Prayer in the Midst of Brokenness

[00:00:13] Speaker A: Welcome to Roots of Faith, where we open God's word to grow stronger, deeper, and more grounded in truth. Today's episode is both personal and powerful. What truly breaks your heart? Is it the condition of the world, your family, or the state of the church? And more importantly, have you ever asked what breaks the heart of God? In this message, we step into the shoes of Nehemiah. Nehemiah was a man who couldn't ignore the brokenness of God's people. He wept, fasted, and fell to his knees in prayer. His story challenges us to ask, are we willing to respond with that same urgency and surrender? If you've ever felt the ache of watching something once beautiful fall into disgrace, whether you're church or your own heart, this message will stir you to confession, to hope, and to action. Get ready to be challenged, encouraged, and reminded that confession isn't about shame. It's the gateway to revival. Let's listen to this week's message. Prayer in the midst of brokenness. [00:01:25] Speaker B: What breaks your heart? What actually breaks, breaks your heart. Sometimes it's our children that break our hearts. You know, maybe it's the news. How did you react in October of a year, more than a year ago now, when Hamas broke through and killed over 1,200 people, many of them young people? It broke my heart to hear how they desecrated the bodies and then how they treated the hostages. Why did it break my heart? Mainly because it was against Israel, and God is not finished with Israel yet. They may be set aside. Or maybe it's what's breaking your heart is the state of your family or friends. Maybe it's just the overall condition of the world. What a world we live in now. Let me ask you, what breaks the heart of God? When Nehemiah was at the palace and he was ministering to the king Ahasuerus, his brother Hanani, along with some others, had come back from being in Judah. They had made the journey from the south all the way up to the northern reaches of the Assyrian kingdom and to the king's palace, where he knew he'd find his brother. Of course, Nehemiah was concerned. Now, think about this. Whether Nehemiah was actually part of the captives that were brought back or whether he was actually born and raised in the captivity, it's not clear. But his brother, he and his brother and the other Jews who were in captivity still had a heart, a deep heart for Jerusalem. And he said to Hananiah, he says, hananiah, how's it going? How are things in Jerusalem? And Hananiah had such a great report. He said, well, the walls are all crumbled. You don't just even see stone and ash. He saw a disgrace. But that disgrace wasn't just on the physical condition of the city, but it was a disgrace because that city and the temple that was there was the place where the Lord had put his name from the tabernacle to the temple. It was where the Spirit of the Lord dwelt. And it was the place of testimony of the Lord God over Israel. And it says that it broke Nehemiah. When you look at Nehemiah, chapter one, and you look at what's spoken there, probably if you're looking at history, strictly looking at history, the book of Nehemiah is close to the end of the time of the prophets. Probably one of the contemporary prophets with Nehemiah was Malachi. You want to find what Malachi said, Go look at the last book of the Old Testament. They were contemporary. And when it says that it was the month of Kislev in the 20th year, and I was in the citadel of Susa Hananiah, one of my brothers came from Judah with some other men. And I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile and also about Jerusalem. And they said to me, those who survived the exile and are back in the providence now, notice this, it said, are in great trouble and disgrace. In that great trouble and disgrace, Nehemiah was talking to them and he hurt so much, it broke him. Not just emotionally, but it broke him spiritually. When the Lord deals with a place of ministry where the Gospel has been proclaimed and then it's mood, if you remember two weeks ago, or actually last week, we talked about the book of Revelation and where we talked about the church at Ephesus. And in there it said, if you don't repent, the Lord said, I will come swiftly and I will move your testimony. I'll remove it. And like I said last week, it was very true according to many of the old church fathers that Ephesus did change their heart. They did revive. But go and look for the church in Ephesus now, in the middle of Turkey, you won't find a church. Not the church that Paul knew. There are underground churches, yes, but still the persecution of Christians there is great. How much more. So did it hurt Nehemiah when he heard that not only were the physical protections of that city that was the city of David, but also it was a disgrace? The word disgrace that's used here comes from a root idea that means you're Exposed. It's the same word that comes out that means your nakedness is seen. And what he's saying is he was so broken because of the disgrace that the place where God had put his name, the temple that was there, was still unprotected. People could come in. Anyone could come in, rob you. It's like you think of the world today. And I was talking to the nurse that was giving me a shot. I found out she came from Kensington in Philadelphia. Kensington area of Philadelphia. And we talked