Trust & Obey | Nehemiah 1-2 | April 26, 2026 | Aaron T. Colyer

In this message from Nehemiah 1-2, we see how Nehemiah trusts and obeys God through promises remembered, prayer in action, preparation for risk, and provision given. As Nehemiah responds to broken walls and a desperate need with faith-filled courage, the sermon points us to Christ, who risked and gave far more to rescue His people and call us to trust and obey.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good morning. Are you guys ready to jump into the book of Nehemiah? Alright, there were that was like that that was a different response than I was expecting. Like some people were really, really ready, and others are like, what? I don't even know how to say Nehemiah. Like, where is Nehemiah? It's it's in the Old Testament. If you have your Bible, open it up. Uh, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job. So it's just to the left of the Psalms. We're gonna find it together. And I don't often do this because I I love dad jokes, and not everyone loves dad jokes. And then I try to tell them, and some people think they're funny, and you thank you. I see you, bro. I see you. Some people think they're funny, uh, other people don't, and then my job as a preacher is not to be funny, my job is to deliver the word in a way that's proclaimed and passionately when the Lord uses it, and the Holy Spirit's in the room, produces a stirring and an obedience to say, I want my life to be different. That's not my job to be funny, but I'm gonna try. You ready? How do I know that Nehemiah was the shortest man in the Bible? I know, I know how, but I wonder if you know how. Because it's in his name, he's Nehemiah. I hope you appreciated that one. So now that we're all there, Nehemiah. Nehemiah goes together, Ezra and Nehemiah. A lot of scholars think it was part of the same scroll. This history of Israel. They uh had been in exile. The Babylonians uh destroyed the land, they were outside of the land, outside of the presence of God. And Nehemiah is the story of how God used a man to be bold and courageous and go back to his homeland and build walls to fortify the temple, to make sure the temple wouldn't be destroyed again. Interestingly enough, it was destroyed again. But we learn things from the book of Nehemiah. We learn how he puts his faith in the Lord, he trusts the promises of God. And by the way, I didn't ask Jake, our minister of music, he's not in the room, but I was so grateful. I've been in Nehemiah all week. And then we come and we sing standing on the promises of God, and then we sing promises, God, your faithfulness, you're always faithful, you always answer your promise. And when we see in chapter one here, Nehemiah truly is resting on God's promises. If God said it, he's gonna do it, and even though it feels like we are in a vulnerable position because my people are not fortified and there's no wall around the temple, I'm still gonna trust the Lord. Maybe you like old hymns. Maybe you don't know any old hymns. I didn't grow up on hymns, so I don't know a lot of the standards that other people know. But if you do, I want you to finish this statement. Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey. Wow, guys, good job. This is Nehemiah. What we see in the scripture here is he is trusting and he's putting that trust to action by obedience. I want to read it in parts. We're gonna try to cover two chapters this morning. So open your Bible and follow along with me. I want to read chapter one. See if you can sense the trust in Nehemiah. The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hekaliah. Now it happened in the month of Chislev in the twentieth year, as I was in Susa, the citadel, that Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah, and I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem, and they said to me, The remnant there in the province who had survived the exiles and the great trouble and shame, the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire. Try to feel this next verse. 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. And I said, Oh Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commands. Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer of your servant, that I now pray before you, day and night, for the people of Israel, your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you, even I and my father's house have sinned. We've acted very corruptly against you, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses. Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples. But if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there. There your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. O Lord, let not your ear excuse me, let your ear, O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayers of your servant, 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. Now I was a cupbearer to the king. If you know the story, Nehemiah is fixing to make a bold move in front of King Artaxerces. Chapter one is so helpful to set the scene. If you're taking notes, you can write this down. There are four Ps that describe how Nehemiah trusts and obeys. The first is this promises remembered. Promises remembered, and right into this book of the Bible, it sets the scene very quickly. His relative comes and says, Man, it's bad. The walls are broken down, the gates are broken down. I know people are coming in waves back to Jerusalem, but it's a vulnerable position. I don't think it's gonna be good for the people that are coming back unless we fortify this city. And his response is weeping. Now, I thought this may help to hear one author's description of the context and setting the