I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Nehemiah. Brother Josh had requested I speak tonight, so you're stuck with me. I give my apologies in advance. I know you were expecting greater things, but Brother Josh has been on overload since getting over the virus, and work, and behind work, and having to turn work down. He's pretty weighted down, so let me encourage you to pray for him. So what I told him I'd do, I'd just pick up Nehemiah where I left off. But I want to remind you where I've left off. We had looked in chapter 1 concerning Nehemiah, and remember, Nehemiah is desiring to return to Jerusalem. because he's heard of the condition that Jerusalem's in. So what this book is about, it's about rebuilding the wall that is around Jerusalem. Now you remember the exiles, they came back in three different waves over a period of 100 years. Nehemiah's in that last group and what we find is that the people had gotten discouraged and they did not continue rebuilding and fortifying the walls and all that. They got discouraged. And so Nehemiah hears about it. Word was brought to him, it talks about, in verse 4 and chapter 1. When he heard those words, the Word of God says, he sat down and wept and mourned. He was burdened. He was burdened for Jerusalem. I had mentioned, and I've mentioned times before, that oftentimes when someone goes down due to illness or death, let me tell you that burdens a pastor's heart if he's a pastor. It weights him down. Because a shepherd, a shepherd's heart ought to be knit with the sheep. because he is one, he's a sheep too. But here, when you hear bad news, what happens, it brings a burden. And if you're a child of God, you've been walking with the Lord long enough, you know when you have a burden, as a child of God, you go to the Lord. You go to the throne of grace to obtain the grace that's needed for such a time. And God, as I said this morning, He gives abundantly. He gives mega grace, big grace. Not just a little grace, but He gives big grace. In verses 4 through 11, what you see... When Nehemiah gets this burden, he goes to the Lord in prayer. And the Word of God says that he wept and mourned and fasted and prayed certain days. Now, I want you to notice that plurality there. He fasted and mourned not just a day or a little time, but for a long time. Many days is what the Word of God is saying here. Now, the reason I say When we get a burden, we go to the Lord, we go to the throne of grace because we know God hears and God answers. And what prayer does, it sharpens our viewpoint. It also broadens the big picture while it sharpens at the same time. But prayer puts things in perspective. It puts things in the right perspective, and it eases our anxieties. When you get your focus on the Lord, doubts and fears flee away. And what God does, He gives a peace that passes all understanding the more you're focused upon Him. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed upon thee. This is a peace that passes understanding, not that the world can give. Prayer also shapes your life. As you pray, and as you consistently make prayer part of your life, your life becomes shaped by how you pray. You remember the last time we spoke on this, I asked the question, how do we pray in God's will? How do we know that God will hear our prayers? God hears our prayers, won't pray in His will. You pray outside of the will of God. Let me tell you, sometimes God will give you what you ask, but you won't want it if you're outside His will. Here's how to pray in the will of God. You must know the Word of God. You've got to know the Word of God to know the will of God that your prayers might be answered and not hindered. Here is Nehemiah with a burden, He's up there in Persia. Susa is the place he's at. In Susa, it's a place way up north and Jerusalem's way down south. There is about approximately 800 miles distance from where Nehemiah's at and where the burden he has is located. It's right there in Jerusalem. Now you know what, back in that day and time, you think about 800 miles, that would be a lot like around the world in our day and time, because we can travel pretty quick in our day and time. So what does Nehemiah do? Does he just think, well I'll just pray about it and forget it? You know what, what Nehemiah prays, he prays and seeks God's face with this burden, but he offers himself as an instrument to be used to help solve the solution. Even though he's 800 miles away, he's not hopeless. He believes God can do exceedingly abundantly above all he asks or thinks. When Nehemiah starts praying, I want you to notice the time frame. In verse 1, in chapter 1, the Word of God says, the words of Nehemiah, the son of Hakaliah, and it came to pass in the month Kislu in the 20th year as I was in Shushan the palace. Now skip ahead to chapter 2 in verse 1. It came to pass in the 20th year. of Artaxerxes the king. That wine was brought before him and I took up the wine and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been before time sad in his presence. From this time, those two verse 1's in chapter 1 and 2, what you have is you've got a time period that elapsed. It was four months long. Nehemiah prayed and Nehemiah kept praying for it was days And four months later, God answers a prayer. Now you think about that. Sometimes God don't answer as quick as we want. Anybody ever experience that? You ever prayed for something and God, it seems like just did not answer, but God does answer in his own time and in his own way. When you think about it, he's praying. And as he appears in chapter 2, before the king, four months later after praying and praying and praying, it says that wine was before the king And I took up the wine. Remember, Nehemiah is the cup bearer. And he gave it unto the king. That means he had to taste it, make sure there was no poison in it. If he kicked over, that means the king wouldn't drink the