I Prayed to God, & Said to the King | Sunday, May 29, 2022

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Let praise be a weapon that silences the enemy. Let praise be a weapon that conquers all anxiety. We sing Your name in the dark, and it changes everything. We'll sing with all we are, and we claim Your victory. Let it rise; let praise rise. We'll see You break down every wall; we'll watch the giants fall.

You cannot survive. The song that overcomes the raging sea. Let faith be the song that calms the storm inside of me. Let it rise. We'll see you break down everyone. We'll watch the giants fall. It cannot survive; the wind of breakthroughs is on our side. Forever lift Him high, with all creation cry, "God, we've raised." We praise You. God, we praise You.

Over the last few weeks, and especially this last Tuesday, we have been given repeated reminders that evil is real. We live in a truly broken world filled with sorrow, suffering, and pain. What happened this last Tuesday in Texas was shocking—like an unexpected punch to the gut.

When we are shocked by things like this shooting, or the shooting that happened a little while ago in Buffalo, all these sorts of heavy things that happen, I believe that the only right response is grief-stricken prayer to God. That's exactly what we saw from Nehemiah.

Chapter 1 of the Book of Nehemiah begins with the words of Nehemiah, the son of Hakaliah. It came to pass in the month of Kislev in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan in the citadel, that Hanani, one of my brethren, came with men of Judah. I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who had survived the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. They said to me, "The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire."

When I heard these words, I sat down and wept. I mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven. 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, 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. I confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against You; both my father's house and I have sinned."

Nehemiah was filled with grief because of the state of his homeland, and he was moved to call out to the God of heaven. The Scriptures say this is the right and good response when we are stricken by grief at the state of our nation, our people, or the time in which we live. Near the end of Nehemiah chapter 1, at verse 11, he prays, "O Lord, I pray, please let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant and the prayer of Your servants who desire to fear Your name. Let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man," for Nehemiah says, "I was the king's cupbearer."

This last Tuesday afternoon, I hadn't really been paying attention to any of the news throughout the day, but I realized that something bad had happened in Texas when I went on Twitter and saw a flood of posts with the words "Pray for Texas." As soon as I did, I checked the normal news sites that I go to. Like probably you and many other people who saw the news on Tuesday afternoon, my heart sank.

My heart just sank at the news of the shooting, the way it happened, and where it happened. A lot of the news wasn't coming in very well at the start; we didn't know the exact details of everything, as is normally the case when something like this occurs. Through all of it, my heart broke. Like a lot of people, I was moved to pray.

As the day went on, I saw several other posts on social media in response to the repeated calls for people to pray. There were subtweets and comments underneath that said things like, "Stop your praying; we need to do something now." I understand the sentiment of those who posted those comments online. They feel a compulsion when they see something horrible happen, thinking we need to act. I think a lot of people feel that way; we have to do something about this.

However, as I saw those comments, a quote came to my mind, which I actually shared with someone after last week's service here at the church. It is a quote from John Bunyan, who wrote the great book, Pilgrim's Progress. Bunyan said, "You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed." He goes on to say, "Pray often, for prayer is a shield to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge to Satan." I love that idea—that you can do more than pray after you have prayed. Unfortunately, prayer is too often our last or next-to-last response, rather than the first thing we do.

Interestingly, prayer and fasting don't appear in the book of Ezra, which I shared last week. The books of Ezra and Nehemiah are really one book together in the Hebrew Bible, with Nehemiah being the last third of this book. In the book of Ezra, which has the same storyline as Nehemiah but occurs earlier in the timeline, there is no prayer mentioned until the eighth chapter. The book of Ezra is almost over; I think it has only ten chapters. It is almost over before you even see prayer come up. Sadly, that is how it is way too often in my life. There are far too many eighth-chapter prayers in my life, where it comes toward the end of the story, and I finally think, "Maybe I should pray about this."

