Transformed Through Prayer

Today we will be reading first from the Old Testament in Exodus chapter 34.

Exodus chapter 34 beginning at verses 29 and when you've arrived there please stand in honor of the reading of God's Word if you're able.

Exodus chapter 34 found on page 74 in the Black Pew Bibles. Exodus 34 verse 29.

When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain,

Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. Aaron and all the people of Israel saw

Moses and behold the skin of his face shone and they were afraid to come near him.

But Moses called to them and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him and Moses talked with them.

Afterward all the people of Israel came near and he commanded them all that the Lord had he commanded them all that the

Lord had spoken with him in in Mount Sinai and when Moses had finished speaking with them he put a veil over his face.

Whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him he would remove the veil until he came out and when he came out and told the people of Israel what he had commanded the people of Israel would see the face of Moses and the skin of Moses face was shining and Moses would put the veil over his face again until he went in to speak with him.

Please turn now to the New Testament 1st Corinthians chapter 9 1st

Corinthians chapter 9 verse 15 and that's found on page 957 1st

Corinthians chapter 9 beginning at verse 15. But I have made no use of all these rights nor am

I writing these things to secure any such provision for I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting for if I preach the gospel that gives me no ground for boasting for necessity is laid upon me.

Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel for if I do this of my own will I have a reward but if not of my own will

I am still entrusted with the stewardship what then is my reward that in my preaching

I may present the gospel free of charge so as to make full so as to not make full use of my right in the gospel for though I am free from all

I have made myself a servant to all that I might win more of them to the

Jews I became a Jew in order to win Jews to those under the law I became as one under the law though not being myself under the law that I might win those under the law to those outside the law

I became as one outside the law not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ that I might win those outside the law to the weak

I became weak that I might win the weak I have become all things to all people that by that that by all means

I might save some I do it all for the sake of the gospel that I may share with them in its bless let me share with them in its blessings do you not know that in a race all the runners run but only one receives the prize the prize so run that you may obtain it every athlete exercises self -control in all things they do it to receive a perishable wreath but we an imperishable so I do not run aimlessly

I do not box as one beating the air but I discipline my body and keep it under control lest after preaching to others

I myself should be disqualified amen please be seated as we pray thank you

Lord for your word thank you Lord that you have spoken and spoken clearly

Lord and definitively to us we pray Lord for your aid today for your spirits help to empower our pastor to give him the words and the strength to preach your truth faithfully

Lord we pray Lord that that truth would fall on fertile soil that hearts would be prepared today to receive that word and that we would find ourselves closer drawn closer to you rather than farther after this message

Lord because of our own hearts Lord I pray that your spirit would help us to be those who look into the perfect law the law of liberty and being not hearers who forget but doers

Lord and blessed in that doing Lord pray Lord that you would be with us today and that you would and that you would bless not only the preaching but the hearing of this word in Jesus name we pray amen well turn if you would to the book of Nehemiah I want to read to you verses 1 through 8 of chapter 2 in Nehemiah and this will bring us to Nehemiah's discussion his encounter with King Artaxerxes which will set the tone for the rest of the book really that follows our message this morning is just going to be the first three verses and it's the beginning of a three -part series

Nehemiah chapter 2 verses 1 through 8 will be three separate sermons and each time

I'm going to read to you all eight verses though this morning just verses 1 through 3 for actual preaching so Nehemiah 2 1 through 8 in the month of Nisan in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes when wine was before him

I took up the wine and gave it to the king now I had not been sad in his presence and the king said to me why is your face sad seeing you are not sick there's nothing but sadness of the heart then

I was very much afraid I said to the king let the king live forever why should not my face be sad when the city the place of my father's graves lies in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire then the king said to me what are you requesting so I prayed to the

God of heaven and I said to the king if it pleases the king and if your servant has found some favor in your sight that you send me to Judah to the city of my father's graves that I may rebuild it and the king said to me the

Queen sitting beside him how long will you be gone and when will you return so pleased the king to send me when

