forever? How long will you
19:01 hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul? I have sorrow in my heart all day. How long shall my
19:08 enemy be exalted over me?" Why was Nehemiah depressed after four months of
19:13 prayer? I thought four months of pray jumping up there. Oh, hallelujah. Right after 4 months, he's are more depressed
19:19 because every time he gets in prayer and God doesn't answer his prayer, he's saying, "How long? How long? How long?
19:27 How long?" And then it's end of the psalm, you know what he writes? I have trusted your steadfast love. My heart
19:34 will rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord because he has dealt with me bountifully. And in between the
19:41 first verse and the last verse, you have consider and answer me, oh Lord, my God. Light up my eyes, lest I have the sleep
19:47 of death, lest my enemies say, "I have prevailed over him. Lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken." Can you see the
19:55 dynamics of prayer? When you're praying, I'm trusting God for the best while at the same time, I'm preparing for the worst. You're struggling and your
20:02 feelings are struggling all the time. And if you think you're a terrible Christian because you struggle, join the
20:07 club because the psalmist feels that when he sits down, he feels that God is impotent. God cannot act, God is so
20:14 slow, he's not listening. And at the end, he encourages himself. I I trust in you. And he and basically beseeches God.
20:21 He's trusting God for the best. At the same time, he's preparing for the worst. He's going through the ruminations in his heart. I think we depend too much on
20:28 feelings. If you look at uh screw tape letters is a a series of letters written by um uh uh the chief devil to the
20:37 underdevil devil screw tape and under devil is called wormwood and they're
20:42 discussing how to attack Christians you know and their biggest enemy is whom is God all right and so they're he's
20:50 writing whenever they're attending to the enemy himself were defeated but there are ways in which to prevent them
20:56 from doing so you want to stop them from going to God the simplest way is to turn their gaze away from him towards themselves. Keep them from watching,
21:03 keep them watching their own minds, trying to produce feelings there by the action of their own wills. What they
21:09 meant to ask him for when they meant to ask him for charity, let them instead try to manufacture charitable feelings
21:16 for themselves and not notice that this is exactly what they're doing. When when they're meant to pray for courage, let
21:22 them be really trying to feel brave. When they say they are praying for forgiveness, let them be trying to feel
21:27 forgiven. Teach them to estimate the value of each prayer by their success in producing desired feeling. Never let
21:34 them suspect how much success or failure of that kind depends on whether they're well or ill, fresh or tired at that
21:41 moment. So the devil makes you think your prayer is successful or effective
21:46 by generating of feelings. Prayer produces opportunities.
21:52 Um the king said to me, "Why is your face sad?" You know, after about four
21:57 months, then the king noticed your your hair is kind of ouch. You know, after four months, the guy must be blind. All
22:03 right? There's nothing but sadness of the heart and was very much afraid. So, this is an opportunity. Um I was reading
22:11 this uh paper some time ago. These two ladies, one of them is was was actually
22:18 given away at birth and she started looking for her sister for the last seven years trying to find out, you
22:24 know, my long lost sister. Where is she? Because I was given away for adoption. You know where she was all the time? Her
22:30 neighbor, right next to her, and just happened, the postman happened to deliver a parcel and they saw a common
22:36 name down there. It goes to show you never talk to your neighbor. And she found a longlost lover. you've been
22:41 living looking for seven years was actually living living next to her. And what we had learned from this is that
22:48 prayer produces opportunities. We often want God to produce miracles.
22:55 When we get down and we praying, I'm sure Nehemiah will say to God, "Lord, look, the walls are terrible. Can you
23:02 just zap the wall? I'll write a check. You just zap." That's what we want to do, right? We want a miracle. But you
23:08 don't understand that God actually produces miracles by producing
23:13 opportunities in which we can partner and work with together with him. He he opportunities for us to seize it to sew
23:20 and speak into the lives of the people around us. I mean, how many of you would like your children to grow up as people
23:27 of spirit and character? Put your hands up. Yes, I can see everyone. Alex put
23:33 his hand. He got two young kids, you know, under under the age of five. So you like me, you know, you start from
23:40 young when they get born. Lord, make my son, you know, a holy guy, you know, who
23:45 loves you, marry Christian wife. I started when he was born. Not answered
23:51 yet, right? Okay. But that's not how it works. God doesn't do that. Did you know
23:60 that God gives you opportunities? Opportunity. They don't become fantastic
24:06 Christians overnight. Becoming a f a spiritual person requires trials and
24:11 tribulations, ups and downs and and side paths when you take off and then you get back to the right place. And he will
24:18 give you opportunities to speak into their lives to sew into your lives. If you want your mother to know Christ or
24:24 your father to know Christ, he didn't come one day your mother will say, "Hey, hey son, I want to go to alpha." No,
24:30 they don't do that. There will be an opportunity here and there where your father, your son or your or your spouse
24:36 will interest, show some some interest. Then you take them to this particular thing. Maybe they'll come and hear unforgettable. Maybe they'll want to do
24:43 something. But it's this little opportunities where he will give us so that we can grasp. So pray because
24:50 prayer gives opportunities. We got to see it. We got to seize it and speak into their lives. So the king said to
24:58 me, "Why is your Oh, my shoelac is off. Let me tie my shoelace. I haven't worn
25:03 shoelaces in what, many years. The problem that they they come off."