about Kensington because she was born and raised in Kensington, which wasn't too far from where I grew up. And she said, now you can't even go back there. If you've seen anything on the news or anything in a lot of it's on Facebook that it's the land of zombies because there is so much drug use, fentanyl use, that they're just lying on the sidewalks. Can't even let your kids go out and play because there's needles. It's a disaster. It's a disgrace. How much more so is it the disgrace on the name of the Lord when Jerusalem was in this condition? That's what I want you to understand. Nehemiah didn't tweet about it. His cell phone wasn't working, I guess he didn't tweet about it. He didn't go to TikTok. He didn't immediately start running down to Jerusalem and starting to build it up again or set up a GoFundMe page. It says he sat down and he wept. Literally. What it's saying when it says that in this verse. When I heard these things, I sat down and wept to sit down men. He sat there and dwelt there. It wasn't just, you know, oh, I'm collapsing. No, he sat down in that place because it was so much of an urgency and understanding that this was a disgrace on the name of the Lord. Why? Because the Lord was supposed to be the one who defended Israel. They were God's people. And now look at them. It says he fasted and he prayed. The world would tell us, well, just move on. You know, it'll get better. But God tells us, fall down on your knees when you're at that place, when we're broken. And that's where Nehemiah was. His heart was broken for the testimony of the Lord. I want to ask you, when you see brokenness in our churches, when you see the brokenness and the division that so robs God of his glory and the work of Jesus Christ, that has changed us into new creation and that testimony is ruined or is in disgrace. How do you respond? Maybe it's our homes, or maybe it's just the culture we live in. How do we respond? Do we respond with a righteous grief and do we respond with relentless prayer? Or we've just gotten used to the rubble. Sometimes we don't even begin to understand what the testimony of the Lord and his body of believers should be. And we just are sitting there in the midst of the rubble and saying, that's just the state of the church. It's not just the state of the church. How long did Nehemiah pray? Well, actually, when you go between chapter one and chapter two, you begin to understand. It says in chapter one that in the month of Kislev, Hananiah came and told him the problem. And it says Nehemiah sat down and he prayed. And it says that he prayed for many days. It says in chapter two, at the beginning of chapter two, in verse one, it says, in the month of Nisan, Nehemiah had the opportunity before the king. There's four months in between. And this is called, literally, it says, in the Niv, the words of Nehemiah. But many translations will sit there and tell you it's the memoirs of Nehemiah. And it's really. Nehemiah was sitting there basically writing his spiritual autobiography at this point, and he's saying, okay, I'm praying because this is in disgrace. And I think what we have in chapter one is actually a summary of all those four months of Nehemiah being driven to his knees and his heart broken before God and he had to pray in our brokenness. Are we driven to pray in the brokenness of the world that we are supposed to be reaching? Is our heart broken before God? And if so, are we relentlessly praying? Some of you can say yes, but some of us are still sitting in the rubble. And, well, this is the way it is. I want to take you through. When you sit with Nehemiah in this place of heartbreak and you discover how much confession leads not to condemning, it was leading to a place of restoring the glory of God so it would not be a disgrace. The disgrace is dishonoring God's holy name. In Nehemiah, chapter one and verse three, you have that summary statement that I read to you. The people of Israel are in great trouble and disgrace. They're exposed. And here they were, God's chosen people in the place that was literally the divine right to the land. The problem with Hamas, the problem with the Palestinian Liberation Front is that they're occupying land that God, who does not forget his covenant, who does not forget his promises, it is God's land that he gave to his people. And Hamas is being the most disruptorous of the whole bunch. They're sitting there saying, hey, you can bomb all you want, but we're going to still attack you. That's God's land. Now God has taken Israel out and dispersed them. But in 1948, the Balfour Declaration declared that the nation of Israel became a legitimate place and state. And I still look in awe and wonder at my Lord and God, because Tel Aviv was originally the capital, but now where is it? Jerusalem. How much more perfectly does my God align things for his plan? I believe that that's true. I believe that that's thoroughly true. I'm not dating. I'm not saying that means that the Lord's going to come back next week. But what I'm saying is God so prepares things that it fits with what we understand from scripture will happen and when Israel will be restored after the church is taken out. Now, God had disciplined his people for their disobedience. I loved how one commentator said that the history of Israel is not a record of ever increasing obedience like it should have been. Instead, it's a long and sad