I'd given him a time and I said to the king if it pleases the king let letters be given me to the governors of the province beyond the river that they may let me pass through until I come to Judah and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king's forest that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress of the temple and for the wall of the city and for the house that I shall occupy and the king granted me what

I'd asked for the good hand of my God was upon me and God bless the reading and the hearing of his word this morning you know there's a couple of kinds of people

I really admire one is the sort of person who seems to do everything well and does a lot of things that he does well you might think of the 19th century

Dutchman Abraham Kuyper who was like that he was the prime minister of the

Netherlands he founded and became universe or president of a seminary in a university he was a respected theologian still respected today and an author and much more than that and he did it all well he did it all even superbly he's one of those people who causes people like me to say of myself well but I'm a jack -of -all -trades and a master of none and we say that at least

I said because I admire the Kuypers of the world who's a master of all things that he puts his hand to and the other type of person

I kind of admire are those people have that single unwavering focus in life one thing one it consuming passion that informs everything they do they're driven with this one single vision marriage college residence everything they do passes through this one filter does it progress or does it hinder this one single goal

I have in life you know our top athletes are like that whether it's morally right for them to earn millions and millions of dollars because they can hit or throw or catch a ball or put it through a circular thing that's a question not for today but there's no question that these top athletes enter into the rarefied heights of pro basketball or pro football or baseball or any of those things but by one road their whole life their every calorie their every exertion all of it is for one thing

I will be an NFL quarterback or an international Formula One race driver or an

Olympic athlete or Olympic gymnast and that's just for sports and we can think of entertainers and musicians and astronauts it's all the same you just don't get there if you allow anything to take you away from your one mission

Nehemiah the subject of our last few weeks preaching and the next several weeks

Lord willing he's the latter of these two types whether he always was a man with that one singular focus is impossible to answer because all we know of him is in this book and it gives us very little of his actual background perhaps he was like me a sort of jack -of -all -and -master -of -none and the

Lord brought him by his spirit into a life focused on a single objective this morning's text brings us to the result of Nehemiah's four months of weeping and mourning and praying and fasting before the

Lord and what happened as a result of all this is given to us in such straightforward terms it's almost anticlimactic the king

Artaxerxes said yes what do you request the answer is yes not just yes but yes with full royal support and funding and only one condition laid upon Nehemiah that had nothing to do with what he was going to do in Judah and the wall around Jerusalem the only condition laid upon Nehemiah was to return to set a time to come back we're going to go through these messages one at a time by using the questions that the king posed to Nehemiah that's going to be our guide and this morning is the first of those verses two and three which has this question in there why is your face sad which allows him to reveal the dilemma over which he had wept and mourned and fasted and prayed for four months so the power of prayer is an obvious lesson here that God answers prayers everywhere in our

Bibles from the statement of fact that he does hear to the record in history that hearing he acts

Nehemiah's four months before the throne of grace would have been an exercise of a madman if he thought other than that he was praying to a living

God who is capable of anything and willing and ready to answer so the power of prayer is one of the lessons that we can extract very easily from these verses also the wisdom of planning the wisdom of planning of looking ahead

Nehemiah did pray that famous arrow prayer we have none of the words of the prayer but the context allows us to read in something like thank you

Lord for granting me this opportunity now may I use it well and to your glory something like that in about a quarter of a second so I want this morning to look at just this first question why is your face sad and as I said the power of prayer the necessity of prayer is an obvious lesson in these verses that we should pray we should trust

God and we should pray as long as we must Luke chapter 18 Jesus speaks of the persistent widow going to the unjust judge as she goes over and over and over again just wears him out with her with her seeking after justice before him which eventually he does in the parable give her that's a clear lesson to these verses

I want us to think this morning I want you to think this morning about the real power of prayer to transform to transform not just the circumstances though God may do that but to transform yourself the first question leads us into that why is your face sad to understand this and the question and what's going on here we do need to take a little time with the setting what is actually happening at that moment when

Nehemiah has this opportunity to place his request to place the result of four months of weeping and mourning and fasting and praying before the king excuse me most scholars believe that this was during a great festival that the king through like what his predecessors