25:09 Okay, I tied. I'm okay. I won't fall down. Now, let me uh read. And the king said to me, "Why is your face sad seeing
25:15 that you're not sick? There's nothing but sadness in your heart." I was very much afraid. And I said to the king, "Let the king live forever. Why why
25:22 should not my face be sad when the city the place of my father's graves lies in ruins and his gates have been destroyed
25:27 by fire. So he seizes the opportunity. He brings up his city. Okay. And and his
25:33 father's graves. Now prayer overcomes fear. And once the king talks to him, he
25:40 basically becomes very afraid. Either he doesn't like your sour face because if you don't like sour face straight away he'll ask you to be executed and they
25:46 will actually take you off and kill you. It's like that in those days. Or the problem is um this letter from King Ata
25:55 Xerxes. All right. It was this king himself who actually stopped the building of the the
26:03 completion of the temple and Jerusalem. Let me read. And I made a decree and a search has been made. It has been found
26:09 that this city from old has risen against kings and that rebellion and sedition have been made in it. and the
26:16 mighty kings have been over Jerusalem who have ruled over the whole province beyond the river to whom tribute custom
26:22 and toll were paid. I therefore made a decree that these men are made to cease and that this city not be rebuilt until
26:28 a decree is made by me. Take care not to be slack in this matter. Why should damage grow to the her of the king? Now,
26:35 if you were a king over a vast swath of land and empire, the first thing that
26:40 you'll be very sensitive to is rebellion. And this place has a history of
26:45 rebellion. So the people sunbal the enborn and gers send back rumors. And
26:52 because of these rumors the king was threatened and he say stop. Now are you the fear was if you bring this up again
26:59 then you'll be under the sma act or the sedition act and you put in jail. That was what Nehemiah was afraid of. And
27:07 then then when you pray sometimes fear and we we we struggle with our feelings. This is Henry Norwen and he writes, "So
27:13 when I'm praying while not knowing how to pray, I'm resting while feeling restless, at peace while tempted, safe
27:21 while still anxious, surrounded by a crowd of light while still in darkness, in love and still doubting." So prayer
27:27 isn't one homogeneous feeling, you know. It's it's you're trusting and yet
27:32 doubting in the dark and yet in light. And that's absolutely true. You each of us through prayer, we struggle with
27:39 that. We struggle with our fear. It's a very interesting picture came out in the CNN was actually one of the pictures of
27:44 the year this fellow is a bit upset not upset he's scared and we have a big wolf
27:50 and the first thing that the wolf does when he comes the this fellow will be trying to run away right if you don't
27:56 run away you will be eaten and actually he was eaten when you have fear the first thing you do what do we do we pray
28:02 against the fear right you say in the name of Jesus fear go away but the problem is when you do that you are
28:09 actually giving fear a top building in your life. You're giving credence to the fear. If you're
28:14 running away from the thing which you are fearful about, you actually give it more power in your life. Right?
28:20 Psychologist will tell you if you got something you're afraid of, you should turn around and you should face the
28:25 fear. So the more you turn around and face the fear, the less your response to it will be physiological. So therefore,
28:32 this mama should turn around and then feast the wolf. He didn't do that. He still died.
