Dwight Dunn: 0:06

Hello, my name is Dwight and I'm one of the pastors here at Westtown Church and I am very excited that togeter as a church we have begun a new series, starting last week in the book of Nehemiah. Now the Old Testament is arranged so that all of the history books come first and then there are the experience books, like the wisdom literature, and then the prophecy books. Nehemiah occurs towards the end of those history books because he lived about 450 years before Christ and he was called by God at a particular time. After the Israelites had been disciplined by the Lord, israel had become two kingdoms. At this point they were carried off into captivity as a result of their sin and their failure to return to the Lord. After as many attempts to call them back to him and in his mercy, the Lord raised up secular rulers to enable different groups of Israelites to resettle back into the promised land in the city of Jerusalem, and through various failed attempts, the Israelites did not complete the construction of the walls around the city of Jerusalem. They were able to finish the temple construction, but they hadn't finished the walls around Jerusalem, and God raised up Nehemiah around 44 BC and enabled him to take another group of Israelites back to rebuild the walls around Jerusalem and, as we'll see in the succeeding weeks, god blessed them with success and that endeavor.

Dwight Dunn: 1:42

But Nehemiah was not merely concerned to be involved in a construction project of rebuilding walls around the city. He saw those efforts as part of God's broader kingdom to renew the hearts of his people. And the connection for us in our particular place, where we are as a congregation, is that the Lord has before us to reconstruct a bridge. But we shouldn't see that as something apart from God's overall kingdom purposes and, like Nehemiah, we should be able to see that as an opportunity to expand our vision of the greatness and the glory of God, to renew our hearts' love for him, to support our fellowship together and strengthen our witness in the surrounding community. Just as the Lord used Nehemiah and his time in the lives of the Israelites to accomplish the same thing. And whenever we look in scriptural history or in history since the Bible times, we see that whenever God is about to move in a big way among his people, that he sets them to pray. And one of the lessons that we learn from the book of Nehemiah is the importance of prayer, and throughout history it has also been the case Now.

Dwight Dunn: 3:01

You may have heard about the first great awakening occurred in the late 1730s, through the 1740s, and the second great awakening that occurred in the late 1700s and the early 1800s, but not a lot of people have heard about the prayer revival of 1857 and 1858. In fact, some historians have referred to it as the event of the century, and it began with one man. His name was Jeremiah Calvin Lampheer and he was a lay missionary at the Dutch Reformed Church in Fulton Street, new York City. And he was burdened in the summer of 1857. He was walking around the city of New York and he was praying God, what can I do? What can I do to be of help to the people of the city, especially the poor, and how can you use me to bring people to you? And he prayed this fervently, day after day, multiple times a day, and the Lord laid it upon his heart to begin a prayer meeting, and so he began advertising this prayer meeting, inviting as many people as he could, and he was particularly burdened that businessmen in the city of New York would leave their jobs at noon and gather together to pray. So on September 23, 1858, he held his first prayer meeting. He was the only person that showed up Undeterred. He kept praying about it, he kept advertising it. The second week, there were 10 people. He kept at it. The third week, there were about two dozen people. And then the Lord began to move, and dozens upon dozens, leading to hundreds and thousands, of businessmen in New York City would make an agreement among themselves that they would all close their places of business so that they could gather at noon to pray. They were filling churches all over New York City. In fact, there were so many people that they couldn't even fit in the buildings, that they were gathering in the streets, and they had to start closing off the streets in order to make room for all the people who were gathering to pray. And it spread Boston, philadelphia, baltimore, washington DC, pittsburgh, cincinnati, savannah.

Dwight Dunn: 5:37

God began an extraordinary movement of prayer that resulted in hundreds of thousands of people coming to Christ in 1857 and 1858. And it all began because one man was burdened to pray, and so when we come to the book of Nehemiah, we see something similar. God put it upon the heart, one man to pray, and God began an extraordinary work in him and through him. And so this morning I want us to be encouraged as the people of God, to pray, to believe in the power of prayer and to become expectant and emboldened in the way in which we pray, as we learn lessons about prayer from Nehemiah. So let's begin reading. I'm going to read chapter one, verses four and 11, and then we'll go right into chapter two. So this is giving a little bit of background.