Xerxes had done at the beginning of Esther in the book of Esther by the way Xerxes the current king's father

Artaxerxes father his name was Xerxes in the book of Esther is called Ahasuerus same man

Ahasuerus just another name for Xerxes so don't let that ever confuse you but Xerxes Ahasuerus in the beginning of Esther's book had this great feast this great festival

Artaxerxes in this incident with Nehemiah was doing something like that and it might have been similar to Herod's banquet in Mark chapter 6 or Matthew chapter 14 and the point of all that background is that it makes the king's magnanimous inquiry public think of Esther she comes to the king to Xerxes without an appointment and the king knows that it's important so he asks what she needs and says it will be granted with just that one limit of up to half of his kingdom

Herod many centuries later does something very similar when his

Queen's daughter pleases everyone with her dance and and he offers her what can I give you as a reward for this dance up to half my kingdom and the point of all that is just so we understand that the king's question and all that follows was a public thing then it happened when there were others in attendance and others watching so that's the first thing we need to understand about the setting the other thing we might want to understand is the sad face a sad face was a breach of etiquette you see everyone was supposed to be so thrilled to be even be near the king much less at a banquet or a festival or a party that he threw to be on that invitation list should be such a thrill such a joy that only joy should be seen on your face you know they actually have reliefs they show servants around their

Persian kings they have the handle of their mouth and a lot of the archaeologists think that the meaning of that is that they are hiding before the king their real feelings so the hands over the mouth to keep away the true feelings but the joy the eyes are showing for joy or something like that so the sad face to look unhappy when you are in the presence of one such as the great king of Persia who called himself as did others like him king of kings and lord of lords and words like that we know who those should attribute to but if you're in that presence you should be happy joyous celebrating all the time but Nehemiah's face you see was sad and the original language says it was more of a bad face and bad or sad both of them would come from the the root word which actually means evil now it wouldn't be translated as an evil face that would be taking it too far but it's the root word that results in sad face if the question is why did the king remark on that the simplest answer is both best and more important it's right here in the text why did the king notice his sad face

Nehemiah tells us I had not been sad in his presence all palace protocols aside

Nehemiah was acting differently and that alone drew Artaxerxes attention the not sad in his presence we could read that said not previously or ever before been sad in his presence that could have been a quite a long time our book begins this isn't or this chapter begins it's 20th year the 20th year of this king that this incident occurs we don't know how long

Nehemiah was his cup bearer we spoke a few weeks ago about how close to the king the cup bearer really was quite possible

Nehemiah had been his cup bearer the entire time but it's also possible he wasn't it good long time they had a strong relationship this

I had not been sad in his presence I'd not previously shown this kind of a face in his presence could have quite a bit of history behind it is the only point to point

I'm trying to make he's definitely acting differently and the king further perceives that the sadness of his cup bearer's face has welled up from his heart you see it's no act as if you're trying to get attention and it must be a serious matter to have committed what might have been a very grave and never -before -seen a breach of good manners in showing this long sad bad face so I want us to ask

I want to look at this text and ask ourselves and try to answer what caused the sad face let me think about it if anyone should set the example for how to rejoice in the king's presence it would be the cup bearer and if they would be expected to be rejoicing in the king's presence it would be this cup bearer who had never before been sad in his presence of Nehemiah an

Israelite a patriot existing the living breathing death of exile something he had not escaped or survived in chapter one when that contingent comes from Jerusalem to him he asks about those who escaped the exile who survived the exile recall that we made the point back then

Nehemiah was not an escapee Nehemiah was not a survivor because he was in exile he was in servitude he was in Persia calls it