28:39 Now if you look here what this is what he prayed verse four. Why are you requesting? So I prayed to the God of
28:46 heaven. Notice this. And then you look in chapter one. Oh Lord God of heaven,
28:52 the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love and keep his commandments. He
28:59 prays to the Lord of heaven. Now, if you look some years ago, there was this uh
29:04 uh uh snowboarder. Khloe Kim, 17 years of age, was a real uh rags to riches
29:11 kind of story where her parents immigrated to the United States when they were very young. Um and uh she grew
29:17 up and the father keep on taking her to the snow fields and competitions. They wake from years from from the age of
29:24 four years old they'll be taking you to competitions uh and and until you became
29:29 very good um difficult life um ups and downs
29:36 at age of eight the father gave up her care his career in order to be her coach full-time and this is what he writes I
29:44 was very stressed because everyone was saying Khloe is going to be win going to win gold but no one knows that I I
29:52 cannot control you know when you have children your hearts are joined to your children's hearts you know if they if
29:59 they hurt like that you also hurt like that and you wish you would take their place anybody who's a parent will tell
30:04 you that and the most difficult part of being a parent is that you can't control
30:11 you can't control the events you can love the child but you can't control the events and when you pray you'll find
30:16 that Nehemiah is different his his father is also the king Oh Lord, God of
30:22 heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with
30:28 those who love him and keep his commandments. And Henry Owen says, ultimately, you place your trust in a
30:33 God who holds me, who loved me long before I came into life and will love me
30:38 long after I have died. When we pray to God, it's not like Khloe Kim's father
30:45 who loves the daughter but cannot control events. We pray to a god of heaven. Nehemiah talks about a god of
30:52 heaven all the time because heaven is the highest authority in the universe and he is my father and he is my king.
30:58 So we are driven to this god. Fear also drives you to his power. If you look at
31:04 acts chapter 4, this is the fledgling first church was just born in chapter 2
31:11 where thousands of people came to know Christ and then this is the first persecution that actually happened. And
31:16 the people were persecuted, put in jail. And this is a response. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices
31:21 together to God and says, "Sovereign Lord who had made the heaven and the earth, the sea and everything in them."
31:28 See just exactly that. Nehemiah, Neahhemiah prays to the God of heaven. They are praying to the God who of
31:34 heaven who created the sea and earth and everything in it. Who through the mouth
31:40 of our father David, your servant, sit by his holy spirit. Why did the Gentiles rage? The people's plot in vain. Kings
31:47 of the earth set themselves and the rulers are gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed. Psalm
31:53 two, they quote, because Psalm two tells us that the people will, the Gentiles will rebel against God and his Messiah.
32:01 They see the word of God. They see the world through the prism of the word of
32:06 God when they are frightened because fear drives you to his word. And then
32:12 then they interpret they use the word and they interpret their circumstances. For truly in this city they were
32:18 gathered together against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed both Herod and Pontious Pilot along with the
32:23 Gentiles and the people of Israel to do whatever your hand and your plan has predestined to take place. So whatever
32:29 happened to Jesus as already predestined now Lord look upon their threats and
32:34 grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness. So whatever happens as already planned
32:41 while you stretch out your hand to heal and signs and wonders are performed to the name of your holy servant Jesus. And
32:48 they prayed the place in which they gathered together was shaken and were filled with the Holy Spirit and continue to speak the word of God with boldness.
32:55 This is how you respond to fear. You go back to the word of God and the word of God reassures you that your father is
33:02 the king. Fear drives you to his beauty as well. You look at Psalm 27, which is
33:07 the David being fearful of Saul coming after him. And he writes, "The Lord is
33:13 my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear?" So he's struggling with his fear.
33:19 The Lord, he tells himself, "The Lord is a stronghold, my life. Whom shall I be afraid? When evildoers assail me into my
33:26 flesh, my adversaries, and the foes, it is they who stumble and fall. Though an army camp against me, my heart will not
33:32 fail. The war will rise against me, yet will I be confident. One thing I've asked of the Lord, that I seek after
33:38 that I may dwell in the house of the Lord and all the days of my life to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and inquire of his temple. Fear should drive us to
33:46 his beauty. If you look fear in the eye and you're always asking God to take the
33:52 fear away, then then then you actually miss the whole point. Fear is meant to
33:58 drive you towards God's power, towards God's beauty. Don't pray that God will
34:05 take the fear away. Pray that through the fear, it will drive you to his beauty. It will drive you to his power.
