Derek Grier - When God's Hand Is Upon You
All right, Nehemiah chapter two and verse one, we covered chapter one last week. And he says here, And it came to pass in the month of Nisan. Now I mentioned last Sunday that the book of Nehemiah is really an inspired memoir. He catalogs important dates, important people, important places, and also the problems that made Nehemiah great. Now, most of us look at our problems as burdens and things that we kind of resent, and we wish we didn’t have to go through, but if we handle our problems properly, actually those are the things that God can use to make us great. And problems or burdens can become blessings, if we’re faithful in them. I want you to think about it. There would be no Moses, if there was no Pharaoh. There would’ve been no David without Goliath. There would be no stories about Daniel, unless, you know, he was put into the lion’s den. And there’d be no Jesus without a cross. And really there would not be a you without things in your life that have cost.
So this is the reality, and the problems that we face in life are actually the things God uses to make us great. And it came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes. Now there’s multiple reasons why Nehemiah journaled this for us, of course, the spirit of God prompted him, but it was for us, and we learned, you know, thousands of years removed, but there were also personal benefits to Nehemiah here. You know, studies show, and Nehemiah didn’t know all this at the time, but studies show, that when we tell our story to someone who cares, someone that really loves us, it flips off all of the toxic stress hormones, and it flips on the hormones like oxytocin and dopamine, and nitric oxides and endorphins, et cetera.
So when you share your story with someone who’s listening to hear, not to judge, not to condemn, not to criticize, it actually relieves you of stress. This is why, by the way, prayer is so important, because it’s an opportunity to flip off all the stress and bring our burdens to God, but also in the natural, we need people who love us and care. And I think, you know, talking to someone you love is actually some of the strongest medicine on planet earth. You know, sometimes though, and I want you to think about this, particularly the men, you know, those that share with us, they don’t always need us to fix their problems, as much as just to listen. So just again, listening is so easy, many times when I, matter of fact, just this week, I was talking to another Bishop and I was sharing some of what I was experiencing, and he just listened.
And the benefit of that was incredible. Actually, I started answering some of my problems as he listened. So there’s power in just, you know, being a listening ear, actually I’ve called my dad on the phone, I’ve just shared. And all he did was listen. And after I got off the phone, I felt a whole lot better. And you know, it’s just great benefit in sharing your story and sharing what you’re experiencing with those who care. And then he said, When wine was before him… So, you know, again, I’m going line by line and I’m not going back to the beginning of this sentence, but the short of it is, Nehemiah brought wine before the king. And we found in chapter one that Nehemiah was a foreigner in the king’s palace. But despite his background, he became, what the Bible calls, a cup bearer, to the most powerful man in their world at that particular time.
Now, I need you to understand this, a cup bearer was not just a servant, not just a typical slave, if you will. He was typically a high ranking officer in the Royal courts. His duty was to personally taste and vouch for what was served at the Royal table. And he did this to protect the king and the king’s family, the queen, and all of the princes against poisoning, which was a very, very common form of injury in ancient politics. So if you didn’t like the king, you usually didn’t stab him, you usually put something in his drink that killed him. So the person that was the cup bearer for a king, particularly a king of his stature, of Artaxerxes, you know, I mean, this guy was ruling much of the middle east all the way to, if my recollection serves me, all the way to Egypt at that time. Very, very powerful man.
And there were many people that had resentments about his power. But so the person that was monitoring his drink had to be totally trustworthy. And, you know, there are a lot of very talented people and people often try to impress me with their talents and their smarts, et cetera. But promotion comes when you can be trusted, thank God for talent, but talent plus trust, that’s when there’s a powerful combination, and Nehemiah wasn’t just smart, but he was trustworthy. And he came to the attention of the most powerful man in his age. And he says, I took the wine… And you can’t serve God without serving people. So Nehemiah to serve his God, he served this king. And our highest distinction is really found in our service to others. And he gave this wine to the king.
So here we have a pagan king who did not believe in Nehemiah’s God. We had a king that ruled in a strange land, he didn’t share the same values of Nehemiah, actually, he was later killed because of some of his values, but nonetheless, Nehemiah served him. And it’s our willingness to do the small things that sets us up for the big things. And he didn’t mind the fact that all he was doing was passing a cup to the king. He realized that he could still serve God in that position. And then it says here, Now I have never been sad in the king’s presence before.
Now, this is important because moods are contagious. You know, I fight through a lot of stuff during the week, but before I stand, before I minister, I have to check myself, because I know my attitude and my mood can be contagious. And the ancients didn’t want anyone, well, let’s say this, they didn’t want the most powerful men in the land to become depressed, or to become negatively impacted by someone that was serving him. I know for me, one of the biggest battles I face in my life and I mean, throughout, you know, my entire adult ministry, was not allowing people to get me down. You know, sometimes I really have to fight through 'cause I could easily take things to heart, and things can get to me quickly.
