Nehemiah's Prayer

In this last prayer stop in the book of Nehemiah, Nehemiah is praying for a people that have made choices that God hates. When the people are rebelling, Nehemiah, as a great leader, recognizes he must pray for himself first. Join guest host, Kennedi, as she walks us through this prayer of Nehemiah.

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Transcript

Press means to apply force.

When God said press, prayer reaches every single situation.

He gave us permission to apply force to every situation that we will go through. And in this podcast, we are going to learn to apply force to what's applying pressure to us.

Hello everybody.

In church, we say praise the Lord. We are so glad that you are joining the press movement today as our podcast continues working its way through every prayer that is in the Bible.

The Lord has been blessing us.

As you may know, if you've listened before, Nehemiah is probably my favorite leader in the Bible.

I just love his style.

I love the way the Lord used him.

I love his attitude towards serving people. I love his no-nonsense approach and yet his humility.

He's just a great guy, though I don't actually know him.

But here today to continue to lead us on this journey is Miss Kennedy O'Kelly. Hi Kennedy. Hi.

Kennedy is one of the leaders at our press club in one of the high schools.

And I want her to share what made you do that. Well, I think going to school with high schoolers is really different because you're starting to figure out who you are as a person.

And I would see people in the hall and be like, hmm, I wonder if they know about God.

So, I talked to my sister and another press member. And I was like, maybe we should do a press club at L&N.

And then, that's how I started. And then, a lot of people came.

I would say for high school because high schoolers have their own mind and when they say something, they mean that.

You know what?

I would say for high school, you guys are doing an amazing job and just overall, this club has been amazing to watch.

What stood out to you the most leading it because this was your first year? What testimony, what event, just whatever.

I think the worship night was great because most of them have never like been in that type of contact with God. And to see some of them go after God is you see that if you go to church, but just to see people that don't go to church go after God like that, and I'm just like, hmm, I wonder what they would do if they, you know, went to church every Sunday. But it was really great to see people go after God and get what they need.

So, today we're going to Nehemiah chapter 13, right?

Yes.

Basically, in Nehemiah 13, Nehemiah had heard about the people of God falling back into their old ways, which is ungodly relationships and buying and selling on the Sabbath day, not giving God his own time and forgetting to do the work that he asked them to do. So, their work, their home and the house of God, they were still all in their sinful ways. So, Nehemiah felt like he needed to go and address them for the things that they were doing. And Nehemiah was frustrated with the people because they didn't really, it was like they didn't really care that what they were doing.

So, he cursed them and even beat some of them down and plucked out their hair. He was really mad at them because he was just like, what are you guys doing?

You know better. And then, he reminded the people that were going back to ungodly relationships that if wise Solomon couldn't handle having a wife that wasn't of God, how are you any better? How can you do any better than he did?

So, he made them promise that they wouldn't give their sons to their daughters or their daughters to their sons and even for themselves. And he asked God to remember him for the deeds that he has done in the house.

So, you're right.

Nehemiah is extremely mad.

He's been away.

He had to go to the king for a while.

And when he comes back, it's like all this chaos. And Tobiah is in the chamber of the house of the Lord, which is crazy because if you listen to this podcast or read Nehemiah, Tobiah is like arch enemy number one, he along with a few others. And this guy who he left in charge has left him in the Lord's house and allowed him to live there. And so, like you said, he comes back, he's angry and he asks him why is the house of God forsaken. So, he gathers everybody together.

And our first prayer, I believe is verse 14.

Could you read it for us, Kennedy?

Let's see.

Remember me, oh my God, concerning this and wipe not out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God and for the office thereof.

So, his first prayer is for him actually.

He needed help to deal with them because they were doing a lot.

And I think he was so angry that there's some wisdom in first praying for yourself.

Yes.

Because otherwise, he didn't want to treat the people of God like just anybody. And I do think you see that with Nehemiah because in the previous prayers, I think it was Nehemiah chapter four's prayers, he prayed for the Lord to judge his enemies. But his family, the children of Israel, he doesn't treat them like enemies, even though he's fighting them. As the story keeps going, you do see him getting on them about the Sabbath, like you said. Like they forgot the simple things.

The Sabbath was part of their norm, their customs. They're allowing people to buy and sell and he puts all of them not just out of the city, but basically tells them to get away from the gates. And he goes and tells the Levites, clean yourselves up and keep the gates, sanctify the Sabbath day.

In other words, let's make it holy again. And so, he looks at God again in verse 22 and can you read us the other prayer? And I commanded the Levites that they should cleanse themselves and that they should come and keep the gates to sanctify the Sabbath day. Remember me, oh my God, concerning this also and spare me according to the greatness of thy mercies.

God's serious about this Sabbath, isn't he?

Yeah, it's a holy day.

So, I don't even know why they thought that was okay. Why do you think they thought that was okay though?

Just being a human?

I think maybe you get so accustomed to one thing that you say, maybe if I do this little one thing, it turns into something bigger and bigger that you just forget about what you were there to originally do. So, I think they may have just forgotten about it and that's not very good. No, it's not.

