3:28 Good evening. Welcome to Maranatha Bible Church. As we begin our service together, I'd love to just turn our attention to a famous verse, well known verse, Philippians four eight. Philippians four eight. It is here where Paul tells the believer, he tells us, finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
4:19 You know, your mind's always going to be running. You can't shut it off. It's always going to be thinking of something. Well, Paul tells us here that we are to think on these things. This glorious list is what we should fill our thoughts with.
4:40 And one of these exhortations has always stood out to me, that is whatever is lovely. That one's honestly a little bit funny to me. It makes me chuckle a little, because it's like, really Paul? Lovely? Like, what does that mean, to think on that which is lovely?
4:59 Am I supposed to think about butterflies and flower beds? But what I think what he's getting at here is we're to think on that which is pleasing, that which is pleasant, that which is gonna produce in us a lovely disposition. It's gonna make us warm, it's gonna make us loving, gentle, kind, godly. And whenever we gather, often rather, I'm just reminded of what's more lovely than this, that we get to lift our voices together and praise our king. We get to hear about the light of the world and his love for us.
5:43 We get to be stirred up to love one another. Ultimately, whenever we come together, we're putting Philippians four:eight into best practice, because we're gonna fill our minds with that which is true and righteous altogether, that which is pure and will enlighten our eyes, that which is the excellence. His word excels all the riches of the Earth. We're going to open God's royal law tonight, and we're going to behold Him who is supremely lovely, Him who is able to transform our minds. So let's just quiet our hearts now.
6:19 Turn your hearts towards the Lord. And father, we just thank you for this precious time. You are he who is supremely lovely. We thank you, Lord, that we can gather freely and hear from your word. Your word that is able to pull down strongholds.
6:41 Your word that is able to renew our minds. Your word that's able to transform us, God. And we pray that you would do that in us tonight. Do a mighty work in us, in this place, oh God. Come, dwell with us, Lord, and help us offer a sweet fragrance to you now.
6:59 Help us, Lord, worship you in spirit and are... And in truth, God. Oh, may we just lift our voices in unity, God, to you, our Lord and our Savior. In Jesus name, amen. Please stand, and let's sing to our lord.
19:48 Heavenly father, thank you for this Friday night where we get to come to your house and to have the joy to worship you and to be with your people, to draw close to you, Lord. And as your word says, Lord, as we draw close to you, we ask that you would draw close to us, Lord. We want to, fellowship with you, communion with you today, Lord. And as we hear your word, may we hear your voice clearly speak to our minds, to our hearts, to our very being. We want to be changed by your truths and by your word tonight.
20:20 So we ask that you would speak through the power of the Holy Spirit. Speak through your servant, Lord, and give him words to preach and teach tonight. And may you be glorified in all of it that we might leave here, with greater joy, greater strength, greater love that you give from above. And we thank you for this night. In Jesus' name, amen.
20:48 Well, take a moment, find somebody across the sanctuary and greet them in Jesus' name to this Friday night Bible study. Welcome to Friday night Bible study. I can't tell you how often I give thanks to God that he has allowed us as a church to have more than just a Sunday morning gathering. To know that we can look forward to something at the end of the week, to be able to come to a place like this and open his word and mind the depths of it. I trust that you're here because you recognize that this meeting is an immense gift that the Lord has given us.
21:43 Worship here, the ushers will help us in our giving. If it's your custom to give on a Friday night, you know how this goes. But if it's on your heart to out of a place of joy, just make an offering to him, you can do that at this moment. There are different ways that you can contribute to the ministry here at MBC. And, we wanna let you know that we are so thankful for your partnership in this way and that we take every contribution so seriously, every donation because we know that we're held accountable to the Lord for every penny, and we pray and we trust that everything will be used to the advancement of his gospel.
22:16 And he has been doing that these last five years. I can't believe it. We're coming up to five years as a church in just a few weeks here, which brings me to a few announcements, that, pertain to the month of November. On November 14, we have two main events. In the morning at 9AM, we have our love life gathering with other churches who are partnering with this wonderful organization that seeks to bring light and truth to those who are deceived concerning life in the womb.
22:47 And so we will be giving more information leading up to that week, but just to set that date apart in your calendars, this is the last event that Love Life puts on in the year, at least here in Chicago and we'll be partnering on a march with different churches singing, praying and making our presence known in a very dark city at one of the, if not the largest abortion clinic in Chicago. And Love Life has seen many, woman turn around from making that atrocious decision, and more than that they've seen, these women, discipled, saved, and growing in the Lord. So it's a great effort, on their part that we'd love to work with and partner with and pray for. Later on in that day, it's a it's a packed day. We have our anniversary celebration here at the church and that'll be at 4PM And registration isn't open for that just yet, but just again to mark it in your calendars.
23:40 This is our five year birthday. And so you don't wanna miss it because not only is it our fifth anniversary but it's going to be held here in our brand new building. So we have a lot to reflect on, a lot to give thanks to God for bringing us to this place. We're still fresh here and so people that I know, people that know about NBC from afar, have been asking about the story of how we got here and I've had the chance the last few days to just meet with different people and talk over the phone. And every single time I share how God brought us here, I'm so moved and so are the people who are listening.
24:16 And I just never wanna lose that sense of awe. And I pray that we we as a church never will as we always meet in this place remembering our roots. So that is taking place on November 14. Later on in that month, the twenty ninth, we have our first baptism service in the sanctuary as well. And, we have things planned for that.
24:33 We are so excited to to see people make that commitment. We already have a handful of people who are saying yes to obeying the Lord in this ordinance. And so if you are one of those people, remember on the November 8, you'll be meeting with one of the pastors to go over some things in the word of God to answer your questions and to just give you a general blueprint of how that day is going to go and what it is exactly that you are committing to. So please, it is an obligation, it is mandatory for you to be there for that day. If you can't for whatever reason, please approach one of the elders and we would love to help you, with your schedule to, have a chance to sit with you and go over the same material that we will be on that, very day.