Now you might not think that listening to me, but the reality is I know what I wrestle with. And I think this is the reason why God caused me to marry I think the happiest girl in the world, my wife, you know, I have a no drama mama and she’s just steady, and she’s just at peace and she’s calm, and she helps me. And she actually steadies me in life. Verse two, Therefore… And by the way, let me just do this, another reason why, you know, people were not allowed, actually it was illegal, I mean, you could get killed for showing sadness in an ancient court to a king. Why? Because the court was supposed to make the king feel like he was the most wonderful person in the world.
And no matter what was going on in your life, if you were in the presence of this wonderful person, it made all of your, your problems go away. So, what Nehemiah was about to do was extremely dangerous and could be taken very personally by the king. And people with Artaxerxes' type of power, you know, they had egos the size of whole planets, I mean, these guys, you know, they were from another world and didn’t take much to offend, and Nehemiah understood this. And the king, he responds to Nehemiah, now, no one has, I don’t think anyone had ever done this before, the Bible doesn’t say this, but I will tell you if someone had done this, it was extremely uncommon.
So, the king said to Nehemiah, after Nehemiah came into his presence with a sad face, he said, Why is your face sad, since you’re not sick? This is nothing but sorrow of heart. So Artaxerxes called Nehemiah out, and everyone in the room, I know got deadly quiet. You could hear a pin drop. And the Bible says here, So I became dreadfully afraid. And the way God answers our prayers sometimes can be quite scary. And men like Artaxerxes, they did not play. And Nehemiah knew what he was dealing with, he was in the big leagues, and he could have lost his head in a moment, losing the head might have been nice, they could have put him in the cell, they could have tortured him. They could have killed his whole family. Lots of things could have, could have gone on here.
And then Nehemiah speaks to the king, and I want you to watch what he says, he said, May the king live forever. Now he immediately deescalated the situation by celebrating the king, and also by showing concern for the king’s life. Now, many of us have heard our parents, or at least grandma, tell us, you know, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. And she was right. Relationships, they seldomly die from a single event, but typically from an attitude or an ego. So it’s not usually what happens as much as the unwillingness to apologize, the unwillingness, to see how what you did impacted the other person, that really breaks the relationship.
But I also want you to see here, that the Bible says, in the first chapter, we covered this last week that it was in the month of Kislev that Nehemiah got this report of all that was going on in Jerusalem. And when you do the math between Kislev and the month that we are currently in, which is the month of Nisan, I believe. But, what I do know is it was four months distance between those two months that were stated. And, during that time, we found at the end of chapter one, Nehemiah spent that time in fasting and in prayer.
So this response and all that happens here is a result of Nehemiah soaking this issue in prayer. And what I found is when you get pregnant with something, it’ll eventually show, it may not show the first day, but it will eventually show. And he had been brooding and praying through, and interceding, and doing all of that, as it relates to his people in Jerusalem, and eventually it showed, and things, you know, in life don’t just happen. A seed was planted. And at some point it becomes obvious.
So, this pregnancy of God’s will for Jerusalem, if you will, got so deep and so big in Nehemiah’s heart, he couldn’t even hide it anymore. And he said, May the king live forever. But watch what happens here, Nehemiah then says, Why should my face not be sad? Now this is where Nehemiah risks everything. And he did it for his Jerusalem. But he set the tone by his first comment, and by setting the tone, a tone of respect, it made all the difference here in his appeal. And we need to learn how to respectfully appeal to people. Someone who’s just so proud, «Well I’m just gonna tell 'em when I’m thinking, da da da».
Well that’s why you ain’t getting nowhere, and that’s why God can’t promote you. I’d say 10% of conflict is the difference of opinion. 90% of conflict is tone. And Nehemiah immediately set the right tone in his appeal. But also everything he said here was super risky. He said, Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' tombs, lies in waste, and its gates are burned with fire? See if you really love someone, or really love some place, in this case, it’s hard to be happy when those you love and the place you love is struggling for its life. And it’s not really prayer until you care. And he was really pouring out his heart for months about this issue with his God, it came to the place he couldn’t even hide, you know, what he was seeking God about.
And God presented an opportunity for him to make this appeal. Then the king said to me… He might have paused. But he said, okay Nehemiah, what do you request? You see, favor is more powerful than money, it’s more powerful than talent, it’s more powerful than most things you can imagine. You could take all my accolades, you could take all my accomplishments, all my worldly wealth, but if I still have favor, I’ll get it all back. Favor is so very important. Actually, the Bible says we are saved by what? Grace, God’s favor. Favor is singly, probably the most important thing that I have experienced in my life and sure you understand in your life as well. So the king answers, he says, you know, what is it you want Nehemiah?
So Nehemiah is like, okay, my head’s still on, you know, I’m safe, okay, I made it to this point. And he’s praying, and I don’t think he went out of the room to pray, he’s praying to God under his breath. He could have even dropped to his knees, I’m not sure. But what I do want you to see, and what Nehemiah wanted us to see, is that everything that happened in this transaction between him and the king happened with an attitude of prayer. And he responded, after he prayed, and they probably prayed in their heart. I can’t tell you how many times I got prayer in my heart, Lord, tell me what to say here. And I said to the king, if it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor… He wasn’t acting like he deserved it. He wasn’t being a jerk here. He was saying, you know, king, I respect your office.
