I humbled my soul with fasting” –Psalm 35:13b (NASB)

In our series studying the book of Nehemiah we see that he spent about four months praying, weeping, and fasting over the condition of God’s people in Jerusalem as well as the broken-down walls and burned gates.  He also spent much time developing a plan to get everyone involved in the repair.  Here at KHC we want to accomplish the same thing.  We are fasting that God may break our hearts with the things that break His.

We will break the fast with an all-church potluck of soup and bread in the Harbor Room on Thur (2/11) from 6:30-7:15pm and then a Concert of Worship & Prayer in the Worship Center from 7:15-8:30pm. This is certainly a kid-friendly event so bring them along!

There are many different ways to fast: We can fast food and just drink water or juice, we can eat vegetables and/or fruit only (sometimes referred to as a “Daniel Fast,” see Daniel 1:8-17), we can choose not to eat any sugar or desserts, we can fast one or two meals a day, we can fast from sun-up to sun-down. We can fast hobbies or different forms of technology including television and social media. The idea is to set aside time to pray and listen for God when we would normally be engaging in whatever activity we are fasting. Seek the Lord regarding what would be appropriate for you to fast.

What Are We Fasting For?

Six possibilities:

1. Personal breakthroughs (for yourself or a family member).
2. Our grace disguised opportunity to grow closer to God and one another during this transition season.
3. That we would go out of our way to welcome new people into KHC and our Life Groups — sponsoring them into the church as we would a friend or family member.
4. Relational reconciliation within KHC (Mat 5:23-24; 18:15-18; Eph 4:15)
5. That we would engage with the Nehemiah Prayer Initiative (30:10:20), praying morning. noon, and night in order to develop a new and fresh rhythm of prayer at KHC.
6. That God would break our hearts for the things that break His – including the poor, lost, sick, and broken-hearted right here in the South Bay.

The following is adapted from Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God by Tim Keller (Penguin Books 2016). Below the Map For Prayer are a few quotes from Keller’s book to help us think about prayer…

“Prayer is both conversation and encounter with God…We must know the awe of praising his glory, the intimacy of finding his grace, and the struggle of asking his help, all of which can lead us to know the spiritual reality of his presence” (p. 5).

“Prayer is the only entryway into genuine self-knowledge. It is also the main way we experience deep change—the reordering of our loves. Prayer is how God gives us so many of the unimaginable things he has for us. Indeed, prayer makes it safe for God to give us many of the things we most desire. It is the way we know God, the way we finally treat God as God. Prayer is simply the key to everything we need to do and be in life” (p. 18).

“A rich, vibrant, consoling, hard-won prayer life is the one good that makes it possible to receive all other kinds of goods rightly and beneficially. [Paul] does not see prayer as merely a way to get things from God but as a way to get more of God himself” (p. 21).

“The infallible test of spiritual integrity, Jesus says, is your private prayer life” (p. 23)

“Our prayers should arise out of immersion in the Scripture. [We] speak only to the degree we are spoken to…The wedding of the Bible and prayer anchors your life down in the real God” (pgs. 55-56).

“A triune God would call us to converse with him…because he wants to share the joy he has. Prayer is our way of entering into the happiness of God himself” (p. 68).

Keller defines prayer as:

“The continuation of a conversation that God has started. He started it when he implanted knowledge of himself in every human being [see Romans 1:20], when he spoke through the prophets and in his written Word, and especially when he called us to himself through the Holy Spirit sent into our hearts” (p. 83).

The discipline of prayer does not earn or merit God’s attention but rather prayer aligns our prayers with who God is—the God of free grace—and thereby unites us to him more and more” (p. 104).

In our study of Nehemiah we are using the most basic definition of leadership, which is influence.  We are looking at Nehemiah as a model of a man who prepared to lead when the opportunity arose.  How does God prepare a person for a leadership role?

Bobby Clinton has done excellent and helpful work with helping us to see how God prepares a leader.  Clinton, long time Professor of Leadership at Fuller Theological Seminary, wrote a book entitled The Making of a Leader [1](which is the inspiration for the KHC weekend services sermon). If any leader wants to assess how God is at work in his or her life, we must become more attentive to God’s leading, and give attention to important developmental tasks along the way.  Clinton’s model grows out of his research of hundreds of leaders in the Bible and contemporary Christian leaders, like A.W. Tozer, Watchman Nee, and Dawson Trottman. He extracts from their lives five, or in some cases six, developmental phases that leaders undergo as their lives unfold. Leaders may not experience all five or six phases, and there may be overlap, but the overall concept of the stages holds. The generalized sequence of the stages is summarized in chapter two:

Sovereign foundations – God providentially works to lay the foundations of the leader’s life through family, environment, and historical events.

Inner-Life Growth – The leader comes to know God in a more intimate, personal way. He is tested. If he learns from these experiences what God wants to teach, it results in expanded ministry and greater responsibility. If he does not learn, he will usually be tested again in the same areas.

