What is your calling? What is your purpose? For some, this is a very difficult question to answer and for others, they have know their calling from childhood. In today’s study of the book of Nehemiah, we will see how Nehemiah received his calling and the steps that lead up to it.
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Rebuild The City
Nehemiah 1
Today we are going to talk about calling or purpose. We are also going to discuss building up broken people, broken communities. And to get direction in this area, will be looking to the Book of Nehemiah for guidance. But before we go there, I want to explain my brief journey to this thought or call to action that will be shortly discussed. Over the past couple of weeks, the Lord has put a burden on me for the poor, forgotten people, communities. And some of you who have gotten to know me will say that this has always been your bent and that is probably true because as I think about it, three of my most favorite ministry to have participated in is the Homeless Ministry, Prison Ministry and convalescent ministry. All of these groups are groups that people forget about, even Christians. So as I am doing my daily bible reading and devotion, the Lord keep bringing me to passages of scriptures that involve the forgotten groups…..particular the poor. I am reading Jesus’ interaction with the Rich young ruler (Luke 18) and my eye is struck by the fact that Jesus tells the rich young ruler to sell all of his things and give to the poor, he does not say the treasury or church but the poor even though the topic was on eternal life (I am not trying to convince you to not give to the church, this is something that you should do as witness in scripture).
When Jesus goes to have dinner at the house of a Pharisee in Luke 14, he tells the one who invited him to invite the poor, crippled, lame and blind to dinner and that God would repay him.
The Lord then brings Proverbs 19:17 to mind: He who give to the poor lends to the Lord and then after I read that verse with the bible still laying open on my table my eye catches Proverbs 21:13-He who shuts his ear to the cry of the poor will also cry himself and not be answered.
So God has been working on me in this area concerning the marginalized of society and has thus brought me to the book of Nehemiah where you see the elements of the gospel used to build a broken and defeated people. In this book we see how God uses an unlikely individual to bring change and to build up where sin has destroyed. You can also not read the book of Nehemiah not discuss calling or purpose.
See, I do not know what God has placed on your heart, I do not know what burden for others that he has given you, for some of you maybe it is to minister to women in bad situation, others children, others homeless, fathers, single mothers, the local church, whatever it is, I believe that we all can be inspired by the prophet Nehemiah and God’s work in his life.
The book of Nehemiah starts off with Nehemiah receiving bad news, his brother tells him that his homeland, the City of his Father’s is in shambles and that the people are doing really bad. Let me give you a 150 year recap in a few seconds to bring you up to speed. The Children of Israel have turned from God, God in His wrath has given them over to their enemies. Nebuchadnezzar has captured the City, sent the Children of Israel into exile or captivity in Babylon (modern day Iran), he also burned down the City, tore down its walls, the temple got missed up. But a new leader in Persia arises, Cyrus the Great. Cyrus allows the exiles to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. The temple gets rebuilt but the City and people are still in really bad shape. So we just went over 150 years of Jewish history in about 2 mins.
So Nehemiah gets this bad news about the City. I want you to really pay attention to what happens next to Nehemiah after receiving this bad news.
Verse 4 said that he wept and mourned for days because of the situation in Jerusalem. Nehemiah is not in Jerusalem, he is days away from Jerusalem and he is not physically there to see the conditions but he just gets a report and he is broken by it….. By someone else’s situation, by a City that he does not live in. This takes me back to our discussion on Radical Compassion, the Good Samaritan and Hebrews 13:3 where it talks about caring for the prisoner as if I was imprison with them.
But what does God do next to Nehemiah; He uses Nehemiah affection for his people and homeland to bring him to a place of real repentance. Nehemiah is brought to a low place of weeping and mourning due to the bad circumstances of the people and place that he has deep affection for but it is in this low place of mourning where Nehemiah gets the most clarity! It is here in his weeping and mourning and fasting that he comes to the hard reality of not only his people’s sin against God but also his own sin as well.
Read verse 6-7
And for many of us, it is in our broken hearted state, it is in our loss, that we get the most clarity about who God is and about who we are. I look at my own life, it was at my time of sadness, and mourning where I began to see God with a lot more clarity.
But I want you to notice that even though the situation is bad for the Children of Israel in being forced into exile, Nehemiah does not go and play the blame game with God…………… which is really popular in our society.
In the beginning of his opening prayer, before he confesses his sins, Nehemiah gives God glory in his tears, he gives God glory in his mourning. Can you imagine him sitting there with tears of sadness in his eyes saying
the “great and awesome God”. Not God why did you do this.
But there is also something else very important to note about his prayer, after giving God glory and confessing his sins, Nehemiah, reminds God of his promises. Read Verse 8-9
So Nehemiah is saying,
“God, remember what you said that if we are unfaithful to you, you will scatter us among the nation…..well we did not remain faith, and you scatter us But………you also said God that if we return unto you and keep your commandments, you will gather us and bring us to the place where your name dwells”.
So Nehemiah is taking God’s word at face value and putting his faith in God promises and faithfulness.
This method of prayer that Nehemiah is doing actually has a name, some call it a prayer secret, and there is even a book name after it. The type of prayer that Nehemiah is doing and it is called praying the bible, or praying the scriptures or the word. This is where you use scripture as the bases of your prayer. Nehemiah is not making a general petition but he is actually praying the literal words scripture, he is quoting Moses in his prayer, Nehemiah’s prayer to God is God’s promises to Moses. You see this type of prayer all throughout scripture.
Act 4:23-31 After John and Peter are released from jail for sharing the gospel, they go to the church, and they all pray the scriptures to the point of where the building began to shake.