25:12 And so that is all I have for you at this time, and I wanna use the rest of this time for why we're really here, and that is to get into the word of God. So please, if you can in your Bibles, meet me in the book of Nehemiah as we come to a very fascinating chapter in this account, chapter nine of the book of Nehemiah. And I will wait for you to turn there, perhaps you're already there, but I would love for us to pray once more before we look at these truths more carefully. Oh father, we hold this book in our hands and we are so incredibly aware that this is your word. And for whatever reason, if we've lost touch with the reality of the supernatural authorship of this book, use this bible study to show us the depth of your wisdom, the strength of your love, the wonders of your promises, the wisdom of your warnings draw us closer to thee, oh God, through these verses that we will examine together as a church.
26:23 We pray that you would help with the delivery of this study that it would be done in power. It'd be done with your love. It'd be done in a way that would win a greater level of our affection for your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We gladly, as we just sang, admit our weakness, our frailty, our forgetfulness, and we cling to the truth that you are a God rich in mercy. We do not come here in arrogance, oh Lord.
26:55 We do not come here seeking knowledge alone, but Lord, we we long to grow in our relationship with you. Bring us there tonight together And we ask these things in that wonderful name, the name of Jesus Christ, amen and amen. Nehemiah chapter nine. What you and I have before us is considered the longest recorded prayer in the entire Bible. So I'm gonna start right away with asking you a couple of questions.
27:29 What would come in second place in terms of a prayer if we were to go by word count? Does anybody have an idea? After Nehemiah, what would be the second longest prayer found from Genesis to Revelation? And you can answer if you have an idea. Yes.
27:51 Okay. So if you consider Psalm 118 a prayer, you might have something there, but I'm looking for more of a person who is praying and that being recorded in a narrative. John 17. John 17 is a good guess, but that's third place. What is second place?
28:12 Think left side of your Bibles. Think of moments in Israel's history where the nation was gathered together to seek God. Oh, people are whispering. Somebody said something. Very good, brother.
28:33 First Kings chapter eight, Solomon's prayer of dedication comes in second place. But what we have here again is first. In terms of word count, the longest prayer. Now Now, we have to establish something before we continue here. In the area of prayer, just because of the length or the duration does not necessitate or determine its value or effectiveness.
29:01 It was Charles Spurgeon who said, it is not length that matters but weight. For a single groan before God can have more fullness of prayer than a great oration in length. So no way are we suggesting here at the beginning of our study of this text that this is the most significant prayer in the Bible just because it takes up the most space in scripture. However, there is here a very important truth regarding the work of the Holy Spirit especially within a covenant community. What have we been learning here the last few weeks, especially the last three weeks in our study of this wonderful book?
29:47 Just how central the Word of God is to the gathering of God's people, the worship of God's people, and the fellowship of God's people. Moreover, we also saw how the Word of God is at the very heart of true revival. If the scriptures are not faithfully preached, eagerly desired, and readily obeyed, and what may be called a spiritual awakening, you and I have every right to question its authenticity. The word of God has been our theme these last few Fridays. But we also learned something else here in Nehemiah chapter nine when it comes to revival.
30:30 One of the outcomes of true revival is that it will impact how God's people pray individually and corporately. This is the outflow. This is what comes after the people of God have been sitting under or more accurately standing under the Word of God being read and explained for a full month virtually. They come now before the Lord and they will seek him together. I propose something to you tonight that if you want to see, if you wanna be able to discern if the Holy Spirit is truly at work in a congregation or in a region of churches.
31:14 See if they pray. See whether they are praying. And more than that, how they are praying. For prayer is the chief means by which we cultivate communion with God. It is the primary way that we express our dependence on Him and it is the only channel by which we invite his intervention into our situations.
31:42 So that is a general takeaway from a bird's eye view of this chapter, but there's far more than that. Here's how it applies to each of us. If you're sitting here tonight and you can honestly say that you have a desire to know what it means to truly pray and to to understand how it shapes and strengthens your walk with Christ, you can be encouraged about that desire in itself because it's evidence of the Holy Spirit's work in you. But perhaps you're sitting in this place tonight and you can honestly say that you have little to no desire regarding this aspect of your spiritual faith, about your walk with Christ. Prayer has never been attractive to you.
32:32 Now, we can all agree it's difficult for even the one who has great ambition in the area of prayer. But if if you can say, I can't even remember the last time I enjoyed prayer or I sense my need to come before God desperately, persistently, passionately. My prayer is that what we're gonna look at here in the first few verses would excite and inspire you to draw near to the Lord in this wonderful gift called prayer. Now, before we look at the prayer itself, I mean, you just scan it for a moment here, you can see just how long it is. We're gonna spend tonight looking at the details Nehemiah provides us regarding all the preparation before the prayer is actually vocalized.
33:25 Because looking at the first five verses especially will help us know a little bit more about the nature and the practice of prayer. Sometimes people skip over the introduction of this chapter to just get to the content, the substance of the supplication, but I don't wanna rush because there's gold in the first few verses of this chapter. And so tonight, our focus will be the first handful of verses. Let's begin by reading together here Nehemiah nine verse one. Now, on the twenty fourth day of this month, the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth and with earth on their heads.
34:05 And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. And they stood up in their place and read from the book of the law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day. For another quarter of it, they made confession and worship the Lord their God. On the stairs of the Levites stood Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shabaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, and Kanani. And they cried with a loud voice to the Lord their God.
34:37 Then the Levites Jeshua, Kadmiel, Baniyah, Hashbaniah, Shabaniyah, Shabaniyah, and Pithaiah said, Stand up and bless the Lord your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name which is exalted above all blessing and praise. Few things for us to take note of this evening. The first thing that stands out to me is the timing of this prayer. The Holy Spirit wants us to know when this corporate gathering, this corporate confession took place.
35:14 And there have been a lot of dates in our last few studies, have there not been? We read here in verse one, now on the twenty fourth day of this month, highlight this, what month is Nehemiah speaking of? The one that we have been looking at in chapter eight, the seventh month. So everything in chapter eight and now chapter nine is taking place within the span of thirty days or so. Now, what have we seen regarding the seventh month?