story of recurring departure from God and bringing them back, and then departure from God and then bringing them back. Division, northern 10 tribes, two southern tribes. Departure, bringing them back. But what we have, and this is one of the important things to look at when you look at the Old Testament, when you go and read and you look at some of these passages in the Old Testament, what are you supposed to do with it? I'm not Jewish. And by the way, I certainly hope that I'm not in the time of Nehemiah. My time machine does not work that way. I'm not there. What's it supposed to mean to me? What am I supposed to do with Old Testament story and accounts narrative? Well, one of the first things that you want to do is to take a look at what is the character and nature of God and how he dealt with his people. Because I'm going to tell you right now, God has not changed and he has grafted in the wild vine the church for a period of time. And God is still active and working. And look at the disgrace at the church as it stands today. Those that claim to be the church, those that have so far departed from what the word of God says, that it's a disgrace on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And by the way, it's not so much a disgrace on a place, a brick and mortar. It's because it's a disgrace in the hearts of those who claim Christ and the Holy Spirit, who by the Spirit of God dwelt in the temple, now dwells in us as the temple, the body of Christ. We should be the ones growing and faithful and obedience and testifying to the name of the Lord. And look at the testimony of the church that people see outside. But all the ones that stand there in their pulpits, on TV or in the radio. But you look at all of that and how much is the Lord disgraced by someone who preaches a gospel of wealth? Do this and the Lord will give you wealth. Do this and your life will be perfect. No, God never said that in Scripture. God never did that with the people of Israel. God isn't doing that with the church today. Actually, he promised persecution. We have a faithfulness and unchanging nature in God. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. One of the things that we say concerning the Trinity is that there is one will and one purpose within them. It's hard for us in our human stance to wrap our heads around that. But it says in Scripture, in Malachi, chapter three and verse six, I am the Lord and I do not change. So where was the problem? The people. Because the people kept going away from the Lord. In Ezekiel chapter 36 and verse 19, the Lord said by the prophet Ezekiel, I dispersed them among the nations. They were scattered through the countries. I judged them according to their conduct and action. And in verse 21 of Ezekiel 36, we read the Lord's declaration. He said, I had my concern for my holy name. Wow. Which the people of Israel profane. The word actually means to pollute. When you look at the testimony of Jesus Christ today in what is called the Church, I can tell you right now that the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is polluted because it doesn't agree with what God's word says it should be. So Nehemiah hears not the disgrace of the people, but rather the disgrace of the name of the Lord. And his response, the brokenness that Nehemiah saw drove him to pray, praying for four months. And you come to verse five and you begin to see the very characteristic of the prayer of God. This is not necessarily a template for you to pray, but it's instructive to see how the heart of Nehemiah was pressed when he was broken before God. And the first thing that he did is that it drove him to pray, acknowledging who he was praying to. Do we come to pray to a living God, or are we? Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul will keep. And no, what Nehemiah did is he began with. He said he was praying and says in the. In the translation, Lord, the original says Jehovah. Now, they would have never said that a good Jewish person would always sit there and go, adonai, meaning Lord. But the word was actually Jehovah, which comes from the four letters. It's called the Tetragrammaton. And in those four letters, what it translates as is Jesus and God and Father are saying the I am. When Moses asked, who should I tell him? Sent me. Tell him the I am. Sent you. So Nehemiah began with the I am. Then he talks about the God of heavens. That's not just a reference to a place and saying, okay, God's up there. No, because when it says that he is God, he is ruler. He has the authority in the heavenly places, in the heavenly realms. And if you remember back a couple weeks ago, when we talked about the armor of God in the book of Ephesians, he said, we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but we wrestle against principalities and powers. We have an unseen enemy. And so his prayer begins with, hey, Lord, you're in charge. You see the unseen. And then it says, the God who is great. Gadol is the Hebrew word, means immense. And he is. I think it's unfortunate that all of the translations say great and awesome, because in the original there is no letter, and it's one letter in Hebrew, but there's no letter that sits there and says, this is an. And what Nehemiah was expressing by the Spirit of God when he wrote his memoirs, it was, you are the great awesome fearful. You are fear inspiring. Do we ever fear God? In our