Nehemiah Sermon: God Revive Us (Passion & Prayer)

word is awesome but we want to talk a little bit tonight about prayer and this continue to think from last week about prayer and so we find ourselves in the book of nehemiah you can turn there near meyer chapter 1. and the nation of israel the jewish nation they are a shell of the people that they have become the proud prominent people of god that they had become because again like i said they were in captivity they were in bondage for 70 years they came back and now the temple's being rebuilt but a lot of the people who we find now in the book of nehemiah they don't have the legacy of the history or they don't remember the things that used to be and so they began to fall into a place of discouragement they began to do things outside of god's law and what god has told them to do and so god gives nehemiah a prompting and so tonight we want to i mean this weekend we want to talk about the passion for revival how many people really want to see god revived in our hearts in our city and our nation and our schools and our jobs and so in order to come to a place of revival we have to first have a passion for revival i really like the book of nehemiah because it's a narrative where nehemiah gets to by himself narrate how god used him to set up the groundwork for revival with god's people and he laid the foundation for god's kingdom to be established and so these people of post-exile they need revival and god is speaking to nehemiah and i believe that the winds of change are moving in our city church i really do i believe that god wants to land on the city of austin a city that has historically been opposed to moves of god and so if we are going to see revival in our city we must first know that we need a personal revival we need a revival on on the standpoint of uh our church we need to be reinvigorated and catch the vision again about what our church is doing but more importantly we need to say god we want you to move in our city uh i got the opportunity to uh hang out with an atheist friend of mine uh not too long ago and uh we sat down and we talked and we laughed and we joked for about three hours and he coined me a professional god man that's what is what he called me after our sitting down but it was awesome uh to find out that he had actually grown up in the church and a lot of the things that he talked about that day as we sat and we supped uh he talked about you know the church does this and i don't agree with the church doing that and blah blah blah and you know a lot of the stuff that he pointed out was accurate and i had to sit there and own what the church had become and so i was like yeah yeah we we don't do that very well and yeah a lot of times we're hypocritical about that and oh yeah that that that's not a good thing and so if not being defensive but owning who we have become as a church and so in the book of romans paul talks about that he says that the uh the gentiles blaspheme the name of god not because god's not good but because of the way we act in the way that we do things and so here we find nehemiah in that same vein the people of god are destitute they've survived the exile they're in great trouble and shame and the wall is broken down and the gates are destroyed with fire and so nehemiah hits his knees and begins to pray and he prays this prayer he says as soon as i heard these words i sat down and wept and mourned for days and i continued fasting and praying before god the god of heaven how many times have you got prompted to mourn and fast over somebody else's situation you see nehemiah wasn't in close proximity to jerusalem he didn't even have to own any of the things that they were doing they didn't run in his circles he could have said that's just stem across town has nothing to do with me but the bible says that he mourned and he fasted and he said oh lord god of heaven the great and awesome god who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments and he continued to pray and so from that we see that nehemiah saw the situation and he broke down and he prayed and he said let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant that now before you today and night for the people of israel your servants confessing the sins of the people of israel who have sinned against you even i and my father's house has not even i in my father's house house have sinned we have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments the statutes and the rules that have commanded your service your servant moses you see his prayer was full of contrition he became an intercessor and he adopted the attitude of we are the church we are the expression of god in the earth and if you don't catch anything else today understand that god looks upon us as a unit not necessarily always as individuals but as a unit if the church is getting a black eye guess what we're all getting a black eye and so nehemiah had a heart to see god's people restored to being the pattern instead of the goat the pattern instead of the pet and so nehemiah's prayer was steeped in repentance if nothing gets god's attention repentance does god says that he desires to be with the broken and contrite heart that word contrite literally means grounded to powder and god dwells in a place of contrition and we as a church we as a people we have to get to a place and say god you know what we haven't done what you said for us to do we've kind of just come alongside you we said we love you and we could come we show up on sundays and we show up the next sunday and then the sunday after that and every once in a while i get something that moves me and i get stirred and then i fall back into my old patterns and god is saying i've given you a work it's time for something new and so me and my prayer praise this prayer of contrition and this prayer i'll tell you what i began to study this book and i literally was in nehemiah chapter one which is mostly a prayer for months because it's so beautiful it's so steep than what god wants us to be and who god wants us to be and so he prayed a repentant prayer and then he prayed god's word he said remember the word you have commanded your servant moses saying if you are faithful i will scatter you amongst the people but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them though your outcasts are spread to the other most parts of heaven from there i will gather them and bring them to the place that i have chosen to make my name dwell there he prayed