1. "God had settled into this man's heart a holy discontent for these people and when he returned he got together with a few other trusted friends and they put together a vision, a plan to help the Bic Church in Cuba to advance the kingdom." - 01:01:27

2. "If prayer isn't absolutely necessary to accomplish your vision, your vision isn't big enough. Don't let the immensity of the need paralyze you so you don't do anything and second of all don't commit impetuously to something just because the need is there." - 01:03:37

3. "Nehemiah turned instinctively to God, he recognized the character of God, he mourned expressing his hurt to God and he fasted. He was focusing his heart on God. If you've ever spent a longer time in prayer and you include fasting in that, fasting will help you to focus only on God." - 01:05:47

4. "Nehemiah cared for God's people but he also cared for God's name because God's name was being disgraced because of the people in Jerusalem. He had promised to take care of them yet they turned their backs on him." - 58:16

5. "When God wants to use you in some capacity, the first thing that he does is he'll burden your heart with holy discontent. Perhaps like Nehemiah, you've known a need, you're just not sure how what to do with it. But then when you hear about how you could help and you see it firsthand and you can't just put it out of your mind." - 01:00:11

Let me see. Great job! Appreciate all the songs.

So, a number of years ago, Simon and Garfunkel released a song called "Cecilia." Remember that song? You're all going to start singing it in your heads now, right? That first line: "Cecilia, you're breaking my heart."

Well, I'd like to introduce you to another Cecilia: Cecilia Mary Jo Gibbons. Cecilia was born this morning at 12:51. She weighed in at six pounds and was 19 inches long—three weeks early.

The next slide shows my son Jared, his wife Holly, and their little daughter. First-time parents! First-time Grandpa! So, I have a granddaughter. I gotta go see her. I'll see you tomorrow. We gotta wrap this up. I need to go and hug my little girl. I'm telling you—no, I'm kidding.

Yeah, thrilling! I was texting with Irene this morning about 5:30 and said, "Congratulations, Grandma!" She said, "Congratulations, Grandpa!"

Now, focus! You got a sermon to do.

Yeah, well, we'll see how that goes. Anyway, today we start a new series on the book of Nehemiah. I was reminded a couple of weeks back when I was talking to somebody, and she said, "Oh, you're preaching on the shortest guy in the Bible." I said, "Yeah, that's right—knee-high Maya." That's an old preacher joke that goes back years and years ago.

So, Nehemiah, just to set the context here a little bit, is the historic account of the rebuilding of the walls around the city of Jerusalem in the middle of the 5th century BC. But Nehemiah did much more than just rebuild some walls; he was instrumental in restoring a people—from ruin and despair—and restoring them into a new walk with God.

You know, aside from the historical significance of Nehemiah, there are several themes that run through this. You might be wondering, "You did a series on Jonah, Old Testament; you're doing a series on Nehemiah, Old Testament. Aren't we New Testament Christians? Aren't we New Covenant Christians?" Yes, we are, but we have to remember that the scriptures were written for a people that came out of the Old Testament. Their heritage is Old Testament; that's what they were bathed in, that's where they grew up. And Jesus quoted the Old Testament many, many, many times.

So, there are a number of themes running through Nehemiah that are relevant to us today, even though that was 2,500 years ago. They're still relevant. We're going to look at leadership—that's the main theme running through this book. We're going to talk about vision, rebuilding, and restoration—not only of the wall but of the people as well.

Unity—we're going to see in chapter four how he unified the people and gave them a purpose to rebuild this wall. And then, I think it's in chapters five and six, we're going to run into opposition from the surrounding nations and from within, and how he overcame that.

Eleven times, Nehemiah was in prayer—there's a recorded eleven times in prayer. So, it's very critical to be in prayer and to depend on God.

So, that's the main thing that's running through: repentance and renewal. The people had fallen away; the people had turned their backs, and he brought them to that point of repentance and renewal. Social justice—he saw how the poor were being treated, and he went about fixing that as well. And God's faithfulness and His covenant—never failing, never failing.

So, where does Nehemiah fit in the history of Israel? There was a golden age, right? With David and Solomon, they took Israel to heights of fame, power, and strength. When Solomon died, his son Rehoboam took over, and this is about the 10th century, and he didn't do a very good job.

So, what happened was the twelve original tribes of Israel split into two kingdoms: ten of the tribes were the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and two were the Southern Kingdom of Judah. And that's where we are. We were at about the beginning of the 8th century, and then the Assyrians came in.

Late in the 8th century, they conquered the Northern Kingdom, and the Northern Kingdom just basically disappeared from the history books. About 150 years later, under King Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon conquered the Assyrian Empire, and then the Persian Empire, led by at that time King Cyrus, came in. That's about 150 years after the Assyrians. Then, about 50 years after that, Babylon fell to the Persian Empire.