scene. They write describing as if we were watching a movie, right? And you gotta set the scene, you gotta know the context. Listen to what they say here. If you can try to imagine Nehemiah as an action movie, here's how it might open. A dark, brooding shot pans the destroyed walls surrounding Jerusalem. The stones have tumbled down, the gates are just piles of firewood, still smoking. The inhabitants, a small and hardy collection of returned exiles, are weeping and grieving. Quick cut to Susa, the location of King Artaxerse's citadel. Kislev, the month, is flashed on the bottom of the screen. Hanani, whom Nehemiah refers to as a brother, rides up with several others on tired and weary mounts, gasping for breath, swallowing much needed water. Hanani reports to Nehemiah this fresh disaster. It's not the destruction of the walls of Jerusalem that took place by King Nebuchadnezzar in 587 BC, when the Jews were first taken into exile. That's old news. That had happened 70 years before, as the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah had foretold. The southern kingdom of Judah had fallen to pagan invaders, just as the northern kingdom of Israel had much earlier. Nebuchadnezzar, at the head of the Babylonian army, had invaded and taken Jerusalem and destroyed the temple, broken the walls, and taken people into captivity. But through years of all the exile, God's people held on to the prophet's promises that there would eventually be a restoration. Look at Isaiah 44. God gives word specifically about King Cyrus and about the temple. And in time, against all probability, pagan kings had begun to allow the captive exiles to return to their homeland. God was fulfilling his word. You can look at Ezra chapter 1, verse 1. And you can look at how King Cyrus, just on a whim, he has no fear of God, but on a whim says, I guess God's people should go back to Jerusalem. You can read about Zerubbabel, how he takes a wave of exiles back to Jerusalem. Ezra, who builds the temple, and now Nehemiah, standing on the promises of God, shows how he trusts that the Lord will do it, even though it seems to be against all odds. We read an account of this promise made in 2 Chronicles chapter 36. I want to read it for you. In the first year of King Cyrus, the king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing. Thus says Cyrus, the king of Persia, the Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord God be with him, let him go up. That's just God working behind the scenes. God keeping his promises, and Nehemiah is remembering these things. It might seem strange to you that he gets this news and then he weeps for days. He fasts and he prays and he's praying repentance. That's another great thing we learn out of the book of Nehemiah. We'll see it more later in later chapters. Why is he weeping? What is the big deal? I think not just remembering promises of a restored temple or a restored homeland, I think the promises of Messiah start to ring out. When you consider all the things that Old Testament Israel had been clinging to, there's going to be a redeemer. There's going to be one in the line of David. There's going to be one that's going to come and rescue. There will be no more need for sacrifice. There's a Savior that's coming, and I think Nehemiah is holding on to some of these promises as well. He doesn't just know about a land, he knows about a Messiah who's coming. I want to read 2 Samuel chapter 7 to you. It says, This prophecy of a Messiah, I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and I will plant them so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house when your days are fulfilled, and you lie down with your fathers. I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. That's not the King David's throne. King David doesn't have a forever kingdom. Verse 14 I will be to him a father, and he will be to me a son. Verse 16. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever. I think Nehemiah's holding out those promises. There's a forever king that's on the way. And if there's a forever king that's on the way, how is it going to happen? If we keep getting destroyed, if the temple keeps getting destroyed, and the people keep getting scattered. God's Old Testament people were waiting for a forever king from the throne of David, from his line. Here's an application for us, by the way. I know it can be difficult sometimes to step into Old Testament books. But if we know our word, if we really get into the scripture and know our word and know about the trust and the faith of these Old Testament characters, it should stir up in us an appreciation for God's faithfulness. It should stir up in us how do we be faithful in our lives after Jesus has come and after we have victory in Jesus and after the cross and after the resurrection. My question is, do you know God's word? Do you know his promises? Do you know how to stand on his promises? We already covered it in the book of Luke. Jesus raised from the grave. He's talking to the followers on the road to Emmaus, and he opens their eyes to know that all of the scriptures are pointing forward to him. Then he meets with his disciples and he opens their mind to point that all of the scriptures were pointing forward to him. Do you know those Old Testament promises? And how is that stirring you up? How do you remember the promises that God has made so that you can understand he's also answered them? That every promise finds its yes in Jesus. Amen. So we gotta know promises remember. Now we learn a bit from his prayer. That second P is prayer in action. Prayer in action. And think again, why is why is Nehemiah weeping here? Without a land, you don't have