A Godly Response to Crisis

0:54107 people lost their lives in the flooding and its aftermath. Many people around the country asked, how could the city and how could these people have been so unprepared? And yet, many people are in the exact same position spiritually. Last week we saw that Nehemiah learned of the crisis in Jerusalem. The walls were broken down, the gates were burned with fire, and he devoted himself to fasting and to prayer. And by doing those things first, Nehemiah was simply living in the world. Living out his theology. His beliefs were the basis of his response.

1:37Nehemiah's prayer in verses 5 through 11, what we're looking at today, is a wonderful model for prayer. And in fact, it's the very same model that we use in our prayer meeting every Tuesday morning: adoration, confession, and petition. But what I want to do today is I want to consider those three categories, but through a slightly different lens that I hope will be helpful to you, especially in times of crisis. Because in times of crisis, you're simply going to live out what you already believe.

2:14When a crisis hits, you're either spiritually prepared for it or you're not, just like with natural disasters. And so today I want to ask three questions that correspond to those three categories of prayer. They'll be on the screen behind me. First, what do I believe about God? Second, what do I believe about myself? And third, what will I ask of God? We're going to learn today that in times of crisis, what we believe determines how we respond. So let's pick up in verse 4 now as we consider how Nehemiah adores God in his prayer. And let's ask the question and answer the question, what do I believe? Believe about God.

3:02Look with me at verse 4. It says, As soon as I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments. Everyone prays. Everyone prays. We don't all pray to the God of the Bible or to any other God, but everyone prays, whether we call it wishing or hoping or whatever else.

3:37Over 100 years ago, P.T. Forsyth wrote this in a book on prayer. You pray as your face is set towards Jerusalem or Babylon. The man whose passion is habitually set upon pleasure, knowledge, wealth, honor, or power is in a state of prayer to these things or for them. He prays without ceasing. They are his real gods on whom he waits day and night. He prays to an unknown God. Everyone prays. Just as P.T. Forsyth says, you simply pray as your face is set towards Jerusalem, that is, to the God of heaven, or toward Babylon, that is, toward any other God.

4:30If that's true, then the first and most important question to ask is: what do I believe about God? Because that question, more than any other, is going to determine how we pray. So, let's ask the question: what did Nehemiah believe about God and how did that inform his prayer? Well, first, Nehemiah believed that God was great and awesome. Now, that word awesome is kind of funny to see in Scripture because it's been emptied of its meaning in our day and age.

5:05Hamburgers are awesome, movies are awesome, everything is awesome, all things are awesome. The word has been emptied of its meaning. So, the word translated awesome in Scripture means something like terrifying, frightening, fearful, worthy of fear or reverence. The word expresses the reality that God is glorious, He is magnificent and perfect, unapproachably holy and awe-inspiring. Let us not forget that Isaiah caught a glimpse of God and he was certain that he was going to die. That is how awe-inspiring, how unapproachably holy God is.

5:54Look at what J.I. Packer says in his classic work, Knowing God. The Christian. Christian's instincts of trust and worship are stimulated very powerfully by knowledge of the greatness of God. But this is knowledge which Christians today largely lack. And that is one reason why our faith is so feeble and our worship so flabby. We are modern people, and modern people, though they cherish great thoughts of themselves, have, as a rule, small thoughts of God. See, Nehemiah was not a modern person, and as such, was less prone to great thoughts of himself and small thoughts of God. Nehemiah thought greatly of God.

6:41To Nehemiah, God was great and awesome. And friends, we will think great thoughts about God like Nehemiah did as we come to know his nature and character as he has revealed those things in Scripture. So, first, Nehemiah believed that God was great and awesome. Second, Nehemiah believed that God was faithful to his word and his people. Look again at verse 5. It says that God keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments.

7:18See, Nehemiah didn't just adore God for who he is, but also for his faithfulness to keep his word to his people. And one of the constant references to God is the word of God. That you find through the Old and the New Testament is God's people saying that God has been faithful. We have not been faithful to keep our word to God, but God has always been faithful to keep his word to his people. I can find no greater summary than Solomon's words in 1 Kings chapter 8. Look on the screen. Solomon says, Blessed be the Lord, who has given rest to his people Israel according to all that he promised. Not one word has failed of all his good promise, which he spoke by Moses his servant.

8:07You see, in Scripture, we find that God is great and awesome, but we also find that he is completely faithful and trustworthy. He always does exactly what he promises to do, just like Solomon says. And so, friends, God's track record of faithfulness, both in Scripture and in our own lives, should lead us to trust him, even and especially in times of crisis. And so, Nehemia believed that God is great and awesome, and he believed that God was completely faithful to his word and to his people.

