Rebuilding our Prayer Life

“Rebuilding our Prayer Life”

(Nehemiah 1:5-11)

Series: REBUILD (Nehemiah)

Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD

Henderson’s First Baptist Church, Henderson

VIDEO INTRODUCTION [00:45]

We’ve begun a new series called REBUILD. To rebuild means “to build (something) again after it has been damaged or destroyed.” To build something again after it has been damaged or destroyed.

We said last week that many of us are in the midst of personal rebuilding projects, rebuilding our lives, rebuilding our families, rebuilding our marriages. Rebuilding our walk with the Lord. Like Jerusalem’s captivity in Babylon, we have allowed ourselves to be taken captive to sin. The walls have come down and the gates have burned and we need to rebuild. Solomon said in Proverbs 25:28, “Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control.”

The Book of Nehemiah is about rebuilding. The walls of Jerusalem are broken down and the city gates are burned. Someone needs to lead a “rebuilding project” and that someone turns out to be Nehemiah.

Be finding in your Bibles Nehemiah chapter 1.

Nehemiah is neither a priest nor a pastor. He’s just a regular guy, an ordinary person who’s concerned about the city of Jerusalem. And Nehemiah’s going to lead arguably the greatest rebuilding project in the history of God’s people, rebuilding the city walls and gates in a record 52 days. God likes to use ordinary people to do extraordinary things.

A British evangelist once said to DL Moody, almost in passing, “The world has yet to see what God will do with a man fully consecrated to him.” Those words changed DL Moody’s life. They can change us, too: The world has yet to see what God will do with one man, one woman, fully consecrated to Him. Nehemiah was one such person, fully consecrated to God.

Before we read our passage this morning, let’s review briefly some of the introductory background from last time. The year is 445 BC and Nehemiah, while just a regular guy, has a very important job. What’s his job title again, remember? Cupbearer to the king. He tasted wine before it was given to the king to make sure it wasn’t poisonous. Where does he live? Anyone remember the place? It’s in verse 1. “Shushan” or “Susa” depending on your translation. The Greek name for the city is Susa and the Hebrew is Shushan. And Nehemiah is in the citadel or the fortified palace there in Susa.

Let’s put up that map of the Babylonian captivity. Remember this? Judah over here to the Southwest, that’s where Jerusalem is. And in 586 BC King Nebuchadnezzar invaded Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, burned down the palaces, knocked down all the walls and burned the gates. He carries them away into Babylon—represented here by all the green area—a vast empire. The people are scattered throughout Babylon in a captivity to last 70 years. Remember that all these events occur because the people of God were unfaithful to Him. God worked through the Babylonians to discipline His children. After 70 years, the people are allowed to re-inhabit their homeland in Jerusalem. There’s more to it than that and you can go to our webpage and pull up last week’s message if you want more background.

The red line here indicates the route of captivity, God’s people carried North and scattered abroad. It’s a 1,000 mile journey from Judah to the place where Nehemiah is. And Nehemiah will make this journey more than once. Where is Nehemiah again? Susa. Hard to see on the map, but it’s way over here just north of Elam if you can see that; about 150 miles north of the Persian Gulf. This is western Iran today. Part of the city is actually inhabited today and is called Shush if you want to Google Maps it later, Shush, spelled like “shush!” S-h-u-s-h. Iran.

Susa is the capital of the Persian Empire, the Washington DC of the empire. Got a picture of it here. These are some of the excavated ruins at Susa. Susa was the palatial winter residence of the king. Susa is also the location from which the events occurred about which we read in the Book of Esther; she was queen there in Susa; those events centering at the palace at Susa. And Daniel, famous for the lion’s den in Babylon, had one of his visions in the Persian capital of Susa and there is a tomb there to this day presumed to belong to Daniel.

Okay, Nehemiah hears the walls are still broken down and the gates are burned and the place needs to be rebuilt. First thing he does is what? Verse 4:

4 So it was, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

So Nehemiah is rocked by the events. Rocked and knocked down. He’s knocked down to his knees and he prays. Let’s read his prayer right now.

Please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.

