THE LEADER'S PRAYER LIFE
Nehemiah: Lessons on Leadership - Part 2 of 11
Nehemiah 1:4-11
Rick Warren
Ezekiel 22:30 (LB) "I (God) looked in vain for anyone who would build again the wall of righteousness that guards the land, who could stand in the gap ... but I found not one."
(LL) THE EFFECTIVENESS OF MY ______LEADERSHIP IS DETERMINED BY MY ______LIFE.
1. WHEN SHOULD I PRAY?
ANSWER: ______
(vs. 3-4)
(LL) A LEADER DOES MORE THAN PRAY BUT HE DOESN'T DO ANYTHING ELSE ______HE PRAYS.
*Leaders make prayer a first
* Losers make prayer a last
WHEN NEHEMIAH USED PRAYER
OccasionSummary of His PrayerWhat Prayer Accomplished
1:4-11After receiving theRecognized God's holinessIncluded God in bad news about the Asked for a hearing. Confessed Nehemiah's plans and state of Jerusalem's sin. Asked for specific help in concerns. Prepared walls approaching the king. Nehemiah's heart and gave God room to work.
2:4During his "Here's where you can help,Put the expected results
conversation with God!"in God's hands.
the king
4:4-5After being taunted"They're mocking you, God.Exprssed anger to God, and ridiculed by You decide what to do with but Nehemiah did not Tobiah and Sanballat them." take matters into his own hands.
4:9After threats of "We are in your hands, God.Trusted God and took
attack by enemiesWe'll keep our weapons handynecessary precautions.
in case you want us to use them."
6:9Responding to "Oh Lord God, pleaseShowed Nehemiah's
threatsstrengthen me!" reliance on God for emotional and mental stability.
13:29Reflecting on theAsked God to deal withTook away the actions of his enemies. the enemies and their evil plans. compulsion to get revenge, and entrusted
justice of God.
5:19Reflecting on his"Remember me, God"Kept clear in Nehemiah's
13:14,own efforts to servemind his own motives for
22, 31God.action
II. WHY SHOULD I PRAY?
1. IT SHOWS ______
John 15:1-8
Matthew 5:3
2. IT LIGHTENS ______
"They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." Isaiah 40:31 (LB)
Leaders find their strength on their knees.
3. IT RELEASES ______
(God says) "Call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you know not." Jer. 33:3 (KJV)
III. HOW SHOULD I PRAY?
A sample of a leader's praying: Fs. 5:11
KEY QUESTION TO ASK MYSELF:
______
4 Secrets to Answered Prayer
1. BASE MY REQUEST ______
What Nehemiah said about God: (vs. 5-6a)
* "You're "
* "You're "
* "You "
2. CONFESS ______
(vs. 6b-7)
(LL) LEADERS ______
BUT LOSERS ______
3. CLAIM THE ______
(vs. 6b-8) Nehemiah reminded God!
Prayer transforms God's promises into performance!
The strength of my prayer life is determined by
______
4. BE VERY ______
(vs. 10)
If I can't ask God to bless what I'm doing then I'd better start
Summary: The Type of Prayer God Answers
* A prayer of ______
(of who God is)
* A prayer of ______
(of what I am)
* A prayer of ______
(in what God has promised)
* A prayer of ______
(I'm willing to be part of the answer)
NEXT SESSION:
What do you do after you've prayed?
What is the next step to leadership?
2-1
THE LEADER'S PRAYER LIFE
Nehemiah: Lessons on Leadership - Part 2 of 11
THE LEADER'S PRAYER LIFE
Nehemiah: Lessons on Leadership - Part 2 of 11
Nehemiah 1:4-11
Rick Warren
I'd like to begin by reading a couple of quotes. Richard Elworth Day, from Filled With the Spirit: "It would be no surprise if a study of secret causes were undertaken to find that in every Golden Era of human history it proceeds from the devotion and righteous passion of a single individual. There are no bona fide mass movements; it just looks that way. At the center of the column there will always be one person who knows his God and knows where he is going." E. M. Bounds, Power Through Prayer: "We are constantly on a stretch, if not on a strain, to provide new methods, new plans, new organizations to advance the church and secure enlargement and efficiency. But men are God's method. The church is looking for better methods, God is looking for better men."
God said that a long time ago in Ezekiel 22:30 (Living Bible) "I (God) looked in vain for anyone who would build again the wall of righteousness that guards the land, who could stand in the gap but I found not one." God is looking for people to use. He is looking for leaders. Nothing happens until somebody provides leadership. Everything rises or falls on leadership. We're looking for better methods, machinery, motivations. God says, I'm looking for better people, people that I can use.
We're in a series on leadership, looking at the life of Nehemiah. In a presidential campaign, a number of the candidates were questioned about their private life. The typical response was "It's none of your business." One guy said, "My private life in no way affects my ability to govern this nation." Nothing could be further from the truth. God says the exact opposite.