god's word back to him he prayed god's promises back to him and see this portion of nehemiah's prayer is not only that he speaks of god's promises but he also speaks of god's purpose he says god you desire for your name to dwell there god desires for his name to dwell in the city of austin god desired for his name to dwell in your houses in your neighborhood and nehemiah prayed according to god's word verse 10 you say they are your servants and your people whom you have redeemed by the great power and by your strong hand oh lord let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer of the servants who delight to fear in your name and have given us success to your servants today and grant him mercy in the sight of this man now i was a cup bearer nehemiah lastly he prayed a prayer of faith and then he said i was a cup bearer you know traditionally we expect a prayer like that to come from uh like my buddy calls us professional god man but nehemiah was a cup bearer he was appointed to the the king of persia's council he was a trusted advisor he wasn't a guy he wasn't a a a a professional god man if you will many of you in this room today you might say well you know that's for the preacher to do of course sean you do what you do because you the preacher well i can tell you and i don't boast in this but i can tell you i lived this way before i even got a single check from acf because it's what god has called me to do and i've had this stirring inside of me for years because i have a heart to see the church restore to the praise of prominence that the church can be we church are supposed to be the hope of the world and yet i reflect right back to what paul said he says you know what the gentiles have blasphemed me because of the things that you do because you haven't fully believed in me like you say you believed in me and so we find nehemiah his prayer being a catalyst for a great work prayed this prayer in the midst of hard times for his brothers and his sisters who were in trouble and in shame nehemiah was doing good for himself i mean why get involved he sits on the king's court he could snap his hand and he had people come and do and do do this but he prayed for four months about a people who were in a harsh situation and so in chapter two it goes on nehemiah prepared himself he set a heart of preparation and so what nehemiah ended up doing he didn't only just pray about the situation he got up and he did something about it you see obedience is faith in action it does it's no good church to just pray about it and then not get up and say god i believe you and then let me move upon what you've said i'm supposed to do and so nehemiah was a cup bearer to the king and he said give me favor in this man's sight and so he would go to court where the king was and look i believe god laid it on the king's heart and the king said nehemiah what's going wrong with you and he said well you know king my people back in jerusalem they're suffering and i'm sitting up here hanging out with you and they're suffering and so the king said nehemiah what do you need and nehemiah said well king i'm gonna need a couple of days off and i'm gonna need you to write some letters for me and place me in a position where i can go back and i can go get my people to the place that god has told them to be and god moved on and the king appointed nehemiah the governor and nehemiah had the king's decree the king's resources and he went forward you know what god have you ever thought that god might have you in a position in a situation of of prosperity or or or resources or or having friends in high places for the fact that you can bless others have you ever thought of that that you might be the answer to somebody else's prayer and so nehemiah had a burden to go back and rebuild the wall in the city and you see in old times we don't understand this nowadays but in the old days you know uh wall spoke of city's prominence we think about you know jericho because they boasted in their walls great prominence and so nehemiah was going back to god's city to rebuild a wall to get the people encouraged and get the people to the place that he wanted them to get so how does that relate to us today well i'm glad y'all asked because y'all was sitting there so quiet as the body of christ we have to be responsible for bringing revival to our city we have a responsibility i know you thought you just joined the club to sit in these comfortable seats every weekend but we have a responsibility god is purposely telling us tonight i need you to rebuild the wall because i'm bringing revival to your city what will you do and so nehemiah prayed to prayer repentance he was obedient and i wish i could tell you that it was all bells and whistles from there because god was on the side but guess what when you make up in your mind that you're gonna do what god is calling you to do you can expect opposition i love the book of nehemiah because from this point i mean it is like a oh it's like a good soap opera i mean it was backstabbing and backbiting and it was suicide temp i mean our suicide attempts at murder attempts what you call when you when you set somebody up set somebody up to kill them you know what i'm talking about they did that to them too but nehemiah stayed the course he had to go and i wish you can take my word for it nehemiah he went to the city and he examined it he saw it for himself you could do a cursory google search i kid you not to talk about poverty in this city i know we think we have to go international and i love going international and doing international things there's poverty in this city in central texas one in four kids don't know where their next meal is coming from and you can smile about the 75 percent that are eaten but i get burdened about this 25 that are not eating there are girls in certain parts of town who get pregnant and their only recourse that they've been taught is planned parenthood because there are no pregnancy crisis centers around them there are people who have been out of work for years in this city and the food banks are flooded with them can you see or can you understand god's heart to show them that the church is ready and we're here i dare you you know what i dare you begin to pray god break my heart for the things that break your heart i guarantee you your life will not be the same god show me with eyes of compassion how you see people east of 35. you see the response is well i made it so pull yourself up by your