What would it look like for you to dare to dream again? People everywhere are in trouble and disgrace. Marriages. Families. Our Churches. Our Nation. As Nehemiah listened to his brother Hanani describe the devastation of God’s people in Jerusalem… Nehemiah 1:4 says… “[He] sat down and wept. [He] mourned for a number of days, fasting and praying before the God of the heavens.” Oh, that our hearts might break for that which breaks the heart of God.
Empathy dies alongside Hope. One of the first things to die alongside hope is empathy. We turn our eyes away from, we close our ears, we harden our hearts… to people’s trouble and disgrace. We no longer weep or grieve. We no longer fast and pray. We resign ourselves to the status quo.
Prayer dies alongside Hope. Another thing that dies alongside hope is prayer. Nehemiah prays to the Lord God of Heaven. He acknowledges God’s awe-inspiring greatness. He acknowledges God’s covenantal love and goodness. He trusts God’s heart to be inclined to hear his prayers and see his trouble. He comes before the throne of grace, confessing his sin, seeking forgiveness and healing for his nation. He calls upon God to honor his covenant promises. [Show Nehemiah 1:9] “God you said if we’d return to you, and be careful to observe your commands, that even if your people were banished to the farthest horizon, you would gather them and bring them back to the place you’ve chosen as a dwelling for your name.”
Do you know what prayer is? Prayer is rebellion against the status quo. In prayer we declare the status quo in our marriages, in our families, in our lives, in our land, in our nation, even in our world to be utterly unacceptable! Hope hears. Hope listens. Hope understands, weeps, mourns, fasts, empathizes. And Hope prays, it rebels. Prayer is rebellion against the status quo of sin. Who among us hasn’t been seduced by sin? Who among us hasn’t been lulled into fleshly complacency? We ought to hate our sin. We ought to confess it, ask Christ Jesus to forgive, and invite God’s Holy Spirit to purify us. In prayer we declare that sin ought no longer to be our master.
Prayer is also rebellion against the status quo of fear. Who among us hasn’t been held captive by fear? Our greatest fear is a fear of death—but we also fear things like risk, like pain, like change. Hebrews 2:15 speaks of God’s desire to “free those who were held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death.” In prayer we declare that fear will no longer be our master.
Prayer is also rebellion against the status quo of Satanic power. Hebrews 2:14 tells us how Christ Jesus shared in our flesh and blood humanity, how Christ Jesus went to the cross, and why? … “that through his death he might destroy the one holding the power of death—that is, the devil” Hope says, “No more Lord. Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Oh, that God’s people might be called to bold, status-quo busting, mountain-moving, king-moving, prayer!
King moving prayer? Yes, absolutely! When God’s people pray, the Lord God of Heaven, the great and awe-inspiring God, moves. But our prayers also move the hearts of men. Nehemiah 1 ends with Nehemiah praying, “Please, Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant and to that of your servants who delight to revere your name. Give your servant success today, and grant him compassion in the presence of this man. At the time, I was the king’s cupbearer.”
God make this king’s heart break for the things that break your heart! God grant your servant success, grant me favor, make this king’s knee bend before your throne in heaven! I think of Jesus parable in Luke 18 about the persistent widow who pleads her case to an unjust judge with a calloused heart. This judge didn’t fear God. This judge didn’t care what people thought. He was no more inclined to care about this woman’s cause than the wellbeing of a sparrow in its nest. Though from a worldly perspective it seemed this woman’s fate was in the hands of an unmerciful judge—she understood her cause was in actually in the hands of the Lord God of Heaven. Out of sheer exhaustion, the judge grants her request. But Jesus gives us a deeper glimpse behind the curtain in heaven. Jesus says, “will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones?” Will not God open his ears, turn his eyes, and incline his heart toward his servants?
If God could incline the heart of Pharoah in the days of Moses, to let his people go free to worship Him… then perhaps God could incline the King of Persia to grant Nehemiah success and let him go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the city and its walls that lay in ruin; that God might again gather his people; that God’s people might again worship Him in freedom from fear.
Lord God, rekindle our empathy! Lord God, cause our hearts to beat for the things close to your heart. God stir your people to bold, status-quo busting, mountain-moving, king-moving, concerts of prayer!
Faith-Filled Action Dies alongside Hope. Another thing to die alongside hope is faith-filled action. When hope dies we stop dreaming, we stop planning, we stop acting courageously and boldly, we stop rebelling against the status quo, and stop going off-script.