Babylon but Persia had taken over Babylon so he's in Babylon the land of exile he's not a survivor he did not escape and despite that despite that he never before shown sadness and now at this moment he's no longer able to hide his feelings he's no longer able to mask himself he's no longer able like those relief show put his hand over his face and cover those feelings why is that he may have been cup bearer for 20 years so there's 20 years of no sad face let us at least speculate that if it's not the full 20 years of Artaxerxes reign he was cup bearer to this king for several years day in day out week after month after year no sad face because Nehemiah was always happy no because Nehemiah was able to fulfill his duty and be happy in the presence of the king until now until now and this thing that had never happened before he sat in his presence four months of prayer four months of weeping and mourning and fasting and praying before God four months of agony of agonizing before God prayer you see prayer transformed him prayer is a means that God uses to mold and to shape us into the image of his son prayer is for us prayers transformative to the person who's praying

Nehemiah been concerned for Jerusalem for quite some time but now he can't hold back his feelings four months of prayer transformed him from a concerned citizen to a man of God with the mind of God we might think of Ezra as the priest who did ministry in Nehemiah as the manager who got things done but that dichotomy is false there are functions there are separate duties that's true but the church doesn't run on a business model even a good and efficient one you know the

Apostle Paul wrote woe to me if I do not preach the gospel necessity had been laid on him

Jesus read this to you a few moments ago that's in the past if he had received the necessity from outside of himself

God had laid it on him for Paul necessity came in a moment outside the

Damascus Gate for Nehemiah four months of prayer transformed an idea to a life's work we often hear that prayer is to talk with God and that's true it is true prayer is talking with God but that's not complete to pray to really pray is to meet with God something deeper than just talking to him let's not give up talking to him

I don't want make anybody self -conscious that they feel like when they pray they talk to God yes continue pray to God talk to God but understand we're really praying we are meeting with the one true living

God to pray is to seek after the mind of God you see if when we pray we know we are meeting with God and our minds are being conformed to his we cannot but be transformed by the encounter we cannot come away the way we went in by a myriad of circumstances too many to name transformation comes to us in different paces for all of us some have that Damascus road bolt of lightning others the slower burn

Nehemiah met with God for four months and came away transformed what had been a desire easy to mask became a burden impossible to hide it seems he had always wanted to go back to Jerusalem and do some good to the city there rebuilding the wall but it was a desire it was a plan it was an ambition it was an aspiration whatever word you want to put in there he was always able to cover up his face and hide the true feeling from the king why perhaps the feeling wasn't that intense perhaps

I would argue the four months of prayer had gained for Nehemiah the mind of God about this plan this idea this hope this ambition this aspiration that he had turned it from that to a passion to a certainty that this desire to go there and do this thing was actually the mind of God that he should do it that's what four months of prayer did to transform him that's why his face was sad when it had never previously been do you have such prayers as that prayers that can realign your life's course prayers they can change your entire view sometimes we think of prayer such a mundane activity because we're to pray always praying constantly giving thanks to God in the name of Christ Jesus our

Lord for all things and let us never stop doing that and yet we pray so often sometimes

I fear we forget that when we pray we are as it were face -to -face with our

Creator we are coming to him in the name of his son Jesus who died for our sins that's got to be transformative let us not ever become so accustomed to prayer we become like the gravediggers in Hamlet who can sing while they're digging a grave and Hamlet's with his friend

I forget the man's name he says how can they do that when they're doing such a thing as digging a grave and the answer is that by constant use they've just grown accustomed to the job they've forgotten its gravity it's just become a mundane every day hey what are we doing today well let's go dig another grave for some poor person who died prayer can never become like that whether you pray three times a day twice a day ten times whatever the case let us remember that when we go to God in prayer as me

Nehemiah did for these four months that you are kneeling and bowing before the living

God do we have prayers like that prayers where we come away knowing that we have really encountered him not just talked to him but really felt ourselves to be in his presence

I would argue that Nehemiah was in that state for four months and when he came out of it and met with the king again and had a chance to think about his city compared to this palatial city he was in there in exile he couldn't hide it anymore so consumed with he was as he was with what he was now sure was

God's will for him in chapter one we have a man concerned as a patriot for God's city and God's people in chapter two we have the same man his patriotic zeal transformed to a passion to serve

God by serving his people take special note how I said that we serve

God by serving his people to serve God is to serve each other search out someday the one another's in the scripture and see that that's true how do we serve