prayers, we are before a living God who has control of all things. And then he goes and he says, by the way, you're related to us because you are the God that keeps the covenant, the covenant that was given to Abraham, Isaac, to Jacob, to David, for his people. And I'm going to tell you this right now, I am not a covenant theologian, but I do recognize that God worked by covenants. And by the way, the church is under a covenant. Because when Jesus Christ gathered his disciples in that upper room on the night he was to be betrayed, he said, take this cup and is the new. And we often say testament, but literally, the word means the new covenant in his blood. You are in a covenantal relationship with God. What's that mean? It means that God has promised you things. And God's relationship to us is not based on, you know, you did this for me, I'll do this for you. But it is based on what God has done. God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might be saved. And at the point of salvation, when a person comes to put their trust in Jesus Christ because he died in my place, at that point, the Holy Spirit comes into the life of an individual. You are marked out. You are separated unto God. And by the way, God is the one who knows your intents. He knows what your testimony is before him. In Nehemiah, chapter 1 and verses 6 to 7, he begins to talk about the confession of sin. And what's amazing here is Nehemiah, first of all prayed for the people of Israel. He said, I'm praying for your servants. He was praying for the congregation for the People of Promise. And God had promised that he would bring them back. So he was praying for these people who were part of the covenant. But he also confessed personal sin. He says, lord, I and my family have departed from what your word has described and declared. Now when we go to confession, it's not to another person, but to the Lord himself. That's where Nehemiah was going. And Nehemiah was confessing his sins. Confession is not condemnation, but rather it's the path to restoring someone. When I confess my sins, I often sit at my desk and I say, lord, I am not worthy. My heart before you is broken, even for me. But, Lord, work in me. Work in me. I want to take you to Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 19. As we come to the end here, Ephesians 2:19, it says, Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens. Who is he talking to? Who is Paul writing to Christians? And he says, you're no longer foreigns and aliens. You're no longer separated. But it says, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone in him. Now, notice this in verse 21. In him, the whole building is joined together and rises to become a what? Holy temple in the Lord. The church is the testimony of the living presence of God. That's what the tabernacle was, that's what the temple was, and that is what the church is to be. You are a living temple, and in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his spirit. Are we a disgrace? How often when we look around us at what is called the church, we need to be on our knees and saying, lord, Lord, it's such a disgrace. Raise up your mighty hand, the same mighty hand that took Israel out of Egypt. And by the way, I thought it was very nice that archaeology has now proven the fact that God did open the Red Sea. Because in recent archaeological studies in the Red Sea, they have found the place where there are chariot wheels and skeletons of horses. Gee, when did that happen? When Pharaoh and his army were coming across. What did God do? He says, okay, guys, I'm going to shed the water. And they were destroyed. God brought them out with a high hand. God has saved you with a high hand. He has saved you through his shed blood on the cross. And he has risen from the dead. Have we honored or are we profaning the name of the Lord? Do we have brokenness before God for the church like Nehemiah? We need to fall on our knees and pray for this church, for this body of believers. Not just because many of us around here need extra prayer for physical needs, but because of the testimony of the church being together and being the testimony that is supposed to take the good news of salvation to every place where we are. I want to close with this. Confession isn't about shame. It's about revival. Lord, I've messed up. Lord. Work in me. Change me. God hasn't changed. He is still the merciful faithful, ready to restore. There have been times in my life where I've been broken before God, and I can tell you, I know he restores. But will we respond with the same urgency and brokenness as Nehemiah did? Or will we just sit in the rubble and say, oh, well, there we are. [00:34:32] Speaker A: Thank you for tuning into this episode of Roots of Faith, a ministry of Lawn Evangelical Congregational Church in Lawn, Pennsylvania. We hope today's message has uplifted you and deepened your relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember, whether you're new in the faith or have walked with him for years, God's word is always fresh and powerful to transform. If you are blessed by this episode, please share it with friends. And don't forget to subscribe. You never miss an update. We would love for you to join us on Sunday at 10:30am at 5566 Elizabethtown Road, Route 241 in Lawn, Pennsylvania. As always, stay rooted in the Word, stand firm in faith and keep growing in Christ.