I wonder if the story or the circumstances that weigh upon us might be much shorter if our prayers began much sooner. As Bunyan said, you can do more than pray after you've prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed. Those are really good words to remember and perhaps to keep in mind when we encounter difficulties. All of us will encounter some sort of difficulty—maybe a major thing, maybe a really small thing. This coming week, you're going to go through challenging things, and hopefully, you'll remember that the first response, especially as a Christian, should be to turn to God in prayer.

Certainly, there was much work that needed to be done during the time of Nehemiah in Jerusalem, but first, you've got to start with prayer. Now, prayer alone would not fix the situation that Nehemiah's people in Jerusalem were going through, but the fixes that were needed in Jerusalem had not really come to pass in almost a century. I think that, in part, has to do with the lack of prayer; there was a lack of turning to God. They had tried all kinds of different things for nearly the last 100 years to fix the city, but none of those things had proven all that successful, and they delayed in coming to God in prayer. So, we need to be much quicker to pray.

We certainly cannot forget God's word to King Solomon when the dedication of the first temple happened in Jerusalem, as recorded in Second Chronicles chapter 7, verse 14. This is a verse you may have read before; I know it's one of those famous verses that people often turn to, sometimes out of context, but it's still a good verse. In Second Chronicles 7:14, God says to Solomon, "If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land."

Now, we should be slow to apply those words to ourselves because we are not Israel for the most part. I mean, maybe you have Jewish heritage, but for the most part, we are not Israel. Those words were spoken to the children of Israel and to Solomon thousands of years ago, so we have to be careful not to just quickly apply these words to ourselves. However, they are applicable, or were applicable, to Nehemiah in a big way. Nehemiah did just as God had bid that His people would do; he humbled himself, and the Scriptures tell us there in that passage we read in Nehemiah chapter one.

He fasted, sought the Lord, confessed, and repented of the sin of his people. He even took that confession as his own, confessing their sin as his own and repenting of it. Nehemiah did this, as the text says, for many days in verse 4, and he did it day and night, as stated in verse 6.

The Apostle James, in the New Testament, writes in James chapter 5, verse 16, "Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed." Here’s the key: "The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." He then reminds us of the story of Elijah from First Kings. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain. It did not rain on the land for three years and six months. He prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.

When God's people are moved to pray, God is moved to act on behalf of His people. This is such an important thing for us to hold in our minds. When God's people are moved to pray, God is moved to act on behalf of His people. I have shared before, and I believe they are the words of the great American evangelist D.L. Moody: "Where prayer is focused, power falls."

So, Nehemiah began focused prayer to God on behalf of his people and his nation, recognizing that he might be in a privileged position as a cupbearer to the king. We just read this in Nehemiah chapter 1, verse 11. He says, "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. Let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man." For I, Nehemiah, was cupbearer to the king.

Now, you may not feel that you have much of a privileged position in this world. Maybe you feel like you have a very small sphere of influence and really don't have any way to be a powerful influence upon the people around you or the world. But you should know that as a child of God, you have a privileged position with the God of heaven. That is huge. You may not have a lot of connections in this world, but you have a connection to God if you are a Christian. No amount of privilege in this world is really anything without ultimately...

Receiving God's empowering, His mercy, and His grace is essential. Nehemiah prayed, saying, "Let your servant, God, let your servant prosper this day and grant me mercy in the sight of this man that I'm working for." He was the king's cupbearer, serving the king of the empire of the world at that time. Nehemiah was in a privileged position as the cupbearer to the king, but he didn't recognize it as such, at least not in relation to his people in Jerusalem, until he began to pray.

He didn't start praying until he was confronted by the plight of his people. The pressing circumstances of Nehemiah's time moved him to pray. His persistence in prayer caused him to recognize that he was in a special place, being the cupbearer to the king. He had a privileged position that God might be able to use for His glory.

