Sunday Setup – Nehemiah 1:5-2:8

Hey, Cross Church family and welcome to the Sunday setup. This is our time each week, Thursdays at 2:00, where we digitally gather together across our social media platforms to prepare our hearts for Sunday. When we dive into a text, we say every goal, it is our uh it is our goal each week to praise through the text, to pray through the text, to preach through the text so we can go practice it in our week. And today, as we dive into this series that we kicked off last week, we're going to be covering a longer passage in Nehemiah chapter 1 that's going to bleed into chapter 2. But we're going to start in verse 5. And Nehemiah is writing this kind of in first person. But he starts it here and he says, "When I heard these words, I sat down and wept. I mourned for a number of days fasting and praying before the God of the heavens." And then he gets in here in verse 5. He said, "I send Lord, the God of the heavens, the great and awe inspiring God who keeps his gracious covenant with those who love him and keep his commands. Let your eyes be open and your ears be attentive to hear your servants prayer. That I now pray to you day and night for your servants, the Israelites. I confess the sins we have committed against you. Both I and my father's family have sinned. We have acted corruptly toward you and have not kept the commands, statues, and ordinance you gave your servant Moses. Please remember what you commanded your servant Moses. If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples. But if you return to me and carefully observe my commands, even though your exiles were banished to the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there, and I will bring them to the place where I chose to have my name dwell. They are your servants and your people. You redeemed them by your great power and strong hand. Please, Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant and to that of your servants who delight to revere your name. Give your servant success today and grant him compassion in the presence of this man. At the time, I was the king's cup bearer. During the month of Nissan in the 20th year of King Arc Xerxes, when wine was set before me, I took the wine and I gave it to the king. I'd never been sad in his presence. So the king said to me, "Why do you look so sad? When you aren't sick, this is not nothing but sadness of heart. I was overwhelmed with fear." And I replied to the king, "May the king live forever. Why should I not be sad when the city where my ancestors are buried lies in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire? Then the king asked me, "What is your request?" So I prayed to the God of the heavens. And I answered the king, "If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor with you, send me to Judah, into the city where my ancestors are buried, so that I might rebuild it." The king with the queen seated beside him asked me, "How long will your journey take?" and when will you return? So I gave him a definitive time and it pleased the king to send me. I said to the king, if it pleases the king, let him have readers letters written to the governors of the region, less of the Euphrates River, so that they will grant me safe passage until I reach Judah. And let me have a letter written to at ASAP, keeper of the king's forest, so that he will give me timber to rebuild the gates of the temple, fortress, the city wall, and the home where I live. And listen how he wraps up this part of the passage. The king granted my request for the gracious hand of God was on me. Throughout this passage, we see Nehemiah prayed to God. Then we see the answer to that prayer as God starts to move this story along. Move in the life of Nehemiah to achieve this big vision that God gives him. But I love here of the ways that Nehemiah addresses God. The way he names God is he's praising him. But on two times in this passage, he refers to him as the God of the heavens. And we serve not the God of this earth, not the God of the temporary, not the God that's here today and God tomorrow. We serve the God of the heavens. And as we start this time to prepare our hearts for Sunday, I want us to start with a time of just praise, of worship, of reverence, of acknowledgement of how amazing our God is. And here's our first prayer prompt is we worship the God of heavens because is we worship the God of the heavens because and in that we worship him because he is sovereign. We worship him because he is all powerful. We worship him because he is the creator. Is we worship the god of the heavens because pray that prayers to our lord. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. We worship you, the God of the heavens, because you are holy, Lord, because you are powerful, because you are loving. Because you dwell in a place where we cannot go in our sin, Lord. Because you are set apart. Because you are all powerful. Cuz you are all existent. You uh always have been and you always will be. Lord, we worship you, the God of the heavens, the father, the son, the holy ghost because you are greater than anything else in our universe, God. And we know that we not only can worship you, we not only can look to you as the greatest one, but Lord, we also know you move in our lives and our affairs. In verse 8, as Nehemiah closes this section, when he's talking about how he's prayed God to seek wisdom, how God has shown him a path, how God created an opening to talk to the king, it says the king granted my request, but it didn't say because Artex Xerxes was a nice guy. It said because the gracious hand of my God was on me. And Nehemiah prayed for the gracious hand of God to be upon him. And today as we continue in our prayer is maybe we have requests of how we want God to move in our life. Maybe for sicknesses, maybe for illness, maybe for family hardships, or maybe it's to be able to do the will of God more fully. And here's our second prayer is God, let your gracious hand be seen in. God, let your gracious hand be seen in maybe it's healing a family member of sickness. God, let your gracious hand be seen in taking away the anxiety that you're faced. God, let your gracious hand be seen in leading my family the right way with love and with truth. God, let your gracious hand be seen in. Pray those prayers to our God. Heat. Heat. Yeah. Let your gracious hand just be seen in cross church. Lord, as we seek you, as we gather together as a family, as we uh pray about what is next for our church, how you will use us to do your kingdom work, just let your gracious hand go before us. We know that if we try to do things apart from you, it will fail. But when we do things in step with you, aligned with you on your path in your gracious hand, God, we will see how lives will be changed. God, we just thank you for this time as we see, as we worship you, the God of the heavens, as we recognize that we need your gracious hand, your guidance uh to go forward to do the great things that you have set before us. And Lord, ultimately we ask that you just be with us this week. God, you prepare our hearts for what we will study in your word that we will worship through our singing that we will pray through on Sunday as we just gather together and do your work and do your will. God, we thank you for this time. We thank you for all who are listening to this and our church family. And we just ask that we can be stewards and we can be those moving in our community. And lift all this up in Jesus' name. Amen. Hey guys, thank you for joining us. We'll see you this Sunday as we dive in to the book of Nehemiah. Have a good one.