a kingdom. Without a kingdom, you don't have a king. You don't have the line of David. And without the line of David, you don't have Messiah. Something must be done. Something must be done. And we see his zeal. We see a passion that Nehemiah has for the king that he's expecting and the kingdom that God is building. So what happens, Nehemiah springs into action. I love this because later in the book, you're gonna you're gonna hear about how people are building the wall with a sword in one hand and a tool in the other. Man, that's action, right? This is exciting. God's doing something. And I don't want us to assume that what he does first by springing into action is not action. Here's what I'm trying to say. When you pray, that's taking action. When you seek the face of God, that's taking action. When you ask the Lord to incline his ear to you, and so often what's actually happening is my heart's being inclined more to the purposes of what he wants in my life. But that's action. And I want us to see that Nehemiah springs into action. What can we learn from his prayer? Three things briefly. First, Nehemiah prays scripture. Man, it is so important as we grow in our walk with the Lord and we're talking to God and we have constant conversation with the Lord, that we start to pray scripture. We're reciting the promises back to him. We're praying for others and we're interceding for our friends, our family, those that have asked for prayer, that we pray scripture. You know who does this really good? Pastor Mike Gibbons. He's always praying scripture. When we pray on Tuesdays, and he and I pray together, when we pray in our pastor meetings, he's always praying scripture. That's what Nehemiah does right here. Listen to Deuteronomy chapter 4. When you're in tribulation and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice. For the Lord your God is merciful. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them. Nehemiah starts and says, God, you are merciful, you are awesome, you always keep your covenants. How does he know that? Because he read it in the scrolls. He knows that God keeps his covenants. When we pray, we should pray scripture back to the Lord. Number two, Nehemiah starts with praise. Did you catch that? He doesn't start by saying, Oh God, what do you what are we gonna do? How are we gonna make it? I need you to step into action. He starts by saying, God, you're awesome. Your deeds are awesome, you've done great things, you're the God of heaven, you keep all your promises. If you don't know this, write down Axe A C T S, the Axe Prayer Acronym. I was sharing the gospel one time on Texas State, and this guy said, How do I pray? And I said, Just try this. Axe. A is for adoration, C is for confession, T is for thanksgiving, S is for supplication. Many of you might already know that. The Axe prayer model, there's another one that's very similar that just says pray. Another acronym, pray. P is for praise, R is for repent. A is for you're gonna have to look it up. You're gonna have to look up. It's not adoration. That's the only word on my mind. But the why is the one I want to catch, and this is why I like this one. Why is for yield. And so it's not just that we're asking God to do a bunch of things, that we're yielding our lives. Say, God, I want you to move, but I'm yielded to you. Somebody look that up and come tell me. Pray. Praise, repentance, ask, thank you. Y'all already looked it up. Ask, thank you, and yield. That's what Nehemiah is doing. He starts with praise here. After adoring God for his infinite awesome and majesty, his glory, he's high and lifted up. Then he confesses his own smallness. But Lord, if you would just remember me, you're awesome, you're high and mighty, and that reminds me that I'm just small in this plan. He starts with praise. And then lastly, Nehemiah's prayer is persistent. And I would not have known this if I didn't slow down and study this text so I could preach it. But I encourage you as you read the Bible, slow down. Ask good questions of the scripture. So there's something about timing here that's very important. Look at verse 1. Now it happened in the month of Chislev. I'm not saying that correctly, but that's how I'm going to say it this morning. Chislev. Scholars would tell you this. That's probably around November, December in the Jewish calendar. And then in chapter 2, immediately we know of another month in the Jewish calendar, in the month of Nisan. So that is about March or April. What does that mean? It means that this prayer, this morning, and this fasting and prayer and this repentance did not stop. He said he prayed day and night for four months. He kept praying. He kept praying. He kept praying. He was persistent in prayer. And then four months later, you have King Artaxerces. And he has the opportunity to step up and be bold and ask, hey, can I go back? I wonder if you've prayed for something day and night for four months in a row. I don't think many Christians can say that. I think you can say, I've prayed for years. I've prayed for years on things before, but I've not prayed day and night for four months. This prayer is persistent. And my my question is, how often do we pray and pray and pray and then just give up? How often do we ask the Lord to change us, change our hearts, grow us, have the Holy Spirit conforming us more to the image of Jesus, and then we just kind of get tired and we don't persist in prayer. A challenge that is for my life and my Christian walk is to look at Nehemiah and see that he is persistent in his prayer. How can we be more persistent? Number three here on our peas, we step into chapter two and we see preparation made. This is how God