5 And I said: “I pray, Lord God of heaven, O great and awesome God, You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You (Him) and observe Your (His) commandments,

6 please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open, that You may hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You now, day and night, for the children of Israel Your servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against You. Both my father’s house and I have sinned.

7 We have acted very corruptly against You, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses.

8 Remember, I pray, the word that You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you [e]are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations;

9 but if you return to Me, and keep My commandments and do them, though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there, and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for My name.’

10 Now these are Your servants and Your people, whom You have redeemed by Your great power, and by Your strong hand.

11 O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name; and let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man (this man being the king).”

For I was the king’s cupbearer.

Pray.

Our series is REBUILD and with Nehemiah’s help we’re going to talk this morning about, “Rebuilding our Prayer Life,” rebuilding our prayer life. Nehemiah is a man of prayer, praying a lot and in different ways, praying longer, word-saturated prayers like the prayer we’re studying this morning in chapter 1. And also shorter prayers, “bullet prayers” or “arrow prayers,” those kind you say quickly in few words.

Like the mother who prayed for her little boy each night at bedtime. Someone asked her what she prayed. She said, “Thank God he’s in bed!”

Well, the prayer here in Chapter 1 is a longer prayer and a very helpful prayer for our study today. And so, in keeping with our series title, REBUILD, I want to share with you:

**Three (3) Building Blocks of Meaningful Prayer:

Three building blocks of meaningful prayer. And we’ll just learn from Nehemiah. There are three major components of his prayer that are helpful for us to both remember and use. I hope that we’ll think of these three blocks as we pray later today and throughout the week. What does meaningful prayer look like? What are the essential building blocks of meaningful prayer. First:

I. ADORATION

of the Savior (5)

Prayer is most meaningful when we begin with praise and adoration of the Savior. Nehemiah begins his prayer by calling attention to the greatness of God. Look again at verse 5:

5 And I said: “I pray, Lord God of heaven, O great and awesome God, You who keep Your covenant and mercy with those who love You and observe Your commandments,

“Lord God of heaven” is an acknowledgement of the only One True and Living God. The Babylonians may have many little gods and idols, but there is only One True God who reigns from heaven; “Lord God of heaven.” This anticipates our Lord’s teaching to the disciples when Jesus said in Matthew 6:9, “Pray this way, ‘Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Your name.” Praise and adoration of the One True God.

Lord God of heaven, “O great and awesome God…” Nehemiah likes those two words, great and awesome. He’ll use them again in Chapter 4 where he calls upon the Israelites to defend themselves against their enemies: “Remember the Lord, great and awesome, and fight for your brethren (Nehemiah 4:14),” and so on.

And this first part of the prayer here in verse 5, by the way, is almost word-for-word from Daniel’s prayer in Daniel 9:4, where Daniel intercedes for the people. You can check it out later in Daniel 9, verse 4. This must have been a common way to begin a prayer.

It’s a good model for us, isn’t it? We direct our prayer upwards to the heavens and praise and adore the Savior: “Lord God of heaven, O great and awesome God…” Great way to begin.

Then Nehemiah, like Daniel in Daniel 9, draws attention to the character of God, the good God who, verse 5, “keeps His covenant and mercy with those who love Him and observe His commandments.” He’s a good God who loves His children, His children, who love Him back in a wonderful covenant of love and mercy.

Begin your prayers with the first building block of adoration. Adoration of the Savior. Next block: Confession. First block, Adoration, second block, Confession.

II. CONFESSION

of our Sin (6-7)

Look at verse 6:

6 please let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open (this part is very similar to Solomon’s prayer years earlier in dedicating the temple; 2 Chronicles 6:40), that You may hear the prayer of Your servant which I pray before You now, day and night (not an “arrow” prayer!), for the children of Israel Your servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against You. Both my father’s house and I have sinned.

Nehemiah is 1,000 miles away from the broken down walls yet he places himself right there with his fellow Israelites as those who are guilty for the sin that led to their captivity in the first place. “Both my father’s house and I have sinned.” He’s confessing sin.