Dwight Dunn: 6:38

Nehemiah hears reports from his brothers returning from the city of Jerusalem about how the city continues to lie and ruins, and Nehemiah is absolutely crushed by that news. He says in chapter one, verse four 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. Jump to verse 11. Nehemiah is praying oh Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servants 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.

Dwight Dunn: 7:19

Now I was cupbearer to the king In the month of Nassan, in the 20th year of King Art Exerxes, when wine was before him. I took up the wine and gave it to the king Now I had not been sad in his presence and the king said to me why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick. This is nothing but sadness of the heart. Then, when I was very much afraid, I said to the king Let the king live forever. Why should not my face be sad when the city, the place of my father's graves, lies and ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire? And the king said to me what are you requesting? 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, that you send me to Judah, to the city of my father's graves, that I may rebuild it. And the king said to me the queen sitting beside him, how long will you be gone and when will you return? So it pleased the king to send me when I had given him a time. And I said to the king If it pleases the king, let letters be given to me, to the governors of the province beyond the river, that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah, and the letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress, of the temple and for the wall of the city and for the house that I shall occupy. And the king granted me what I asked for. The good hand of my God was upon me. Then I came to the governors of the province beyond the river and gave them the king's letters.

Dwight Dunn: 8:56

Now the king had sent with me officers of the army and horsemen, but when San Bollet the hornet and Tobiah the Ammonite servant, the Ammonite servant, heard this, it displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel. So I went to Jerusalem and there was their three days. When I arose in the night, I and a few men with me, and I told no one what my God had put into my heart to do for Jerusalem. There was no animal with me but the one on which I rode. I went out by night by the valley gate to the dragon spring and to the dung gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that were broken down in its gates, that had been destroyed by fire. Then I went on to the fountain gate, into the king's pool, but there was no room for the animal that was under me to pass.

Dwight Dunn: 9:42

Then I went up in the night by the valley and inspected the wall, and I turned back and entered the valley gate and so returned and the officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing and I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials and the rest who were to do the work. Then I said to them you see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies and ruins, with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem that we may no longer suffer derision. And I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good, and also the words that the king had spoken to me, and they said let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for the good work. But when San Balot, the Horonite, and Tobiah, the Ammonite servant, and Gashem, the Arab, heard of it, they jeered at us and they despised us and said what is this thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king? Then I replied to them the God of heaven will make us prosper and we, his servants, will rise and build, but you have no portion or right or claim in Jerusalem.

Dwight Dunn: 10:49

So what do we learn about prayer? How can we be encouraged in prayer as we see God moving in response to Nehemiah's prayers. Well, the first thing that this passage reassures us is that God answers prayer, and often beyond what we even ask for. Nehemiah, we are told in chapter one, verse four. It begins fasting and praying. He remains diligent in prayer, but it takes four months. We read in chapter two, verse one, that it was in the month of Nisan. It was four months after he had received the news of what was happening in Jerusalem that he continued and he persevered in prayer for the city and that God might do something through him.

Dwight Dunn: 11:37

I love the manner in which Nehemiah refers to God in chapter one, verse six. He's praying, he's talking about to the God of heaven and how awesome he is, who keeps his covenant and his steadfast love and his commandments. And he says in verse six let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant. The Psalmist in Psalm 65, verse two, actually refers to God as O you who hear prayer. This is God's nature. It is who he is that he hears and he answers prayer. Now, when we think about the character of God, we may think of wonderful things like God's holiness and his goodness, his righteousness and his mercy and so on and so forth. But one of the characteristics, one of the works of God is that he is a God who delights in hearing and answering the prayers of his people and, as we know and as scripture tells us, when they are offered in his name, that is, through the merit of Christ and according to the will and the character of God, god delights in hearing and answering prayer.