8:42And then, third and finally, Nehemiah believed that God would hear and answer him. Look again at verse 6. He says, Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night. For the people of Israel, your servants. What you notice about Nehemiah's prayer is that he prayed reverently. He knew that he was addressing the Lord, the creator and sustainer of heaven and earth, the God of heaven.

9:16He prayed reverently, but he also prayed confidently. He believed that God would hear him and answer him when he prayed. So God may be awesome and faithful, but there's no reason to pray to him if you aren't also confident that God will hear you and answer you when you pray. So, friends, could it be that the reason that we don't pray more often or more boldly is because we lack confidence that God will actually hear us and answer us when we pray to him?

9:55I think we would pray more often and more boldly if we believe that every time we did so, God would hear and answer us, if we believe that he was really listening. See, if we truly believe, as Nehemiah did, that we can speak directly to the God of the universe through our mediator, Jesus Christ, then we're going to pray. And we're going to pray boldly. And so, what does Nehemiah believe about God? He's great and awesome, he's faithful to his word, and that he hears and answers us when we pray.

10:30Friends, if we believe those same things, then we're going to pray in times of crisis, and we're going to pray reverently, fervently, and in faith. So, the first and the most important question that you have to ask yourself, both before and at the outset of a crisis, is: what do I believe about God? Because the way that you answer that question, what do I believe about God, is going to inform how you respond to that situation. You're going to pray differently than you would otherwise.

11:04Well, now we saw at the end of verse 5 that God is faithful to who? Look again at what it says: He's faithful to those who love Him and keep His commandments. So, that brings us to the second question: What do I believe about myself? So, let's pick up in the second half of verse 6. Nehemiah prays, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father's house have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses.

11:59In times of crisis, Crisis, we tend to ask, why me? Why is this happening to me? And if we're people who are compassionate, like Nehemiah is compassionate, and we have friends or family members who are going through difficult times, then we might also ask the question, why is this happening to them? Let me begin by saying it is completely natural to ask those kinds of questions. So if you've had those thoughts before when you're going through a crisis, why me? Why is this happening to me? Or why is this happening to them? I want you to know right away, you're not alone. All of us have those kinds of thoughts in times of crisis.

12:41But friends, we have to consider the subtle implication of those questions. We have to ask what is coming out of our hearts in times of crisis that would lead us to ask the questions, why me? Why is this happening to me? Jesus says, out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks, or we could say, out of the overflow of the heart, even the mind thinks thoughts. That's where it comes from. It comes from our hearts. It comes from the deepest part of us. So what is the subtle implication of these questions?

13:16When we ask, why is this happening to me? What we're implying is, I am a good person, and bad things should not happen to good people. That's what we're implying when we ask those questions. So, what do I believe about myself is the second most important question to ask before and during times of crisis. But before we get to ourselves, let's look at how Nehemiah answered that question. From verses 6 and 7, it's obvious that he didn't think that he or his family or his fellow Israelites were good people, did he?

14:02No, he didn't think that at all. In fact, he acknowledges that they had all sinned against God, and not in some small way. He says, We have acted very corruptly against you. See, Nehemiah understood that there's not one of us who has faithfully kept all of God's commands. We've broken them over and over again in our thoughts, in our words, and in our actions. We have sinned against God by the things that we have done and by the things that we have not done. Sins of commission, what we've done, and sins of omission, what we have failed to do.

14:46And so let's go back to verse 5 and see what God says again. Who does he keep covenant and steadfast love with? With those who love him and keep his commands. So, what does that mean? It means that none of us deserve his steadfast love. So, contrary to what we may hear, contrary to what we may even tell ourselves, we are not good people who deserve God's love. We are not good people who deserve lives that are free of heartache and pain and trial and difficulty. We have not earned any of that.

15:29So, in times of crisis, it's critical to ask the question: what do I believe about myself? If we fail to ask that question and answer it biblically, then other questions will rise up like, why me? Why is this happening to me? And we will answer those questions in a way that makes God into something that he is not. Non-existent, unjust, unloving, uncaring. Friends, because of our sin against God, the only thing we deserve is judgment. We have not earned, we do not deserve God's love. We haven't earned a carefree life. We have earned judgment. It's what we deserve.

16:24But thankfully, God has not treated us as our sins deserve. Thankfully, he has poured out grace and mercy on us. So, Nehemiah, you notice, doesn't stop at confessing sin and acknowledging his own and his nation's corruption before God. Look at where he goes next. Pick up in verse 8 with me. Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples. But if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost 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. They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand.