wine. Nehemiah tasted that cup, gave it to the king. Nehemiah says, within that four month period, I had not been before time sad in his presence. You gotta understand, back in that day and time, if you appeared before the king and you had your countenance forlorn, or you were saddened in the king's presence, the king could put you to death. Now you think about that. Here, Nehemiah's sad. He's hid it for four months. He's prayed about it. He's prayed about it. Finally his sadness shows through. And wherefore the king said unto me in verse 2, Why is your countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? This is nothing else but sorrow of heart. Notice Nehemiah's response. He says, Then I was very sore afraid. He was scared to death. He was shivering. He was so scared because he knew he could lose his life over this. Therefore, it caused great fear in his heart. Sadness in the king's presence would often mean death. So what Nehemiah does, I want you to notice, he's a servant of the Lord. And I want you to notice how servants of the Lord should be in their life. And the pattern we see in Nehemiah's life, we need to implement it in our lives and be servants of the Lord. Notice here in God's Word. Nehemiah says unto the king, let the king live forever. Why should not my countenance be sad when the city, the place of my father's sepulchers, lies waste? And the gates thereof are consumed with fire." In other words, he tells them the situation, but I want you to notice he does not tell them what city it is. Did you notice that in Scripture? Jerusalem is not mentioned. Now why would that be? I want you to look back in Ezra chapter 4. We're going back a book. In Ezra chapter 4, notice down in verse 11. There we read in God's Word, this is the copy of the letter that they sent unto him, even unto Artaxerxes the king. Now Artaxerxes is who's mentioned in chapter 2 and verse 1 in Nehemiah. Your servants, the men on this side of the river at such time, be it known unto the king that the Jews which came up from thee to us are coming to Jerusalem, building the rebellious and the bad city, and have set up the walls thereof, and joined the foundations." Now this is before Nehemiah's time. and they're sending word to Artaxerxes. These are rebellious people and they're starting to build the walls and they start giving them a bad reputation, the Jews. They're giving the Jews, they're putting them down and they don't want them to build. So how does Artaxerxes respond to this letter? I want you to notice on down to verse 23. Now when the copy of King Artaxerxes' letter was read before Rehom and Shemshi the scribe and their companions, they went up in haste to Jerusalem and to the Jews and made them to cease by force and by power. In other words, the walls had to cease from being built. It was Artaxerxes the king who decreed you can't build the walls. So years later, here's Nehemiah on the scene about 20 years later I believe it is. And he is asking for his home city that they could reconstruct the walls that they might be protected. That's why he does not mention the city because Artaxerxes says you can't do it. Very, very interesting how the wording of the Word of God is here because what this is going to require is for the king to reverse his orders, which is a little bit unusual. You remember the situation with Esther and Mordecai? And you remember how he built the gallows and wanted to hang Haman? Or Haman wanted to hang Mordecai? And you remember the decree was out. Kill all the Jews in a certain time period and everything. Well, the king could not change that decree. Here is why Nehemiah is very subtle and wise, because he's approaching the king who put the order down. I want you to notice here, first off, in a servant of the Lord's life, they must be patient. You've got to be patient. The servant of the Lord must have patience. Whether it's Nehemiah or you in your life, you must have patience and wait on the Lord. What if things do not go like you want them to go? Well, let me tell you something. Welcome to the real world. That's going to happen, ain't it? Have you ever dropped something down in your car seat? In between the console and your car seat? and you go to get it out and you squeeze your big fat hand down through there and your fingertips barely touch it. It's right at the point where you cannot reach. Anybody ever done that besides me? It happens to me all the time. It don't never just, I can pull it right back up. Or you ever drop something on the outside of your car and it rolls under the car? But it rolls, the center of gravity under cars, they conclave, I think, like this, and everything goes to the middle. You literally got to get down on your knees and almost crawl under the car to get something out. Let me tell you, life is not going to go exactly like you want it to all the time. There are going to be difficult times. I know everybody's experienced this. You go to the grocery store, You get in line, there's three people in front of you. Oh, you see a lane open over there? That's got one person. You get over there in that lane real quick, and you know what happens. I need a price check in this area. And so you're sitting there waiting, and all three of those customers in the other line pass through, and other ones get in line. That's the way things are in life. We got to learn to deal with life. as life is dealt with us, you've got to adapt. And that's true even in ministry. You've got to adapt in how you minister to others, especially as we see how our culture is changing. It's changing rapidly. One of the things we must do as children of God, we must have patience. How many years did Abraham have to wait till God actually fulfilled his promise to have a son? 25 years. That's a long time waiting, ain't it? I believe Abraham's beard got a little bit longer in that time. You think about it. How long did the children of Israel have to