Sermon
by Colin Sowter at
Nehemiah 1
Sermon
35
Note
:- Colin’s party piece is to whistle one tune while humming a second and also writing
the greek alphabet backwards!!
Have you ever tried patting
head/rubbing tummy in circles at same time - Needs a bit of practice.
I even heard of
someone who could whistle one tune and hum another at the same
time - ridiculous!
There was a man in
the bible who could do 2 things at the same time
This morning we're
going to see how doing 2 things at the same time can help us in
our walk with God
When we think of some
of great characters in OT wonder if we sometimes feel overawed by such
spiritual giants
Could we possibly
have the faith of Abraham, who (Romans)
did not stagger at the promise of God through unbelief
but was strong in faith,
giving glory to God,
being fully persuaded that
what he had promised he was able also to perform
Could we have a faith
like that?
Or could we keep
going like Moses who we're told endured as seeing him who is invisible
or could we have the
spiritual insight of Isaiah in the temple or the courage of Elijah
on
There's one OT
character I find very helpful, because his story is the story of a person
who proved that
God could help him in
a very ordinary job
A saint, but a
very down to earth one
A man who'd learned
how to let God into everything he did
Most of us do very ordinary
jobs -
office, shop, school,
factory,
home, looking after
family
driving or sitting in
train, relaxing, being retired
what's that got to do
with God?
Well - it has everything
to do with God because God wants to share every part of our lives
on Monday as
well as on Sunday,
in our work as
well as in our relaxation
in our everyday
lives as well as in our worship on Sunday
Today I have the immense privilege of preaching and celebrating
Holy Communion
Tomorrow I'm playing golf
A few years ago, I'd
have been working tomorrow, In an
ordinary job in industry. And that's where today's OT character is so
helpful
because it's about letting
God into the ordinary things we do
seeing God behind
the scenes all the time, as it were,
whatever we're doing
We had it in reading
from reading - Nehemiah
Pew bibles - page [486]…..Ch 2
v 8
Because the gracious hand of my God was upon me,
The king granted my request (repeat)
What was it
that the king gave Nehemiah because God's hand was upon him?
Was it something
intensely spiritual? No, it was Some letters and some timber
Ordinary things to enable Nehemiah to carry out an ordinary task -
building a wall
The first 6 chapters
of Nehemiah are the story of how God helped Nehemiah in the ordinary task of
building a wall
OK - it was a special
wall - wall of
with a lot of hard
work and sweat
Today we see how the story started. Brenda will be completing it in 2
weeks' time
Look back to ch 1, v
3 page [485]…..
The wall of
Books of Ezra /
Nehemiah how city and wall were restored
Nehemiah believed God
was calling him to get people together to rebuild the wall
An ordinary
job Carried out with the help of
Almighty God
How did Nehemiah enlist the help of Almighty God?
He did it by prayer
but by 2 quite different sorts of prayer and I think Nehemiah's 2 different sorts of
prayer have a lot to teach us
The first is an
instant prayer - what some people
call an "arrow prayer" -
a few words shot off
in a moment, or perhaps so quickly that
there wasn't even time to put it into words -
just a turning to
God in a flash
because he couldn't stop
what he was doing - he had to do 2 things at the same time
he was serving
wine to the king, - his job as the king's cup-bearer was to taste
the wine before giving it to the king in case it was poisoned!
Ch 2. v 2 King asked me "why does your face look
so sad...
v 3 Why should my face not look sad when the
city where my fathers are buried lies in ruins
v 4 the king said to me - what is it you want?
gulp - this was
the moment the whole enterprise hinged on
what happened in the
next couple of seconds would determine the whole outcome
as there might be
times when we realize that the next few seconds are going to be crucial
-
a phone call, an interview for a job when we're asked
a crucial question we might have to make a momentous decision
or we might have to do
something
the king said to me - what is it you want?
and the very next
words, end v 4
I prayed to the God of heaven and I answered the king
(repeat)
2 things at same
time!
Those instant
prayers, those 'arrow prayers' are for
every one of us, when we want to bring God into the situation
I prayed to the God
of heaven and I answered the phone
I knocked on the door
I invited someone to church
List is endless
It doesn't even say
that N put his prayer into words;
There's a lovely
verse in Romans 8
The Spirit helps our infirmities; for we don't know what to
pray for as we ought;
but the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with
groanings which cannot be uttered
groanings which cannot be uttered –
those prayers, like
Nehemiah's, when there isn't time to put
them into words -
just casting
ourselves on God as best we know how
Nehemiah didn't go to
church to pray, didn't kneel
down, didn't close his eyes, didn't use a prayer book -
hardly put his prayer
into words - certainly not out loud didn't stop what he was doing
> I prayed to the God of heaven
< and I answered the king -
2 things at the same
time
The problem for some
people is that that sort of prayer is the only sort they ever
pray.
