Continually Praying to the God of Heaven

Let's move right into the message. And as I mentioned, we are on the second part of an ongoing series. I'm not going to number it because I think this is a subject that within the body of Christ we should not tire of. It's a very important subject because it was a question that was asked of the disciples towards their rabbi, the great rabbi, Jesus Christ, about praying and how to pray. And then Christ came back and said, when you pray. So there was an expectation by Christ that His followers would always be expected to pray.

And as we are going through this series, it's a little bit different in that we're not just simply going to some of those famous prayers in the Bible that we know about. All of the Lord's Prayer, our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, which we've heard many messages on. And that still may be in this series. Please understand. But we're trying to give very real examples of how very real people prayed about their very real challenges to a very, very real God in their time, place and space when it came upon them.

The first message, and if you have not heard that message, I hope that you will listen to it. It is now on video and it's also on audio on the United Church of God sites and on our local site. But the first message was entitled, prayers that move God. Prayers that move God.

And in that message, we focused on the prophet Daniel. We didn't necessarily focus on all the prophecies and what they meant, but we focused at a time in his life when he was understanding the Scriptures that he had read and he needed wisdom and he needed understanding. And that's what he was praying about. And that's what he was praying for. And that was, came to summation in Daniel chapter 9. That particular message last time was predicated upon Isaiah 66. Join me if you would there for a moment just to back up before we move forward.

Because here it is God who is talking about all the things that he, as the Creator, has made, whether it be the heavens, the sun, the earth as his footstool. But he says this will gain his attention where he says, for all of these things, in verse 2, has my hand made, and all of these things exist, says the Eternal, but on this one will I look. And this is not the Milky Way, not the sun, not all the rest of the stars, but this will grab my attention.

On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit and notice who trembles at my word. So we find that really draws God in as an individual that comes before him, recognizing who he is and recognizing what they are apart from him in a spirit of humility. With that said, the springboard of today's message now is going to be anchored on two sets of verses out of the New Testament.

Join me if you would. Let's look over to the New Testament and let's look at the book of 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians and draw some principles out of a couple of verses.

Starting with 1 Thessalonians 5 and we're going to read through 16, 17, and 18. 1. Rejoice always. Two words. Powerful meaning. We take the word joy out of rejoice or rejoice is expanded from joy. That doesn't mean a life where everything is coming our way that necessarily makes us happy. Things that we are looking forward to, where we just have life in the grasp of our hand and things couldn't be better.

It's talking about something far differently. Joy is not predicated upon external matters being just great. Joy is predicated upon the understanding that we have been elected of God, that God has selected and chosen us not because of who we are but because of what He is, and that we have faith and confidence that no matter what He is going to come, that He will never be late, that He is indeed that Good Shepherd in whom we shall not want.

Then notice what it says in verse 17. Pray without ceasing. Pray without ceasing. This is like a vehicle, like one of those pre-assists that they make today. It never stops running. It just keeps going. You never get out of gas or fuel when it comes to communicating with the only one that can really make things happen in our lives. Pray without ceasing. Now notice verse 18. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus.

Three quick things here. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. And in everything, not every other thing, not like going to the soup plantation and or to the sizzler where you have the choice, okay, I'll be thankful for this. I will not be thankful for the broccoli. I will skip over the broccoli in line. But I will be thankful for the chocolate ice cream. No. Be thankful in everything. Because even if life has thrown at you a lemonade, by God's grace and by our patience, by his purpose and pleasure being worked out in our life, everything is going to be okay.

Now join me if you would in a similar passage, but with a little bit different intent. Romans 12 verse 12, and then we'll spring into the message. Romans 12 verse 12. Notice what it says here. Rejoicing, there's that word again, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation. Now, when we think of tribulation, we can think of the great tribulation that's going to occur in the future.

We can go back and read Fox's book of martyrs, and boy, that'll keep you up at night if you read that and look at the pictures, thinking of tribulation. But maybe, in a sense, we are not being torn limb by limb at the rack, but whatever we are going through in our life right now, whatever we're going through, whether it's in this arena between our ears, whether it's in our marriage, whether it's in employment, whether it's at school, whether it's something that's occurring here, even within our congregation, that can seem like tribulation sometimes.

Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, and notice continuing steadfastly. Now, the other verse said, without ceasing, this says steadfastly, allow me to share a couple of different translations just on Romans 12, verse 12. This is how it goes in the King James Version. It says, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, and notice continuing instant in prayer. Instant in prayer. Again, in the New Living Translation, it goes this way, Rejoice in our confident hope, be patient in trouble, and then I like this, and keep on praying.

Now, those are just verses. We need to add some flesh, some bone, some personality to that. And that's why we're now going to go back to the Old Testament and deal with an individual like ourselves, a person of like passion, a human being that had some really big challenges, big problems, had big hopes, and had a great God. I'm going to show how he prayed.

The title of this message, for those that want to take, put down a title so that we'll stay together, is simply this. As we go through this case study of this man of old, the title of this message is simply this. Continually, continually praying to the God of heaven. Continually. Last time we talked about prayers that move God. This now is going to be about our movement down below of continually praying to the God of heaven.

We find such an individual back in the Old Testament, case study, a person just like you and me, and his name is Nehemiah. Join me, if you would, in the book of Nehemiah. In the book of Nehemiah. In my Bible, it is on page 548, if that helps you. We're going to talk about Nehemiah. Some of us know some things about Nehemiah. Some of us know more about Nehemiah. Let me just fill in the blanks and bring us all together for a moment about Nehemiah.

Nehemiah is probably best known as the individual that orchestrated the building of the walls of Jerusalem. How many of you knew that already? Okay, that means you have to stay for the sermon. Two-thirds didn't. Okay. I have to have some fun with this. Nehemiah, most of us know, built the walls of Jerusalem. So often when we deal with Daniel, and then we deal with the 70 years, and going back to Jerusalem, and building the temple, and doing this, and doing that, and bringing in Zerubbabel, and bringing in Ezra and Nehemiah, we kind of compact that all together in our mind, right? Are you with me?

It just seems like yesterday, and it all happened all at once. No, it did not. Let's remember that Jerusalem fell the final fall in the third siege of Judah, 586 B.C. The remnant of the Jews were allowed to go back to Judah 70 years later. Okay? 70 years later. What is very interesting is to understand only a tithe, 10%, it is figured, actually went back to Judah. Here God had prophesied and said, this is going to happen. You're going to go back to your homeland.

I am going to intervene. You are going to get to go home. Only a tenth of the people went back. A tenth? Did you know that? Only a tenth went back. Most of them had already been Babylon or Persia, two empires that were side by side, and one absorbed the other.

They'd already been there for three human generations. Some of our families have been here for three human generations in America. How many of you are ready to go back to the homeland, wherever that homeland might be? No, you settle. Things were working out all right. So only about a tenth of the people went back. Now, what was going on here, to maybe share a little bit more with you, is simply this. There's a rubber bell. We've all heard of the rubber bell. The man that orchestrated the building of the temple. So the temple was built about 515 BC. So we have 586 BC.

Stay with me. We're going to go across like this. We have 586 BC. The temple is destroyed. Later on, around 530 BC, they come back. The temple is built in 515 BC. Okay? You're with me. So you think it's all over? No. Only the temple was built. There were no walls around the holy place of God in Jerusalem. It was bare. And so this kind of sets up the story, then. People gone back. The temple is in place. Are you with me? But there's no walls to protect the holy spot, the holy mountain, the holy place of God. And that introduces us, then, to this man, who we're going to find out that before this message is over, we are not going to simply associate him with being one who builds walls, but he's one that builds bridges to God.

And my question for you as we begin this study that only you can answer at the end is, how firm and how steady is your bridge of prayer to God? Are you a bridge builder on your part? We know that God offers that bridge. We know that he asks us to call upon him. We know that he lays out the path, but how much of us are doing our part?

Because a bridge that does not reach both shores is not a bridge. We've heard about that bridge somewhere, the bridge to nowhere. A bridge that does not reach both shores is not a bridge. It's a folly. It's not a bridge. So that's what we're going to find out about Nehemiah, the bridge builder. Let's look at Nehemiah 1. You're there. I'm here. Because as we go through this and you say, Nehemiah, isn't that kind of one of those dry books of the Bible?

