Scripture: Nehemiah 2:1-20
Sermon Series: Nehemiah: Making a Difference for God – Sermon 03

Have you been to Disney World? Raise your hand if you have. I was there the summer after it was launched in 1972. FYI: Adult tickets were $3.50 and a buck for children under 12.

When Walt Disney World in Orlando first opened, Walt’s widow, Lillian Disney, was sitting beside famed newscaster, Walter Cronkite. Walt Disney had passed away a few years earlier. Walter Cronkite wanted to say just the right thing to his widow, so he leaned over to her and said, Wouldn’t it be great if Walt were here to see this today? I love Lillian Disney’s reply: If Walt had not first seen this, you would not be seeing it today. Walt Disney had a dream. Many of you have visited his dream.

We’re retuning to our study of Nehemiah: Making a Difference for God. Nehemiah didn’t just have a dream; he had a God-shaped dream. What about you? Do you have one? What’s your God-Shaped Dream?

The book of Nehemiah is a wonderful example of fulfilled prophecy. God promised He’d punish His people, Israel, if they disobeyed and broke His covenant. Ultimately, they rejected God and worshiped idols. Finally, God had enough. They’re taken into captivity by the armies of Babylon and Jerusalem destroyed. Yet, God had promised to restore them if they repented. This whole land shall become a ruin and a waste, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years (Jeremiah 25:11).

70 years later a small number of Jews went home, some 40,000. The temple was rebuilt but not the city. 80 years later, in 458 BC, a second wave came under Ezra the scribe. They wanted to rebuild the walls, but King Artaxerxes issued a decree that stopped them at the request of their enemies. Artaxerxes is the emperor that Nehemiah serves as cupbearer. It’s now 14 years later.

In chapter 1, Nehemiah had learned that Jerusalem was defenseless with no walls to protect it. That was critical. It broke his heart that God’s city was still in ruins. He fasts and prays for four months, seeking God’s will.

Nehemiah is a normal working person. He’s not a pastor or prophet. He’s a believer with a passion for God. He or she could be sitting here today.

Because of his heart for God, Nehemiah has a dream – A God-Shaped Dream. This is so important. God wants you and He wants me, and God wants our church to have A God-Shaped Dream.

Isn’t that what Jesus gave us when He left this world — A God-Shaped Dream? All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matthew 28:18-20).

But it’s easy to get discouraged and either give up or forget the dream. We’re not the first ones to face such pressure in an anti-Christian world. If Jesus doesn’t come back soon, we won’t be the last.

In the countryside near Leicester, England, there’s an ancient church with a powerful memorial. The inscription recalls a Christ-follower who was determined to build that church, Sir Robert Shirley. Here’s the inscription: In the year 1653, when all things sacred were throughout ye nation either demolished or profaned, Sir Robert Shirley, Baronet, did found this church: Whose singular praise it is to have done the best of things in the worst of times, and hoped them in the most calamitous.

Robert Shirley had a God-shaped dream, in the worst of times. Do you feel like we’re in the worst of times? God wants us, even in the “worst of times,” to have God-shaped dreams. What can we learn from Nehemiah 2?

1. Those with God-shaped dreams are burdened by what burdens God, vss. 1-8. 

Prayer and burdens go together. Prayer and God-shaped dreams go together. Nehemiah learned the walls of Jerusalem are still rubble. He’s burdened, but he doesn’t jump into action, like we’re prone to do. He prays for four months. Many of us struggle to pray for four minutes. During that time, he asked God for wisdom and to open the right doors.

Do you pray? It’s not a biblical command though Jesus blessed food before He ate. So, did Paul. Yet, few Christians thank God before they eat. I love this Norman Rockwell painting.

Our family seeks to use it to build gospel bridges. We’ll share with our server we’re going to pray for our food and ask if we can pray for them. We’ve had servers break down in tears. Some sat down with us and shared their hearts.  

What are you praying for? Nehemiah prays for a God-shaped dream. For four months he had a poker face. One day he’s serving the king, and his broken heart is all over his face. Maybe something triggered it. Have you lost a loved one? You’re coping, then something triggers a fountain of emotion.

The king notices Nehemiah’s sad face. Emperors want to be surrounded by happy people. It wasn’t safe to show your sadness but Artaxerxes notices that something is going on with his faithful servant.

Even kings can be insecure. Nehemiah could have lost his job, even his life. It didn’t help that Artaxerxes’ father, Xerxes I, was assassinated by the commander of his bodyguard. So, he wants to know what’s going on with his cupbearer. Many of us are natural pessimists. When someone gives us a weird look, we wonder what we’ve done when it might only be bad tacos.