35:42 What have we what have we been hammering the last couple weeks especially? Well, on the seventh month, there are three appointed feasts that God had called the people of Israel to observe. Let's review them, which is on the first day of the seventh month. The feast of trumpets, very good. And on the tenth day, the day of atonement.
36:02 And on the fifteenth day, the Feast of Boots or the Feast of Tabernacles. Now the Feast of Tabernacles was observed from the fifteenth day. Does anybody know when it would end? The twenty second day of the month. Seven days not including the eighth where there was something else observed.
36:28 But technically, we're talking seven days. Why am I bringing all of this up? Because we read here that this exceptional and wonderful corporate cry that we're about to study happened two days after the last feast on the calendar before there would be a long break and the revisiting of the feast in the spring again, the month of Nisan, where you would have the Passover. This is happening beyond an ordinance. This is happening beyond what is commanded.
37:05 This is happening beyond a holy feast. That is significant for many reasons. I want you to picture the scene with me for a moment. Here's Jerusalem, a city with freshly rebuilt walls. The excitement is palpable.
37:27 You can feel it in the air. And they had observed the Feast of Boots in a way that they haven't since the days of Joshua. So there are booths everywhere. You have these little shelters on the rooftops of many of this... The the homes in the hub of the land of Judah, Jerusalem.
37:48 They're there in the courtyards, they're found there at the Square Of The Watergate in the Gate Of Ephraim. They're there in the temple courtyard as well, and they're disassembled. They're packed up. The city is back to its normal state but nobody goes home. They want more.
38:16 They don't wanna go home. They're hungry. It would be like reaching the closing moments of our usual Friday night bible studies, but nobody leaves their seats when the benediction is given. Nobody goes to the lobby. Nobody makes their way to the parking lot.
38:39 Everybody remains where they are because they're not ready to go home yet. That is a mark of revival, is it not? When God really moves in a special way among his people, time is no longer a factor. You don't look at your watch in the service when God is doing something wonderful. You're not concerned about your schedule as much.
39:09 In fact, you will move things in your schedule to do and to experience the holy atmosphere that you've been enjoying that day or that month in this case. So yes, we can make a case about what marks revival but there's a personal application. I want you to consider this for a brief moment. What we see here is a demonstration that prayer must extend beyond our religious gatherings and our special occasions as the church. Again, they they did not organize this time of humble seeking and worship because it was demanded of them, because it was what was expected of them.
39:54 Instead, this is out of pure delight. This is out of pure desire. And I wanna challenge you that if your only engagement with prayers in settings like this, where there are brief pauses of supplication or thanksgiving and it doesn't exist beyond an atmosphere like we have on a weekly basis, Perhaps, that is an indication that you and I do not understand the treasure that prayer really is. These people did. If somebody were to ask you tonight, why do Christians pray?
40:41 What would your answer be? And you don't have to answer it. I wonder how many people would struggle to go beyond this response. Well, we're commanded to. The Bible provides us far more than just exhortation without explanation.
41:00 And when it comes to prayer, the Bible is so gracious to tell us from cover to cover the many prophets of praying. Many incentives, many draws, many rewards that await those who pray. And what we find here in Nehemiah chapter nine is that these people are going to taste the goodness of God in the place of prayer specifically through their confession of sin, and the assurance of forgiveness and the relief that they will unlock because they believe that they are approaching a God who is rich in mercy and willing to cleanse them afresh. But just think about for a moment how much the Bible says not just about the need to pray, but the blessing of prayer, the benefits of prayer, things that we don't even think about. Let me give you one for example.
42:03 Did you know that the Bible shows us that churches who have members that do not prize and prioritize prayer are far more likely to know conflict and strife and war than the church that has a people who take prayer seriously. Let me prove it to you. James told us that. Go to the book of James with me. I want you to see this with your own eyes in James chapter four.
42:41 James chapter four verse one. James four verse one, a very well known text. But there's something that's often missed in James diagnosis of his audience and the problems that they were having in their assemblies. He writes, What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this that your passions are at war within you?
43:17 Pause. He identifies a root cause for the rumblings in their congregations. And it's something that we see throughout scripture. The problem is inside. It's not so much the tempter, it's not so much other people.
43:39 Primarily, it is your passions. And he says, your passions are at war within you. I mean, what a picture. Here's what we have to understand. When we lose the war with our passions within, inevitably, we will go to war with other Christians.
43:58 And I'll explain that further in a moment here. James here goes on to also expose something else, and this is the part that we often overlook. He also wants to show us here how such desires were... Which are not inherently sinful by the way, are often mismanaged by Christians. What does he say there in verse two?
44:20 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. In other words, let me tell you why there's a civil war in your church. One of the primary reasons is because you have not yet learned to trustingly come before God with your wants, with your needs, with your wishes, with your dreams, with your longings.
44:51 So instead, you try to satisfy them through carnal means. And you have now applied fleshly strategy to try to reach satisfaction. And what is the result? Those unchecked desires over time will begin to manifest themselves in conflict, competition, manipulation, slander, gossip, and other relational problems. Because here's what happens, you're so overcome by these things, you you so replay them in your mind that when you see others who have those possessions, others who occupy those positions, others who have those kind of relationships, you begin to see them as a threat.
45:46 Or you begin to think, if I can't have it, you shouldn't have it either. If I'm in misery, you should be miserable also. And if you are not miserable, I'll help you become miserable. And here's what James is saying. Can I tell you why you guys are thinking like that about one another?
46:05 Can I tell you why you guys are essentially murdering each other? Because you have not yet understood that prayer has the power to quiet your heart. It has the ability to reshape your perspectives. It has the grace to even realign your passions, and to ultimately have your desires, your will, your longings in line with God's, you do not have because you do not ask. And so this is just one example of just what kind of blessing comes to those who pray.
47:00 I wanna make this case the better you and I become at communion with God, the sweeter our churches become. Have a place like this filled with people who don't have a prayer life. There's gonna be problems very very quick. Have a place where people and majority have cultivated communion and fellowship with God where they really believe God hears them and he actually is willing to answer them and he cannot only transform your circumstances, but you, when you come to him in prayer, you're gonna know a lot more harmony in that church. That wasn't the case for James' readers.