I want to say to you that you have no idea what privilege you actually have until you begin to see your situation on the other side of persistent prayer. Persistent prayer changes us; it changes our perception and the way we see things. It makes us aware of things that we were not aware of before we began to pray. Persistent prayer helps us gain a right perspective of ourselves and the situations we are in. It truly helps us gain a proper perspective of our problems and our circumstances.

But here's the key: when you continue in persistent prayer, it helps you gain a right perspective of God. You begin to see God clearly. Do you realize that your God is greater than any of the things you will face in this life? When we see ourselves in light of our problems, our problems always seem greater than we are; otherwise, they wouldn't be problems. They would not be a problem if you could tackle them.

So, the problem always seems bigger than you. However, when you begin to see your problem in light of God, things change dramatically. I keep emphasizing that persistent prayer is important because...

We read in Nehemiah chapter 2, verse 1, which is where we're going to be today. Nehemiah chapter 2 says, "And it came to pass in the month of Nisan." Now, that's really important, so you might want to underline or circle that word, Nisan. It came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, that I took the wine and gave it to the king. Now, I had never been sad in the presence of the king before. Therefore, the king said to me, "Why is your face sad since you are not sick? This is nothing but sorrow of heart." So I became dreadfully afraid, Nehemiah says.

Now, Nehemiah 1 opens with the words, "And it came to pass in the month of Kislev." In the transition into chapter 2, we read, "And it came to pass in the month of Nisan." These are not the names of our months; we go by the calendar: January, February, March, and so forth. The names of the months in the Jewish calendar are different, and the Jewish year is calculated in different days as well.

In the month of Kislev, that is right around our November or December. So when he says that in the middle of the month of Kislev, it came to pass, he may be referring to the mid-month, right at the beginning of December. Now, when we read in Nehemiah chapter 2 that it comes to pass in the month of Nisan, we are in the middle of what would be for us like March or April.

So, some four months have passed; 120 days have passed since Nehemiah received word that the work in Jerusalem was in great distress, that the walls of Jerusalem were broken down, and that the gates were burned with fire. Four months have passed—four months of persistent prayer. When Nehemiah 1:4 says that Nehemiah sat down and wept and mourned for many days, we can put a number on those many days: it's four months, or 120 days of prayer and fasting before God.

That's a long time—day and night, night and day—for four months Nehemiah prayed, he mourned, he confessed, he fasted, and he called upon God for His mercy and grace. God may not move quickly, but He does move mightily when He is moved by our persistent prayers. Let's face it, we are impatient people; I am an impatient person. We want things right now. We expect an immediate response, and we get antsy when we send a text message to someone and they...

We often get frustrated when we don't receive a response within two minutes. When the Prime truck shows up on our phone, and we see that it is eight stops away, we know we will have to wait a little longer for our package. We keep driving past the Starbucks drive-through when we see four cars in line because we don't want to wait.

In Luke chapter 11, Jesus teaches His followers about prayer. In verse 5, He says to them, "Which of you shall have a friend and go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him'?" The friend will answer from within, saying, "Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give to you."

However, Jesus continues, "I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is a friend, yet because of his persistence"—underline that in verse 8 if you're taking notes—"he will rise and give him as much as he needs." So, I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it will be opened.

In Luke, Jesus continues to teach on the idea of persistence in prayer. In chapter 18, verse 1, it says, "Then Jesus spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart." This is a hard lesson for me. We always ought to pray and not lose heart.

He tells the story of a certain judge in a certain city who did not fear God nor regard man. There was a widow in that city who came to him, saying, "Get justice for me from my adversary." The judge would not respond for a while, but afterward, he said to himself, "Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me—she's persistent—I will avenge her, lest by her continually coming she wears me out."

Then the Lord said, "Hear what the unjust judge says." Jesus is not commending this judge; He is pointing out that he is unjust. He asks, "Shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them?" I tell you that He will avenge them speedily.