So, there was always this ongoing power struggle, and it was during this time that King Cyrus told some of the exiles they could go back to rebuild Jerusalem. So, the priest Ezra went back on two visits—two mission trips—to rebuild the city, the city walls. They tried to rebuild the temple, but the opposition was just too much, and they never got around to doing that.

So then, 15 years after Ezra's trips, we have Nehemiah coming into his role in this time. This is the last historical book of the Old Testament. After this, Malachi was written, and then God went silent for 400 years. This is a significant book.

And so, we're going to read through it. There's a lot of names later on; don't worry about that. We're going to take it one step at a time here.

So, I'm reading Nehemiah 1, verses 1 to 3:

"The words of Nehemiah son of Hakaliya: In the month of Kislev in the 20th year, while I was in the Citadel of Susa, Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile and also about Jerusalem. They said to me, 'Those who survived the exile are back in the province and are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken, and its gates have been burned with fire.'"

So, notice the description of Jerusalem: the walls are broken. Now, here's a—I think this is an artist's conception of what the walls around Jerusalem would have looked like, and there are many gates that were burned out as well through that. So, this is what Nehemiah faced—rebuilding that wall.

Now, not only is the wall in ruins and the gates are burned and no longer usable, but the people were in trouble too. You can't—in those days, you couldn't live in a city that wasn't protected. A lot of people were living inside that, and they relied on the walls around them to protect them. Well, when the walls are broken down, anybody can wander in and conquer you. Anyone can come in and steal, murder you, do all those kinds of things.

So, the people were living in distress. You know, dads were worried about their wives and their children because a city without walls is vulnerable and open, and there's no defense, no protection. So, they were in a lot of distress. They never knew when they were going to get attacked; they never knew. Everyone lived in constant fear.

Now, if there was ever a man who would be considered too busy to go and fix this wall, it would be Nehemiah. As we're going to discover, he was the cupbearer to the king. He was the butler to the King of Persia. That's a very, very important role. He was responsible to taste everything that the king was going to eat and drink—the wine—every time he was going to have a glass full of wine because people would be trying to kill him, murder him.

So, the cupbearer would taste the food and drink the wine, and if he killed over dead, the king was still safe. So, Nehemiah was an extremely busy, extremely trusted individual, and yet he comes and says, "Let me help." He wasn't even born in Jerusalem; he was born in exile in Babylon. That's where he grew up. He had no family there; he had no friends there. He was enjoying a brilliant career, and then this group comes from Jerusalem and says, "You gotta help."

Picture this, for example: we call up the chief of staff to the Prime Minister of Canada—Kelly, I forget her last name. Anyway, McCallum. "Kelly, I need your help." "Yeah, this is John down in Welland." "Yeah, it's in Niagara." "Yeah, the place we have the Falls." "Yep, that's us. Listen, I need you to come down and give me a hand here because I've got this construction site in Welland, and it's been sitting there derelict for months now. They don't know what to do with it; things are collapsing down. I need you to come and fix it for me."

I mean, she would probably drop everything and just, you know, come and help fix our little place down there in Welland, right? I mean, she's got her hands full just taking care of the PM, right? Just saying.

Anyway, he was a busy and influential man, and he could have said, "Okay, all you people over here, go to Israel, fix the walls, report back when you're done." He could have done that. He had that power; he could do anything he wanted.

And this was his response to hearing from Hanani:

In verse 4, he said, "When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of Heaven."

Verse 4 shows us Nehemiah's heart. Nehemiah cared. He cared for God's people, but he also cared for God's name because God's name was being disgraced because of the people in Jerusalem. He had promised to take care of them, yet they turned their backs on him. Now they were living in disgrace.

One of our favorite pastimes in the winter—I know I'm not the one to have a lot of favorite pastimes in the winter other than hibernating—but one of our favorite things to do is go to the Ice Dogs game. Not a great start! And, of course, they got the big video thing in the middle, and they put up all the slides and everything. Well, whenever the opposing team scores, they announce who scored the goal and who assisted on the goal, and then this big picture comes up on the screen: "Who cares?" And that's what all the fans will yell out. You know, we don't care about them.

Unfortunately, some nights we do that more often than we cheer "hooray" because they get taken to the cleaners. But, you know, that's what Nehemiah could have said: "So what? Is Jerusalem out in the middle of nowhere? Who cares?"

That could have been Nehemiah, but it wasn't. George Bernard Shaw once said, "The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them." That's the essence of inhumanity.