If it pleases the king. And if your servant has found favor, and again, this is the word that makes all the difference. When God gives favor to you, it doesn’t matter who’s against you, and this is the case here. And if your servant, he called himself his servant, again, he’s not acting like the king’s equal. He’s not rolling his eye at the king, attitude and tone means everything here. If your servant has found favor, meaning, it’s based on the goodness of the king’s heart, not just the greatness of his request, 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. You see, it’s one thing to talk about something, it’s another thing to build something.
And Nehemiah was not just a talker. He actually became a builder. But what I want you to understand that ability to build, and this ability to problem solve was hidden under years and years of simply serving the king cups and glasses of wine. This whole project is accomplished basically through the faithfulness of an unknown man, who spent decades doing repetitive things that no one would think were important, but he earned the right to make a big ask. And you may think, pay attention to me here, what you’re doing is not important, but it may be the thing that’s earning you the right to make the big ask at the right time. God has you where you are for a reason. And at the right season, it will become clear, just serve from the heart and be faithful where you are.
Then the king said to me, and by the way, the queen, it says she was sitting beside him, so this didn’t happen in private, and everyone was watching, you know, was the king gonna take this guy’s head off? How long will your journey be? Now, Nehemiah’s sympathetic heart here, his months of prayer, his great faith, his big vision, his wise responses, and again, his prayerfulness, was all involved in making this appeal work and was behind God opening this door for Nehemiah. And what I find in life is that God often designs, you know, doors of opportunities, small, so big heads can’t walk through them. And God is smart, and it’s not so much that he’ll disqualify, your big head will disqualify. You won’t come to church over some problem, and you’ll miss the blessing that was supposed to be in that service. And the issue is not that God kept it from you, it was you living in your feelings that kept you out of certain things.
And there are opportunities that if you just apologize, one sorry, can can clean it up and open a whole new world for you. You just taking ownership of an issue can, again, just turn things completely around. But the fact you don’t keeps you out of the blessing that could be yours. If you can’t say amen, say ouch there. And then he says, the king is speaking, And when will you return? Now, like I said, talented people are a dime a dozen, but trustworthy people are so, so, so very hard to find. And Artaxerxes saw the value and the trustworthiness of Nehemiah, and he wanted him back. And here’s a question. Can you go back to the last place you left? I mean, did you leave in such a bad way? Did you prove yourself so untrustworthy that you can’t go back?
Nehemiah was able to step into his purpose in the next season, but also people wanted him back in his last season because he performed so well, and so honorably, and honor is so important. A lot of times folks just want what they want, and they’ll kill and walk over 25 bodies to get what they want. But then when they get it, they can’t go back. They’ve ruined so much. You know, all they have is they just gotta plow forward, and then they do it again, and they wonder why they’re so lonely in their lives, honor costs you nothing, respect costs you nothing. And because of the respect he showed to the king, and his years of being trustworthy, doing something very, very repetitive, he earned a right to make this big ask. And listen guys, wait for your timing, be faithful where God’s appointed you and assigned you. And at the right time, it’s all gonna click. It’s all gonna make sense, and you’re gonna understand why.
So it pleased the king, watch this, to send me. So, it’s important, a lot of times we just go, it’s a blessing to be sent. He didn’t go in his own authority. Now you can go in your own authority if you want to, but I’m gonna tell you it’s gonna be a whole lot harder. He didn’t just, you know, play the Maverick, and he was like, Well, I’m gonna do what I’m gonna do, and I prayed, I heard from God, I don’t care about you. None of that. No, no. It pleased the king to send me. So, does it please, the people that you were last involved with, you know, as you move into this next area, were you blessed in the leaving, or are there bad memories and hurt feelings? Now, every now and then, when you’re dealing with immoral and ungodly people, you know, you gotta break up, and you know, that doesn’t always go nicely, but when you’re honorable and dealing with honorable people, there shouldn’t be a trail of blood behind you.
So it pleased the king to send me, but watch this, And I set him a time. So, Nehemiah not only had a season of prayer, he also developed a plan. Watch verse seven, Furthermore… There’s always a furthermore when you do something for God, but God knows if you don’t push your limits, you’ll never get beyond them. So, furthermore, yeah, that I need this one thing, or I’m gonna tell you this one other thing, but I also need some other things. He said, If it pleases the king… Again, he’s appealing to the heart of the king, father, if this prayer pleases you, and we’re learning also how to appeal to the king of the universe in his appeal to this man that was just king of a major part of the middle east here.
If it pleases the king, Lord, if it pleases you, this is what I want. 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. So he created a timeline, but he also asked for safe passage. And what I want you to see here, is this man was not afraid to ask, but it wasn’t just about boldness to ask, he created environment of respect, and an environment of gentleness, an environment of service, an environment of honor, to make this appeal. And if you just want what you want, and you’re not respectful in all the rest, you’re not gonna receive the things you want in a manner that blesses the Lord.