When King Artaxerxes notices Nehemiah’s downcast face, it’s the opportunity Nehemiah was waiting for. He didn’t plan the timing, God did. And when it came, he’s terrified.

Nehemiah knew something Christians must learn: How to work for an unbeliever. It’s apparent Nehemiah didn’t just serve Artaxerxes; he’s his friend. That’s so Jesus. Jesus was the friend of sinners (Matthew 11:19).

At the request of the Jews’ enemies 15 years earlier, Artaxerxes had ordered work stopped on the wall (Ezra 4:21). The decrees of the Medes and Persians were proverbial about being unchangeable. Now Nehemiah wants to convince him to reverse his policy about Jerusalem! This is big! What does Nehemiah do? He did what those with God-shaped dreams should do.

We must pray. 

So I prayed to the God of heaven (Nehemiah 2:4). The greater God is to us, the smaller our problems become. Prayer is mentioned at least 11 to 14 times in the book of Nehemiah.

If there is anything that many are confused about its prayer. The most important thing that we need to know is that prayer is relational. There are a couple of Muslim coffee shops in Milwaukee where I like to go. Does God answer the prayers of Muslims? According to the Bible, no. Allah is not God.

What if your neighbor’s son came over and asked for $100, would you give it to him? Probably not. If your son asked for $100 for a school trip, would you give it to him? Absolutely. He’s your son. His request is relational.

God answers the prayers of His children. But we’re not born children of God, we must be born-again children of God (John 3). You must confess you’re a sinner; trust Christ died for your sin and commit your life to Him. Then, God makes you one of His forever family. He makes you His child.  

Prayer must be biblical. 

How many people when they purchase a lottery ticket, especially the Mega-Millions, pray they’ll win? All of them.

God doesn’t answer selfish prayers. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions (James 4:3). As I look back on my life, I’m thankful God didn’t answer some of my prayers. Aren’t you?

Some of the best prayers are simple. 

Do you think I’m going to impress Tiger Woods with my golf ability? This is a simple prayer. So I prayed to the God of heaven (Nehemiah 2:4). It’s a prayer dart.

Want to know what prayer is like? It’s like a small child talking to his daddy. None of us will impress our awesome God. He just wants us to talk to Him, just a parent with a small child.

We must be wise. 

Nehemiah is wise in his timing. It wasn’t normal for the queen to be with the king. She knows Nehemiah is willing to take a bullet for her husband, so she’s got a soft spot for Nehemiah. It’s possible that this is the Queen Mother of Artaxerxes, Queen Esther. Whoever she is, apparently she helps Nehemiah present his case.  

Nehemiah never mentions Jerusalem. He knows Artaxerxes had earlier given a cease-and-desist order for rebuilding of the walls. Instead, he uses an emotional appeal, the city of my fathers’ graves (Nehemiah 2:5). Graves and ancestors were important to the Persians. That would have been particularly important to a man whose father had been murdered.

Nehemiah also knows the governors of the territories were opposed to the Jews and their plans, so he asks for letters of authorization and even the bankrolling of the supplies to rebuild the walls.

Praying and serving God isn’t a shot in the dark. Christians are to be wise, thoughtful and plan. There’s a silly teaching out there that trusting God means being empty-headed, “let go and let God.” It’s not spiritual to be a bubblehead. God-shaped dreams need God’s wisdom and planning.

Nehemiah was prepared. God had given him wisdom. Many of us have dreams, but it also takes steps of planning to see things come to fruition.

Nehemiah doesn’t manipulate. He’s not going to do a podcast, How to influence a King and Win. Nehemiah knew this was all of God, And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me (Nehemiah 2:8). The king gave permission, but God changed his heart. We need to know that we can’t even take our next breath without God.

What obstacle are you facing? Have you prayed about it? Have you given it to God? Do you have a dream? Are you trusting it to your Heavenly Father?

P.T. Forsythe said, The great sin is prayerlessness. Why is prayerlessness the great sin? Because when we don’t pray, we’re saying, “God I don’t need You” — and that’s the greatest sin!

2. Those with God-shaped dreams do their homework, vss. 11-16.

Do you like long trips? Nehemiah’s journey from Susa to Jerusalem was approximately 1,000 miles. It probably took from three to four months.