He acknowledges that he and his fellow Jewish believers had sinned against God by going after the false gods of the people around them. They had succumbed to idolatry and turned their backs against God in unfaithfulness to the One who loved them and brought them into the land. God had warned through the prophets that if the people did not return to Him he would scatter them into captivity. That’s exactly what happened.

So Nehemiah acknowledges that he is guilty. He is confessing his sin. That confession continues in verse 7:

7 We have acted very corruptly against You, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses.

You may recall in the Book of Deuteronomy a listing of blessings and curses. Deuteronomy 28. You can read it later if you wish. Deuteronomy 28, God speaking through the Prophet Moses, tells His people—in essence—if you obey then it will mean blessing for you. If you disobey, then it will mean curses upon you. Pretty simple and straightforward. It’s not about salvation; it’s about living as the people of God.

So in his confession here in verse 7, Nehemiah recalls the words of Moses. He says, “We have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses.” Hear God’s word in Deuteronomy 28. I’ll just read:

Deuteronomy 28:15, “But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.”

And the list goes on to talk about all the curses, including God’s driving His people away from the land. So Nehemiah acknowledges this truth, that this is exactly what he and God’s people have done, they have sinned against the Lord and “have not kept His commandments, statutes, and ordinances.” He’s like, “Guilty.” Confession.

To confess our sin is to own up to it. To confess our sin is to own up to it. Lift up your voice, church. What is confession? “To own up to it, to own up to our sin.” To admit we’ve done wrong. Confession.

We don’t blame others. We take ownership of our own actions. Blaming others for our sin is as old as the fall itself. You can see the “blame game” being played out in Genesis 3 where the first sin occurred. God comes to Adam and says, “Hey, Adam! What have you done?!” And Adam said, “the woman you gave me, she enticed me.” Adam actually blames both Eve and God: “the woman YOU gave me…” God says, “Eve, what have you done?!” The woman says, “The serpent deceived me.” Adam blames God and Adam blames Eve. Eve blames the serpent. Blame game.

Confession of sin is to own up to it. Confession is important in every relationship. In a marriage, for example. Confessing our sin means we take ownership of our part in the conflict. A husband and wife are arguing over something, who’s to blame? Both! Remember Jesus in Matthew 7? He says in Matthew 7:3-5:

3 And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

So in a marriage, I’ve got to remove the big ol’ plank out of my eye before I can see clearly. I’ve got to deal with my fault. So even if I think my ownership of the problem in the marriage represents only like 5% and the remaining 95% of the blame is my wife’s responsibility, then I’ve still got to deal with my 5% of the problem. Confession of sin is to own up to it. So we say, “Honey—if that’s what you call your spouse!—Honey, I admit I am wrong about______ (and that’s your percentage, see?). I admit I am wrong about thus and such. Will you forgive me?” Pretty simple. If we both do our part, communication is restored. You’re responsible for your part before God. Confession.

That works the same in every other relationship, too. Don’t blame your boss! Own up to your problem at work. Deal with your 5% or whatever it is. Confess. Same with parents and children. Parents, don’t blame your children; children, don’t blame your parents. Let each own up to his or her own share of blame. Same with students and teachers, coaches and players. Confession.

Nehemiah confesses his share of the blame. Building blocks of meaningful prayer. Adoration, Confession. Thirdly, recitation. Adoration of the Savior, Confession of our Sin:

III. RECITATION

of the Scripture (8-11)

Recitation is to recite, to say aloud something. Prayer becomes much more meaningful when we recite Scripture to the Lord. That’s what Nehemiah does. Look at verse 8:

8 Remember, I pray, the word that You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations;

Nehemiah is reciting Scripture. He is reciting the teachings of Moses in both Deuteronomy and Leviticus. He is recalling the threats and promises of Scripture. And he recites the Scripture in order to make a strong plea that God would stand by His people. So, “Remember, I pray, the word that You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ‘if you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations;” verse 9 now:

Nehemiah is reciting Scripture to the Lord. Hear the actual words in Deuteronomy 4 (Deuteronomy 4:25-31). Don’t turn there, listen as I read:

25 “When you beget children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, and act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of anything, and do evil in the sight of the Lord your God to provoke Him to anger, 26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that you will soon utterly perish from the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess; you will not [h]prolong your days in it, but will be utterly destroyed. 27 And the Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the Lord will drive you. 28 And there you will serve gods, the work of men’s hands, wood and stone, which neither see nor hear nor eat nor smell. 29 But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 When you are in [i]distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the Lord your God and obey His voice 31 (for the Lord your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.