No, it's exciting. Let's notice what happens. The words of Nehemiah, the son of Ha-kaliah, it came to pass in the month of She-lev in the 20th year, and I was in Shushan, and or that can be called Susa, which is one of the imperial cities of the Persian Empire, the citadel that Hananai, one of my brethren, came with men from Judah. And I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who had survived the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. Basically, let me set the stage.

Basically, this book starts this way, friends. How's it going? How's it going? How often do we wake up on our Mondays or Tuesdays or Thursdays or even on the Sabbath, and we communicate with somebody or they're communicating with us, and they just simply say, we just say, well, how's it going?

And sometimes you need to be careful of the questions that you ask, because you have to be prepared for the response that is going to come. So Nehemiah, the whole book, basically starts out with just a question. How's it going with those folks? And then the report comes in. And they said to me, the survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are burnt with fire.

It's almost as if he's saying, Jerusalem is standing naked, and anybody can come and anybody can go. Well, we notice then what happens here in verse 5. It says, so when I heard these words, the answer of how's it going, that I sat down and I wept and mourned for many days, and I was fasting and I was praying before the God of heaven. Here we find that Nehemiah, when he heard this news about how's it going, he was devastated. Why is that? In antiquity, in cities of yore and long gone by, in the Middle East, cities were denoted regarding their strength by walls being around them, the height of the walls, and the thickness of those walls. Now, there's a very important reason why they did that. Walls, in a sense, in antiquity for different populations serving different deities, those walls denoted the strength of those people's God.

And here, the God of gods, to use a phrase, the Almighty, the Creator, his city, was laid bare. It didn't have walls. And it was like Nehemiah in his mind was saying, what is that going to say about our God? And so he was devastated with that news. And we notice in what he did. When he heard that news, he did two immediate things that we're going to find out. I'd like you to jot him down, please, because if you get anything out of this message, there's going to be two things that happen. Number one is he prayed, and number two, he acted upon those prayers. Please write that down to stay in the notes, in the message. He prayed. Well, he said, well, prayer is an action. Yes, it is. But that's only the first action. Then he based the rest of his life on what he prayed. To draw you in, dear friends here in Los Angeles, how often do we merely say a prayer, but we don't go out and meet that prayer as if it's going to happen? And or if, number two, we don't have a role and a part in making that happen, recognizing that as we do our part, that God's going to do His part. Let's go through the prayer here for a second. One of the two great prayers, longer prayers of the book of Nehemiah, and let's notice what he says here. So we will know how to pray to God when we ask the question, how is it going, or it ain't going at all in our lives, and we beseech God above. And it says here, and I said, I pray, Lord God of heaven, Lord God of heaven, O great and awesome God, you who keep your covenant and mercy with those who love you and observe your commandments. Now, that word covenant might want to circle that if you're daring enough with your Bible, because that's going to be a very big part of this message by the end regarding covenant and our covenant with God as New Covenant Christians. What is the first thing that Daniel, excuse me, Nehemiah does? Number one, he praises God. Number one, he gives God his due. He is an awesome God. He is a great God. He is a God of covenant. He's not a God of contracts. He's not trying to get out of something. He's not trying to find a wiggle room, not to bless his people. There's a purpose in his pleasure of what he is doing. And this is the first and the most important thing that we need to understand, that when we are having challenges that we don't understand or seem so big to us, the first thing that we need to do is to praise God. Praise God, recognizing that we are coming into the throne room of Almighty God with God the Father, Jesus Christ as His right hand, and to recognize, simply recognize where and whom we are coming before. That is very, very important to understand and to understand that very importantly. It says, notice and please let your ear be attentive and your eyes open that you may hear the prayer of your servant, which I pray before you now, day and night. Your servants, excuse me, day and night for the children of Israel, your servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against you, both my Father's house and notice, and I have sinned. Now, there's something we need to understand out of this verse so that we can be effective in building our bridge to God, because He's always waiting on the other side for us. He never stops waiting for us. He's waiting for us to approach Him. The one thing that you find here is simply that He says, I pray before you now, day and night. If it's important enough to worry about, if it's important enough to care about, it's important enough to pray about how often.

I speak to myself because I'm learning through this entire series myself, friends. I am one of you. I'm just merely reading the book and having it bounce off my heart. And I'm absorbing these lessons of men of old that were true servants of God. Sometimes what we do, it's like, you know, we just do one for the gipper, to use the old movie term, one for the gipper.