When God wants to use you in some capacity, the first thing that He does is He'll burden your heart with holy discontent. Perhaps, like Nehemiah, you've known a need; you're just not sure what to do with it. But then, when you hear about how you could help and you see it firsthand, you can't just put it out of your mind.

Last Sunday, you heard from a couple of pastors from Cuba. They may not have stood up here if it wasn't for the vision of one person. You may have heard the story before, but Ron and Marjorie were there in 1993 in Cuba, just outside of Hogene. They were there celebrating an anniversary. Where did you find Ron? Out on the beach, talking to people—talking to young Cuban couples and people. He just wanted to share Jesus with them; that's all he wanted to do.

God had settled into this man's heart a holy discontent for these people, and when he returned, he got together with a few other trusted friends, and they put together a vision—a plan to help the big church in Cuba to advance the kingdom. And they've been at it ever since.

So, like this couple that were here last, they may not have ever had that opportunity if it wasn't for the vision that Ron had on his heart for the Cuban people. Imagine where we would be if no one cared. Imagine where we would be.

And maybe you're sitting there and you're saying, "You know what? I care. I care a lot, but I'm really getting tired of caring." It's called compassion fatigue. You know, we're bombarded with needs all the time. You look at the news from Ukraine or from Russia or from other countries when we see the need, and we just get tired. Charities are asking for more money to help out with these needs, and it just keeps building and building, and we get worn out.

Not only did Nehemiah hear about their need; he felt their need. He wept, he mourned, he fasted, he prayed for days—not just for five minutes on a Sunday morning, but days. We're going to discover next week, 44 months—four months he was in prayer over this issue. He couldn't get it out of his mind; he couldn't get it off his heart.

God used that burden, that holy discontent, as the basis for action. Someone once wrote, "If prayer isn't absolutely necessary to accomplish your vision, your vision isn't big enough."

So, two thoughts:

1. Don't let the immensity of the need paralyze you so you don't do anything.
2. Don't commit impetuously to something just because the need is there. There will always be needs.

But when we jump in too quickly, sometimes that can be as harmful. You notice that Nehemiah did not jump in immediately; he spent the next four months praying and planning how he was going to help.

So, we'll pick up the story in verse 5:

"Oh Lord, God of Heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps His covenant of love with those who love Him and obey His commands, let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open to hear the prayer of Your servant, in praying before You day and night for Your servants, the people of Israel."

So often, we jump right in. We want to fix whatever it is, and we jump right in. We have our shopping list: "God, this is what I need You to do—bang, bang, bang, bang, bang." We forget about honoring Him; we forget about talking to Him; we forget about waiting on Him. We just have our shopping list, and we need to get down to the nitty-gritty of getting those things that we need.

But Nehemiah starts by reminding himself of the nature of God—that He's the God of forgiveness, that He's a God of restoration, a God of great power. When the heart is right, God can change external circumstances of a situation and make it different. God can do that.

Nehemiah turned instinctively to God. He recognized the character of God; he mourned, expressing his hurt to God, and he fasted. He was focused—he was focusing his heart on God. If you've ever spent a longer time in prayer and you include fasting in that, fasting will help you to focus only on God, and that's so important for us.

Now, the second thing that Nehemiah did was he repented of all corporate and personal sins. In verse 6, he says, "I confess the sins we Israelites." That's important. "I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father's house, have committed against You. We have acted very wickedly towards You. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees, and laws You gave Your servant Moses."

You notice what Nehemiah wasn't doing? He didn't point a finger. He didn't say, "Those people! Those people in Israel and Judah and in Jerusalem—they are sinners; they need to repent." He didn't do that. He said, "We Israelites." And he wasn't even, like I said, born there. "We have sinned—not only we, me, my father, my father's house—that is who has sinned."

There's no attempt to make excuses. The point is that he's not coming and asking God to help them because they deserve the help. He comes confessing who he is and trusting in God who will forgive sinners.

Now, sin isn't simply about doing wrong; it's about living a life that you want to live instead of living the way God wants you to live. We make the decisions: "This is what I'm going to do. I know the Bible says something different, but yeah, this is what I want to do."

So, it's not living the way God wants us to live. You know, sinning has so much less to do with whether you smoke or drink or swear or date women who do. That was another old joke from way back on when, you know, advice to a husband-to-be: don't do these things and don't date women that do.

Anyway, but it has more to do with a place of the heart. You know, the humility that we have, the hospitality, the generosity, the genuine giving of yourself for the well-being of others. You know, it isn't so much about the externals. Yeah, they need to change, but they're not as important as what's going on inside of us.

So, the third part of Nehemiah's prayer was that he reminded God. You know, God doesn't forget, but Nehemiah reminded God of His promises to Israel. In verse 8, he says, "Remember the instruction You gave Your servant Moses, saying, 'If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, and if you return to Me and obey My commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for My name.'"