So Nehemiah acknowledges that this is precisely what has happened. He confesses his sin and then recites Scripture to the Lord and, in essence says, “Now God, do what You have promised!” That’s a bold prayer. “God, You said that if we would return to You that You would take us back. You’re a loving and merciful God who said You would not forsake us, so here we are! Here we are.” Look at verse 10:

10 Now these are Your servants and Your people (here we are!), whom You have redeemed by Your great power, and by Your strong hand.

So Lord, here we are. We are the ones You redeemed out of bondage in Egypt and led into the promised land by Your great power and strong hand. Here we are. Keep Your promise to Your people. Redeem us again by Your great power, and by Your strong hand. Do what You said You would do if we confessed and returned to You. Your Word, Lord. Nehemiah has confidence in the faithfulness of God to keep His Word.

This is not unlike Abraham before him who knew that God promised a long family line would come through his own son, Isaac. And when God called Abraham to sacrifice his son on Mount Moriah, Paul tells us in Romans 4 that Abraham “did not waver at the promise…(but was) fully convinced that what God had promised He was also able to perform (Romans 4:20-21).” He knew God would keep His Word. I suppose Abraham recited the promise of God over and over again as he journeyed up to Mount Moriah. Recitation of Scripture, recalling the Word of God.

So Nehemiah wraps up in verse 11:

For I was the king’s cupbearer (setting up for 2:1ff).

“this man” is King Artaxerxes who had commanded the work of rebuilding to stop years earlier according to Ezra 4:23.

Seven (7) times in this prayer Nehemiah refers to himself or God’s people as a servant or servants of the Lord. This is especially significant given that Nehemiah is literally a servant of King Artaxerxes. Nehemiah knows that he is first and foremost a servant of the Living God!

Third block is recitation. Recitation of the Scripture. This is what adds teeth to Nehemiah’s prayer. He is quoting God’s Word back to Him. It’s bold to say, “God You said thus and such, now keep Your Word!” That’s what Nehemiah does. This is not arrogance. He knows that ultimately God’s will work out His will, His way, in His time. And Nehemiah knows that he can trust God, trusting His character, trusting Him to do the right thing at the right time.

God loves to hear His Word quoted back to Him just as a loving parent loves to hear his or her child quote back their words. “Mommy, or Daddy, I remember you used to say, thus and such, and you were right.”

Building blocks of meaningful prayer: Adoration, Confession, Recitation; Adoration of the Savior, Confession of our Sin, and Recitation of the Scripture.

In my study this week I came across these benefits of prayer. I want to give them to you to jot down. This is from Chuck Swindoll’s book, Hand Me Another Brick. Four Benefits:

Benefits of Prayer:

(Chuck Swindoll, Hand Me Another Brick, pp. 27-28)

Prayer makes me wait

We’ll see next time that four months pass by before God works through Nehemiah’s prayer. Four months. We said the Book of Nehemiah is a reading of Nehemiah’s personal diary or journal. So there’s no entry for four months because nothing happened. Prayer makes us wait on God.

Have you heard the three ways God answers our prayers? He answers with Yes, or No, or Wait. God says, “Yes, no, or not now.” In my case there are four possible answers; God says, “Yes, no, not now, or You’ve got to be kidding!” Prayer makes me wait. Secondly:

Prayer clears my vision (helps me think through the situation so I can see better)
Prayer quiets my heart (trusting in God to do the work)
Prayer activates my faith (I go on knowing God will do the right thing)

James says in James 4:2, “You have not because you ask not.”

Someone suggested what it would be like to get to heaven and find one room there full of late boxes stacked high. Neatly packaged and wrapped in ribbons. Big bows on top with little gift tags with your name on each one. And they all say, “Never delivered to earth because never requested from earth.”