Christ each other we serve each other and is what

Nehemiah is learning here he's not just going to build a wall he's not just got a project that he's going to get done he's going to serve the living

God by doing good for his people in the city where God has chosen for his name to dwell there's a transformation here that we just can't let go of when

Moses met with God this is why I had Jesus read to you from chapter 34 of Exodus when Moses met with God he came away transformed and how do we know that shining face that shining face reflecting the

God that he had actually met with when Peter met with God you remember that Luke chapter 5 he fell on his knees and he begged him to leave

I'm speaking of course of Jesus Christ our Lord he said depart from me for I'm a sinful man oh

Lord when Isaiah met with God he cried out that he was ruined when

Nehemiah met with God his idea for God became a work of God no longer a good idea no longer just a good deed for the people but ministry in the name of the

Lord God of heaven we also have to deal with Nehemiah's great fear the king said to me what are you requesting so I prayed to the

God of heaven if it please excuse me I lost my place yeah there it is right where I left it end of chapter 2 then

I was very much afraid the great fear he actually feared much and with great force and we might ask why why why did he have great fear was it because he had breached etiquette by looking sad when everyone near the king was supposed to be glad for the privilege the reason for the fear you see is not actually specified but it is there in the text as an important detail and it's stated to us in an important in a forceful way that is to say it seems important after four months of prayer and fasting the whole issue that drove him to the knee his knees had permeated permeated his very being he's not the hypocrite that Jesus railed against in Matthew 6 who's doing it just for an act who's saddened his face so everybody could see that he's fasting that's not what

Nehemiah is doing he had so immersed himself in his devotions to God he was so focused on that on that one issue he had so much the mind of God on the matter that he had in a sense become the issue and in a sense the issue had become him you see he's going to become that one purpose kind of man that I so admire the wall in Jerusalem is going to be his life's work his high position is the cupbearer to the king is hardly going to be remembered

Nehemiah is the man who rebuilt the walls and restored civic order and pride in Judah and here's his chance if he explains his sadness in a way that gains the king's sympathy and cooperation he can move on to the nuts and bolts of the venture if he stumbles here the entire project the whole passion that he has now knowing it's not just an idea it's not just a project it's serving

God if he stumbles here the whole thing might be stillborn in the 1970s there was a pro football player named

Jackie Smith how many of you heard of Jackie Smith oh good he was a prototype of tight ends who could catch as well as they blocked he had this standout career with the st.

Louis Cardinals many of you weren't born when they were the st. Louis Cardinals but they were he went to five

Pro Bowls he had 480 catches he had 7 ,918 receiving yards remember this was when tight ends didn't really catch the ball but there were blockers he retired having done it all except the

Super Bowl he had never been to a Super Bowl the Dallas Cowboys talked him out of retirement for a season and the next thing he knew he was in Super Bowl 13 he was with America's team the

Dallas Cowboys they had Roger Staubach the finest quarterback they were such a good team we called them the machine and in Super Bowl 13 they're playing the

Pittsburgh Steelers who had the vaunted steel curtain defense and the boys were down in the game and quarterback

Roger Staubach he's the best there was he goes back to pass and future

Hall of Famer Jackie Smith is open in the end zone Staubach sees him and he tosses the ball right to him and we say in the breadbasket mean right there between the numbers easy to catch you and I might have catch it and Jackie Smith future

Hall of Famer prototype of the modern tight end drops it he drops the pass he had the moment he had dreamed of a drop to pass you or I might have caught

Nehemiah doesn't drop the pass he had prayed for four months and was ready and verse 8 at the end of this section

I read earlier is gonna reckon all this to just one cause the good hand of my God upon me you know sometimes objected today that is

New Covenant believers with the Holy Spirit dwelling within empowering and speaking through us as he did with Peters in chapter 4 verse 8 of Acts were read the

Peter filled with the Holy Spirit and he goes on to speak to the Sanhedrin blowing them away with his answer because of eggs is because of examples like this that we don't need to prepare ourselves that we just need to trust

God and let him do it all through us I want to dissuade anyone who might think this way chapter 4 verse 8 does not mean that Peter was filled then is more like Peter having been previously filled with the