There's a crisis, an
accident, someone's taken seriously ill
they say a quick
prayer beneath their breath -
Lord help me
or
O my God
Or they just turn
to God in some way
Some people even try
to make a bargain with God - "if you see me through this, I'll
promise to follow you for ever" -
then a few days
later, when everything's all right, they
forget they ever made the promise
Being a Christian
isn't just praying quick prayers to God when we're in trouble, good though that
is
Nehemiah was able to
pray the instant prayer in ch 2 because he'd prayed the long prayer
in ch 1 (repeat)
Let's look at it -
Previous page Ch 1 v 4
When I heard these things (state
of
His prayer gripped
him emotionally And there's nothing wrong with that
For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God
of heaven -
he was serious about it, he gave time to it
Worth analysing his
prayer, perhaps using it as a model for our own praying
Starts by remembering
how great God is -
v 5 O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome
God...
Just as we often do
when we start a service with a great hymn of praise.
We started today's
service (and I didn't ask James to do this) - We started today's service
by remembering that God is
Immortal, invisible,
God only wise; Almighty, victorious,
And we said Thy great
name we praise
Nehemiah said
O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God...
Remembering how great
God is, as we can in our own prayers
Then he goes on with confession
- v 6
I confess the sins we have committed against you
Just as we do, early
on in our services and as we can in our own prayers
Then he recalls a
promise God has made
v 8 remember what you said to Moses..
just as we do when we
read the bible in church, often to remember and claim a promise God has made
and as we can in our own prayers
then he prays a
specific prayer for something definite to happen
v11 Give your servant success today
by granting him favour in presence of king
He's prayed in
advance, knowing that there was going to be an opportunity of meeting the king
he prayed a
specific prayer for something definite to happen
just as we do in our
intercessions in church, when we ask God for specific things. And as we can in
our own prayers
His prayers had a structure
- They weren't just random ramblings
(though there might sometimes be a time for that too,
just as there may be
in a close human conversation)
The prayer which
Jesus taught his disciples - the Lord's Prayer had a structure -
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name
Nehemiah started by
remembering how great
God is -
O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God...
So does the Lord's
Prayer
It goes on
Give us each day our daily bread
A prayer for the ordinary
things in life, as Nehemiah prayed
then
Forgive us our sins
Nehemiah said
I confess the sins we have committed against you
then
Lead us not into temptation
Surrounding the
coming hours and days in prayer,
as Nehemiah did
And because
Nehemiah had nurtured his faith in that long prayer, spending time with
God, praying and fasting and meditating
he had the right,
as it were, to call on God in an emergency
as he did when he was
serving wine to king - when he did 2
things at the same time
> I prayed to the God of heaven
< and I answered the king
and, don't forget, his prayer was about the very ordinary job of building a wall
How could
Nehemiah bring God into the very ordinary job of building a wall?
He could do it because
HE HAD A DAILY EXPERIENCE OF
WALKING WITH GOD
end ch 2 v 8
Because the gracious hand of my God was upon me,
the king granted my requests
Nehemiah knew that
God was with him in all that he did
He had a mature
faith, a growing faith in God - he'd
experienced the effect of God in his life,
leading him on here,
restraining him here,
showing him that he
had a purpose for his life
He knew that the hand
of God was upon him
God answered his
"arrow prayer" because Nehemiah had nurtured his faith,
his spiritual life,
his walk with God
When I was working in
industry, I didn't necessarily think I
could pray for good profit figures,
But I did
believe I could pray that I would do a good job that day,
That I would act
in a Christian way in my dealings with other people, which wasn't easy
when I had to make dozens of people redundant.
Now I'm retired, I
don't think I can pray that I'll sink that 20 foot putt,
But I do think
I can pray that people will see something of God in the way I act and in
the things I say and don't say
We never
retire from walking with God,
and that's true for
all of us, whether we're celebrating a Communion Service or we're running a
company, or bringing up children,
or sending an
e-mail, relaxing in the garden.
I first met the book
of Nehemiah when I was at university, and I think it was a factor in helping me
to decide about my career.
I was a member of the
Christian Union a lot of people owe a lot of life-changing experiences to
Christian groups like that)
And a lot of my
friends in the Christian Union were planning to go into the ministry, or on to
the mission field, and I wondered whether God was calling me
to do something like
that
but I was impressed
with the idea that God could be with us in an ordinary job in industry,
which is where I spent the next 30 years
and this book of
Nehemiah was a factor in leading me to that decision although ordination did
finally catch up with me 30 years later!
Do read chapters 1 to 6 at home. I commend it
to you.
Nehemiah is a
thrilling story of how a man of God believed that God could be with him
in everything he did.
he nurtured his
relationship with God through his prayer life
he sent quick
messages to God in midst of his busy work, doing 2 things at the same time
he had a daily
experience of God
he'd learned to cast
himself on God when he was feeling low
he believed that God
was on his side
he was alert to
temptation
and he finally
triumphed so that others were turned to God, as we shall see when Brenda leads
us through part 2.
May that be our
experience and our testimony in our daily lives with all their busyness and
frustrations may we each prove that
God can be with us
and can help us in the ordinary things that take up our time, as Nehemiah did
and may our faith in
God be nourished and strengthened as we come to the Lord's table, and as we
walk with him through the coming week.
Amen