Dwight Dunn: 12:54

Now, we just finished the summer Psalm series and we saw that there are many instances in which the people of God are in terrible condition and they cry out to God and it seems like God is very long and getting back with an answer, or he may not answer in the way in which the people initially expect to be good. There are seasons that are definitely like that in the Christian life. But the Lord also gives us examples in our own lives and in the case of Nehemiah, where he abundantly answers prayer, to reinforce with us that he is the God who hears and answers prayer. So how does the Lord answer prayer? Well, very simply, the Lord gives Nehemiah success with the king and in verse 11, we see that Nehemiah is praying that the Lord would give success to his servant and grant Nehemiah mercy in the sight of the king. And so then, four months later, the opportunity arises and all the while, god is working behind the scenes in the circumstances in history, bringing about an answer to Nehemiah's prayer.

Dwight Dunn: 14:10

It's important that we look at some of those circumstances just very quickly. There are four of them that I think we should pay particular notice to in about the way in which God answers prayer. And the first one that we see is that the Lord gives Nehemiah a hearing before the king and he moves the king to ask Nehemiah what it is that Nehemiah wanted. It's pretty extraordinary, and we read how he was the cup bearer to the king that he was serving. It was four months after he originally began praying. And the king notices that he's kind of down and he says this is not a sadness resulting from sickness, it's a sadness of the heart. What's the matter, nehemiah? Well, this is a king taking notice of one of his servants' condition and the Lord moving that king to inquire what is wrong. And the Nehemiah concludes in verse four saying that ultimately the king says to me what are you requesting? And so Nehemiah says I pray to the God of heaven, and then he makes his request known and all the while, the Lord has arranged things. Nehemiah is the cup bearer of the king so that he has a place of being recognized by the king. The Lord is making Nehemiah wait four months, and I imagine that they were anxious months of Nehemiah and pouring the Lord. He puts the king in a good mood, he makes the king notice what's going on in Nehemiah's life and even lets Nehemiah say answer the question what is it that you want? God is moving. But in addition to that, we see that the king essentially lets Nehemiah pick the dates that he's going to leave, how long he's going to be there and when he's going to return. And verses five and six. And verse six the king said to me, with Queen sitting behind him how long will you be gone and when will you return?

Dwight Dunn: 16:18

Now if we were to flip ahead into chapter five, verse 14, we would see that Nehemiah was gone for 12 years Now. He apparently had his stay there extended. But can you imagine going to your boss and saying boss, I'm really burdened about this cause? Maybe hunger in the Sudan, maybe you're worried about sex trafficking, or maybe the Lord has put a burden on your heart for some kind of mission causing you go to your boss and say I'm really burdened by this, can you give me a few years off and I can give myself to this cause? And your boss saying, sure, when you come back your job will be waiting for you. I mean, this is how extraordinary that God is working and a foreign king that he would take notice of an Israelite servant and grant him such extraordinary freedom.

Dwight Dunn: 17:14

We also see how the king writes letters for Nehemiah to the governors of the area to give Nehemiah safe passage and even for timbers to rebuild the walls and Nehemiah's house. Nehemiah, in verse eight, indicates why that would be the case. He says for the good hand of my God was upon me. But beyond all of that, god even gives Nehemiah more than what he asked for, because the king sends army officers in a Calvary with Nehemiah, something that Nehemiah doesn't even request. And verse nine we read now the king had sent with me officers of the army and horsemen.

Dwight Dunn: 17:59

God answers prayer above and beyond what we can ask in our imagine at times. In fact, that's what Paul tells us in Ephesians, chapter three, right in verses 20 and 21. And this great benediction where he says now to him who is able to give abundantly, far more than what we ask or can think, according to his power, that it is within us to him be the glory, in the church and in Christ Jesus, throughout all generations, forever and ever. And so God is moving in extraordinary ways behind the scenes so that he will answer prayer for Nehemiah and the people of Israel to his own glory. But in addition to learning that God is the God who hears and answers prayer, we also see that God answers prayer by delivering us from evil.