So Nehemiah is interceding for his people, he is confessing his sins, repenting and reminding God of his promises to those who will return unto him. And then God does that thing that we sometimes don’t like,” where we are praying for someone else, asking God to move by his power on their situation, asking God to provide them with food, shelter and job and then God said I am going to move on their situation but it is going to be through you by which I move, you are going to be my hand and feet……and if they need food, you are going to feed them.
So God answers Nehemiah’s prayer by giving him the thought to approach the king, putting his own life on the line, to get permission to go to Jerusalem so that he can rebuild the City( 2:11).
Calling
This now brings us to the topic of purpose or calling. Nehemiah is now about to begin to walk in his divine calling or purpose. God is going to use Nehemiah to bring reform and revival to a broken and torn down City and people. God is going to elevate Nehemiah from being the king’s cupbearer to being the governor of Judah. Talk about calling and walking in your purpose. And know that this did not come without some risk for Nehemiah; he had to approach the king, who could have took his life (see chapt 2:2).
But what about you, What is your calling? What is your purpose? We see that Paul was called to the gentiles, Peter to the Jews, there where some others who were called to the local church in the form of a deacon, teacher, others like Dorcas or Tabitha in Act 9:36-43) she had a ministry to the widows, where she would make them clothing.
So what about your calling? I am sure that some of you are probably saying, “I don’t know my calling?” Let me ask you this question, What burdens you? For Nehemiah, it was his homeland, his people, Israel. Nehemiah never saw the glory days of Israel; he never saw the temple or Jerusalem in its full glory like when Solomon ruled. All Nehemiah knew was captivity and Israel being under pagan occupation, yet he loves His City and his people. So for you, ask yourself, is there an area, a people group, a situation that really bothers me or that maybe even really annoys me? For some it maybe parents who are bad parents that makes your blood boil, maybe it is fatherlessness, maybe it is the families of fallen soldiers, maybe it is children of undocumented workers, maybe it is the mentally disabled, that may be a group that you are called to because you already have a nature passion in this directions and some of us have passions for bad reasons but God can change that annoyance to love.
As I mentioned earlier for me, homeless and prison ministry and youth, poor, these are burdens of mine. Particularly with the homeless, I hate seeing people sleep on the ground, especially when it is cold. As some of you know, when you drive to the mission, you see all of these people sleeping on the side of the road and so when I see this as I am headed there, it pumps me up to want to preach the gospel with more power and authority, passion, because I know that God can change all of that, if they only knew the savior and his love.
So Nehemiah finds his calling in the thing that breaks his heart…………. Which is also the thing that brought him to a place of true repentance and return to God. Why am I bringing this point out? Because Nehemiah is going to go back to Jerusalem and calling people to repentance and a return to God through reform and revival but before he could be that leader, before he could be that change agent, he himself had to be repent and return to God.
We are a church whose mission is to make disciples that make disciples but before you can make a disciple, you have to be a disciple yourself.
I like how Jeff of SOMA defines a disciple. He said that a disciple is someone who:
“Worships Jesus in all of life, Is being changed by Jesus in all of life, obeys Jesus in all of life and teaches other to do the same. I agree with that, I believe that this is biblical”
So being a disciple is Jesus is not just sharing the gospel, or inviting someone to church but it is worshiping Jesus in all of life meaning that my finances or giving is being changed by Jesus, my marriage is now being changed by Jesus, my relationship with others, how I use my time is now being submitted to Jesus in worship….that is a disciple.
So Nehemiah, with this commission from God is headed to Jerusalem, and he is headed there to rebuild the thing that sin has destroyed, which were the walls of the City.
Before Jerusalem was overcome by pagan kings, it was one of the most beautiful places, from the temple to the Walls of the City. But through the Children of Israel’s disobedience and sin against God, he allow that City to be destroyed and the walls burned down, stones over turned.
And so now, Nehemiah is commission with building up that wall that was destroyed by sin or as a result of sin. And in the process of this rebuild, Nehemiah brings hope to a broken City and he brings reform and repentance through his leadership.
But this is the cup bearer, Nehemiah is not a priest, and you find him in this book, calling people to repentance, holding people accountable, having this Godly character when a few months ago in he was in the kings house serving him wine.
Point is that God uses the most unlikely of individuals for his service. Remember the apostle were fishermen, Mathew was a tax collector. So there is no excuse for you and I, you can have an impact on this world to the glory of God no matter what your past is.
See we all are like Nehemiah, we have been given a commission by God and that is to preach the gospel but not just to preach the gospel, but to live the gospel!!!
When Nehemiah first gets to Jerusalem, he does not go off and preach and call people to repentance and he does not even start building but he assesses the situation, to see how bad things really are. READ 2:11-13 so when you are going into a community or addressing a situation or talking to an individual, don’t assume you know what’s going on, listen.
There has historically been discussion in the evangelical community over evangelism methods, do we first go in preaching and then offer help or do we first meet needs and then share the gospel. Well, we see in the case of Nehemiah, his call was to the rebuilding of the wall first and then during that process, he saw the sin of the people and from there he began to bring reform and revival.
Sometimes our gospel works or lifestyle go before us and we bring the message of Christ while we are doing the work and other times, we lead off with the message and our gospel works follow, so don’t get so bogged down into a format or method.
However, after all that has been said, we see Nehemiah’s call, we see his repentance, we see his obedience to the call, we see the impact that he had but yet, some of you think, I can’t do this, I have so much going on in my life right now………..to that end, I want to remind you that you were once that burnt down, dilapidated wall destroyed by sin and like Nehemiah, God sent his Son to you, Christ came and rebuilt you and made you a builder…….of his kingdom through the gospel message and gospel deeds…..This has to be a priority.
Mathew 6:33- Jesus tells the disciples, the people, to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all of these things, food, clothing, etc. they will be added unto you.
So let’s be builders.
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