Ministry Maturing– The leader reaches out to others, experimenting with spiritual gifts, and may get training. He becomes a rising leader, learning lessons in his relationships with others or from the inadequacies of his personal life.

“In these first three phases, God’s work is primarily in the leader, not through him or her. Many emerging leaders do not recognize this, and become frustrated. They are constantly evaluating productivity and activities, while God is quietly evaluating their leadership potential. He wants to teach us that we minister out of what we are.” (pgs. 45-46)

Life Maturing – The leader identifies and uses his or her spiritual gifts in a satisfying ministry. Priorities are clearer for identifying the best use of gifts, what to do and not to do, resulting in mature fruitfulness. The leader’s character mellows and matures. Communion with God becomes more important than success in ministry, and the leader’s character mellows and matures. The key to development in this phase is a positive response to the experiences God ordains.

Convergence – God maximizes the leader’s ministry by moving him or her into a role that matches one’s gift-mix and experience and that is comparatively freed from less suited activities. Convergence may not come either for lack of personal development, or an organization keeps him or her in a limiting role, or providence hinders in a way difficult to understand without the full picture that only God sees. Reaching this phase requires trust in God’s guidance and watching as God moves one toward a ministry that embodies all the development of preceding phases. Convergence manifests itself as one responds consistently to God’s work in his life.

Afterglow or Celebration  – A lifetime of ministry and growth culminates in an era of recognition and indirect, broad influence. Leaders continue to exert influence in these relationships through a large network of contacts built over a lifetime. Their consistent track record in following God causes others to seek out their storehouse of wisdom.  (Sadly, for only a few make it to this stage — Billy Graham and J.I. Packer come to mind…)

Clinton says:

“As a leader, you should recognize that God is continually developing you over a lifetime. His top priority is to conform you to the image of Christ for ministry with spiritual authority. Enduring fruitfulness flows out of being. In addition to transforming your character, God will increase your capacity to influence through developing your spiritual gifts.” (p. 54)

[1] NavPress; Rev Updated edition, 2012.

Nehemiah’s First Term as Governor (1:1–12:47)

1. Nehemiah’s Return and Reconstruction (1:1–7:73a)
   • Nehemiah seeks God through prayer, fasting, repentance, and planning (1:1-11)
   • Nehemiah pitches Artaxerxes for resources and then goes to Jerusalem (2:1–2:20)
   • Nehemiah and the people rebuild the walls (3:1–7:3)
   • Nehemiah recalls the first return under Zerubbabel (7:4–73a)
2. Ezra’s Revival and Renewal (7:73b–10:39)
   • Ezra expounds the law (7:73b–8:12)
   • The people worship and repent (8:13–9:37)
   • Ezra and the priests renew the covenant (9:38–10:39)
3. Nehemiah’s Resettlement and Rejoicing (11:1–12:47)
   • Jerusalem is resettled (11:1–12:26)
   • The people dedicate the walls (12:27–47)

Nehemiah’s Second Term as Governor (13:1–31)

Notes from Nehemiah 1[1]

As the book of Ezra closes, Nehemiah opens with the prayer of a godly intercessor. Nehemiah is the last in a progression of Old Testament leaders who in their faithfulness and their imperfection teach us to depend on God’s faithfulness, and who train us to look ahead to the true Intercessor, Jesus, who will represent God’s people perfectly before His Father.

Nehemiah knows God’s faithfulness in preserving a remnant and restoring them to Jerusalem, according to His promises (see Ezra 1:1–11). Yearning for his people, hearing of their city’s broken down wall, Nehemiah leads the third group of returning exiles 13 years after Ezra’s return. Before his action comes his prayer, which acknowledges a need for more than the physical protection of walls. His people need the faithful protection of their God.

Here and throughout the book, Nehemiah shows us how to pray with reverence for such a great and awesome God (Neh. 1:5), knowledge of God’s Word, along with confession of disobedience to that Word (vs. 6–10) and requests for mercy (v. 11). His prayer addresses a covenant-keeping God of steadfast love (v. 5; see Ex. 34:6; Deut. 7:9), a God who has “redeemed” His people (Neh. 1:10). Nehemiah is referring to God’s redemption of the Israelites from Egypt, but that rescue pictures the greater One to come, not through the blood of a sacrificed lamb but through the death and resurrection of Christ, “our Passover lamb” (1 Cor. 5:7). The word “servant” (Neh. 1:6, 8, 10, 11) emphasizes this people’s identity as belonging to this God, not to the earthly king Nehemiah serves. Addressing the Lord, Nehemiah calls the exiles “your people” (v. 10; see Ex. 6:7); they were chosen by God to receive His promises of blessing and to bear the seed of that blessing for all the peoples of the earth (Gen. 12:1–3)

[1] Gospel Transformation Bible (GTB)