Dwight Dunn: 18:52

And in chapter two we read how Nehemiah comes back to Jerusalem and he's met with opposition from a sand ball at the Hornite, and Tobiah, the Ammonite servant, and Gashem, the Arab. So there's the Ammonites, the Hornites, the Mosquito bites, all of these people that are opposing the work of Israel because they do not want Israel to reestablish itself and its borders around the city of Jerusalem. And in fact they jeer at the people and they even accuse them of sedition. And Nehemiah says in verse 20, the God of heaven will make us prosper and we, his servants, will arise and build, but you have no portion or right or claim in Jerusalem. God answers Nehemiah's prayer by taking care of those forces that sought to oppose the extension of God's kingdom in Jerusalem and Nehemiah and their interactions with them, not only points to the king's letters, but he points to a higher authority and says that it is the God of heaven who will grant them success and their endeavor.

Dwight Dunn: 20:10

The amazing thing here is that King Artxerxes is actually reversing course from an order that he had issued years earlier. That is found in Ezra, chapter 4. Now you've heard about the laws of the Medes and the Persians, that nothing can change them, and so on and so forth. Artxerxes changes from forbidding construction upon the walls around the city of Jerusalem to now allowing them. The Proverbs, chapter 21, reminds us that the king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord. He turns it wherever he will. God even directs nations, he directs kings, so that, in response to the prayers of his people, god is accomplishing his will that he has sovereignly established, and we see this time and time again throughout history, where God is helping his people, whose backs feel like they're up against the wall and they are being oppressed by the evil that is within them, that is around them, within the world.

Dwight Dunn: 21:16

In Wales in 1904 and 1905, the Lord brought about an extraordinary revival, and so much so that, as the people of God were reanimated by the Spirit of God and they were drawing closer to Christ, the Lord began to spill out his power into the community and wakening the community around it. So many people were brought to Christ that the morals of the society were changed. Taberns were closing, brothels were closing, and there's a very interesting account of a chief of police in a particular city in Wales that was before the city of council and giving a report of their activities. And so the chief of police was answering them and he said well, since the revival has come, there really hasn't been much crime. The taverns have all but emptied, the brothels are closed, and so the city council asks the chief of police well, what is it that you're doing with your time? And he says we go where the crowds are. And the council asks him well, where are the crowds? And he says they're at the churches. And he says so, what do you do there? He said well, we have formed several quartets and we tell the churches that we'll sing for them if they are so inclined. In fact, so radically had the whole fiber of the community changed that there was a stoppage in the mines because the language of the miners had cleaned up that the mules could no longer understand their instructions.

Dwight Dunn: 22:53

Now you may think that that is a tall tale, but it can be documented, to the newspapers surrounding those communities and even to Westminster Abbey, as J Edwin Orr has written about. You see, as the Lord moves and works, he delivers his people from evil and the opposition of his kingdom advance. But finally we see that God answers prayer by uniting his people and advancing his kingdom. And when Nehemiah returns to Jerusalem he begins inspecting things, and he doesn't at night. He doesn't want anybody to know what it is that he's up to or what he's doing. So he takes a few men after three days and he spends some nights inspecting the walls and finding out the condition. In fact he even reports in one particular place that the devastation is so extensive that his animal that was under him couldn't even get through, so blocked was his passage.