We go out and spend the rest of the day without being in a state and a mind and a heart of prayer. And the one thing that we want to understand and gain from the book of Nehemiah is that prayer is not an event. It's not an event. It is an existence. It never stops. Pray without ceasing. Be instant in prayer.

As one of the translations says, keep on praying. And here we find him praying day and night. Now, notice what it then says. He speaks about your servants. He talks about confessing the sins of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Notice this now. And this echoes Daniel, both my father's house and I have sinned.

What do we find in this prayer speaking about others? What do we find? Remember when, a couple weeks ago, when we did the message on Daniel and Daniel 9? Remember the homework? Homework was for you to go through Daniel 9 and deal with pronoun personality.

Remember all the I's? Remember all the we's? All the you's? Because so often we're talking about other people rather than about ourselves.

Homework is for everybody.

So we notice here, he'd already done his homework. He says, both my father's house and I have sinned. So often in our prayers we're talking about the other individual. We're talking about the other individual. What's wrong with them? Where they're going astray. Oh God, can you believe them? Are you ready for this? Unbelievable.

That's not the way of Daniel. That's not the way of Nehemiah. Their pronoun personality brings them into it. They're a part of the situation.

So there is confession. There is talking of repentance.

We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which you commanded your servant Moses.

Remember, I pray, the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, if you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations.

But if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for my name. Now these are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power, by your strong hand, not by our works, not by our human efforts.

It's what you've done, God. It's what you have done. He speaks very plainly about where His people have been and where He has been with His people.

So what do we learn when it comes to praying? We learn that in using this great model prayer, the first thing that we do, and it couples with the prayer that we find in the Gospels that Jesus gave His disciples, the first thing that we do is we praise God. No matter what the situation, we honor and we praise and we use God's faithfulness, the covenant God, the covenant God in our lives.

That's our anchor. That's where we begin.

And when things aren't going right, we don't put things in our own hands and, boy, that didn't work out. And then pray afterwards. The first thing that we do, no matter what comes up in our lives, on the job, in the marriage, with the kids, kids at home, the adult children that are away, the boss, the employees, the situation financially in your life that just doesn't seem like it's going to work out, praise God.

Praise God. And ask God to see yourself for who and what you are, to confess, to know where you stand apart from God.

Don't think that somehow it's just everybody else's situation that somehow you're just spotless clean.

When we do that, we begin to move towards the road of praying continually to the God of Heaven in a correct manner.

Let's continue to pick up the thought here. Notice what happens then. Verse 11.

Now this is perhaps one of the most important things that we don't always do in our prayer life.

So let's get ready for this key. Where are the keys so far? Number one, worship God, praise God.

Number two is to confess and to repent towards God and help Him to see our part in whatever is going on down here below.

That's pretty tough homework because we always want to focus on the other person. Or am I the only one?

Now, very important, when we pray, if it's enough to worry about, it's enough to pray about, and not just kind of pray here and scatter words.

Be specific in your prayer. Be specific. Be willing and bold enough to ask God to break the ice for you. To be your partner.

Be specific. What Nehemiah was being specific on is to understand he was the cup bearer. He was a very close associate to the king, Artaxerxes of Persia.

He was a part of the household clique, as it were. You know, there was nobody more important in the kingdom than the cup bearer because you know what the cup bearer did?

He was the first one to drink the drink, right? We all know that story. He was the first one to taste the Kool-Aid.

And if he blinked and he went over, you knew it wasn't good, but he wasn't alive to tell you about it.

So the king had to have complete confidence and trust in this Jewish man that was in the realm of Persia.

But he said, help me with this man. Now, what is important about this? Are you with me? How often do we find people in life that are really good Monday morning quarterbacks?

People that would have, could have, should have if I'd been the one.

Well, that's why God calls us as Christians. We are the ones. We are the ones that have the mind of Christ, have the love of God, are to act like Christ, are to put ourselves into the game, into the arena of life, and not wait for somebody else to do it.

Nehemiah said, God above, give me favor. Tomorrow I'm going to be in the sight and in the presence of the beast.

As Persia was, that king was the type of the beast. And grant me favor, grant me courage.

Now, I have a question for you. You say, yeah, but I'm not going to face one of the beasts tomorrow.

Well, there are sometimes people that can act like a beast, too.