Spirit it does not mean say or mean or imply that preparation is not incumbent upon us second

Timothy 215 do your best to present yourself to God as one approved a worker who is not who has no need to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth don't say to just sit back and trust

God we are to trust God to use our hard work to his glory Ephesians 518 commands us to be filled with the

Spirit and that means to follow the Spirit's ways rather than the world's rather than drunkenness and debauchery for example live a life consistent with the

Spirit who has filled you it doesn't mean that if you seek a filling before the debauched party you're going to be okay

Paul means do what the Spirit in you would have you to do no planning though no preparation by prayer no that's how we conflict with Paul's commands but put on the

Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision make no plan give no forethought or foresight if you will for the flesh a positive command that comes by negative one where we're commanded to not make plans to gratify it means do make plans on how to put on the

Lord Jesus Christ I wonder why we don't pray like Nehemiah why do we not in prayer commit our ways to the

Lord and offer up our plans I think too often because we're planning something other than putting on Christ too often we're planning quite the wrong side of Paul's equation from a moment ago too often we know that if we prayed honestly

God might interfere with my plans think of it God might interfere with me

Nehemiah's famous arrow prayer is a wonderful encouragement to saints who only have a moment to come instantly to the throne of grace and praise

God we serve a God who looks to the heart and hears the faithful cries of his people let's remember that that quick prayer was preceded by four months of constant prayer in fact where verse 111 tells us that he was cupbearer to the king and then verse 21 we have him in the

King's presence it seems he was called to serve him while he was praying someone came and said something like hey

Nehemiah it's time to get up the party's about to start the wines about to be prepared about to be poured you've been praying now for four months it's time to get back to work something like that if you read the end of chapter 2 the end of his prayer and go to excuse me chapter 1 in the end of his prayer and go to chapter 2 it all goes very quickly give me success this day with this man and the next thing you know he's in the presence of that man

Artaxerxes the king so let's get up Nehemiah you've been on your knees for a long while time to get back to work is it time to be happy well yes in fact it is it is time to be happy we can agree with the scholars who say that the occasion was a festival that's no time to make a

Persian king look bad by moping around with a long face but Nehemiah could no more get rid of his sadness than Moses could his shining reflection of God's glory or Peter could get up off his knees until Jesus lifted him up off his knees

Moses like Nehemiah centuries later was so caught up in God's presence that everything showed in him that he had been in the presence of God that's the shining face that's

Nehemiah's sadness that can no longer be camouflaged you see prayer had transformed him he had assimilated into every fiber of his being what he'd been praying about we said at the beginning of this book of Nehemiah is not will not be proclaimed to you as a procedure manual for building projects how do we expand the building of the church how do

I organize people into work parties how do we get the finances going we need to do all those things in a sensible and orderly and decent manner but this book is so much more than just a process think of it this way a pastor says to his church now here's a good idea we're going to build a wall we're going to improve the playground we're going to expand the size of the main building we're going to build a wall now here's what we'll get the materials and here's how we're going to finance it we have the permits in hand and all we have to do is get volunteers organized into work parties and we're set to go and everybody says that sounds great let's get behind the idea and let's work hard because pastors organized and he's got the money lined up and we've got the work parties organized and we know the people who can supervise the work parties because we've got three people in the church know how to swing a hammer and actually hit the nail another pastor tells of his hours and his days and his months before God he sets a vision for a wall the same one as the other guy conceived and they both finish the walls both pastors and both churches finish their walls or whatever the project is that you want to envision and the two men get together and they tour each other's walls and the first one notes that they're exactly the same and look at your wall looks just like my wall and the second pastor the one whose knees were worn out from so many months of prayer he's shocked.

Is it the same? No, they're not the same they're entirely different. They're not the same at all.

What are you even looking at? They can't be. Well, the first pastor the well -organized pastor he's just exasperated because what we're talking in different worlds here they're made of the same material they cost the same amount of money they took as long to build they're the same color the same height they both protect equally well they're the same height the length and breadth what on earth difference are you seeing?