In Nehemiah 2, Nehemiah goes off-script. It was a cupbearer’s duty not to be seen or heard. Your duty was to test the king’s food and drink for poisoning. You were to speak only if spoken too. Under no circumstances were you to convey emotion, nor presume to ask a king for favors. You put on a smile, you sucked it up, and hoped to serve another day.
But in Nehemiah 2, Nehemiah goes off-script. He allows the King to sense his sadness. In Nehemiah 2:1-2a he says, “During the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was set before him, I took the wine and gave it to the king. I had never been sad in his presence, so the king said to me, “Why do you look so sad, when you aren’t sick? This is nothing but sadness of heart.”
Nehemiah is of course terrified. In Nehemiah 2:2b he says, “I was overwhelmed with fear.” I’m really glad Nehemiah was inspired by the Holy Spirit to jot that little detail down for us. Faith isn’t the absence of fear, nor is it the absence of sweat. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus’ sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground. Faith isn’t the absence of fear, nor sweat, nor obedience. Jesus drank the cup put before him. Nehemiah drank the cup put before him.
In Nehemiah 2:3, Nehemiah says to the king, “May the king live forever!” And then he explains himself, “Why should I not be sad when the city where my ancestors are buried lies in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”
But the King of Heaven has already moved this king’s heart. In Nehemiah 2:4a King Artaxerxes asks, “What do you want? What is your request?” Again, I love how the Holy Spirit inspired Nehemiah to put everything down on paper. In Nehemiah 2:4b, Nehemiah explains how he takes a very deep breath and “prays to the God of Heaven.” He knows the gravity of his circumstance. His life lay in the balance of his eternal God and King, and his earthly king, Artaxerxes.
In Nehemiah 2:5, Nehemiah answers the King, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor with you, send me to Judah and to the city where my ancestors are buried, so that I may rebuild it.” Nehemiah 2:6 tells us how Nehemiah “gave the king a definite time” and how it “pleased the king to send me.”
Nehemiah continues to ask the king to provide letters of commendation, for his safety and protection. He asks the king to write letters, that he might secure the timbers and materials necessary to rebuild the various gates. In Nehemiah 2:8, Nehemiah explains how, “The king granted my requests.” The king also sends officers of from his own infantry, and his own calvary with Nehemiah. And why was he so inclined? Because “the gracious hand of my God was on me.” In Nehemiah 2:20 Nehemiah doubles down on this truth, He testifies to his own men, and to Jerusalem’s enemies, “The God of the heavens is the one who will grant us success.”
It's been many years now, but our church was in a coaching relationship with a disciplemaking ministry, and we asked this one question: “If you were to pray, and God were to grant you success in whatever you asked of Him, what would you pray? What would you ask for? What plan would you offer up? What authority, what resources, what timelines, what God-glorifying plans and God-glorifying dreams would you have God bless?”
I think of the great commission in Matthew 28:18-20. Jesus tells his disciples, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given me. Therefore GO and MAKE DISCIPLES of ALL THE NATIONS… baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I’ve commanded, and don’t forget… remember… I am with you always to the very end of the age.”
This past Tuesday night I spent a few hours with our Elders. I wasn’t asking for permission or authority—Christ has already given us that! But I was describing how the kind of disciples God is calling Lakeside to make are people who live for the Father’s glory, whose heart breaks for the things that break the heart of God. God is calling us to make disciples who abide daily in Christ, who rely upon the presence and power of the Spirit, a people eager to build up Christ’s Kingdom and build up one another in love. A people who make the purpose of God’s glory among the nation their primary business. “The God of the heavens is the one who will grant us success.”
We discussed specific plans of how we intend to not only “make disciples” but unleash the disciplemaking capacity of each and every member of this Church—with each individual part doing their work! Marriages being healed. Families being fortified in Christ. The Church going on mission. The Church multiplying groups, raising up leaders and ministers and elders. This church becoming a church that builds up other churches. A church of influence that causes the kingdom of Satan to crumble. “The God of the heavens is the one who will grant us success.”
So how about you? What would it look like for you to dare and dream again? For your heart to beat for the things of God? For you to engage in bold, status-quo busting, mountain-moving, king-moving, concerts of prayer? What would it look like for you to draw up tangible, specific, God-honoring plans that remedy all the trouble and disgrace you face whether in your life, your marriage, your family, your church… in his land, in this nation. What would success look like were God to grant it to you? “The God of the heavens is the one who will grant us success.”