47:41 It shouldn't be so shocking to us that the people of Judah here are calling out to the Lord Just two days after the Feast of Booths and more than just the Feast of Booths, remember the day of atonement was a unique feast from out of the seven because it was a call for the people to reflect and repent. It was a call to affliction, to humiliation. So we already discussed and confirmed that it's very likely, it's it's more unlikely that they didn't observe this feast. They actually did observe the day of atonement though it's not recorded for us. And so here's what I'm thinking.
48:18 If you already had a feast, if you already observed something that made you come before God in such contrition and confession, why are you doing it again just a couple weeks later? The twenty fourth day, that's not a feast day, but they had a revelation. They understood the magnitude of their sin, the depth of their problems that they recognized as wonderful as the day of atonement was, it is not enough. We have more to come before God with and God honor that. You see, what the timing of this prayer in Nehemiah chapter nine reveals is that prayer to this group, this generation was not an obligation, it was a privilege And they demonstrate that here.
49:04 That is the first thing that we learn here in Nehemiah chapter nine. But now we consider not just the timing of the prayer, the obedience before the prayer. The obedience before the prayer. Now read with me verse two of Nehemiah nine. And the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.
49:32 So keep that in mind here, but let me remind you what James said after he told this group of Christians, you have not because you ask not. He then addresses those who have been asking but not receiving. And he says, you you do ask. I get it. Some of you are, but you don't receive because you're asking from the place of your selfish passions.
49:49 So here's what we have to understand. Based on what James says and what we find in Nehemiah, a Christian who has a basic understanding of prayer will know that asking in itself does not guarantee acceptance. There are conditions to our prayers being received and responded to favorably. In the case of James, they were coming purely out of their own longing and their own impulse and their own wants. Nothing inside of God's glory and God's will.
50:28 Me, me, me, me, me, even at the expense of them not having it, I want it. James is like, God doesn't hear you. Here's what we find with Nehemiah's group. We have to already determine here and we've seen it, hopefully you're convinced that this gathering was planned, it was intentional. Remember back in verse one that they had already come with fasting and in sackcloth and with earth on their heads.
50:51 So they are prepared here to humble themselves before God and speak from the place of brokenness. However, though they are dressed the part, though they are they are ready putting everything in place to display their neediness, they realize something. There is no use of dressing the part, and there is no use of uttering a single word of praise or petition if there are things in our lives that we know God disapproves of and we don't deal with it. And in this case, what do they recognize in their community? Verse two says, the Israelites separated themselves from all foreigners.
51:42 What does that mean? Well, you remember in our study of Ezra, thirteen years prior, there was a reformation. And one of the things that Ezra targets was interfaith marriage. It could be then since that time of religious renewal and and a revisiting of what God had said concerning how we are to be equally yoked, that there were new delinquents that rose up. There are others who perhaps were missed some thirteen years prior or revisited that place of compromise.
52:18 We don't know the details. We're not giving further explanation. But what we do know is that there were some, even in Nehemiah's day, that were in relationships with people on what level we don't know, but clearly in a way that the law prohibited. And they knew this very well, and so they thought to themselves, we need to change this. Never forget that prayer ceases to be effective when we dismiss practical repentance whenever it is required of us.
52:56 Heaven becomes brass when there is an area in our lives that we've tried to justify even though the bible condemns or we desire and seek to enjoy when it breaks God's heart, our prayers fall flat. They don't even escape the ceiling of your bedroom or a wall like or a ceiling like this. And the people in Nehemiah nine fully understood, the Lord is not gonna listen to what we have to say or ask if we haven't first rightly respond to what he has demanded of us. And I'm sure they knew this because they've heard it over and over from their own prophets. This is not a new idea here.
53:47 This isn't a fresh revelation. This is something that their own messengers by the spirit have declared to them. Can I give you one example? The prophet Zechariah is a post exilic prophet. He's one who came on the scene after the people returned from Babylonian captivity and he mentioned something that relates to this.
54:07 Some years before Nehemiah's own arrival to Jerusalem. Go to Zechariah chapter seven with me. I want you to see a couple of verses that are very sobering yet also very helpful. Zechariah chapter seven, minor prophets close to the start of the New Testament. And I want you to see here verse 12 with me in Zechariah chapter seven.
54:37 Zechariah seven verse 12, they made their hearts diamond hard. That's how the ESV renders it, diamond hard. How hard is a diamond? You can make your heart diamond hard, not just hard, not just a stone, diamond hard. Lest they should hear the law and the words that the Lord of hosts has sent by his spirit through the former prophets.
55:02 Therefore great anger came from the Lord of hosts. Verse 13 is what you wanna highlight. As I called and they would not hear so they called and I would not hear, says the Lord of hosts. You know Zechariah's words reinforce for us just how much prayer is a gift and of great value. Because he says the consequence of disobedience is that you forfeit or you miss out on what prayer has to grant.
55:35 In other words, you and I should have such a revelation about prayer that when a threat is given like this or when a consequence is made known like this, it should cause us to crumble. It should cause us to reconsider our ways. What would your response be tonight somehow God forbid you learned that the Lord would no longer hear any prayer that you ever prayed? He would no longer regard your tears. He would no longer lean in and listen to your heavenward whispers.
56:05 What would that do to you? Let me tell you something. What it would do to you reveals a lot about what you believe about prayer. In this group here, we're meant to be shook. And if that thought does concern you in a holy way, read these verses carefully.
56:31 What Zechariah is saying is, God watches and sees our attitude towards what he had revealed from his former prophets. That's what Zechariah says. Right? He's not even necessarily speaking about what he is saying as a prophet, but what the prophets have revealed in the past namely what has been written. In other words, God then and God today looks at you and I and our posture of heart regarding what he had already made known to us in his word.
57:04 And based on that, our prayers being heard will be determined. Proverbs 28 verse nine, If one turns away from hearing the law even his prayer is an abomination. If one turns away from hearing the law even his prayer is an abomination. Abomination is a very strong word. So it should make us wonder, what does it take for somebody's prayer to become abominable to to the Lord?