What is Jesus teaching here in this passage? He seems to be teaching us that God is moved by our persistent prayers. However, that does not mean He will most certainly do what we bid Him to do with our continual prayers.

But he does tell us to ask, to seek, and to knock. One author who has written extensively on prayer is a man by the name of Ian Bounds. In his book, The Necessity of Prayer, he writes, "There can be no question but that important prayer or persistent prayer moves God and heightens human character."

That is exactly what Nehemiah did. For four months, he prayed day and night. After this period of prayer to the God of heaven, Nehemiah found himself before the king of Persia as the cupbearer. He spent four months before the King of Kings in heaven, and that was all in preparation for this one moment before the king of Persia. It makes me wonder how many opportunities on earth we have missed because of our dispassionate or impassionate prayerlessness. We often do not engage in persistent, passionate prayer, and as a result, we may miss opportunities or open doors that the Lord may have for us because we are not before the Lord in prayer.

Now, briefly, it is important to explain that the cupbearer to the king is not just the person who holds the king's cup. The cupbearer in the Persian Empire at that time was essentially the food tester or taster. Assassination attempts on kings in ancient times were often carried out through poisoning, so the cupbearer was the trusted individual who would taste the food for the king. It was crucial that he not appear sad in the presence of the king or look unwell.

When the king looked at Nehemiah, he saw him distracted and not looking very well. The king asked, "What is wrong with you? Why are you so downcast and sad today?" A lot has been made about this section of Scripture by Bible teachers and commentators, suggesting that Nehemiah purposefully changed his appearance in the presence of the king to manipulate an opportunity. While that is certainly possible, I do not think it is very likely at all. The previous four months of prayer had shifted Nehemiah's focus.

His presence of mind was no longer on the task that was right before him; it was on Jerusalem, a very far journey away from where he was, in what is now modern-day Iran. I'm sure that you've experienced circumstances like this, in which your mind is so focused on some pressing issue that the task immediately before you becomes a distant thought. I think that’s what Nehemiah was facing when the king asked him, "Hey, what is wrong with you? Why is your face so sad? What is going on in your head?"

We read in Nehemiah 2:2, "Therefore the king said to me, 'Why is your face sad since you are not sick? This is nothing but sorrow of heart.'" Nehemiah says, "I became dreadfully afraid," and he then said to the king, "May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my father's tombs, lies in waste and its gates are burned with fire?"

We see that Nehemiah became dreadfully afraid. The fact that he became dreadfully afraid when the king noticed that he was downcast in his countenance tells me that this was not some sort of intentional manipulation on Nehemiah's part. He was not trying to manipulate the king into an opportunity; he had been so focused on all the concerns of Jerusalem and so overcome by them that he had little concern for the work that was right in front of him at that point in time.

Now, this isn't exactly a good thing, but it is a real thing. When we are mentally, emotionally, and spiritually absorbed with some situation or circumstance, it can be hard to focus on the tasks at hand. Maybe on Wednesday, you felt like that after you saw the news and everything that happened in Texas on Tuesday. It was hard to focus on work during that period because you were so absorbed with it.

When you are mentally, emotionally, and spiritually absorbed with some situation or circumstance, it is difficult to engage with the tasks at hand. This is what Nehemiah was dealing with when the king spoke with him. Nehemiah said to the king, "Why should my face not be sad when the city that I've always wanted to go to, where my great-great-grandfathers lived, is in complete disarray? It lies in waste, and the gates are burned with fire." That is an honest response, but it was probably an out-of-protocol response as well. It wasn't exactly how you would typically talk as the king's cupbearer.

Cupbearer to the king in the king's court, 2,400 years ago in Persia, I doubt that Nehemiah's response to the king was flippant. I don't think it was disrespectful, but it was likely unusual. In that setting and with that person, it was a little strange for Nehemiah to be speaking like that. Yet, God is able to use it.