So we’ve got these building blocks of meaningful prayer, adoration, confession, recitation. This message will mean nothing if you just throw these blocks in the back seat of your car today and forget them as you drive home, so let me give you little mortar to layer between them to make them stick, okay? Three layers to help rebuild your prayer life:

**Layers of Mortar for our Blocks…

HAVE a DQ! (Daily Quiet Time)

DQ is what we say around here to refer to our time of “Daily Quiet.” Every one of us should have a time of daily quiet. Have one! Get up earlier, stay up later, do what you need to do and schedule a time of DQ, a time of Daily Quiet. We’re going to sing in a moment our song of response and we’re going to sing, “Take time to be holy” and you’ve got to make time to take time to be holy. Have a DQ! Second layer of mortar to make these blocks stick:

Memorize Scripture (one verse this week)

Nehemiah recited Scripture. He knew the Word! Do you?

Which do you know better: today’s sports stats or Scriptures? What shapes your identity? Which do you know better: what’s trending in Twitter or what’s written in God’s Word? I’m not trying to lay on a guilt trip, I’m just asking. Do you know the Word and can you recite it as you pray? There’s power in it when you believe.

So you’re praying and asking for a particular thing that lies within the revealed will of God and you say, “God You’ve said in Your Word, in Mark 11:24, “What things soever you desire when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them,” and I’m doing that right now, asking, believing, to receive. Keep Your Word, Lord, amen.” I have found that when I pray believing, truly believing the Scripture that I’ve recited, that I am far more likely to see God work in ways I desire.

“God, You said in Proverbs 3:5-6 to trust in You with all my heart and not lean on my own understanding, but acknowledge You in all my ways, and You will direct my paths,” so I am trusting You right now as I make my way to this meeting that You are going to give me the very words to say and to guide the outcome. Thank You for keeping Your Word, amen.”

To recite Scripture, you have to know Scripture. So choose a Bible verse that’s meaningful and memorize it this week. We talked about this couple Sunday nights ago and how you can use index cards to memorize Scripture; write the reference on one side and the Scripture on the other. I was encouraged last week when one of our young mothers said, “Hey, we’re doing the cards!” As a family, memorizing verses of Scripture. Second layer to make the building blocks hold, memorize Scripture, one verse this week. Thirdly and finally, third layer:

Ask God to Deepen Your Love for Him

You want to spend time with people you love. If we are trying to rebuild our prayer life just to rebuild our prayer life then it will just be a slavish, mechanical, tiresome burden. Prayer is dialogue with someone we love.

If you don’t pray to God, you need to grow in your love for God. This flows out of the DQ, the time of Daily Quiet and time reading from His Word and calling His Word back to Him. Just be honest and ask God to deepen your love for Him. “God, grow me in this. Help me to see that You are the fulfillment of my heart’s greatest desires. You want me to love you with all my heart, all my soul, all my mind, all my strength. Deepen your love for me.

And when you pray, your love will grow. The depth of our love for God is related to the depth of our prayers to God. Depth, not necessarily length of prayers; depth of prayers.

When the Gettysburg battleground became a national cemetery in 1863, Edward Everett was to give the dedication speech and Abraham Lincoln was asked to say “a few appropriate words.” Everett spoke eloquently for two hours, then took his seat as the crowd roared its enthusiastic approval.

Then Lincoln stood to his feet, slipped on his steel spectacles, and began what we know today as the “Gettysburg Address.” By comparison, a very brief address containing those famous words “the world will little note, nor long remember what we say here…” And suddenly he was finished. Everett had spoken for close to two hours. Lincoln for just two minutes. His talk had been so prayer-like it seemed almost inappropriate to applaud. As Lincoln sat back down, a reporter from the “Philadelphia Press” whispered to him, “Is that all?” And the president answered, “Yes, that’s all.”

Don’t underestimate the power and depth of two minutes with God in prayer (obtained from Chuck Swindoll, The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart).

Let’s stand for prayer.

Nehemiah interceded for God’s people. In this way he helps us look ahead to the true and better Intercessor who represents God’s people perfectly before the Father, our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know Him?

RESPONSE: “Take Time to be Holy” (first two verses slowly and contemplatively)

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