57:44 And this verse tells us, whenever one turns from hearing the law. Well, that doesn't include me I guess because I love reading my Bible and I love listening to sermons. So I guess I'm in the clear, not so fast. Because this verse is not speaking about you listening to God's word or being familiar with the data. Obeying it, adhering to it, not enjoying it, not accepting that it's God's word.
58:15 What you do with it, what kind of bearing does it have on your life? That is what is considered. That is what the Lord looks for. We would do ourselves great service to our spiritual health and our experience of the things of God. To regularly make honest inventory and in the presence of the Lord ask, Is there anything in my life, oh God, that I am not aware of?
58:46 That I have to obey or change because I so cherish knowing that I have your ear to my cries that I will do anything that it takes for me to get rid of any hindrance so I can secure that sweet fellowship with you. You see why teaching and understanding what prayer is all about is a very sanctifying thing. So here's what this looks here's how this looks practically. If there is somebody that I know according to Matthew 18 that has sinned and I believe he has sinned or she has sinned, and I refuse to honor the charge and take up my responsibility as a member of the body of Jesus Christ to approach that brother or sister. I said, can we have a conversation?
59:39 Because I need to understand what you did, what you said. It's... I think it's sin unless I'm wrong, but let's talk about this. If I'm not willing to make that step... And I know that I'm not making that step.
59:55 I've made all the excuses not to make that step. And the Lord's convicted me about making such a decision. Then I come before and say, Lord use me. I'd love to use you, but you need to obey me in whatever we revealed to you first. If I've been impatient with my spouse, harsh with her with my words, unloving, uncaring, insensitive, And then I come before the Lord and I say, reveal your glory to me.
1:00:37 Reveal your beauty to me. According to first Peter three, if I don't live in an understanding way regarding my spouse who is my helper, Peter says your prayers are hindered. What about a verse like Titus three two? Where Paul told told Titus and the believers, speak evil of no one. And I have a habit of tarnishing people's reputation.
1:01:11 I don't have all the evidence. I just like enjoy sharing things about people that can potentially damage their reputation, but let me just share it anyway because I just... I don't know. I feel like it's my calling to be the bearer of that news. And then I come before Lord and say, Lord sanctify my mouth and use me to witness and preach the gospel.
1:01:29 Well, why don't you stop speaking evil with people and then I can use your mouth? You see? What we find here in Nehemiah chapter nine is that there is obedience prior to prayer. And there is no good in praying and thinking that our prayer life substitutes obedience. It doesn't.
1:01:55 It's the opposite. Obedience is required if our prayers are to be accepted. Now let's come to verse three of Nehemiah nine And notice here what is said, which brings us to a wonderfully encouraging truth and that is the fuel for prayer. We talked about the timing of the prayer. We talked about the obedience before the prayer.
1:02:20 Now look at the fuel for prayer here in verse three. And they stood up in their place and read from the book of the law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day. For another quarter of it, they made confession and worship the Lord their God. This is a long church service. So notice here, we're talking about a minimum of three hours of again hearing the word of God being read and then following that another three ish hours confessing and worshiping.
1:02:55 This is revival. Nobody's concerned about lunch after the service here. Nobody's concerned about who they have to go see, what they have to go do. They just they just want to cling to this holy atmosphere as long as possible. But more than that, I want you to notice that before they even utter a single word, the people here decide to come on under a fresh encounter with the word of God.
1:03:29 Look at the order. And they stood up in their place and read from the book of the law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day. For another quarter of it, they made confession and worship the Lord their God. So they they they wanted to almost bring to mind afresh the things pertaining to who the Lord is, what he asked of them. And this is incredibly encouraging, very instructive especially for us who may struggle to pray.
1:03:54 Here are a couple of reasons why. First, engaging with God's word is designed to electrify our prayer lives. Isn't that what we see here? The testimonies of the Lord, the promises of God. In our case, the character and the work of Jesus Christ.
1:04:20 Even the warnings concerning our flesh, the world, the devil, all of those things are created and designed for us more specifically to draw us to the Lord and to receive his empowering grace is is calling us to be able to worship him. And so they come into contact with God's word again and it does something in terms of their praying. And if you struggle to pray, you have to ask yourself, well, before I speak about my relationship with God in that area, what's my relationship with God in this area? Because it it holds the the great ability to woo you. As you hear God's voice, it it begins to help you vocalize your love for him.
1:05:19 And the more you and I become aware of his revelation and refresh our minds regarding these things, the more we can expect him to encourage consistent fellowship with the one who's revealed everything to us. You know what psalm came to mind when I was thinking about this truth? Well, the psalmist said, at midnight, I rise to praise you. That's psalm one nineteen verse 62. At midnight, I rise to praise you.
1:05:42 Why are you not being able to go to sleep and at midnight you're you're praising God? Because of your righteous rules. What is he saying there? I have so feasted on God's word and digested God's word and meditated on God's word that I can't even sleep. Even though it's midnight, I I just need to take some time and worship Him.
1:06:06 Do you see the relationship between knowing his decrees and knowing his precepts and knowing his truths and how that creates something of vertical adoration and making your relationship with God real, knowledge of scripture is not an end in itself. The truest and greatest theologians also possess the great conviction of the need for supplication and intercession and offering thanksgiving to the Lord. I think about the Apostle Paul. That remarkable mind was accompanied with a deep sense of dependence on God. I mean the amount of times he makes requests for people to pray for him.
1:06:57 The same man who gave us that masterpiece called the book of Romans also said, Pray without ceasing. If you are truly engaging with this book as you should, as God desires, it's gonna make you want to talk to him and respond to him. And that's a gift because this is what this book is meant to do. It brings us to that place. But secondly, absorbing and meditating on God's word also provides language for prayer and direction in our praying.
1:07:42 Language and direction in our praying. Without the scriptures, our prayers will lack great substance. And we see this so clearly in Nehemiah chapter nine. Again, we don't have time to look at the prayer itself. We'll do that next week if God wills.