There are people that can scare us from doing that, which we need to do, and make us passive in being God's servant rather than active.

Just a question I want to ask you. Just take a pause for a moment.

Knowing what your Goliath are, or your challenges, or the walls that are not built around you right now, like they ought to be.

I'm speaking to myself up here. How specific have we been?

How specific action-oriented and action item in talking to God about our lives and asking Him to grant us favor, ability, courage, and patience? And what's facing us? How specific are we?

Or do we do this one? Are you ready? God, are you up? I know you're up there.

And I know that all things are according to your will. Amen.

The reason I'm pausing is for effect.

Because I know personally, as a Christian and as a pastor, I've learned through the book of Nehemiah, I need to be much more specific with my prayers.

Just like the book of James says, because you ask not, you receive not.

And some of us are just asking in all the wrong places, and we're not asking the right questions, and we're not, in a sense, responsibly, respectfully demanding of God to be our champion and to pave the way.

Let's go to Nehemiah now.

Chapter 2. It's very important in understanding this, dear friends, here in Los Angeles.

That is not enough to pray. Here's the big part that I want to share with you again. And if I'm repeating that, this is good.

When we pray, we have to go out and meet our prayers. God wants us to put skin in the game.

God the Father allowed His Son to put skin in the game. The Son, the Christ, allowed Himself to put skin in the game, literally.

We, likewise, following in full measure, need to learn in whatever is challenging us that God does help those who help themselves and walk with Him in courage and patience and wait for Him to open doors.

Chapter 2, verse 1. It came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before Him, that I took the wine and I gave it to the King.

Now I had never been sad in His presence before. And therefore the King said to me, Why is your face sad since you're not sick?

You know, our face tells a lot about us, doesn't it? You know what did Abraham Lincoln say? You can fool some of the people some of the time, etc., etc.

A picture's worth a thousand words. And Nehemiah was really going through this thing about the walls of Jerusalem.

And he said, you know, Artaxerxes says, Hey man, you are looking dogged. You're looking bad. What's going on?

This is nothing but sorrow of heart. So I became dreadfully afraid.

And I said to the King, May the King live forever. Now when you say that, that's a breather. If you're ever facing a king and things aren't going well, just say, King, live forever.

That will give you a moment to think. But then notice what he says.

Why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my father's tomb, waste and its gates are burnt with fire?

Then the King said to me, What do you request? Now, if you haven't gotten into the message yet, do yourself a favor. If you have a pencil, that's good because it has an eraser.

But if not, if you're daring enough, just circle the next line.

So I prayed to the God of heaven. So I prayed to the God of heaven. Nehemiah had enough presence of heart, not just presence of mind, but presence of heart, that he asked a simple, silent, quick, instant prayer at that moment.

At that moment he did that. He needed that extra boost. He needed that extra help. Now, stay with me in the book of Nehemiah. In the book of Nehemiah, there are seven or eight instances of what we call the instant prayers of Nehemiah.

I'll let you look them up for your next homework assignment.

Instant prayer. God was with him. But notice this instant prayer. Instant prayer is good. It's just like the person that's hanging upside down in the well, 60 feet down, upside down, six inches from water, and it's all dark.

And what do you do? Instant prayer. Help! That can be very effective. It's very quick. It's right to the point.

But our instant prayer is only effective when we also have the formal prayer.

God just doesn't want a dab of us. He wants all of us. We recognize that Nehemiah had already praised God. He had confessed to God.

He had asked about the repentance of his people. He reminded God that he is a God and Nehemiah is a person of covenant.

And then he asked for something specific.

And then when he actually faced the obstacle, you know, it's like this, kind of like David, you know, when he's facing Goliath, you know, you know, the knees are shaking like this.

He needed a bracer. He needed that quick bracer.

God, I'm here. I'm God. I don't know why I'm here, but I am here. I try to be specific. You opened up this door, but I've got to tell you something, God.

I'm facing my teacher this week. I'm facing this big SAT test. I'm facing a challenge with a mate. I don't know where it's going to be going.

I'm facing a challenge with my teenage child that's taken a time out from humanity, and I don't know how to deal with them.

And my knees are a little wobbly. I need a bracer. God, you be with me at this moment.

What we see in the book of Nehemiah is, again, that prayer is not just simply an event. It's an existence.