34:12 Jonathan Edwards, who was responsible much of the revival in North America, was deadly afraid of thunderstorms. You
34:19 know why, right? He might have seen somebody struck by lightning. He was already terrified. But when he became a
34:25 Christian, he recognized that the same thunder was the voice of God. And he
34:31 actually lost his fear because he the thunder was the sweet contemplation of
34:36 my great and glorious God. What had become a terror had been turned into a
34:42 thing of beauty because he had known the one behind the thunder. Prayer is where
34:48 planning starts. You see the Lord, the king said to the to to me where what are
34:54 you requesting? So I I prayed to the God of heaven. Could they call this the arrow player? Straight away you're praying called Paul tells us to be
35:01 always praying without ceasing. So your soul is in a posture of prayer. It's easy for you just to have a prayer to
35:08 God straight away. I think the most most of us will arrow prayer only when we're looking for parking. Right.
35:15 Yes. If you're really honest, you're right. But this is in a urgent situation. is a posture of prayer all
35:21 the time. And then if it pleases the king, your servant has found favor in your sight. You send me to Judah, to the
35:27 city of my father's grave that I may rebuild it. And if you look very carefully from verses 2 to 5, he's
35:32 always mentioning my father's graves lies in ruins. Send me back to the city of my father's grave. He doesn't mention
35:39 my people Judah, the temple there, all that, you know. He mentions, hey, so as
35:45 far as Zus is concerned, he's sending him back to his father's grave. Ching
35:50 Ming going back to to do his Ching Ming. It's very smart because no man you see
35:56 the Persian kings were very very superstitious. If you are saying back you're going back to look after your father's grave they will let you go
36:03 because they're very very pantang. They're very very superstitious and Naomi is very smart. He says send me
36:09 back to Judah so I can rebuild the city. This is where my father you know is buried. And so that's very very wise.
36:15 And then he said to the king said to me the king sitting next to him I don't
36:21 know why Nehemiah you write bracket the what's the big deal with the queen sitting some people say the queen
36:27 sitting next to him is Esther that's a theory but not born out how long will you be gone when will you return please
36:34 the king to send me when I given him a time so he's worried because who's going to drink his poison
36:40 are you going tomorrow 2 days 3 days you can't go for long your boss usually ask for leave right how long you take leave
36:45 if it's okay short period can right 12 years yeah I said it for 12 years he said 12
36:51 years okay okay 12 years can so in those days no grab car so so going to to be a
36:57 governor of Jerusalem is like 12 years for them it's a short time anyway so he said yes and then I said to the king if
37:04 it pleased the king lets be given to me to the governors of the province beyond the river that they may let me pass
37:10 through until I come to Judah and a letter to Asap the keeper of the king's forest that he may give you timber to
37:16 make beams for gates of the fortress of the temple and for the wall of the city and for the house I shall occupy. It's
37:22 very specific, isn't it? This man has done his research before you send me I need passport. I need letters so that
37:29 the people who who guard all these provinces will allow me to pass. Number one and number two a letter to ASAP. He
37:37 even knows the guy who look after the forest the name. How does he know the name? Because he's done what? Research.
37:44 Sometimes you think Christians have such a naive idea that if I'm praying to the
37:49 Lord, everything will fall from the sky. You actually have to pray as well as
37:55 plan. Prayer is where planning starts. Okay? It's not substitute for competence
38:01 or leadership and planning. Then you ask for timber. No point going all the way to Jerusalem and you forgot to take your
38:06 timber with you. Just plan everything down to a tea. And the king granted me what I asked because the good hand of my
38:15 God was on me. Now this is the result of four months of prayer. Four months of
38:20 prayer and it finally comes together and he realized that he's very excited. God
38:28 is now working in his life. And you find the term the good hand of my God was on
38:34 me is an impetus to act because when you know God's hand is on you right you better move you know isn't it right now
38:41 you look at Ezra Ezra was the priest same thing happened to Ezra on the first
38:46 day of the first month he began to go up from Babylon he goes back to to Jerusalem on the fifth day of the fifth
38:52 month he came to Jerusalem why because the good hand of his God was on him for
38:59 Ezra said his hard to study the law of God and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel. You can't
39:06 have God's hand on you unless you're looking at his word, isn't it? Right? He's looking at his word and so
39:11 therefore God's hand is on him. If you look Ezra chapter 7, I took courage for the hand of the Lord was on me and I
39:18 gathered leading men from Israel to go with me. Psalm 21 says, "The king's heart is a stream of water in the hands