bootstraps you make it you know the church has the same amount of divorces than the world we're neck and neck you know the church has the same amount of alcoholism and drug abuse than the world we're neck and neck and we just can't sit idly by church and say it's okay come lord jesus come because he's coming back for a church without spot or wrinkle and i don't know about you but my clothes need to be armed a little bit we have to make up in our mind we have to make up in our heart that we're going to do something different and god will move on it and so he received our position he received people coming to him and cr ridiculing them and lying on them and there were death threats that's what i meant while ago but didn't move him it didn't move near my end at least because he found purpose and he encouraged the people to continue to build a wall in the face of adversity in the face of death threats it was to the point where they set watch 24 7 some were working some were sleeping they would wake up and they would work and they were even working with a tool in one hand and a weapon in the other because they were saying no matter what you do to me no matter how you try to harm me i have purpose god has created me to be his kingdom expression here on earth and the people prospered nehemiah encouraged his brothers the one sitting next to him on the wall and you might be thinking well nehemiah that's a strange name that was thousands of years ago what does it have to do today well let me mention some names that you might know here and in our communities how about trey webb out at northwest where he works with international students who come here from other countries to get the american experience but then they end up living in apartments with other international students and his heart is to show them the american experience but while he's showing them that show them christ how about sean mastrian who goes to our brushy creek location who works with nineveh ministry with and they uh or ministry geared towards kids who have gotten caught up in a juvenile system and it's often a shut door once you go in it don't revolve you stay in the system but he's saying not in my city how about mark ayat who spends his time working with another church nonetheless feeding the hungry out in cedar park how about cindy flickinger who goes down to lakeside which which is a juxtaposition of they right across the street from the four seasons and on that last leg and she tirelessly gives her time to go and spend time with those folks or dave panels here at four points who trains and serves the leaders of tomorrow those aren't strange names and they're right here in this city building the wall i'm so excited i have a team there's only a few of us out of northeast of radical sold out christians say you know what we're going to make an impact in our community no matter what i don't care if the numbers don't come with us guess what we're going to make an impact in this community because this is what god has called us to we're talking about people who found purpose and so in nehemiah chapter 6 the final death threat the governors from other provinces were coming in and trying to say we got to get this wall to get fed because if the people around this wall begin to serve their god again we in trouble and so they send a message to nehemiah come down off the wall so we can talk to you and god gave near my to revelation to understand that this was a trap and he said and i sent messengers to them saying i am doing a great work and i cannot come down why should i work why should the work stop while i leave it and come down to you y'all ready for sean weekly translation i'm not coming down off the wall to stoop to your level church we have to find our purpose and understand that god is placing us on the wall will you write your name in one of the bricks forty years from now will you be able to tell your story like nehemiah told his story that i will not come down i will not give up there's no way i'm going to give out because i understand that god's kingdom is going to be established through this work that i am doing what's in your heart what is god giving you what has god spoken to you and if you haven't heard god speak to you maybe you're not praying enough what is he saying to your heart what is your part on the wall i guarantee if you open up your heart to pray to him he'll he'll reveal it to you because god is interested in promoting his kingdom here on earth and the wall had laid that way for hundreds of years because uh nehemiah was obedient and because he wanted to see god's kingdom promote it they completed the wall in 52 days scholars look at this feed and go wow god was definitely in that it's hard enough to finish the wall in 52 days without opposition but it shows god was moving one more scripture is not on your slides in chapter eight i won't even read it because will talked about it in ezra nehemiah called ezra after he built the wall and after he restored justice in the city and kicked out some folks from doing bad things and and all the stuff that was wrong and against god he cleansed it and he called ezra in to read the law or the word i find it interesting that he didn't call him into the temple to read the word read it when you get home nehemiah chapter 8. the bible says that nehemiah i mean ezra read the law in the town square that sounds like revival to me and the people listen to it from early morning to midday and y'all complain about me going five minutes over i just have to put it out there i'm sorry and the bible said they understood and they were pricked to their hearts and they repented to the point that the priest had to say no listen don't listen this is a rejoicing this is a celebration god is moving on people's hearts and we're on the cusp of such a thing happening in this city we're starting this initiative called explore god where we're counting on the word of god being read in the square not just in my bedroom not just here on uh sunday mornings or in the temple but in the square for all to see church we're developing a heart for revival in this city will you join us

Channel: Shawn Weekly

Views: 43,640

Rating: 4.728302 out of 5

Keywords: revive, free sermons, sunday sermons, church sermons, awakening revival, revival sermon, sermon on revival, nehemiah, ezra, book of nehemiah, nehemiah wall, Book of Nehemiah

Id: ONyQrEsJhjY

Length: 25min 38sec (1538 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 25 2013