Episodes
Sunday Jan 20, 2019
Nehemiah: From Rubble to Return
Sunday Jan 20, 2019
Sunday Jan 20, 2019
This week begins a new series on the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah had such a big view of God and it gave him strength, security, peace, and contentment in the midst of uncertainty, insecurity, danger, turmoil, complaint, grumbling, weariness.
He also placed a high priority of prayer. Prayer as we shall see today and in coming days, was not an add-on for Nehemiah. It wasn’t a “spiritual discipline.” It wasn’t a ritual. It wasn’t only for when he was in a real mess. When prayer is only “you HAVE to pray because God wants you to” then you really don’t understand prayer.
Prayer, as we will see in Nehemiah, is a response of relationship. We don’t talk to God because He’s a high maintenance God who needs conversation with us our He’ll be lonely or empty without us. Prayer is a response of our heart because we know who He is, what He has done, and how without Him, we will never really be ultimately satisfied. We need prayer far more than God needs it. And we need it all the time, whether we realize it or not. So we will look at Nehemiah's prayer this week and the person of Nehemiah next week.
Text: Nehemiah 1:11b-2:8
Speaker: Sam Shin
Date: 1/20/19
Sunday Jan 27, 2019
Nehemiah's God
Sunday Jan 27, 2019
Sunday Jan 27, 2019
Last week began the series on Nehemiah's daunting burden over the ruins of his homeland. He was so troubled, he wept and prayed for 4 months, this as a man of action. But as J. I. Packer comments, he had to and we have to if we ever want to do anything that honors God.
Prayer...centers on the hallowing of God’s name and the doing of his will—has, among its other effects, a reflex effect. It purifies the heart; it purges our attitudes and motives; it melts down all the self-centeredness, self-sufficiency, and self-reliance that as fallen creatures we bring to it, and programs us to work humbly, in a God-honoring, God-fearing, God-dependent way.
It is far too easy to do anything, raise kids, labor at work, solve conflict, prepare sermons, without God, without prayer. But J. I. Packer is right, prayer melts away self. It forces us to stop and see that actually, God doesn’t really NEED us in this world. Instead, He invites us to join Him, but we must first see He really is God. We see this in Nehemiah as we first look at his Call in 1:11b-2:3, his Faith in 2:4-8a, and ultimately his view of God in v. 8b.
Text: Nehemiah 1:11b-2:8
Speaker: Sam Shin
Date: 1/27/19