39:25 of the Lord. He turns it where he wills." So the heart of the king is nothing. It's like a stream and God
39:31 controls it. Prayer ultimately produces action. Here we look at I then came to
39:37 the governors of the province beyond the river. He gave them the king's letters and now the king has sent me ar officers
39:43 of the army and horsemen. This is a bonus. He never asked for protection and yet at the circus gave him a a military
39:51 detail. And then when Sunbullet the Horonite and Toby the the Ammonite servant heard this, it displeased them
39:57 greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel. And they went to Jerusalem and was there for
40:03 three days. So the people were upset. The enemies were upset. He arrived in Jerusalem
40:08 and he sits there for three whole days. What's the deal? What do you think he was doing for three whole days? Anybody
40:15 know trying the bakut there? Three days. It was me. I quickly go
40:22 there and start hammering, you know, here and there, right? He's praying. This is guy would most probably be
40:28 wasting time with God for three days. He goes to Jerusalem and he wastes time with God for three days before he does
40:34 anything else. Quite typical. Then he arises at night, nighttime inspection with a few men with me. I told no one
40:40 that my God had put in my heart to do for Israel, Jerusalem. There was no animal with me but the one in which I rode. So he's very very clever. He
40:48 doesn't make a big who and how and show about it because he's the new governor. He doesn't show all these official
40:54 letters. He goes there in the middle of the night when nobody knows so that he could do reconnaissance and check which
41:01 walls were down, which walls were up, what he had to do. Because if you would to come there with a whole bunch of
41:07 people, okay, uh uh you know like you know those people breaking ground with a compound sound and all that and cutting
41:13 ribbon you do all that the enemies will be appraised of this and then they'll come and stop you. So again, a man of
41:20 action who actually thinks and he goes and looks at the whole all the walls to
41:25 his reconnaissance who look at which walls are down, which needs to be repaired, which needs to be replaced.
41:30 And then when all that is done, he goes to the people. He said to them, you see the trouble
41:36 we're in. How Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Let us build the
41:42 wall of Jerusalem that we no longer suffer derision. So he tells them what a bad state they are in. And I told them
41:51 of the hand of my God had been on me for good. And also the words that the king had spoken to me. And then they said,
41:57 "Let us rise up and build." So they strengthen their hands for the good work. So here, he challenges the people.
42:03 We're down. We're in trouble. But God is working. People get excited when they
42:09 understand that God is working because they want to join God. They want to be on the winning team. You want to be on
42:14 losing team. when God is with you, you're the winning team. I'm going to join the winning team. And so therefore, when they hear of the kind of miracles
42:21 that they had when when when Haniah came and told Nehemiah how Nehemiah prayed for four months, how he was depressed,
42:28 how the king gave him letters and all, then they suddenly understand, wow, it's all coming to fruition. God's hand is on
42:34 this guy. So when God is doing something, they responded, let us rise up and let us build. And then there's
42:42 opposition. Here we have the the three musketeers and the son Balot the Horonite, Tobia the ammonite, Gersham
42:49 the Arab heard about it. They jered and despised and say what is this thing
42:54 you're doing? Are you rebelling against the king? Nah, we're going to report you to the sedition act, right? Because
43:00 you're trying to forment the building a wall to forement rebellion. They're going to spread bad rumors. And what
43:06 does he do? He actually doesn't actually show them the king's letters. You know
43:11 what he says? He says, "God of heaven will make us prosper. We servants will
43:16 rise up and build. You have no portion or right or claim in Jerusalem." Very bold. He doesn't fall back to the
43:22 authority or the credentials which the king gave him. He falls back on the one
43:28 who's really in charge, God. In the face of opposition, in the face of fear, he
43:36 turns back to the authority of God. The challenge to us is these few verses.
43:43 I told them that the hand of my God has been with me. Brothers and sisters,
43:51 is the hand of God on you? You see, when
43:58 Nemiah, he had a dislocated heart. When his brother came in and told him that
44:04 the walls are broken down, this is how he responded. The remnants
44:10 are there who survived exile in great trouble and shame. The walls are broken down. His gates are destroyed by fire.
44:19 He is a cup bearer to the king. I mean, he's in a palace. He's standing up right
44:25 next to the king of kings, right? In a lap of luxury. Every day he has
44:30 five-star hotel dinner, right? Who cares about somebody in a village in Kapong?
44:37 Why do you bother? Isn't it? But yet he was upset. He was sad. He had a
44:45 dislocated heart. He was standing next to the king. And yet his heart was where? Thousands of miles in Jerusalem.