Prayer is like breathing. How many of us get up in the morning and say, well, I've got to go to work. So here we go. And we just hold it. We're going to hold on to that prayer all day. No, no, no. You can only hold your breath so long. You've got to keep on breathing, don't you?

And that's just like prayer. There is a formality to prayer, a formality of prayer of being on our knees.

And there is also the reality of prayer, of being instant in prayer, of not ceasing from prayer by being on our knees in our heart in the moment.

Now, with that stated, let's notice how God blessed Nehemiah.

And then it says, And then the king said to me, the queen also said beside him, How long will your journey be, and when will you return? So it pleased the king to send me, and I set him a time.

And furthermore, I said to the king, If it pleased the king, let letters be given to me for the governors of the region beyond the river, that they must permit me to pass through till I come to Judah.

And a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest, and he must give me timber to make beams, etc., etc.

So he became very detailed then.

He'd been specific to God.

God, I need your comfort, I need your strength, I need this opening, I need your grace, I need your favor. Be with me.

And then, after that door opened, boy, the details just rang, right down to everything that he was going to need.

Long story short, long story short, he was blessed.

He, Nehemiah, was able to go back and begin to rally the Jews that were in that land, even against horrible odds and foes that were in Samaria, foes that were in Arabia, foes that were in Moab that wanted to take him.

All of a sudden, they recognized that the game was over. Here was a man of action.

And they tried to trip him up each step of the way. Here's the point I want to share with you.

It's just because God answers one prayer of ours, and it looks like everything is okay. That's great.

Let's give him honor, let's give him glory, give him praise.

Know that he is with us, but that doesn't mean it's over.

We have to, as it said in the Living Translation, we have to keep on praying. Keep on praying, because the challenges are just going to come with different names, different faces, different times, different seasons of our life, and we need to know how to handle them.

I want to share a story with you. There are so many stories in the book of Nehemiah.

I want to take you to the very end of Nehemiah here for a moment.

The book of Nehemiah, let's go to the very last part here, Nehemiah.

What happened was, I'm going to bring the story of Nehemiah, I'm going to contract it for time's sake.

Nehemiah goes back, he serves in Judah for 12 years.

Then he goes back to serve the king in Persia.

The commentaries say that may have been arranged, maybe the job was over, maybe it was arranged, but he went back to Persia for a time being.

Then he comes back, after all of the work of bringing all of Judah together, all the odds that were against him, all the odds that were against him.

He comes back. He finds everything gone astray.

People are marrying pagans. People are not honoring the Sabbath. People are not even honoring who is in the temple grounds that one of those that had ranted against him the most is actually being given sanctuary and housing on the temple grounds. And he is not even a covenant person.

He's not a person of covenant that was supposed to be in the holy place.

Nehemiah, at this point, is coming unglued.

But it reminds us that he remained a man of action all of his life. I want to share a thought with you here.

After he had done all of this and began to clean house again. Now, here's one interesting thing when it comes to prayer and when it comes to cleaning house.

Major lesson in the Gospels.

Cleaning house doesn't just happen at baptism, does it? That's just the beginning.

Turning over the tables, as Jesus Christ did in the temple, is not just simply a one-time affair.

Jesus did it at the beginning of his ministry and he did it at the end of his ministry.

To remind us, to remind us, we that are the temple of God as New Covenant Christians, that there are times that he is going to clean house again and again to see how receptive we are to his lordship, to his sovereignty, to his ability to work with us. Here we have the story of Nehemiah, a man that was trying to do everything that he could. But some of the people weren't cooperating with him.

And sometimes, what was happening in Judea seemed like, in a sense, that Ezra is just one of the few.

Today, in modern-day America, in what is rapidly becoming a post-Christian society, we can seem like we're the only ones.

We can seem that we are alone.

And that also can be a prayer, because we notice here in verse 29 of Nehemiah 13, and we see something very important.

He had just done away with the bad folk, and he said, Remember them, O my God, because they have defiled the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and the Levites.

Key word here, you might want to circle it, is remember.

Thus I cleanse them of everything pagan, and I also assign duties to the priests and the Levites, each to his service, into bringing the wood offering and the firstfruits at appointed times.

Notice the last words of Nehemiah.

Remember me, O my God, for good.