wait for the Lord to deliver them out of Egypt? Man, 400 years. That's getting longer, ain't it? You think about different people in different situations, how they had to wait on the Lord. There's Joseph in Egypt. Listen to what the Word of God says in Proverbs 25. In Proverbs 25 and down in verse 15, By long forbearing, that means by long patience, is a prince persuaded. And a soft tongue breaks the bone. Patience persuades the prince. What did Nehemiah do? When he got that burden, did he go right to the king, tell him his problem? No, he waited for the Lord to open the door at the right time. Oftentimes, when we get a burden and we confront it right away, it's just, you know, we got to do something about this, we got to do it right now. And often what happens, we often get the door slammed shut and we kill our witness to people. I remember not too long ago I posted something on Facebook against homosexuality or it wasn't really, it was kind of a subtle thing. It wasn't really against homosexuality as far as eating your face type thing. It was more down the line of thank you for putting the rainbow on the sidewalks, for reminding us of God's promise he'll never destroy this earth by flood again. And naturally that brought the hate out. One guy who had kind of attacked me, another guy that's a friend of mine, was shocked that I did not attack back and that I was not offended. And he's a Christian. He wanted me to defend the truth here and get in this person's face. You know what? If you get in people's faces, you lose your witness more often than not. You can cut your testimony off and you will not be able to share Christ with someone if you're constantly down somebody's throat. Hear what Nehemiah did. He waited on the Lord. Here is a principle of sowing and reaping. You know, if you sow something, it takes a little while to reap it, don't it? You sow good seeds, sometimes it takes a little while before you can get a little fruit off that seed. The Word of God tells us over in 2 Timothy chapter 2 in verse 24, "...and the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient." Here is what we see in Nehemiah's life. He was praying day after day after day and he's waiting on the Lord for the Lord to open up the door. We as God's people need to be patient. The servant of the Lord must have patience. Second, the servant of the Lord must show respect. Notice, Nehemiah shows respect for the king. You know why? King put him to death. He smarts off at the king, all the king had to do, off with his head, he's gone. But he also shows respect because he's a child of God. There's a big difference there. Listen to what the Word of God says in Romans chapter 13. In Romans 13, you're familiar with the passage of Scripture down in verse 1. Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resists the power, resists the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same. the servant of the Lord must show respect. Now that does not mean we cannot challenge a ruler if they're in the wrong. John the Baptist did that. He did it to the point he lost his head, remember? That does not mean we cannot exhort leaders to pursue righteousness and do the right thing. We can. We can admonish them Call them out when they are wrong. We can pray for them, but let me tell you, ultimately, we need to show them respect. It's the office we need to respect. There is much I disagree with with the leadership of our country, and I'll speak out against it, but I still have respect for the office. The servant of the Lord must have a lifestyle of prayer. Notice as Nehemiah comes before the king, and he's fearful. He's full of fear because he knows he's got a sad countenance. But notice what Artaxerxes says in verse 4. The king said unto me, For what dost thou make request? And notice what Nehemiah does. So I prayed to the God of heaven. Does that mean Nehemiah fell down on his knees, got down on his face and started crying out to God before the king? No. Nehemiah's prayer life was in such a state that he could call upon God just like that. Same way you and I should be. We ought to be able to call on the name of the Lord just like that. Here is what I've got written on the side of my page in my Bible, which a lot of people refer this prayer to. It's kind of an arrow shot up to heaven. You don't have time to, you're in the middle of a conversation, you don't have time to pray a big old long prayer because you're talking. Here he's talking to the king, but Nehemiah's talking to the king of kings while he's talking to the king. Oftentimes, I'll tell you, I'm going to be straight up with you. If you ever ask me for advice about something, or if you ask counsel about something, I've got a question. Can you answer this question for me? Usually the very first thing I'm doing while you're talking, I'm praying, Lord give me wisdom. I sure don't want to look dumb. Or I will say. That one's so easy, just ask Brother Josh. I want you to notice here, prayer does not have to be long and drawn out. In private time with God, we need to have long prayer. We need to spend time with the Lord, but there's times when we need to shoot an arrow up to heaven. Peter, when he's walking on the water, Lord, save me! He didn't have much time to say anything else other than a bubble bubble. He had a quick cry to God and God answered. And God answered Nehemiah's prayer. You remember what the Apostle Paul wrote over in 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 17? Pray without ceasing. Now that does not mean that you're always praying and never listening to somebody. It means that you're always in a state of prayer, ready to call upon the name of the Lord. Always walking with the Lord, mindful of his presence, knowing that you can call upon him, living in the presence of God. I believe Nehemiah knew that prayer could move the king's heart. You know what I believe with all my heart? I believe