17:20See, in these verses, Nehemiah's word and his work, his promises and actions to save his people from their sins and their consequences. Nehemia calls upon God to remember the word that he spoke to Moses, promising to forgive and to restore his people if they would repent. And then in verse 10, you have this climax here. He reminds God that he redeemed Israel by his great power and by his strong hand. See, Israel did not save themselves from Egypt.

18:00Israel did not save themselves from exile. Israel did not save themselves from their sin and its consequences. God saved them from all of those things. What did Nehemiah believe? He believed that he and his family and his countrymen were great sinners. But he also believed that he and his family and his countrymen were great sinners who had a great Savior. What do I believe about myself? That is a very important question, especially in times of crisis. Because, friends, if you believe that you are a good person who has earned good things from God, then you are going to be disoriented and disillusioned every single time a crisis comes into your life.

18:59You will conclude at some point that God does not exist, or that he is not all-powerful, or that he is not all-good, because that's what your worldview demands. If you believe you are a good person who has earned good things from God, then if those good things don't come into your life, it must be because God is good, but he's not all-powerful, so he can't help you, or that he is powerful. But he's actually not good, so he won't help you, or that he doesn't exist at all. That is what your worldview will demand.

19:42But if you believe, as Nehemiah did, that you are a great sinner and that God is a great Savior, then you will come to a very different conclusion and you will cry out to him in times of crisis because he is the one who can actually help you in times of crisis. And now we come to the third and final question: What will I ask of God? Join me in verse 11. Nehemiah prays, O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name and give success to your servant today and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. Nah was cupbearer to the king.

20:41Nehemiah believed that God was great and awesome. He believed he was faithful and he believed that God would hear him when he prayed. Not because he was a good person, but because he was a redeemed person. He was a great sinner who had a great Savior. And so you can see that Nehemiah. Nehemiah's theology was the basis for his response. His theology led him into prayer, and it led him to pray a certain kind of prayer.

21:12So, what should Nehemiah pray for? He believes all these things to be true about God. What should he pray for? Should he pray for the problem to go away? Perhaps. Should he pray for someone else to step up and to do something about the problem? Maybe. He could have prayed those things, but notice, Nehemiah seems to assume that God brought the situation to his attention for a reason. He seems to assume that the fact that this group of men came from Jerusalem all the way to Susa the Citadel to tell him about the wall still being broken down and the gates being burned with fire, he assumed that that must mean that God intends him to get involved in some way, shape, or form.

22:02The problem, as we saw last week, was that King Artaxerxes, whom Nehemiah served as cupbearer, was the very king who issued the decree back in Ezra chapter 4 that the people could not rebuild the wall. It was illegal. But Nehemiah has concluded that God is calling him to get directly involved in addressing the crisis, and that, of course, is going to involve him speaking to the king. So, what does he say? Pray. Look again at verse 11. He says, Give success to your servant today and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.

22:43I want you to notice two things about Nehemiah's prayer. First, Nehemiah prays very specifically. He asks for success in his endeavor, and when does he ask for it? Today. Grant me success today. He was not afraid to be specific with God. And if you're anything like me, you've prayed a lot of general prayers in your life. Oh, Lord, help me to glorify you today. Oh, Lord, help me to be a good witness to my classmates or coworkers.

23:23Those prayers are fine. There's nothing wrong with them, but they're not very specific. It's a very different thing to pray, O Lord, help me to display love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control in every one of my interactions with my wife, my kids, my roommates, my coworkers, my classmates today. Help me show the fruit of the Spirit in my responses. That's a very different prayer. A very different prayer is: God, would you grant me one opportunity this week to share the gospel verbatim with one of my coworkers? Would you give me that opportunity before Friday afternoon?

24:20See, friends, those are specific prayers. And Nehemiah was not afraid to be specific. He asked for success today. And here's what's amazing: Nehemiah learned about this situation when? In the month of Kislev. That's November or December. If you skip ahead to chapter 2, verse 1, it says in the month of Nisan. We're going to cover that next week. That's four or five months later. Nehemiah is praying during this time, four to five months, give me success today.

24:57Now, I don't know if that prayer was prayed at the end, right before that day that he approached him in the month of Nisan. It could have been, or it could have been the fact that he was praying that prayer all along. Either way, he prayed specifically. And I don't want you to get discouraged in praying specific prayers just because God does not answer your specific prayer on that day. We are told again and again in the New Testament to approach God and to pray and to ask things of him because he is a good and loving father. We have parables in the New Testament. Testament, like the old woman with the unjust judge who kept coming to him day after day.