I do wonder sometimes because the leader was gone, if because they don't feel like they have a leader at the time, they just thought, I'm just going to do what I want to do.

Yeah, like someone watching over them.

So, they felt like it was okay. God's always watching, so.

I think that's the difference between you having to do it because somebody's watching you and you having it in your heart.

Yeah.

Okay, so you're 17?

Yes.

Have you ever known somebody who's dealt like that? Who they didn't have in their heart whatever they have been taught. But because it wasn't in their heart, when nobody was looking, they did something different than what they've been taught.

Yeah.

I feel like that's when like you're in high school and then maybe go off to college. If you go off to college and your parents have already enforced in you what you're supposed to have in you and you go and defy those things, I feel like it's not in your heart. And that's why you have to have your own relationship with God because if you don't, then it's easy to fall away from him.

I know.

And we'll let you testify about that in just a second.

But I agree.

Sometimes people like, I can't wait to get out of here. I can't wait to move out of this school, this house, this church, whatever.

And it's really the oversight they're trying to leave. And so, they're telling you what their heart is saying. And that's what I see in this passage.

As we keep going, it gets into the mixed relationships because the children of Israel had married people that were not of Israel.

And this was not taken lightly.

How do you think this portion of the story relates to today?

That's interesting, especially as a saved high schooler.

Okay, I would say not only like marrying somebody out of the will of God, but just like, like being yoked up with people that are not of the will of God can lead you away. Just like friendships or you call somebody your boyfriend or girlfriend, like that can lead you away from God when you say, no, I'm firmly rooted. There's things that you don't see behind that person. That's what my mom tells me.

She'll be like, you don't know what they have going on. And then in relationships, you start to take on what they have. And then you have to deal with the spirits or whatever they have going on. So, just being unequally yoked isn't a good thing because then slow ties start to happen and you can't leave people alone.

Nehemiah also acknowledges what they produce because in verse 24, he talks about their kids.

Half been the speech of Ashdod and cannot speak the Jews' language but according to the language of each people.

He talks about how their kids can't even communicate correctly. Their kids therefore won't be able to know the history.

He said, I contended with them and cursed them, smote certain of them.

I think this is what you're talking about.

Plucked off their hair and made them swear by God saying, you shall not give your daughters unto their sons nor take their daughters unto your sons or for yourselves.

He set some very clear boundaries, even to the extent that in verse 30, the Bible says he cleansed them from all strangers.

That is a strong word.

He uncontaminated Israel.

Isn't one definition of that word?

Can you imagine your kids or your husbands, your family being thrown out of the congregation like, y'all get out of here?

It shows, I believe, how much God hates sin and how deep it can get that it can like affect generations.

In verse 29, there's one last prayer.

Could you read it for us?

Remember them, oh my God, because they have defiled the priesthood and the covenant of the priesthood and of the Levites. And that prayer is concerning this concerning like the people.

He was saying basically, like judge those who have done wrong and made them ungodly.

Yep.

Because in looking at verse 27 and the prior verses where we're talking about marrying the strange wives and all that, one of the people who had done that was the priest. One of the sons of Joiada, the son of Eliashib, the high priest. And he was now the son-in-law to Sanballat, who has been a disaster from the start of this book. And the Bible says that Nehemiah chased him from them.

But if the priest house is out of order, then that causes everybody else to just be like, if he's doing that, then I can do it too.

Right.

So, then he prays this prayer. And when he does that, that's pretty much how he ends this chapter. Nehemiah ends this chapter fighting people.

Yeah.

And so, when he ends up fighting people, so to speak, he's cleansed everything and he just keeps saying throughout all this, remember me, oh my God. Remember me, oh my God, for good is how he concludes it in verse 31.

And we never hear anything else from Nehemiah.

What does that leave you thinking, feeling?

And this part is speculation. Maybe that your work is not done, but Nehemiah probably was like, I did my part of helping everybody.

I don't like to make it up.

But I think you could say that Nehemiah stood on business the whole book.

And he made that his lasting impression.

Remember me, oh God. Remember me for good. I fought for this.

And I like that about him.

If you could encourage anybody listening, one from this prayer, what would you say? I would say just even when no one's watching, make sure you're always doing right. Like if your parents aren't watching, but just know God's always watching, so he knows what you're doing and what you're not doing. So, I would just say make sure that you obey God and his word because you can never go wrong there.

I agree with that.

And so, the second part of my question would be, anybody who's listening, anything you could say that's encouraging.

You're 17 years old.

I've watched you really learn how to love God and really go after him.

How do they make that change or shift?

I would say cutting people off is for everybody, like even if you're older.

But just that influence, having that today's influence on yourself can make you think like, hmm, maybe if I do this little thing, but no.

Cutting people off and learning how to worship God because it's really you end up surrendering to him and humbling yourself and coming to him as you should, even when when you know you're wrong. Well, you heard it here first.

That's how you learn to follow God. And that's not just her saying, that's her experience.

And actually, I believe the passage backed it up today. Whether you're Nehemiah in the story or you're part of the people, today is a good day to ask God to remember you and a good day to cleanse yourself if you know you're doing something wrong and call out to God and remember that prayer reaches every single situation.

Be blessed.

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