Dwight Dunn: 23:56

And then we read in verse 17, he gathers the people together and he says you see the trouble that we're in, how Jerusalem lies and ruins, with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem that we may no longer suffer derision. And I told them that the hand of my God had been upon me for good, and also of the words that the King had spoken to me and they said let us rise up and build, so they strengthen their hands for the good work. You see, god not only gave Nehemiah success with the king. God not only gave Nehemiah success over the enemies that opposed the work of God. God granted Nehemiah success among the people of God, as he began to share his vision and his burden For the glory of God and the reconstruction of the walls around the city of Jerusalem. The people embraced that vision and they put their hands to the work. Even the officials, the white collar guys that aren't used to manual labor. They agree to the plan and they commit themselves to rebuild the walls and they put their hands to the work.

Dwight Dunn: 25:12

I mentioned how, in 1857 and 1858, the Lord brought a great revival, not only in America but on the other side of the Atlantic, through a movement of prayer, and there was a man by the name of Samuel prime that was so moved by what God was doing that he began to document the answers to prayer that were happening in the revival. People from all over the country, all over the world. We're sending prayer requests to the Fulton Street prayer church so that they would pray, because they knew that God was answering prayer for these folks. And so he recounts one of these particular moving stories of Very wealthy businessman in a town that was very much opposed to faith and religion, and as they be. As he began to hear about all of these prayer meetings and all of the excitement that was happening, he gathered his family together and he said to them I forbid any of you from attending these prayer meetings and, in fact, if any of you Attend these prayer meetings, I will disown and disher and Disinherit you. And he found out in that conversation that his wife and his oldest daughter had already been attending the prayer meetings, and the wife stopped, but the daughter, maria, continued to attend the prayer meetings.

Dwight Dunn: 26:36

And a couple weeks later she stood up in one of the prayer meetings when they gave an opportunity for for people to give a testimony, and she recounted how, as a result of tending these prayer meetings, that she became aware of her sin and her need of a savior and she found in Christ the savior of her soul and that she believed in him. Well, somebody who had heard her give this testimony, went ahead and told her father and by the time she got home from the meeting that night, he was standing in the doorway holding one of those huge family Bibles, as she met him at the door and he said to her Maria, where have you been? And she said I have been at the prayer meeting, sir. And he asked her to wear her allegiance light and she said, father, I love you, but I also love the savior. And he said to her did I not tell you that if you went to those prayer meetings that I would disown and Disinherit you? And she said yes, sir, you did. And he opened up the big Bible, family Bible, where her name was printed in the front, and he tore out the page and he handed it to her and he disowned her.

Dwight Dunn: 27:46

So there was an elderly, wealthy widow in the community and she went to live with this Widow and she heard nothing from her family for three weeks and then she saw her father's carriage racing up the the pathway to the entrance of the widow's home and she went out to meet the driver, james, and she asked him what was wrong and he said your father is terribly ill. He feels terrible for the way in which he has treated you and he asks that you will come see him before he died. So they raced back to the house and she enters the home and she finds out that indeed her dad is in terrible distress, but it is not a physical ailment, it is a distress of the soul, as the spirit of God began to convict him of the sin, and Particularly the way in which he treated his daughter, and so she began to speak to him to share with him the gospel of Christ, and he himself, who was once a great opponent of the faith, bowed and accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior. And the days following, her mother accepted Christ, her two brothers accepted Christ, her sister accepted Christ. All an answer and movement to prayer.

Dwight Dunn: 28:59

My encouragement for us as a church today is that we would be a people who would come to believe Again in the power of prayer, not in prayer itself as an activity, but the God who answers prayer, and that we would be moved and encouraged and expectant as we pray to ask God to work in us and through us.

Dwight Dunn: 29:23

That we would be people who would not pray just for the physical needs that we all face, which are very important, but that God would begin a work of the spirit in us, in our congregation and in our community, that he might extend his kingdom for his glory. There are many ways that you can do that. Your life groups can do it. You can do it in your homes when you say grace around your meals. We have an opportunity if you want to pray for the church and the Search for a new pastor and some other needs of the church. You can get online and you can sign up for that as well. But my encouragement to us today is that we would be people who see that God answers prayer and we would be moved to pray for his kingdoms advance. Let's pray together.