1:08:02 But if you have never read this, I want you to pay attention that this prayer is essentially a review of Israel's history. So it starts with a brief mention of creation then we go to the call of Abraham and you read on early in the prayer then Exodus is mentioned and then the wilderness journey and even the conquest of the land and then there's even a brief mention of the days of the judges all the way up to the ministry of the prophets up till their captivity. No wonder the prayer is long. But you get the sense that the people of God here who are praying have learned so much under God's word being preached and explained and read in that seventh month that they had so much to pray about. And more than just knowing what to pray about, they've developed this rock solid confidence of whom they were speaking to and how to approach him.
1:09:07 So again there's this inseparable marriage between the word and prayer. It electrifies us. It stimulates us and also provides the words. It provides the references. It makes who we are speaking to so much more clear and even helps us know what we are exactly to pray for.
1:09:30 This is the wisdom of what we see here and when they ask for the word to be read again before they say anything. But we come to the final thought here in these verses. Beginning in verse four to verse five. Let's read it again, shall we? On the stairs of the Levites stood Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani and Hanani.
1:10:00 And they cried with a loud voice to the Lord their God. Then the Levites, Joshua, Kadmiel, Mani, Hashbaniah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah, and Pathiah said, stand up and bless the Lord your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name which is exalted above all blessing and praise. A powerful words. I believe there's a final observation here as we look at the groundwork that is laid before the prayer is actually offered.
1:10:30 And it's in the verses that we just explored. Something struck me about this list of names. And again, there's another progression presented here. Notice very carefully that in verse four, the Levites who are the spiritual leaders in this covenant, the old covenant, the Mosaic covenant, they cried out to the Lord. And then immediately after that, they look at their people, they look at the community and charge them to call upon God.
1:11:05 The Levites first prayed themselves before calling the people to pray. The same Levites who Nehemiah chapter eight helped this group of people understand the law are now modeling for them how to pray. That's special. And there's instruction even in this. When we consider this, we realize that these leaders show us what it really means to care for people's relationship with God.
1:11:45 Do you wanna know if a spiritual leader really is concerned about your walk with Christ? They won't just teach you about prayer, they will first and foremost be prayerful. And they will through their example show you all the glories that come with it. They will be able to inspire you of what a life looks like when it depends on God. They cry out to the Lord and then they look at the people and say, your turn.
1:12:22 And I wanna make a comment here to every pastor, bible study leader, father, mother, anybody who has somebody under your care regarding their spiritual growth or anybody you desire to flourish in their faith. Do not expect anybody to see their need for God and to build a prayer life if you and I have nothing to show for it ourselves. The best way the best way to teach it is to show it. The best way to inspire people and to impact our spouses, our children, our Sunday school class, our friends is to be prayerful. Don't underestimate that.
1:13:13 That doesn't mean that you form your prayers or you speak to God in public settings for the purpose of impressing people. That is not what I'm saying. You know, you have many people who often point to how the disciples were the ones out of all the things that they could have asked the Lord Jesus, the son of God in the flesh to teach them. They said, Lord, teach us to Not preach, not cast out devils, not walk on water. Out of all the things that they explicitly asked the Lord to teach them, they said, Lord, teach us to pray.
1:13:41 Wonderful. It's true. But what is often missed is what prompted them to ask that? What made them say, Lord, teach us to pray? You wanna know?
1:13:53 Luke chapter 11 verse one. It's right there. It's so plain. It's so clear and it's consistent with what we're saying here in this chapter. Here's what it says.
1:14:03 Now Jesus was praying in a certain place and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his disciples. This verse excites me for many reasons. I love how they say as John taught his disciples. We often think of of John as this holy radical voice in the wilderness that preached and brought a nation to its knees. True.
1:14:29 He brought revival to Israel without a single miracle being performed. That's powerful preaching, is it not? But according to this verse, he was a man of prayer. He had his own disciples and he taught them to pray. You read earlier in Luke chapter five where it is said that John's disciples often fasted and offered many prayers.
1:14:50 So this man John the Baptist was a man of prayer. The Baptist was a man of prayer. Jesus often went into solitude when he prayed. We see that throughout the gospel accounts. He would retreat to such a beautiful picture.
1:15:07 He would get away from the busyness of ministry. He would get away from his own students and he would just get before the father and commune with him. But in this occasion, he's in the presence of his closest students. And I'm sure they've heard him pray before, but on on this particular day, one of the disciples, most likely on behalf of the others who might have very much discussed the prayer life of their rabbi, finally had the courage to look at the Lord and say, Lord, teach us to talk to God the way you talk to God. I'm sure they heard the Pharisees pray.
1:15:47 I'm sure they heard the Sadducees pray in the synagogues and in the temple, but there's something different about the way Jesus prayed. It wasn't ritualistic. It wasn't vain repetition. It wasn't lifeless. It wasn't cold orthodoxy.
1:16:01 There was passion. There was sincerity. There was love for others. There was real adoration for the father. And these disciples said, we wanna pray like that.
1:16:24 And the Lord graciously gave them a model, what is often known as the Lord's Prayer. I recently heard the testimony of a man who is speaking at his father and mother's fiftieth wedding anniversary. And what he shared there before close friends and family was, my earliest memory of my dad was a time when we had our regular family devotions. And only being a few years old, the thought crossed my mind, God is real. What made somebody as young as three year old think that way?
1:17:11 What made him come to that conclusion as as such a stage in his life? The way his father talked about God and the way he talked to God. These Levites cried out to the Lord. What did that look like? All of these men of God standing there in perfect shore, but they were they were operating under the revelation that we even as the ministers need God.
1:17:43 And they looked at the people and say, stand up and praise him. No sense hoping your church to be a praying church if you're not a praying elder. No sense in your children being future men and women who love God in that place of prayer if they've never heard mom and dad utter a word in their presence before God? Is it any wonder that one of the first things that Paul told Timothy who was a young pastor of a church in Ephesus, in first Timothy chapter two. First of all, I urge that prayers and supplications and intercessions of thanksgiving be made for all people.