Nehemiah was in Jerusalem three days before he began evaluating the situation. What did he do? Did he binge on Netflix? No, I think he rested. Rest isn’t a luxury—it’s a necessity. It’s a spiritual, emotional, and physical game-changer that modern life actively works against. If you only allow yourself to rest when you’ve run out of energy, you’re not resting.

For a generation that’s into “self-care,” most of us are bad at resting. We schedule vacations more exhausting than our normal lives. The Bible starts with God creating the world in six days and resting on the seventh, not because He was tired but because He was setting the rhythm. Rest wasn’t an afterthought. It’s built into creation. One reason we don’t have God-shaped dreams is that we’re exhausted and can’t dream, think or plan. Wise leaders, like Nehemiah, don’t think of themselves as supermen.

Later this summer Jane and I’ll go on vacation. I’ve learned that rest is essential and biblical. Please learn the importance of rest. Vance Havner said, If you don’t come apart and rest, you’ll just come apart.

Nehemiah assesses the damage before offering solutions The word inspected is a medical term that means “to probe a wound to see the extent of its damage.” Nehemiah goes out in the night, taking a few companions along to survey the damage from the Babylonian destruction.

He has a strategic team. There’s a big difference between a strategic team and a committee. Many churches limp and ultimately do nothing because they’re run by committees. Fred Allen had a great description of a committee, A group of people who individually can do nothing, but who, as a group, can meet and decide that nothing can be done.

Nehemiah limits the information. Too many of us talk too much with too many. It muddies the waters and our thinking. Someone has to lead and make a decision. Want an example? Gather your family this afternoon and ask, “Where do you want to go out to eat?” Expect one or two opinions from each member. You’ll probably end up ordering pizza from Dominos.

Why at night? He didn’t want the people to know about his plans yet. The Jews’ enemies had an idea; Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem. They’d seen the king’s orders. But the local Jewish population didn’t know.

Have you ever lost sleep over destruction in the life of someone you love? It’s why God used Nehemiah. He lost sleep out of love for God’s work.

He acts wisely. If he’d told the Jews, “I’m here, let’s get to work,” not much would happen. The people still lacked the vision of what Jerusalem could be. At the right time, he’d do all that, but for now he needed to assess how much money, stone, and how many workers it’d take for this project.

Jerusalem as it existed at the time when Babylon destroyed it was much larger than the city Nehemiah rebuilt. He knew they didn’t have enough people to defend that larger city. Why rebuild walls when they didn’t have enough guards to defend them? Basically, Nehemiah plans to rebuild the city as Jerusalem was in the time of David and Solomon.

The book of Nehemiah gives us a description of where he went. Later generations built over that reconstruction, so some of these place names were lost. But we have a good idea where much of what he surveyed was.

Here’s a map of his journey from Susa and the destruction of Jerusalem. In some places the debris was so thick he couldn’t ride his horse.

Nehemiah was awake when others slept. Long hours and sleepless nights are often the price of leadership. He’s so detailed in his accounts that even today his is one of the best historical records of Jerusalem after the exile.

There’s a parallel for us for God-dreams and our spiritual life. We won’t make much progress in rebuilding our lives if we don’t make an honest assessment of where we’re at and how far away we are from where God wants us to be.

Prayer is talking to God. When we read the Bible, God talks to us. The Bible is our true north and compass. We won’t know where God wants to lead us without digging into our Bibles. His Word enables us to see life the way it’s supposed to be.

We see that in the life of Jesus, who lives the way human beings were originally designed. That degree of wreckage in our lives is the difference between His life and ours. The need for rebuilding becomes very evident when you see His life unfold in the pages of Scripture.

It’s why the Gospels are so important. They don’t just get important when the cross comes into view. Everything Jesus does is a model of human life functioning correctly. Jesus is the standard if we want a fulfilled life.

After his night survey Nehemiah puts together an ancient equivalent of a spreadsheet with calculations for lumber and masonry. There were places he could build on the old foundations, and others that must be demolished and built from scratch. Nehemiah did his homework before he shared his vision of what Jerusalem could be, challenging the Jews to join the team.

We struggle with two extremes. Some tend to jump in without first evaluating. The other is to overthink and then overthink, looking for perfection. It won’t happen. As a result, nothing happens. A wise leader knows when to plan, when to speak and when to work.  

3. Those with God-shaped dreams know how to share their dreams, vss. 17-20. 

Nehemiah made this our problem, not their problem. He identified himself with the Jews. He’s the outsider, the newcomer who’d just arrived. It wasn’t their mess – it’s OUR problem. Nehemiah made it HIS problem too.

Just a side-note, if you’re having family or marriage problems, you’ll never move forward until you have “we” problems.  