is working behind the scenes through another pagan king. I want to read chapter 2, verse 1 through 8. In the month of Nisan, in the 20th year of King Artaxerces, when wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not 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 I was very much afraid. I said to the king, Let the king live forever. That almost seems like a nervous response. Like, I'm about to just I'm about to say something, and I don't king, yes, you're a good king. But I'm gonna say something that's hard. Then 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 in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire. Then 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 favour 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 a letter to Asiph, 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, for the house that I shall occupy. And the king granted me what I asked for. And the good hand of my God was upon me. If you write in your Bible, underline that phrase, hand of my God. The good hand of my God. Because it repeats again later in chapter 2. And I'm going to give you that reference as soon as I see it in my Bible. It repeats again in verse 18. The good hand of God. It'd be easy to say, man, this is so cool that a pagan king is going to help build the city and build the walls and fortify the city of Jerusalem. But let's not assume that it's just the king. There's someone behind the king that's acting. There's someone that's sovereign over all things that happen in our lives. This is the good hand of God. The preparation is being made. Now go back to this time that it says Nehemiah was afraid, and he just blurts out, let the king live on forever. I just I gotta make a request to you. He says, What is it? I want to go back. I want to go back and rebuild the city. Nehemiah had a seize the moment opportunity to honor God. Nehemiah had had an opportunity to just take a leap of faith. I don't know if anyone's ever been cliff jumping, but I got to go a couple years ago. I've got a picture here. It's a picture of a waterfall. And then if you look at the very top, there's a small little speck of a man. I'm a six foot two man, but in this picture, that's a really small speck of a man because I was probably about 60 feet up when I jumped. Now, if you've been cliff jumping, maybe you've done 10 feet or 25 feet, but this is likely the tallest jump I've ever made. And I gotta be honest with you, I was afraid. My heart was pounding. I almost talked myself out of it several times. But at some moment, I had to decide, I'm going for that. I'm going for it. I'm gonna do it. I'm stepping off the edge, I'm jumping in the water. That moment where you just decide, okay, I I don't I don't know how this is gonna work out, but I I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna jump. I'm gonna go. That's what Nehemiah is working with right here. He has this kind of seize the moment. I'm going to honor God. What is he putting at risk? Well, he is the cupbearer of the king. If the king's ticked off at him, he no longer has a job. But I think it could have been worse. Similar to what happens with Esther when she says, Well, if the king kills me, that's okay. I'm still gonna live for the Lord. I wonder if Nehemiah had that thought running through his head. I think I think I could die by stepping up and saying this. Nevertheless, he's more passionate about the Lord, he's more passionate about giving glory to God, and so he just takes the moment to jump and jumps right off of that cliff. If you're making applications in your own life, what are the seas of the moment opportunities for you? I know it might be risky, but if you feel like God is calling you to make a move, not for you, not for your namesake, not for your glory, but for his name. That's that's bold and risky, and you say, I don't know if I'm gonna put myself out there, Lord. Are you sure? I want to be really sure about this before I jump off this cliff. What opportunities is God giving you to trust and obey? Maybe it's making an ethical decision at your job, and you're just tired of being asked to put your character on the line and cut corners and do things that are unethical. And you gotta decide, I'm just tired of this. I don't think it honors the Lord, and I know it's risky, and I know I may lose my job, but I'm gonna take a bold stand. I won't share all the details. Right when I first got here, there's a church member that sent me some notes and said, I want to make the right call, I want to honor the Lord, and I could lose my job. And we walked through it, we prayed through it, and this individual did a wonderful job taking a stand, and she kept she kept her job, and she represented Jesus much better because she took a stand. Maybe it's refusing to participate in gossip. We say, I'm not gonna do that, I'm not gonna talk bad about that person behind their back. This happens at work, and a coworker comes and says, Can you believe and fill in the blank and say, you know what? That's not who I am. And I know that it's awkward for me to cut you off and stop you. I'm not holier than you. I want to be humble. I've got things that I'm working on in my own life, but that's not that's not who I want to be. I want to honor the Lord with my life. And I get that that is really awkward to take a stand and say, What are we doing? Why are we gossiping about that person behind their back? Let's not do that. It's hard. It's hard to jump off the cliff and say, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. No, I'm gonna honor God. But Nehemiah did it. These are specific applications. I'm sure there's more. If you are a young man playing sports in a