prayer can move men without us doing things. I believe God can work that way. Nehemiah is living proof of that. And what we find in the Word of God, Nehemiah says as soon as he shot that arrow up to heaven, I've got written down here, Acts chapter 12. You remember when they were praying for Peter, and he was locked in prison, and the angel of the Lord let him out, and then he come to the gate, knocking at the gate, and you remember, Rhoda come to answer the door, I believe it was, and she didn't believe. I mean, she thought, wow, look at this, we're praying for him. She goes, runs back and forgets to let him in. Hey, guess who's at the door? Peter, oh, you're crazy. We're praying for him to get out. He can't be at the door. Boy, that's how we pray sometimes, isn't it? We pray without believing, lacking faith. Matthew chapter six, when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, you remember how Jesus gave that instructional prayer? He says in that passage of scripture, your father knows what you have need of before you ask. You know what God desires of us for us to talk to him, come to him by faith, as little children would come to you. Here, Nehemiah displays that faith. And the king, it says in verse six, the king said unto me, the queen also sitting by him, for how long shall your journey be, and when will you return? So it pleased the king to send me. And I said him a time. Notice here the king looked favorably upon Nehemiah. You know what? That was a direct answer to prayer. God answered Nehemiah's prayer. This is how we should look how others should be looking upon us also. Look how they looked on Nehemiah. Look how the king looked upon him. He had respect toward him. He looked favorably toward him. People ought to be looking favorably upon us. Whether it's in your workplace, your job, whether it's around friends, whether it's in a grocery store, wherever you might be, People need to be looking favorably upon you because you are a follower of Christ. Let me tell you, if you talk like the world and you act like the world, people ain't gonna look favorably upon you. Let me give you an example. You remember back in the book of Genesis, Joseph. Joseph found favor in Potiphar's life until he was falsely accused. Then he was thrown in jail. Joseph found favor in jail. Why is that? I believe it was because Joseph had a heart for the Lord. And as he followed the Lord, he kept his vision this way, walking with the Lord. Therefore, whatever he encountered, God had people look favorably upon him. And let me tell you, if you show the grace of God in your life to a lost and dying world, and you work like no other person works around you because you're doing it for the glory of God, people will look favorably upon you. Here's Nehemiah. He thought through the situation because he has to give the king an answer. And he gives the king an answer. He gives him a time frame when he'll come back. I set him a time. It's what he says in verse 6. That means he had to be thinking about it. He wasn't just praying and that was it. He was thinking through the situation. What could be done? Nehemiah also asked for letters. of request. The Word of God says, Moreover I said unto the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river, that they may convey me over till I come into Judah. And a letter unto Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams, for the gates of the palace which appertain to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me according to the good hand of my God upon me. This is amazing. What Nehemiah requested, God gave him. He moved the king's heart to give him what he requested. But God always does so much more than what we ask for. In verse 9, the Word of God says, then I came to the governors beyond the river and gave them the king's letter. Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me. In other words, he had a bodyguard. He had the military with him escorting him 800 miles back to Jerusalem. He didn't ask for that. God gave him that by the hand of King Artaxerxes. God always gives more than we can imagine or think. He is a giving God. The servant of the Lord must have a lifestyle of prayer. The servant of the Lord must give God the glory, which he does. He says, it's because the good hand of the Lord was upon me. God's hand was with me. In other words, this shows humility. It shows dependence upon the Lord. If that was a leader in our day and time up in Washington, they would be talking about, toot, toot, look what I've done. What Nehemiah does, he gives glory to God. He humbles himself before the mighty hand of God. Remember what we read in James chapter four and verse six this morning, God resists the proud, but he gives grace unto the humble. God blessed His servant in all this process. Whenever you desire to do a work for God, you can expect opposition. If you're trying to do the Lord's work according to the Lord's will, you can bet your bottom dollar you're gonna run into some opposition. That's what we read about in verse 10 and also in verse 19. Notice these men here, Winsanballot the Horonite, he is the governor of Samaria, which is north of Jerusalem, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite. Now he is located east with the Ammonites. He's a ruler down there. It says, it grieved them exceedingly that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel. They hated the Jews. Look over in verse 19, but when Sanballat, the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem, here's another name, the Arabian heard it, they laughed us to scorn. Here's another enemy of the Jews. He is the leader to the south, he's down in Arabia. So you've got people up north, you got them east, you got them south, they're enemies of God's people. and they're trying to hinder the work of the Lord. So what we find is Nehemiah comes to Jerusalem. And notice it says when he came to Jerusalem, he