The Leadership Law we're going to look at tonight from Nehemiah is The effectiveness of my public leadership is determined by my private life.
Tonight we're going to get our first inside look at the heart of Nehemiah. Nehemiah was a man of prayer, nine different times in this book he prays. In Nehemiah 1 we have one of the great prayers of the Bible. We learn a lot about people by listening to their prayers. We're going to get an inside look at this man, Nehemiah. We're going to see what his private life is like. We're also going to learn how to pray the kind of prayers that gets answered. God liked to answer Nehemiah 's prayers. If we can figure out what Nehemiah does then we can figure out what we can do to have our prayers answered.
Three questions:
1. When should I pray?
2. Why should I pray?
3. How should I pray?
Last week I said leadership can be learned. I believe the starting point is to learn how to pray. Because that's what Nehemiah does first.
I. WHEN SHOULD I PRAY
Before I do anything else. The men had come back from Jerusalem and said Jerusalem is in ruins. The first thing Nehemiah did (v. 4) he wept, he mourned, he fasted, he prayed. Verse 4 also says he prayed for "some days". A leader does more than pray, but he doesn't do anything else until he prays. This is the starting point for what we want to look at. Leaders make prayer a first priority; losers make prayer a last resort. That's the difference between a leader and a looser. Leaders make prayer a first priority; losers make prayer a last resort.
Orange County is full of what is typically known as personality Type A people -- activists, on the go, prone to heart attacks, want to get the job done, achievement oriented, goal oriented, busy people. How many of us often find ourselves too busy to pray? Nehemiah says before we do anything else we must make time to pray. We'll see how Nehemiah used prayer. There are nine different occasions that he prayed.
Nehemiah was a man of action. Nehemiah is an organizer, motivator, manager. He likes to do things. He built the wall around the city in 52 days. Yet, instead of immediately going out and doing something, when he heard that something was wrong the first thing he did was get alone with God. He didn't form a committee. He got alone with God and prayed. This was the pattern of his life. There were nine different instances in his life. He was a man of prayer.
II. WHY SHOULD I PRAY?
1. It shows I'm depending on God.
The reason why we don't pray more is because we don't think we need to. We think we can handle it by ourselves. We think we can do it on our own. When you have a problem the human reaction, the natural reaction for us is to think, "Now what am I going to do about this?" instead of stopping and saying, "God, what do You want to do about this?" Yet the Bible says in John 15 "Apart from Me you can do nothing." That's the only way we bear fruit.
We saw in Matthew 5:3 in the Beatitudes, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for their's is the kingdom of heaven." There is nothing God won't do for the person who is depending on Him. My usefulness as a leader, and your's, begins when I recognize my total dependence upon God. The way I know I'm depending on God is that the first thing I do when a problem comes is I pray.
2. It lightens my load.
The reason why Nehemiah prayed was because he was distressed by the bad news. He was a very sensitive person, very compassionate. He felt things very deeply. It says he wept over the ruins. But rather than simply mourning or moaning, he prayed. He took the problem to the Lord. He didn't just complain and gripe and wallow in self pity. He took his broken heart to the Lord.
The name Nehemiah means "The Lord is my comfort". When Nehemiah's heart was broken over the things that were going wrong in Israel, he took his problem to the Lord. God honors prayer that comes from a genuinely concerned heart. He longs to hear us say, "Lord, I can't handle this. I don't know how to do it. Help me!" That's the prayer that He likes to answer.
The fact is that leaders take their burdens to the Lord. Isaiah 40:31 "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." If you're going to be a leader, it produces stress. Great leaders find their strength on their knees.
3. It releases God's power.
Nothing else releases God's power like the prayer of faith. Jeremiah 33:3 God says, "Call to me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things which you know not." Prayer can do whatever God can do! Whatever God can do, prayer can do. Prayer taps in to the very resources of God.
Many of you came in here very fatigued. Prayer taps you in to the resources of God. When God is brought in on a project, it turns the impossible into the possible.
The question I really want to look at tonight is
III. HOW SHOULD I PRAY?
We have a sample of a leader's praying in v. 5-11. You can learn a lot about a person by the kind of prayer that they pray. A canned prayer indicates a dried up spirit. A selfish prayer indicates a selfish spirit. Some prayers are like Christmas lists. Selfish prayers indicate a selfish heart. Impressive prayers indicate an arrogant, prideful heart.
We learn a lot about Nehemiah by looking at the kind of prayer he prayed. Remember that Nehemiah, when he first heard about the downfall of Jerusalem, prayed for four months. This is not just a casual prayer. The prayer we're going to look at tonight is just a sample prayer he prayed. It gives us a pattern for successful praying. If you want to know how to pray, study the book of Nehemiah and particularly this prayer.
