Grace Thoughts

Guest (Male): Hello friends, welcome to Grace Thoughts, the radio ministry of Grace Connection Church with Pastor Tim Kelley. Grace Thoughts has been dedicated to preaching a clear gospel of grace for over 20 years. Here is Pastor Kelley.

Tim Kelley: Nehemiah chapter one, we're starting the book of Nehemiah. We will be going through Nehemiah until we're done with the book. We usually carry chapter by chapter, but in this case, we take our time. It's not verse by verse, but we'll spend one or two weeks on a chapter, maybe one week, maybe three weeks. Starting in Nehemiah chapter one, today I titled the message "Let's Get Started", but it's not really let's get started with the book of Nehemiah; it's let's get started with God's purpose for our life.

Finding out God's purpose for your life is imperative. That's a message in itself. How do you find that out? How do you determine that? That's maybe another message for another day. But Nehemiah understood God's purpose. He was a cupbearer; he was a butler to the King of Persia. That's what he did. It was a great career, and God placed him in that career, but God also added a purpose to his life.

We're going to get into that purpose, and we know that was to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, which at that point had been broken down for, if my counting's right, about 170 years. The walls had been in ruin. I think it was Redpath who said, "Only in so far as every part of your life is adjusted to God in every detail can God achieve His purpose through you. And only as He achieves His purpose through you will your life be successful in the truest sense of the word."

What he's saying here is the success of a life will be determined by you finding God's purpose for your life and then functioning inside of that purpose. For some, this is not even on their radar screen. What's a purpose? It's what does God want for your life? That doesn't mean that's full-time ministry. That could be being a mom, a businessman, or a millionaire. That could even shift throughout your years on earth numerous times.

Sometimes we're so disconnected from what God's purpose for us is that we get sucked into what I call the world's vortex. Especially in America, the vortex of the world system is much more tenuous than maybe in some third-world country where you're surviving. In America, there's prosperity at your fingertips. There's the call for security and riches. Sometimes it's just plain busy. We get so busy with life, a few kids come along, and this happens, and that happens.

Next thing you know, God's purpose for your life isn't even on your radar screen. It's not even being thought about. Not because of an evil, selfish heart or soul, but just life has sucked you down its own road, and you've lost sight of what God may be asking and wanting for your life. I think this is a good message for the first chapter of Nehemiah because he certainly had a rhythm in his life. He had a career and a reputation; he had all those things, yet God still had something further for him, significant for him as we're going to see as we go through this book.

Sometimes we will take God's purpose and we'll replace it with a fabricated gift or a natural preference. We call it our purpose, and this usually happens with people called to preach. They say, "I'm called to preach." Okay, but God will raise you up and He'll create the opportunity for that. Some of us like that thought of teaching or preaching or counseling because we want to do it. It makes us feel good; it makes us feel important or significant when that might not be God's purpose for your life. And that's really okay.

In fact, it's better that you don't function in that. I've seen many a man in 30 years get very frustrated because no one seems to recognize what they have deemed to be God's purpose for their life. I felt since the first few months after I was born again that God had called me to be a preacher. I didn't know what that meant. I grew up as a Roman Catholic in New England. I had no idea what that meant. Protestantism in New England just became legal two years ago, I think it was.

I just knew that I was called to preach the gospel. I didn't have a pastor, I didn't have a church, and I didn't attend any preaching. I never heard preaching for almost seven or eight months after I got saved. So, I said, "Okay, well if I'm going to do this, I need to go to Bible college." So I found a Bible college, the one closest to my house. It just happened to be in Lenox, Massachusetts. I didn't know about their theology. What's theology? I really didn't. I couldn't have told you what a Calvinist was, a dispensationalist, or an Arminian.

So I went to this Bible college and I learned the Bible. I got a worldwide vision and a mission. From the time I heard that God had asked me to be a preacher and the time I actually started preaching was 12 years later. There were 12 years of preparation, 12 years of education, and 12 years of falling flat on my face before God began elevating me in that role that He had purposed for me. Again, when we lost our daughter three and a half years ago, this purpose was brought into question again.

