Restoring Christian Values Back into America

Nehemiah 1                            

In America, freedom by freedom, truth by truth, we are losing the legacy that our founding fathers bought for us. What do we need to do about it?

What did Nehemiah do?

Nehemiah 1:3

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 also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.”

Can you apply that to America today?

Recognize the Problem

Nehemiah had asked his brother, “What is the situation?” (See Nehemiah 1:2.) He wanted to know the truth.

Because the walls have fallen, decency has decayed. The Ten Commandments are out, and humanism is in. We have ceased to be shocked. Do we want the blessing of God on our nation and our leadership? Can God bless debauchery? We cannot tolerate that which is intolerable.

The first thing Nehemiah did was get this picture—Jerusalem’s walls broken down, God’s people living in survival mode—and it broke his heart. (See Nehemiah 1:4.)

Humble Yourself in Prayer

It is not enough to see the ruins; we need to weep over them.

Contrition

Your children, your city, your nation, the souls of men, and the trampled glory of God are worth weeping over. The things that break the heart of Almighty God ought to break your heart.

Confession

Nehemiah prayed,

Nehemiah 1:6b-7

Both my father’s house and I have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against You, and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses.

He confessed both national sin and personal sin. “For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God” (1 Peter 4:17a).

Confidence

Nehemiah 1:8a,9a

Remember, I pray, the word that You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, “…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…”

All true prayer is based on confidence in the promise of God. Nehemiah is reminding God of His own Word.

Commitment

Nehemiah 1:11b

“Let Your servant prosper this day, I pray, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.” For I was the king’s cupbearer.

Nehemiah was about to take his job—even his life—in his hands, to ask the king for a favor. He was not content to see the ruins and weep.

Get to Work, Taking Back America

Nehemiah is going to get help from King Artaxerxes, but he is really getting help from God. Nehemiah knew he needed three things.

1. The King’s permission. “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it” (Nehemiah 2:5b).

Pray that the King of Kings would use you. Come to the King and hear Him say, “I send you.”

2. The King’s protection. “If it pleases 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” (Nehemiah 2:7b).

God has given us written protection, too—His Word.

3. The King’s provision. “…And a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he must give me timber…” And the king granted them to me according to the good hand of my God upon me” (Nehemiah 2:8).

That is, it was not Artaxerxes, but Almighty God who gave him provision. God’s work is never stopped because of insufficient funds, but because of insufficient obedience.