Nehemiah wasn’t consumed with the physical mess. The broken walls were a dark shadow over God’s good name and reputation. Far more serious than the physical damage was the spiritual disgrace. It brought ridicule on God from pagans. Rubble for walls communicated that God didn’t keep His promises and had abandoned His people. His speech though wasn’t about patriotism. It was about a spiritual burden. God’s reputation was blackened.

Are you and I concerned about God’s name and reputation? Do our marriages and homes reflect well on God’s reputation? What about at work or in our neighborhood? Our social media posts? Do they reflect well on God’s name? So, how does Nehemiah motivate them to do a difficult task?

He reminds them of God’s blessings. 

You build from strength not weakness. And I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good, and also of the words that the king had spoken to me (Nehemiah 2:18).

There’s a little-known congressional program that awards internships to young people who’ve aged out of foster care. These are kids who were never adopted and are no longer eligible for state support.

One Senator employed one such young man as an intern. One morning this Senator breezed in for a meeting and discovered his intern was already in the office, reorganizing the entire mailroom. The Senator said to the intern, “This is amazing—the mailroom has never looked so clean. You did a great job.”

A few moments later the Senator saw this intern had tears streaming down his face. [He] said, “Son, are you okay?” Yes,” the intern answered quietly. “Did I say something to offend you?” “No, sir.” “Well, what’s wrong?” The young man answered, “That’s the first time in my life anyone’s told me that I did something good.” Don’t miss this! Encouragement, giving someone a dream, can transform a life. Nehemiah is an encourager. Are you?

Nehemiah motivated the Jews, not with bonuses or weekend holidays. He motivates them with God’s glory and doing something big for God. They caught the vision. He didn’t give orders. He made an appeal.

The atmosphere must have been electric. Are you a Christ-follower? Are you motivated to bring glory to God?

He expects attacks and criticism. 

If you’re moving forward for God, expect opposition. If you have a God-shaped dream, you’ll be attacked. The people said, “Let’s rise and build.” Satan said, “Let’s rise and oppose.”  

Notice this unholy trinity. But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they jeered at us and despised us and said, ‘What is this thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?’ (Nehemiah 2:19).

If you go forward for God and do His work, there will be critics. Some are on the outside like these three bozos. The more hurtful ones though are on the inside. It may be in your marriage or family. Too often it’s in the church.

Every pastor has scars from those attacks. God’s will is rarely easy but it’s always possible as we depend on and are enabled by His power.

Nehemiah shows us that there’s a right time to share our God-shaped dream. Too many of us are comfortable with the status quo. Every church is in danger of plateauing and declining. A church family must have a dream that’s not just one or two people. It’s a vision of a family, a community.

Do you want to do something eternally significant? Be part of God’s dream. Be part of what God’s doing here at Grace. It will count for eternity.

Conclusion

In 1983, Steve Jobs, founder of a small upstart computer company called Apple, barely 4 years old at the time, strides into the office of then Pepsi-co President John Sculley and pitches the idea for Sculley to come work for Apple as their chief executive. Steve Job’s pitch, as Sculley recalls it, went something like this: “He looked up at me and just stared at me with the stare that only Steve Jobs has and he said, Do you want to sell sugar water (can of Pepsi) for the rest of your life or do you want to come with me and change the world? Apple isn’t going to change the world, at least not the real world, God’s eternal world.

Let me tie this up for us at Grace today, in this moment in time. The truth is that we don’t need to build a wall. We need to build bridges, gospel bridges, to those coming in our doors and to those in our community.  

God is doing something here. A week ago, I met with Jesse Knopp who recently preached for me. He shared that he sensed something different at Grace and so did his friend. We’re not your typical church. We’re a family. God continually brings folk though our doors who are looking for hope, for truth. They’re looking for Jesus and many of them don’t even know it.

And God is doing something in America that I’ve never seen. People, particularly young people, are searching. They’re searching for hope, for truth…they’re looking for Jesus. We don’t want to miss this opportunity!  So, I’m asking you today – Will you join me in a God-shaped dream?

What’s your dream? Do you have a God-shaped dream? Let me challenge you to do this, even today. Take a blank piece of paper. Ask the Lord to guide you and write out a God-shaped dream. Write it out for you personally. Then, write it out how your God-shaped dream can help us reach this community for Jesus.

Nehemiah teaches us that we need to dream more than we do, and we need to trust God more than we do. Let’s do it! Don’t live for sugar water. Let’s build some bridges for Jesus! Let’s make a difference in eternity!