"They are Your servants; they are Your people whom You redeemed by Your great strength and Your mighty hand."

In the book of Deuteronomy, chapters 28 to 30, Moses lays out the whole picture for what's going to happen to Israel. He said they were going to disobey God; they did. God was going to disperse them; they were going to be attacked and conquered by the Assyrians and the Babylonians and the Persians. That happened. And then He was going to bring them back, and that was what was going on now.

God would bring them back to their land because that's what He promised them. "That's your land; I promised it to you." God had promised to bring His people back, and because of that promise, now Nehemiah can move towards that reconstruction with confidence in God. "I know what You've said; I'm claiming that promise."

Now, what I need is the fourth thing that Nehemiah brought to God at that time. In verse 10, starting at verse 10, he said, "Lord, let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of this Your servant and to the prayer of Your servants who delight in revering Your name." Because there were others praying with him, he said, "Give Your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man."

"I was the cupbearer to the king."

Nehemiah started to pray and ask for grace and strength to carry out the steps necessary. He started at the top; he went to the king. He took his request directly to the king.

And the last line there, he said, "Grant me favor in the presence of this man." That man was the king, Artaxerxes, and he was going to talk to him. What he was about to do was to ask the king to change his mind. Kings don't like to do that, especially monarchs in the ancient world. They didn't like to be told that they made a mistake.

So, when Nehemiah was going to approach Artaxerxes, he was going to tell him, "You need to change your mind about Jerusalem." You see, when Persia took over from Babylon and they tried to rebuild the walls, some stories got back to the king that Judah—or that Jerusalem—was going to become independent. They were going to rebel against the king.

And so, the king said, "Stop! Stop the building! No more repairing the walls! Leave them down; leave them exposed!" That was his decision not too many years ago. And now his cupbearer was going to come to him and say, "Nah, you need to change your mind."

The king could have just looked at Nehemiah and said, "Take his head off! I'm not going to have anybody talk to me like that!" So, this was a big deal. We read the story and think, "Okay, so he's going to go talk to the king," but this was a big, big deal for him.

He had developed trust; he had developed a rapport with the king. He was in the king's presence all the time, and as we'll see next week, it was important how he presented this request.

And it's important for us to realize that no matter, you know, when we are trying to do things for God, we're going to face opposition. It's just the way it is. Some of it will come from the world outside; some of it will come from within the fellowship. It's just the way it is.

You know, we try and decide to do things, and the majority of you will go along with the leaders of the church, but there will be some who will say, "No, I don't want to do it like that." And we have to wrestle with the opposition that we face.

And no matter what you're doing, if you're in service to the Lord, you will face some opposition, but God will endure.

So, I'm sure you've heard it—you know, you've seen the things. Someone explains a problem to you, and you look at them and say, "Ask me if I care." Right? Does this really bother me? Does this really, you know, do I have anything to do? Ask me if I care.

But we need to ask ourselves that question in all seriousness this morning: Do I care? Do you care? Do we care? Do we see a problem? Do we have a sense of holy discontent for something? Do we care? Are we too busy to care? What's my response?

What's my response? How we need to see Nehemiah's heart here—a man who had no reason to care, and yet he did. And we need to learn from his response: the time he spent in prayer, the time he spent planning, the time he went to the king and said, "Do you care? I care. Send me."

God will help us to care.

Let's pray.

Father, sometimes our hearts and our minds are so cluttered with so many of the things that we want for us that there's just no room to feel discontented—to know of a problem and to find a way to address it, try and solve it, or at least contribute towards its solution.

Father, as we unpack Your word these next few weeks, may we capture Nehemiah's heart. May we feel—not just hear of their needs, but feel their needs as well. Help us to be Your hands and feet. Guide us, lead us, and direct us.

In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.

Amen. Just a reminder: next Sunday, picnic! We're going to have it indoors, so don't worry about bringing umbrellas and suntan lotion and all that stuff. It'll be next—you don't need to let us know; you know that. We don't have a sign-up; just show up. We'll try and have enough—you know, we'll have at least a dozen hot dogs for you.

Anyway, so it's potluck for desserts and salads, so you just bring whatever you want. That would be great.

Okay, we need this chair stacked. If you could do that, that would be great. We have a funeral here this Thursday, so we need everything stacked up, and we'll put them along the wall when you're done.

Thank you all. God bless you! Have a wonderful week. Thanks for letting me come to your church. I missed you guys last week. You know, I didn't watch you. I'll confess—I didn't watch you on Sunday. I played hooky; I played hockey. But it was nice to have a few days off.

God bless you! Have a wonderful, wonderful week!