1:18:37 Timothy before you establish anything beyond this point, the top of the list that you need to get things prioritized, get the people in Ephesus praying. And what I also see here in Nehemiah chapter nine is that if you're in a place where prayers too mystical or maybe you're prone to make it so technical and sometimes that that can help. But you and I need to get to a place where there is reverence, yes. There is direction, yes. There is appropriate language, absolutely.
1:19:15 But there is freedom and there's boldness and there's... It's a love relationship. If if you don't know how to get there, you know what I see here too? Get with people who pray. Get with leaders who pray.
1:19:33 Hang around them long enough. Set up meetings where you just pray together for a few minutes. Come to the Wednesday night prayer meeting and sit in the back and just hear people pray. There's no condemnation. There's no competition.
1:19:49 Here are these Israelites hearing the Levites pray and they are able themselves to be able to utter their adoration for God. And let me end it on that point. What's the first thing that said? Because if you didn't notice here, we already started the prayer in verse five. Look at it again with me.
1:20:07 The second part, stand up and bless the Lord your God from everlasting to everlasting. Blessed be your glorious name which is exalted above all blessing and praise. You'll find something very consistent in the Bible that although there isn't a formula, although there isn't a step by step one way only type of praying, there is a pattern in which we should always know how to adore God. Not just ask God, adore God. I'm giving you a little preview of what we're gonna look at next week.
1:20:46 It starts here with adoration. They're in sackcloth. They're in ashes. They're broken. They want relief.
1:20:53 You're gonna see at the end of this prayer, they're in great distress because of their sins. And even before they come to that point, how do the Levites lead them? What a true spiritual leaders do for the people that sit under their leadership? They learn how to adore God. Is there any adoration in your prayer life?
1:21:23 Have you ever known that rapturous delight? Not just unburdening your heart, that's that's a beautiful thing in itself, but to simply sit there even if you just have a couple minutes because there's so many demands on your life to say, Lord, I just wanna tell you I'm very needy, I'm very weak, I'm very tired. But oh, I thank you for this last week's service or I thank you for this conversation with my dear brother in Christ and I just got a fresh glimpse of your glory and I wanna just express to you how wonderful you are. I just wanna tell you how glorious you are. That's fellowship.
1:22:06 That's intimacy with God. That's when you hear these things or you read these things in books perhaps, and people talk about actually enjoying prayer. You're thinking, what do you mean enjoying prayer? You enjoy prayer because you enjoy Him And you express it and you share it. And you also, in the middle of that, say, Lord, show me more.
1:22:34 I want more of your glory. I want more of your beauty. I want you to captivate me afresh. My vision is getting dull. Well, we can speak more about that, but why don't we put into practice?
1:22:56 Why don't we take a few moments here to actually pray? And maybe your prayer tonight is, Lord, teach me to pray. Maybe your prayer tonight is, Lord, I'm just here to adore you. You've won my heart over again and again through your word and here I am spellbound once more. In these first few verses of Nehemiah nine.
1:23:20 I just wanna tell you, oh God, that your word is my food. That it's more amazing to me than any form of entertainment, any great spoil that I can find. Maybe you need to really pray for others. Whatever it is tonight, if I can have the praise team come up, I'm not gonna keep you here for six hours even though we're studying about a service that went that long. I pray that God would bring revival where we never have to look at the clock.
1:24:00 But what a shame it would be to have a Bible study like this and then just pick up and go home right away. I think that's dishonoring actually. And if this is new to you, where you're like, I get fidgety after thirty seconds, Ask God to help you with that. Don't look around. Ask God to help you, and he'll help you.
1:24:25 Ask God to open your eyes to the treasures that await for those who pray. Things like what James talks about. You do not have because you do not ask. And let me also say this, the reason why there is a war in your church because you don't have people who know how to ask. Oh, just how much more of that is in the word of God?
1:24:44 We think prayer just forgives us of our sins. If we ask God in humility, prayer gets us miracles, prayer gets us healing, prayer gets us... It's far deeper than that. It's far deeper than that. Take your time with the little strength that you may have.
1:24:59 Please praise team. Lead us beautifully in meditative music and I'll come up here and we'll close the service in song. But let's... Oh, I I let's not fabricate it. No.
1:25:10 But oh, that God would do something like what we see here in Nehemiah chapter nine in our midst. And just take us to that place even for a few moments. Say, oh God, we have no schedule. We put no demand on you to do something in a certain amount of time. We're here to just love you.
1:25:26 May God do it. If you wanna stand, you can stand. If you wanna kneel, you can kneel. If you wanna stay in your seat, you can stay in your seat as long as we pray from the heart. You know, there's a special burden on my heart this week And I wanna be careful how I say it, but I I wanna share it nonetheless and make it a matter of prayer with you.
1:30:06 You know there's a lot happening in our nation, there's a lot happening in our culture, there's so much hatred, so much anger, so much perversion. It seems like there's an invasion in our own land, but that's not my greatest concern. My greatest concern is, will the church in America show up with power in a time like this? Is she in right standing with God to prepare for what is coming to this nation. I'm not sure if I can say with confidence, yes.
1:30:47 I mean we've seen the scandal after scandal after scandal, and we're not here to look for some kind of, as we heard from brother Christian last week, something that is allowed. But maybe it's because the emails that we get or the conversations that I have in my own circles where there's this destitution and there seems to be this barrenness and there seems to be just this consensus of powerlessness in general. And I'm thinking to myself, this is what I'm thinking last week, just where are the prophetic voices? Where where... What I mean by prophetic voices, I'm not talking about people who are predicting the future.
1:31:27 I'm talking about people who are saying, thus says the Lord. Thus says the Lord. This is how we're... This is how we need to respond. This is...
1:31:36 Let me give you the scriptural basis for why we're seeing what we're seeing here in The United States. And this is how the people have got... Where are those voices? This is what I'm thinking and I'm just being transparent with you today. And and I just find it amazing that providentially we're going through the book of Nehemiah where we're looking at a revival.