So we go on to verse 4 of Nehemiah chapter 2. Then the king said to me, "What do you request?" So I prayed to the God of heaven. Note this; I love this. So I prayed to the God of heaven, and I said to the king, "If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my father's tombs, that I may rebuild it." I absolutely love those words right there. Nehemiah just blurts out what is in his heart.

I can't focus on what's going on in front of me right now with Jerusalem in ruin the way that it is. The king responds, "What do you want me to do about it? What do you bid me to do?" Right there, the opportunity arises for Nehemiah. A door is open, and it's a door that Nehemiah could never have manufactured. Even if he had a good relationship with the king, there's no way he could have manufactured this moment. A God-ordained open door shows up.

I love that it says, "So I prayed to the God of heaven, and I said to the king." Those two lines expose an extremely important reality. We live our lives between two worlds. Nearly a hundred percent of the time, we are focused almost entirely on the world that we can touch—a world that we can see, taste, hear, smell, and so forth. That is what we are absorbed with most of the time.

But prayer attunes us to another world. In many respects, fasting—when you fast from food, especially—helps us to disengage from being absorbed with this world. I think it would therefore probably be true to say that prayer disconnects us from the earthly and connects us to the heavenly. This disconnect-reconnect experience is very, very important. It has been said that individuals can be so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good. But in the world that we...

In 2022, it is much more likely that we will be so earthly focused that we have nearly zero awareness of heaven. This is why the Apostle Paul, in his New Testament letter to the Colossians, exhorts the church at Colossae and us, living in this time and place, to set our minds on things above and not on the things of the earth.

For four months, Nehemiah engaged in focused prayer, which prepared him for this one moment with the king. Think about all of the time that went by—120 days leading up to a conversation that took a minute and a half between him and the king. Four months of focused prayer prepared Nehemiah for this one moment. He had set his mind on things above, just as Paul exhorts in Colossians 3:2. So much so, that he was, in some sense, unaware of his immediate appearance as he stood before the king. It is not that he was neglecting his job; rather, his presence of mind was elsewhere.

The king's question brought him back to the moment, to the present. In that moment, the king asked him, "So, what do you want me to do?" Nehemiah prayed to the God of heaven—a quick, final, brief prayer—before he spoke to the king with his request. One author writing on this topic notes that quick prayers are possible and valid if one has prayed sufficiently beforehand. I really like that idea. Nehemiah's quick prayer to the God of heaven was likely something simple, perhaps just, "Lord, here goes. Help me." Quick prayers are valid if someone has prayed sufficiently beforehand.

The author goes on to say that Nehemiah had prayed for months, but he knew he was completely dependent on God's work in the king's heart at that moment. This situation was all in the hands of the Lord, which is what Nehemiah expressed when he prayed to the God of heaven and then spoke to the king. Here is his request to the king: "If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my father's tombs, that I may rebuild it."

While it isn't explicitly stated in the text, it is my view that when Nehemiah first began to pray about the problem in Jerusalem four months prior to this very quick conversation with the king, he was already preparing his heart for this moment.

King did not probably imagine himself as the one who was going to do the work to rebuild Jerusalem. However, it is often the case that when God moves us to pray, He also moves us to act in accordance with our prayers. Many times, when we pray about an issue or a problem, we come to find that God's answer to our prayer is to use us to be the answer to our prayer, which can be a challenge for us.

One of my favorite examples of this is found in the Gospel of Matthew. At the very end of Matthew chapter 9, verse 35, it says, "Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people." But when He saw the multitudes, as noted in Matthew 9:36, Jesus was moved with compassion for them because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.

Seeing the multitudes grieved Him, and He said to His disciples, "The harvest is truly plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest." The very next word, which is actually in a new chapter, is found in Matthew chapter 10. It says, "And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal all kinds of sicknesses and diseases."