Oh says the second pastor the difference is everywhere the difference is everything come here

I'll show you. He takes him along the wall to the corner of the wall and he says look there I want you to look at that bottom brick the beginning of the wall.

Don't you see that difference? He says no I just see a stone just like all the other stones just like the one on my wall.

No says that pastor. Look closer emblazoned in that stone and set in letters of pure gold letters of gold refined seven times right there don't you see it?

Says done by the good hand of our God that was upon us. Now he starts to see the difference and the second pastor says but look at the adjacent service go around the corner.

Do you see what that says? To the praise of the glory of his grace. Do you see the difference between just a project and a passion for God's honor?

Do you see the the difference between a plan that may have been what Nehemiah had before his four months of prayer and being transformed by that prayer making him so that he could no longer hide his feelings before this king.

That's the whole difference here. I will bet you Nehemiah was a man that had he been able to just go off to Jerusalem four months or even four years before this he would have gotten that wall done.

As we read of him as we go through Nehemiah we're going to find this man who's high charge, energetic, precise, organized, charismatic, someone you'd want to follow.

I'll bet he could have gotten it done. Would it have been the same wall? Not even close.

Not even close. This wall is going to be to the glory of God.

This wall is going to be attributed to the good hand of our God that was upon us. That's the difference between Nehemiah having an ambition to help out versus having a

God -driven passion that begins not with the help or the logistics or any matter of practicality but the very mind of God attained by prayer so infusing the spirit of the man that it oozes out of every pore into this one singular focused vision.

That's why Nehemiah couldn't hide his sad face. He had had the plan in mind for a long time but he hadn't

God's mind of it. Now after four months of devotion he saw it through God's eyes.

As Paul says to the church we have the mind of Christ. As he says in Philippians 2, let this mind be also in you that was in Christ Jesus.

This mind is yours that was in Christ Jesus. So Nehemiah has.

It is God's mind about this wall and then and only then is he ready to show forth how he really feels about the condition of things and follow

God's leading and to know God's full and complete blessing. After four months of devotion he sees it through God's eyes and his face is sad.

Now he's following in the steps of our Savior Jesus whose path was moistened with tears that he wept over Jerusalem.

Now prayer is transformative. Prayer is for us to gain the mind of God. Prayer is for us to offer up to God all of our ambitions, all of our aspirations, all of our plans, all the things that we think we ought to do and truly set them before him.

And not just listening to prayer for that first answer that comes to mind that satisfies and justifies all that we think we want to do, but through real prayer and weeping and mourning and fasting before God, looking to his word, hearing him as we pray, finding our plans brought into compliance with his mind which we have in the scripture.

Think of the power of prayer. Think of what it did to Nehemiah in changing him.

Think of our Lord Jesus Christ praying according to Hebrews 5, 7 with loud cries and tears at Gethsemane, praying to him who was able to save him from death.

We know from the Gospels that three times he prayed for the cross to be taken away and each time he found it planted remaining where it had been since eternity past, which is there at Calvary, ready to embrace him between two thieves.

Our Lord Jesus Christ prayed with tears and with cries to God and ends up on the old rugged cross.

Is that just a piece of wood used for tortures and humiliating execution? Only as seen through practical eyes, only as seen through fleshly eyes, by prayer and by faith is so much more is the tree on which our

Lord suffered and died for our sins. For your sins if you will but believe and seek his forgiveness for those sins.

Our closing thought is simply a reminder that the work of the Lord is this glorious undertaking. If scripture is our guiding light, then prayer is how that light is focused onto the right object.

Will prayer change your plans? It very well might. Will prayer change your plans?

Sometimes it very well should but even if it doesn't it will and it must change us.

Amen? Let's pray. Heavenly Father we thank you for this time that you've given us once again.

I thank you Father for the examples of prayer that you've given us in your word that we may know you better. I thank you

Father for also the transformation that you have wrought in us by your spirit and that that process even continues as we go to you in prayer and seek your face.

I pray Father you continue to reveal yourself to us by your spirit even as your children pray.