locker room, so often that locker room talk is dishonoring to God. Talking about young women like they are pieces of property, and you say, I'm gonna take a stand. I'm not doing that. I'm gonna stand up, I'm gonna, I'm gonna act as if that young lady that my friend is talking about was my sister, and I stand and say, We don't talk about girls like that. It could be as easy as walking across your street and asking your neighbor if they know about Jesus. Taking the bold jump off the cliff moment to say, I'm just gonna do it. I've prayed about it, I've talked about it, I've told my friends about it, I've asked for accountability and I've never done it, but I'm gonna do it. I'm jumping off this cliff and I'm gonna speak up about Jesus. Do you know how much Jesus loves you? Do you have any spiritual beliefs? I wonder if you've had a conversation with someone about Jesus recently. I would like to have that conversation with you. That is a jump off the cliff moment. And so for you, maybe one of those things caught your attention, maybe I didn't even mention it, but the Holy Spirit right now is giving you very clear, not just opinions or thoughts, but things you know to be true in Scripture to say, this needs to be done in my life, and I'm tired of riding the fence, I'm ready to jump off the cliff. God made a preparation. The hand of God was behind it, but Nehemiah seized the moment. How are you gonna seize the moment? And then lastly, as we continue on reading in chapter two, we see the provision given. Provision given. Every great story has great characters, and I'm making a really big deal about Nehemiah. I said we could have made a big deal about King Artiserse, we could have made a big deal about King Cyrus, but at the end of the day, God is the main character of this book. God is accomplishing his will and his way. I said, chapter 2, verse 8, the hand of God. Chapter 2, verse 18. That phrase, the hand of God. We need to realize that he's the one moving behind the scenes. He's the one that's making these great provisions. Now, he's using a king, King Artaxerces. Why? Because God is the great provider. And Nehemiah is asking for specific things. I want to make safe passage all the way to Judah. I want to get there. So send a letter with me. King Artaxerces, he does it. Yeah, done, right? Letters of approval. Done. Yes. I'm gonna need some timber. We're gonna need some wood. Done. Provision made. It's oftentimes easy to forget. But leaders cannot lead unless there's a group of people willing to follow. If it weren't for the people that God had already provided that were ready to follow Nehemiah, nothing would have gotten done. Nothing would have been accomplished for the Lord or for his glory. It's not just timber and safe passage and letters of approval that Nehemiah is provided for. God provides a people. Nehemiah can't do it without the Lord, and he also can't do it without people that are willing to follow his leadership. So here's the deal. If God has given you mentors, leaders, Bible study leaders, disciple makers, pastors, old pastors in your life, and you realize that you are who you are today because of those leaders in your life, would you spend some time thanking them? Shoot him a note, shoot him a text. Just thank the Lord. Recognize that God is the main character of your story, and He's been working behind the scenes, but He's used people. And that's what we see right here with these characters. I made a really big deal that Nehemiah took a risk. And we can learn from him. We can learn things about prayer, we can learn about standing on promises, knowing the word of God, and then trusting the word of God. We learn some things about risk. But as you think about God's big story, and you think about someone that made the most risk, I hope that your mind starts to wander down towards Jesus. And what happened when from all eternity he knew that he was plan A for redemption and plan A for forgiveness of sin. But he still had to walk through it. He still had to come down in the flesh, incarnate, and be among the people, fully God, yet fully man. He stepped down from heaven. Jesus was zealous to glorify his father. He was zealous for the kingdom. And then, of course, he gave his life to spill his blood to pay for sin. So that anyone who would come after him and turn from their sin and trust in him would experience forgiveness and salvation. That takes a lot of boldness, courage, risk. I wonder if you've never considered what Christ has done for you. If today might be a day that you would say, Jesus, I do believe that you've done those things, and I want to yield my life to you. There's all kinds of ways that we can be different because of this passage. If you've never trusted Jesus, that would be a wonderful response. How else is God calling you to respond? We focus on an Old Testament book like this. How is God calling you to be different with your life? Let's pray and then seriously take a moment to ask God, I want to be different. Show me the way. Pray with me. Lord, thank you for this moment in Nehemiah and help us, God. Help us to know your scriptures and to stand on them. Help us to think about history, how you've acted in history, how you're continuing to show your sovereignty even now when we don't understand, and there's question marks in our life, there's question marks and things that are going on around our world. But Lord, we trust you. We want to trust and obey. Say, God, I put this back in your hands. I trust you. And know that there are things that need to be different in our lives if we walk out of this place. So do business. Have your way in this time. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.