Whenever people in the Bible ask God to do something they always presented a basis for it. They always said, "God I want you to do this because..." and they had a reason for Him to do it. There's many different reasons depending on the circumstance. Every time you find a prayer in the Bible, they gave a reason. A key question you want to ask yourself when you pray is this, "Why should God answer my prayer?" Why should I ask God to answer this prayer? The Bible teaches us that the right kind of praying is give God a reason to answer your prayer. Don't just say "I want this" or "This is my desire" -- Give Him a reason why you're praying this.
With that as a background let me give you the four secrets to answered prayer from the life of Nehemiah.
1. Base my request on God's character
This is the greatest reason to give to God. "I'm expecting You to answer this prayer because of Who You are. You are a faithful God. You are a great God. You are a loving God. You are a wonderful God. You can handle this problem, God!" Nehemiah comes to God and says, "God, I want you to do something back over in Jerusalem. Verse 5 "O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps His covenant of love with those who love Him and obey His command." Nehemiah said three things about God:
1. You're great -- that's God's position.
2. You're awesome -- that shows His power.
3. You keep your promises -- God's covenant.
The first thing Nehemiah did was he acknowledges who God is. That's what praise is. Acknowledge who God is and His greatness. Nehemiah is saying "God, I know our situation is in a mess, but I'm just reminding myself you're in control. I know that the problems over there in Jerusalem may be great but You are greater, You're bigger, You're bigger than this mess." He starts off by getting the right perspective. In starting to have answered prayer, say, "God, I want You to answer because of who You are. You've given us all of these things, these promises. You are a faithful God, a loving God, a merciful God" -- all these things the Bible tells us He is. You base your request on God's character.
2. Confess the sin in my life.
This is step number two if you want to have answers to your prayers. The Jews had disobeyed God. As a result, God said, "All right, if you don't obey me you're going to loose the land of Israel." And they lost it. Because they had not obeyed God they lost their city, Jerusalem, the Temple and were taken into foreign captivity -- all because they had disobeyed Him. Many of the books of the prophets are about this very thing.
v. 6b "Let your ear be attentive and your eyes be opened to the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father's house committed against you. We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands and the decrees and the laws you gave your servant Moses."
Part one of Nehemiah's prayer is to base his request on who God is. "God, you're a great God. You're awesome! You keep your promises!" Part two, I admit who I am. He says, "We've sinned." Look at how many times he uses the word "I" and "we". He says "I confess... myself... my father's house ... we have acted wickedly ... we have not obeyed." It wasn't Nehemiah's fault they went into captivity. He wasn't even born when this happened seventy years earlier. He was most likely born in captivity. Yet, he is including himself in the national sins. He says "I've been a part of the problem".
There is personal confession and there is national confession. This is something we don't know anything about. We don't have a corporate sense in America today. We are very individualistic. We're taught to confess my sins. When was the last time you confessed the sins of the nation? or the sins of your family? or your church? or your friends? We don't think that way. We're very individualistic. Our society has taught us the concept of you're only responsible for you. And that's just not true! You are your brother's keeper. We are all in this together. If there's one phrase I never want to hear it's "I've got to do what's best for me!" All kinds of things get justified with that phrase. It doesn't matter whether I'm leaving my wife/husband and kids or whatever else, I've got to do what's best for me! Nehemiah says "Not only do I have personal sin to confess but I have corporate sin. I'll accept the blame for other things.
Another Law of Leadership: Leaders accept the blame but losers pass the buck. If you want to be a leader, you accept the blame and share the credit. Losers are always accusers and excusers. they're always making excuses why things didn't/couldn't happen, It's always somebody else's fault. Leaders accept the blame. "We have sinned against You." The point is that all sin is ultimately against God. When you break a human law you are ultimately offending God. When you hurt somebody else, you're ultimately hurting God. David said, "Against Thee and Thee only have I sinned" when he had committed adultery and murdered a guy. But he knew the sin was against God. Leaders accept the blame.
The older I get in the Lord, the more increasingly I'm aware of my own sinfulness and God's graciousness. What a gracious God that we have that He uses imperfect people in that way. I base my request on who God is and then I confess the sin.
3. Claim the promises of God.
v. 8-9 Remember the instructions you gave to your servant Moses saying `If you are unfaithful I will scatter you among the nations. But if you return to me and obey my commands then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon I will gather them from there and bring them to the place they's chosen .. in my name." Notice it says "if ... I will" Circle "if". Then again He says "if ... I will". He has a warning and a promise.
Nehemiah is praying to the Lord and saying, "I want You to remember what You told your servant Moses." Can you imagine saying "remember" to God? He's reminding God what He had said in the past. God warned us through Moses that if we were unfaithful we would loose the land of Israel. But You also promised that if we repent You'd give it back to us. All through the Bible you find God's people reminding God about what He said He wants to do. David did it. Abraham did it. Moses did it. All the prophets did it. "God, I want to remind You of one of Your promises..." then they'd share it.