1:31:55 And why I'm saying all of this is if you would just join me tonight in these next few moments from the bottom of our hearts to get before the throne of grace and to say, Lord, pour out your spirit. Never mind our government. Never mind our schools. Do it in your church first. Do it from the pulpit.
1:32:15 Do it among members. Just wake your church up, Lord. Wake your church up. Listen. Watch what's happening to Europe.
1:32:25 Watch what is happening to Europe. If we think here in America that it can't happen to us, we're fooling ourselves and pride will be our fault. Pride will be our fault. What's the answer? What the answer has always been throughout history when the church arises, when the church is in touch with a holy God and takes serious the word of God and preaches it in the power of the Holy Spirit and is prayerful, and when houses and families put aside their differences and their disrespect and their issues and they say, God has called us for such a time as this.
1:33:04 And when Christians no longer just come to church to hear a quick message and then go on with their day so they can ease their conscience. I went to church this week but say, we need we need a visitation from God. We need the Holy Spirit to visit. And I know all of us have our own battles and all of us have our own struggles, but it's beyond that. Look outside of yourselves for a moment and see the vast amount of people that are headed to an eternal hell.
1:33:30 Because Satan has his agents and Satan has his evangelists and Satan has so many people online that are deceiving an entire generation. What's the answer? You and I in Jesus' name. Can you stand with me? Let's cry out to the Lord together, please.
1:33:46 I'm not trying to create a pep rally here. I'm doing my best to be as transparent and as as bold as I can be, just engage your heart with me here. Lord, we look to you tonight at this bible study, and even this moment now was was not planned, but Lord we see your word and what it says. And we don't just wanna look at your word and study it from a distance, we wanna see and ask how it applies to us. And Father in heaven, we look out into this world and we see so much darkness and we see so much corruption, and at the same time, Lord, we do not want to ever disrespect your bride.
1:34:33 We are your bride, Lord. We we tremble, God, to speak of these things, but Lord, in humility, we say first of ourselves, give us greater power and give us greater ambition and give us greater discernment, Lord, to see our mission here in the Chicago land area, to see the amazing opportunity before us to be a voice in a world with many voices, Lord. We ask oh God and believe that you didn't just give us a building here, that you gave us a purpose. You gave us a mission and you've given us a facility to host it and to see more people raised up with that same mindset. So, Lord, we just pray oh God from the bottom of our hearts that you would pour out your spirit on your church, that you would first do it here, Lord, and you would do it elsewhere.
1:35:17 We we pray oh God that we would have something of a a fresh revelation of your love, Lord, of your gospel, of your cross, of your forgiveness, of what your Holy Spirit can do in the heart, what he can do in the family, what he can do in our bodies, what he can do in our communities, Lord. Only you can do it, Father. And we know that you hear us, Lord, because your promises are true. And lord, you promise us that if we ask anything according to your will, you hear us. And lord, we know that the salvation of souls is your will and we know that the purity of your church is your will.
1:35:47 And so lord, we ask oh god that you would give us this lord. Lord, you've given us a great testimony in this building, but we're praying that you do something in this building. We're praying that we would see the salvation of sinners, oh, God. We're saying... We're praying that you would bring the awakening to the lukewarm, Lord, those who have been indifferent for years, those who are so caught up in this flesh, in this world, in prosperity, bring an awakening to them, oh, God.
1:36:11 We pray, Lord, that there'd be a shaking so real that it would be shared with other churches, oh, Lord, Churches that preach your word faithfully. Bless those ministries, oh, God. Give those pastors boldness and courage. Give them members who support them, Lord. We're praying for something real in America.
1:36:28 And we know, oh, Lord, because your word shows us that if we do pray, we can pray and believe that it will come, that the answer is on its way. And we ask, Lord, that we would see it in our own lifetime. We're asking that we would see it and we'd be able to testify to the next generation, Lord. Do it, oh God. Do it in our institutions, Lord.
1:36:48 Do it in our institutions, oh God. We pray, Lord, that you would do something spectacular for your namesake. We're praying that you would do something so real. We're not praying for a flash in the pan. We're not praying for what people call revival when it's really emotionalism.
1:37:02 We're praying for something real. We're praying for something lasting. We're praying for something that would draw people to the scriptures again, that would bring people to their knees and repent of sin. We're praying for something, oh God, that is undeniable, something that would have to, demands the attention of the world, and they would have to cover it. They would have to speak about it.
1:37:22 Do that kind of a work in our midst, oh God. And, Lord, we will do our part to never deviate from the preaching of your word. We will not rely on antics. We will not rely on tactics. We will not rely on gimmicks.
1:37:35 We will do what you've asked us to do, and that is declare your word and to live holy and to love one another and to love our enemies and wait on you. We set our sails tonight and we wait for the wind of God to blow. We wait for the wind of God to blow. Lord, do it. Please do it.
1:37:50 And when you do it, maybe something that we all can say this is God. This is the Lord who's bringing in these people. This is the Lord who is awakening these souls. This is the Lord who's empowering our services. This is the Lord who is making us courageous to evangelize.
1:38:03 Do it, Lord. Do it Lord in our hearts we pray. And now as we sing, receive our praise. In Jesus name, amen. Lord, as we read, you are above all praise, all blessing from everlasting to everlasting.
1:47:17 Thank you for speaking to our hearts today, oh god, and we pray that you would continue to move in our midst whenever we gather. But more than that, move in our homes, move in our marriages, move in the hearts of our children who are serving you, children who are wayward. Use your church in this hour, Lord. Use this church. We pray oh God that we would be able to use our lives for the greatest cause, the truest cause, the most glorious cause, exalting the name of Jesus Christ.
1:47:54 And, lord, we know that it is impossible to do that in a way that is effective and fruitful and lasting apart from prayer. So we ask, oh, God, that no matter where we go as a church, you would keep us on our knees. Keep us on our knees, Lord. In good times and in bad, in times of great blessing and in times of great trial, keep us on our knees. We ask these things in Jesus' name.
1:48:20 Amen and amen. Amen and amen. God is good. Lord willing, we'll see you on Sunday and I'm praying that God would visit us in a special way. Have a wonderful weekend.