I questioned myself. "God, I don't know how I can continue doing this. I just don't see me being able to continue doing this." Of all the times in the last three and a half years that God has spoken to me clearly, it was about this. He didn't answer my questions that I had and still have, but He said, "Tim, I don't want you to quit. I want you to continue doing what you're doing." He was very clear about that. That's the only thing He spoke to me really about was about my purpose for my life. He hasn't explained all the other things.

So, background of the book. The Jewish people were taken into captivity for 70 years, the Babylonian captivity. In about 530 BC, the Babylonian Empire was broken by the Persian Empire. Upon assuming supremacy, the King of Persia encouraged the Jews that were in Babylon to return to their own country and to the city of Jerusalem if they so wanted and start rebuilding the city. Immediately, about 50,000 of them did return, and they set about the immense task of rebuilding the temple.

Remember, at this point, it's been about 70 years in ruins. So they got there and they saw how big it was. Before they could do anything else to restore their country, they had to restore worship. They had to make sure the temple was up and running. It didn't really go well at first. The people got there and they had to get settled in, then they got settled down. Instead of having 20,000 people there working, you were down to 15,000, 10, 5, and then maybe 10 period.

The rebuilding of the temple ground to a halt. All the neighboring countries were barking at them, threatening them, and trying to squeeze them out. They didn't want the Jews to all descend back on Jerusalem and create that nation again. For 70 years, there was apathy in the land. Nobody was rustling the water. They could pretty much have the lay of the land and do whatever they wanted. The last thing they wanted were these bunch of Jewish people coming back in here, setting up their temple, and ruining my quiet sleep at night.

They did everything they could do to abandon them. About 16 years after they started, they stopped. The foundation of the temple lay there for 16 plus years. Then God raised up two men, Haggai and Zechariah. They came by and started preaching. "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord." Zechariah 4:6. That's referring to rebuilding the temple. This temple is going to be rebuilt, but not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. Shouting, "Grace, grace to the mountain."

So the work got fired up again, and this time it was completed about 20 years after the first group returned from captivity. Now 60 more years pass. A further section of the Jewish people returned to Jerusalem, and this was under the leadership of Ezra. That was about 458 BC. The Persian king, however, who sent them back had no power to send them reinforcements. The result was that for more than 90 years after the first Jews returned from Babylon, the walls of Jerusalem remained desolate and the people lived in affliction and shame.

Without walls, a city was pretty much useless. Walls were the security of the city; it was the prosperity of the city. A city, a nation, a country could never really ever get off the ground if they did not rebuild the walls, even with the temple rebuilt. Fourteen years after Ezra's return, about 100 years since the captivity, 170 years later or so, God spoke to Nehemiah, prepared him for the task, and called him to serve the Lord in rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. Again, he was a cupbearer, a butler in Persia.

Let me read the first chapter to you here in this New Living Translation. "These are the memoirs of Nehemiah, son of Hacaliah. In late autumn, in the month of November, in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes' reign, I was at the fortress of Susa. Hanani, one of my brothers, came to visit me with some other men who had just arrived from Judah. I asked them about the Jews who had returned there from captivity and about how things were going in Jerusalem. They said to me, 'Things are not going well for those who returned to the province of Judah. They are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem has been torn down and the gates have been destroyed by fire.' When I heard this, I sat down and wept. In fact, for days I mourned and I fasted and I prayed to the God of heaven for days."

"Then I said, 'Oh Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps His covenant of unfailing love and mercy with those who love Him and obey His commands, listen to my prayer. Look down and see me praying night and day for your people Israel. I confess that we have sinned against you. Yes, even my own family and I have sinned. We have sinned terribly by not obeying the commands and the decrees and regulations that you gave us through your servant Moses. Please remember what you told your servant Moses. If you are unfaithful to me, I will scatter you amongst the nations. But if you return to me and obey my commands and live by them, then even if you are exiled to the ends of the earth, I will bring you back to the place I have chosen for my name to be honored. The people you rescued by your great power and strong hand are your servants. Oh Lord, please hear my prayer. Listen to the prayers of those who delight in honoring you. Please grant me success today by making the king favorable to me. Put it into his heart to be kind to me.' In those days, I was the king's cupbearer."

It's amazing passion you can see here in this butler. He would taste the king's food to make sure it wasn't poisoned, so that was his role. First thing we see is a burden. This is one of the first things you'll notice to discover your purpose; you'll have a burden.