If we skip down to verse 5, it says, "These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying, 'Do not go by the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter the city of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.'" These are the very same ones He referred to in the previous passage, where He said they were like sheep without a shepherd. Now, He sends His disciples, the very ones He told to pray for them, to go and reach the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

As you go, preach, saying, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." So, what is going on here? Jesus commanded His disciples to pray for workers to go out into the fields to gather these lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then, after He commanded His disciples to pray, He commissioned the very same praying disciples to go out into the work.

What does this teach us? It teaches us that when God moves us to pray, we should be prepared to be moved to action. If He impresses upon you something that you need to pray about, it is very likely that He is also impressing upon you to take action.

He wants you to be involved in that work. Nehemiah says, "I want to go back and build Jerusalem." We read this in verse 6 of Nehemiah chapter 2. Then the king said to me, the queen also sitting beside him, "How long will your journey be, and when will you return?" It pleased the king to send me, and I set for him a time.

The investment of our time in prayer always pays dividends. I can't stress this enough: any time that you give to God in prayer as a sacrifice, the Lord will pay dividends on that time.

Continuing in verse 7, I said to the king, "If it pleases the king, let letters be given to me for the governors of the region beyond the river, that they must permit me to pass through till I come to Judah. And a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest, that he must give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel, which pertains to the temple, for the city wall, and for the house that I will occupy." I love that he is going to build himself a house as well.

The king granted my request according to the good hand of my God upon me. Notice those last words: "the king granted them to me according to the good hand of my God upon me." We see in those words the reality that we live our lives between two worlds. It was the good hand of God upon Nehemiah that led the king in Persia to grant him all that he requested.

However, notice also that the four months in prayer not only prepared this opportunity for Nehemiah and prepared Nehemiah for this opportunity, but they also prepared in Nehemiah a proper plan of action when the door opened. I'm sure that Nehemiah was a smart guy; he was in a privileged position there in the citadel of Sushan. But I don't necessarily know that he was an administrator, a governor, a builder, or an architect.

For four months in prayer, God moved him to begin to plan a course of action for if the door was ever to open. In my life, this has been the same experience as well. I remember very well that it was back in the summer of 2002, August of 2002 to be exact, that I began to have a stirring in my heart that one day I would be the...

I was the pastor of this church when I was only 22 years old, and that thought seemed quite illogical. I had only been in pastoral ministry here at the church for a few years and had very little ministry experience. Talk about youthful presumptuous audacity! To have so little experience at 22 years old and to think someday I would be the pastor of this church was quite a stretch.

However, that stirring in my heart began in August of 2002. It moved me to pray that one day I would be the pastor of this church. That prayer continued from August of 2002 until December of 2007. For five and a half years, I thought and prayed about being the pastor of this church. Then, in early December of 2007, my pastor, the former pastor of this church, asked me, "Miles, do you think that God has called you to be the pastor of this church?" In that moment, I prayed to the God of heaven and said to my pastor, "Yes."

During those five and a half years, from August 2002 to December 2007, God prepared me and laid a plan in my heart for the day that opportunity would come. When God moves you to action, seek and rely upon Him for the strategy and the plan. That's exactly how things worked out for me, and it has happened many times since. We see the same with Nehemiah. God moved him to pray, and he prayed for four months—120 days or more. Who knows exactly how long it was? But he prayed for four months, and then the opportunity came. He was able to have a plan and a strategy to move forward because God had prepared it in him.

So, when God moves you to action, seek and rely upon Him for the strategy and the plan. We continue on in Nehemiah chapter 2, verse 9. It says, "Then I went to the governors of the region beyond the river and gave them the king's letters." The king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me.

When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard of it, they were deeply disturbed that a man had come to seek the well-being of the children of Israel. This is the point at which you should...

You probably hear the ominous three-note song, "dun dun dun," when we hear about these two individuals that have a problem. You should remember this really important thing to hold on to as we seek to follow the Lord faithfully and serve Him faithfully: when God moves us to act, there will always be opposition. We are going to see this opposition play out in the coming weeks as we go through this story.