Remember me, O God, for my good.

This is a trail of remembers that starts in...

You might want to jot this down and go back in Nehemiah 5 verse 19.

Also, 13 verse 14.

Verse 22.

What is being spoken about here?

Is he saying, Look at me, woe is me, look how good I am being?

No, it really goes back to the very beginning of that first formal prayer that he gave in chapter 1.

Let's go back there now. We're going to do a book in effect of the book of Nehemiah.

Book in effect dealing with this subject of remembering.

In Nehemiah 1, let's notice again in that great formal prayer that he gave, verse 8.

Remember, I pray.

I want to share a thought with you as we begin to wind up, brethren, to simply this. In our prayers, here we go.

We worship God. We praise God.

We confess before God and we repent before God.

We also ask him to, we ask him something specifically.

Because it's certainly been on our mind. We need to put it into words and put it into action. But here's the other thing, this word that comes out of verse 8. Remember.

Here's the power of the word remember. Remember is about the covenant.

Remember is about the covenant.

And what Nehemiah is saying is, remember, you made covenant.

How powerful is that word throughout the Bible? Let me share something with you. Remember when Noah had been a preacher of righteousness for how long?

120 years. Built the ark for how long? 120 years.

Then the rains came, the door closed, God closed the door, the rains came, the ark went up.

The world was a watery mess.

Join me if you would in the book of Genesis for a second. Book of Genesis. And come with me if you would to Genesis 8.1.

All of this is going on. And then God remembered Noah. God remembered Noah. Now, join me over in chapter 9, verse 12. And God said, this is the sign of covenant.

I will set my rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

And it shall be when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud.

And notice, and I will remember my covenant. Verse 16, the rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant.

That rainbow was not just a matter of liquid against sunlight. That rainbow represents that which is behind God's holy heavenly throne. There's a rainbow. It denotes faithfulness. Okay? Faithfulness.

What Ezra, not Ezra, pardon me, what Nehemiah is doing here, when he uses that word, remember, he's not thinking, God, you've got amnesia. Hello up there. He's not playing word games with God. To remember and mentioning that in our prayers is not for simply God to remember, but for us to remember, and be at one on that bridge and meet in the middle, that we are a covenant individual.

And even more so when we pray, unlike those of old, that when we pray, and follow the example of Jesus, that whatever you ask, ask in my name, that when we state, remember, God does remember.

And he remembers that our covenant with him is more than just simply the blood of a goat or a bullock or a turtledove. It's the blood of his son. When we say in Jesus' name and add that to our prayers, it's more than just a filler. It's about covenant. It's about a covenant as Nehemiah was a covenant individual. And he said, God, remember, I know that you are great, and you're not simply all-knowing. You're not just simply all-wise. You're not just simply all-powerful. You also are all-loving. Therefore, remember. What kind of a God was he praying to, and what kind of a God do we have the privilege of praying to? Join me if you would in Psalm 139 as we close. Psalm 139.

Next time somebody comes into your path and you ask, how's it going?

And they give you an answer.

It troubles you. Or you're on a path and in existence right now that has many, many challenges.

You say, remember. God, remember. That is the password to covenant.

And remember, this is the God that we're praying to in Psalm 139, verse 7. Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there.

If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost part of the seas, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.

If I say, surely the darkness shall fall on me, even the night shall be light about me.

Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from you, but the night shines as the day. The darkness and the light are both alike to you.

When we pray that prayer, that shows God our trust, that pours out before God not only words, but our desire for Him to be involved in our lives.

As we conclude, as we've looked at the example of Nehemiah, who had real challenges, he was a real person, and speaking to a real God, and he needed real answers. Coupled with the verses that we looked at in the New Testament, here's what we come away with. Three very short points. Number one, we are to pray instantly. Pray in the moment. Number two, pray without ceasing. And when you've done that, when you've prayed instantly, when you have even prayed without ceasing, remember what it says also, keep on praying to the end, to the God of heaven, the same God that Nehemiah poured his heart out to. If life is pouring in on us right now, dear brethren, we likewise need to pour ourselves out as a living sacrifice to God. Let Him bring down the walls. Let Him fill the moats. As the great God of covenant and the people of God, meet in the middle of the bridge to make things happen to His glory, to His honor, and that we might be a blessing to other people.