was there three days. What he did in those three days, it doesn't say. But notice he did not just take charge and say, here's my plans, here's what we're gonna do, bop, bop, bop, bop, bop, which a lot of people would do. He's there three days. And then the word of God says, and I rose in the night. I and some few men with me, neither told I any man that my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem. Neither was there any beast with me, save the beast that I rode upon. And I went out by night by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon gate, and to the dung port, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, which were broken down, and the gates thereof, which were consumed with fire. Then I went to the gate of the fountain and the king's pool, but there was no place for the beast, that was under me to pass. Then I went up in the night by the brook, and I viewed the wall, and turned back, and entered by the gate of the valley, and so returned. And the rulers knew not whether I went or what I did, neither had I as yet told it to the Jews, nor to the priests, nor to the nobles, nor to the rulers, nor to the rest that did the work." Notice what he's doing here. He is surveying the problem. He is getting an eye view of here's my burden. Now I'm actually seeing what's got to be done. He's contemplating all this. He's putting a plan together of what all needs to be done. He didn't know how extensive it would be. So I want you to notice in the very next verse, in verse 17, he has kept it all to himself what he's doing. then said I unto them." Here he's going to reveal why he's there. What his purpose is. He says, you see the distress that we are in. How Jerusalem lies in waste and the gates thereof are burned with fire. Come let us build up the wall of Jerusalem that we be no more a reproach. Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me, as also the king's words that he had spoken unto me. And they said, Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work." I find it very fascinating here how Nehemiah showed skills in how to get the people moving and going in the right direction. I want you to notice first here in verse 17, he identifies with the people that are in distress. He's just arrived there, but he says, we are in distress. That means I am one of you. I wouldn't doubt if he showed some of the letters from Artaxerxes, of how he had the letters to come there, and he relates to their experience but I want you to notice he relates the experience he has with God with the people. Here's how he strengthened the people's hands. He told how God had worked in his life and how God had brought him there and how God had opened up door after door after door. Let me tell you something that's encouraging to hear. Let me give you an illustration how we came to 333 Reading Road. Can you share that with someone whose hands are feeble and they are discouraged? And you know what? When you hear how God's working beyond what we can do, humanly speaking, that's got to be a great encouragement to put your hand to the work of God, to come alongside what Nehemiah did, he pointed them to the Lord. Then I told them of the hand of my God which was good upon me, as also the king's words that he had spoken unto me. And they said, let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work. He's gathering the people. He's encouraging them and they are moving forward for the first time in years. Literally in years. In verse 19, we read that and we read about how the enemies of the Jews, how they mocked them and they despised them. They laughed them to scorn. They said, what is this thing that you do? Will you rebel against the king? Now, here's the opposition. How does Nehemiah handle it? He does not attack them. He does not draw a weapon and say, on guard. What does he do? I want you to notice he picks his battles. When you face opposition in the Lord's work, you better pick your battles or you're going to be hurt. Then answered I them, and said unto them, The God of heaven, he will prosper us. Therefore, we his servants will arise and build but you have no portion, nor rite, nor memorial in Jerusalem." You know what Nehemiah saw? The battle belonged to the Lord. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and rulers and wickedness. He saw that there was a spiritual battle and he saw that opposition. Therefore he did not fight them, But what did he do? He showed faith in God. The God of heaven, he will prosper us. Have faith in God. He will prosper us. When times get tough, have faith in God. He will prosper us. How can we be better servants for our Lord? We must be patient. We must show respect to those that are in authority. We must have a lifestyle of prayer. We must give God the glory. Expect oppositions. Pick your battles. And understand that the battle belongs to the Lord. Have faith in Him. we're gonna give a hymn of invitation. If there's anyone here tonight who doesn't know Christ, never publicly professed him, you've not displayed that faith in God that you need to by sharing with others. You're not ashamed of him. This invitation is for you. God's laid it upon your heart to do work and work and glorify him. I pray that you lock your vision in on the Lord and follow hard after him. Let's stand and go to the Lord in prayer. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your word, which is truth. It does not change. we can rely upon your word. Lord, we hear much in our day and time the words of men. And much of the words of men that we hear is just hot air. Lord, we pray that you would help us to take heed to your word. Your word is our hope. Your word is our help and our strength. Only you can strengthen us, protect us, and guide us into all truth. We ask that you work, an effectual work, that your name might resound throughout all the earth. For Christ's sake, amen. Let us sing, Jesus paid it all.