In the church at Corinth, the Apostle Paul, in the New Testament, wrote, "But I will tarry in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a great and effective door has been opened to me, and there are many adversaries." I love that word: a great door has been opened to me, and there are many adversaries. For many years, especially as I was growing up in the ministry, I have heard it said that where God guides, He provides, and I believe that is true. However, that does not always mean that the journey will be smooth sailing.

Throughout his life and ministry, the Apostle Paul experienced opposition. He was beaten, robbed, shipwrecked, bitten by venomous snakes, experienced hunger, was imprisoned, and ultimately martyred. Again, to the Corinthians, in Second Corinthians chapter four, he writes, "We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, yet not in despair; we are persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body."

When God moves you to pray and also to act, you must expect that there will be opposition. When that opposition comes, you have to continue to persist in prayer, and God will continue to move in and through you mightily. That is the story we have here of Nehemiah. That has been my experience, and it is what we see in the life of the Apostle Paul and others throughout church history and in the Scriptures. God will move us; He will drive us to the place of prayer as we are stricken by the horrible things happening around us in the world. As we pray, He will develop in us a strategy and a plan to act, but we must expect that the enemy will always stand against the work.

That God is trying to do in and through us. This is why the Apostle Paul, in Ephesians chapter 6, says, "Having done all to stand, stand therefore." He instructs us to put on the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation, and to shod our feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. We are to take the belt of truth and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and to pray always.

As we persist in prayer and continue in prayer, God will move through us mightily. The culture we live in here in the United States, in the Western world, and the world in 2022 desperately needs God to move mightily through His church. That will only happen, as we talked about last week and see again this week, as the people of God are moved to pray and then ready to act as God begins to work in and through us.

So, God, would You work in us? Drive us to the place where we are calling out to You persistently and continually in prayer. Maybe it will take four months, 120 days; it might take four years or 15 years—who knows? We have no idea. But, Lord, would You drive us to the place where we call out to You in consistent, persistent, continual prayer? Help us to do that, and Lord, would You move mightily through Your people?

You have strategically placed each of us in this culture: on the school campus we are on, in the office building we work in, on the construction site we are in, in the neighborhood we live in, and within the family we belong to. Wherever You have placed us, You have done so for such a time as this. I pray that You would help us to recognize and acknowledge that You have us there for a specific purpose.

Lord, may we step into those things, even if we are going to be opposed. The enemy will come against us, but greater are You who is in us than any enemy we will face. So, Lord, help us to have the eyes of faith to see it and to walk trusting You, for we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

This is what living looks like. This is what freedom feels like. This is what heaven sounds like. We praise You. We praise You. This is what living looks like. This is what freedom feels like.

Heaven sounds like praise. We praise You! This is what living looks like; this is what freedom feels like. This is what heaven sounds like. We praise You! We pray we will see You break down every wall. We will watch the giants fall. They cannot survive when we praise You.

Thanks for joining us for our broadcast today. I pray that you were greatly encouraged by it. We here at Cross Connection Church would love to invite you to join us in person next week on Sunday at 8:30 and 10:30 services. If you can make it, again, the services are at 8:30 and 10:30 here at Cross Connection Church in Escondido, California. We would love to see you there!

Of course, if you want any more information about Cross Connection Church, check us out on our website, lifeinconnection.com. God bless you guys and have a wonderful week!

Hey, welcome this morning to Cross Connection Church! We are glad you are here. The main announcement this morning is that we have VBS coming up. It will be a daytime VBS in the morning, taking place in July from the 10th to the 15th. We are looking forward to it; it is going to be a fantastic time. We will learn about how Jesus' love for us is monumental.

If you would love to sign up, we would love to have kids who have completed kindergarten through fifth grade. You can go to vbs, and if you are in junior high, high school, or an adult, we would love to have you volunteer. You can sign up for either of those at events.lifeinconnection.com. Look for the VBS sign-up there.

I think if you sign up, we'll be pretty grateful.