25:38And the point of Jesus' parable is: listen, if this unjust, if this corrupt judge is going to listen to this old woman just because she keeps asking, how much more will your heavenly father listen to and grant your prayers? And so we should pray specifically. I want us to pray specifically. James says, brothers and sisters, you don't have because you don't ask God. Why do we not see more salvations in our personal lives and ministry? You don't have because you don't ask God. Why do we not see more victory over sin personally and as a church body? You don't have because you don't ask God. Why do we not have the provision that we need, either as a church or as individuals? You don't have because you don't ask God. Let's ask him. And let's trust that he is a good father who will do what is best in his perfect wisdom, even if that means he doesn't answer our prayer right away or he doesn't answer our prayer at all. We can trust him.

26:41Second thing I want you to notice about this prayer, he refers to the king as what? This man. I don't know if you noticed that, but that's what he says. He says, give me success. Give me mercy in the sight of this man. Now, listen, I don't. Think Nehemiah meant any disrespect. King Artaxerxes is his boss. King Artaxerxes is a big deal. He is the most powerful ruler on earth. He is king of the nation who defeated the nation, who easily defeated Nehemiah's country. He's a big deal. In the ancient Near East, most kings were worshipped as gods.

27:27Nehemia knows all of that. And yet, when he prays, he recognizes he is still just a man. Nehemiah was scared to approach the king. That comes out very clearly in chapter 2. But, friends, he feared God more than he feared man. And that's why he was able to pray and then act in the ways that he did. Look at what Ed Welch wrote, one of my favorite books, When People Are Big and God is Small. The most radical treatment for the fear of man is the fear of the Lord. God must be bigger to you than people are.

28:10God must be bigger to you than people are. See, for Nehemiah, the fear of God outweighed his very real fear of man. And that led him to pray a very specific prayer to the God of heaven, asking for success and for mercy today, so that Nehemiah. Could do what he believed that God was calling him to do. See, humanly speaking, Nehemiah's success depended entirely on the king's response to the request that he was going to make.

28:44And so, to ensure that he would have success, he didn't make the request first to the human king, he went to the king of kings. And he said, God, here's the situation. Here's what I'm asking. Here's what I need. Would you respond to me? In times of crisis, what will we ask of God? We should pray specifically and boldly, just like Nehemiah did. Friends, when a crisis hits, it's too late to start spiritually preparing for it. You're simply going to live out what you already believe.

29:23And today, if you're not a follower of Christ, if you're not a Christian, please understand that it's not a question of whether a crisis is coming into your life, but when. There will be times in your life when you're going to be facing a crisis if you haven't already. And you need to be spiritually prepared for that. But even more importantly, you must know this morning that a crisis is coming. If I can call it that, you are going to stand before God on the final judgment, either because you have died or because Jesus has returned.

30:16And friends, at that point, it is too late to start spiritually preparing for that crisis. And so I appeal to you in the words of the Apostle Paul from 2 Corinthians chapter 5: therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

31:00Friends, today you need to spiritually prepare for the crisis that is coming by repenting of your sin and placing your faith in Jesus alone for forgiveness and salvation. And if you're already a follower of Christ this morning, you need to remember that both Jesus and Paul taught that as believers, we would face trials, we would face a difficulty, we would face suffering and persecution. Christians, you don't get a pass for being a follower of Christ. In fact, some of God's sharpest tools for making us more like Him, for molding our character, for building faith, are the trials and sufferings and persecution that we endure as Christians.

31:49But, friends, so many professing believers are surprised, even offended, when trials come into their lives. And because they aren't spiritually prepared for a crisis like that, they don't walk through it like Nehemiah did. And so, this morning I want to challenge you: take the time to answer the questions that I've asked, especially what do I believe about God? And what do I believe about myself? Because those questions will help you spiritually prepare for the trials and difficulties and suffering that are a part of God's plan for every believer.

32:27Because in times of crisis, what we believe determines how we respond. Let's pray. We acknowledge this morning that we prepare for so many things in life. And yet, many people are unprepared. Spiritually, we don't want to be those people. Whether we die, or whether you return, or whether simply a crisis of some kind comes into our life, a health crisis, or a financial crisis, a relational crisis. No matter which of those things happens and happens first, we want to be spiritually prepared.

33:34And for us to be spiritually prepared, we have to have the solid grounding that Nehemiah. And so, God, I pray that we would answer and answer biblically the questions that we've asked this morning. That we would believe the truth about you and the truth about ourselves so that we can weather the storms that are coming. Thank you, God, for your word. Thank you for Jesus, his sacrifice, his death, and resurrection. In Christ's name, we pray all these things. Amen.

34:20Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at Newlife CS dot net.