44:54 You see the hand of God is on all of us
44:60 as well. You see our hopes are not very much different from the hopes of the Jews. The Jews are hoping for a
45:08 messianic king. We actually have seen the messianic king come. His name is Jesus. He came and he
45:16 died on the cross to buy us freedom. Because of his blood, we are saved.
45:25 Don't tell me today when you're sitting down there that God's hand is not on you. Everybody here who has the blood of
45:30 Christ on your hands, the hand of God is on you. The God hand of God has saved
45:36 you. This hand of God has prepared you for a mission in life. So Messianic King
45:42 has come and in fact the messianic king is coming again. And the second point is that God's presence is now here. We're
45:49 not let the Jews waiting for his presence trying to build a silly little wall. God's presence is already here.
45:54 Where is God's presence in you? In the church of Jesus Christ. And the third point is God's kingdom is going to be
46:00 all over the nation. We're not looking at how big this church is. We're looking to redeem the people outside. The walls
46:06 no longer have to be built anymore. The walls are broken down. When Jesus Christ died on the cross, the wall that the the
46:13 the curtain is torn from top to bottom. We are now in the presence of God. God
46:18 is now spirit is moving out past this church to the rest of this world. This
46:24 is what God has done. God has put his hand on every single one of us today.
46:31 You look in this church, somebody else told me recently uh a great opportunity. We managed to because of new government
46:37 coming in, we actually we only about 27 years on this land. You know, we only had a lease for 27 years. By God's
46:44 grace, last couple of months ago, the government gave us 99 years.
46:53 So, are you just going to clap? What does it say? Let us rise up and
47:00 build. And I'm not talking about building buildings. The next time we can
47:06 you see the building down there? We're building some offices for our full-time workers. Did we ask you for a single
47:12 scent? We pledge not to ask you for money for buildings. We ask you for money for
47:17 missions to fund hiring of full-time workers, sending of missionaries to do that kind
47:23 of work that is important outside the church, not to spend money and build more castles. And that's a terrible
47:30 waste. We don't need the walls anymore. We need to build God's kingdom outside.
47:36 Brothers and sisters, we have to repent. You need to pray for three things. To pray for grace, to confess our sins, and
47:45 humble ourselves. We because we're too comfortable in this church. When they tell us about the non-Christian outside,
47:52 the people who are disenfranchised, who who basically the Rohhingas who come among our mates or or this this group or
47:58 that group, we don't have a dislocated heart. In fact, our heart is fairly happy.
48:04 We're thinking about lunch and we don't have the same kind of sadness and vision in our hearts when
48:11 they tell us about the people who are suffering outside. And for that to occur, you can't force
48:18 it. You got to pray for the grace to confess our sin and humble ourselves
48:24 that we have not been thinking of the kingdom. We've been thinking of ourselves. And that applies to every
48:30 single one of us this day. We're going to ask for grace to confess our sins, compassion and zeal for his church, not
48:38 my church, not your church. It's his church, the body of Jesus Christ. With a
48:44 yearning to know God, to see his face, just like Moses, I want to see your
48:49 face. I want to see your glory. But only when you see his face and his glory in your life, when you start wasting time
48:54 with God to hang around and God really zapping you and you really feel how beautiful he is, when you see in every
48:59 thunder strike the voice of God, then only you will have the power to go out
49:06 and conquer whole worlds for our Lord Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters in
49:11 Christ, don't look any further. The hand of God is on every single one
49:18 here because of the blood of Jesus Christ. Let's pray.
49:25 Father Lord, we we are so
49:31 odded. We're in a situation so much better than
49:37 Nehemiah. Nehemiah was called and he wasn't a
49:42 pastor. He wasn't royalty. He was just a normal politician.
49:48 And when he heard the call and he realized your hand was upon his life, he
49:54 responded. He repented of his sin. He yearned to see your face. He stepped
50:02 out in courage. He spent time in prayer in desperate frontline earnest urgent
50:09 prayer. Father Lord, we pray that every single one in this church will be like a
50:16 Nehemiah where we're not full-time workers. We're not pastors. We're not leaders, but we are people like
50:23 cupbearers in a particular place, in a particular occupation, in a particular business where we could share the love
50:31 of Jesus Christ. I pray, oh Lord, we as a church would feel this calling. We
50:38 feel the hand of God heavy upon our hearts. We feel this burden and this
50:43 burden will be transformed into great joy as we share his love. We ask for
50:49 Jesus' sake. Amen. Church, can I invite you to stand?
50:56 [Music]
