According to the Good Hand of God is a sermon preached by Ryan Rogers for the Palmer SDA Church service on June 27, 2020. It is part 1 of the God’s Story sermon series (June 27-July 18).
SERMON BLOG– Like all of us Nehemiah had a story. His story took place 2500 years ago. He lived in Susa,
Like all of us Nehemiah had a story. His story took place 2500 years ago. He lived in Susa, an important Persian city. He worked as a cup-bearer to the Persian King Artaxerxes. He had a life, a home, stress, hobbies, and friends. This was Nehemiah’s story. But it was only part of a bigger story, God’s story.
God’s story didn’t fit into Nehemiah’s story, but Nehemiah’s story fit into God’s story. God had a larger story for His people. Nehemiah was one of them, he was a Jew. But he wasn’t born in Jerusalem. We meet Nehemiah 150 years after Jerusalem was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. The brightest Hebrews were taken captive to serve in Babylon. Then, in about 50 years, Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon. Cyrus was part of God’s story. Through Cyrus God gave the Jews an opportunity to return to Jerusalem, but some stayed. Nehemiah’s grandparents stayed. He was born in Persia but Persia wasn’t home. Nehemiah could remember a time, just 35 years earlier, when Haman got the king to sign a decree to destroy all the Jews in Persia (Esther 3). But God had a larger story for His people and brought a Hebrew girl out of her story into His. She became queen Esther who saved the Jews. God was also at work back in Jerusalem. He raised up leaders like Ezra and Zerubbabel to be part of this larger story. But that wasn’t Nehemiah’s story. It was God’s story. He was a cup-bearer to the king, not a king. He was in Susa, not Jerusalem.
Then Nehemiah was invited into God’s story.
It went something like this. Nehemiah was devastated by a bad report from Jerusalem. He wept and prayed. Four months later he stood before the king requesting to leave his service in the palace to rebuild a city. The king granted his request. He also wrote letters for safe passage and supplied timbers for construction. This is a ridiculous story. This is God’s story.
At the beginning of Chapter 1 Nehemiah was living in his story, far from Jerusalem, unaware of the situation there, having no influence there, with responsibilities in the land of exile, doing normal work done in natural human strength. By the middle of Chapter 2 Nehemiah is fully engaged in God’s story, traveling to Jerusalem to lead in the rebuilding of God’s city and the revival of God’s people, doing incredible work by supernatural power.
I want to learn how that happens? How do you go from living in your story to being fully engaged in God’s story.
Verse 8 tells us how, “Ánd the king granted them to me according to the good hand of my God upon me.” (Neh. 1:18; Ezra 7:6)
We go from our story to God’s story by the good hand of God upon us.
That takes the stress off. It is not our hand that writes His story, it ‘s His. We are not responsible for making God’s story happen, we only join Him.
It is not about God’s hand reaching out to give us a high-5 for the work we are accomplishing in our story. It’s about His hand moving us into His story.
God doesn’t give us a motivational speech but an invitational speech. He doesn’t say, “try herder”. He extends His good hand and says, “come with me”.
It’s the good hand of God upon us that makes our life count for God’s story.
3 WAYS THE GOOD HAND OF GOD INVITES US INTO GOD’S STORY!
THE GOOD HAND OF GOD PREPARES OUR HEARTS FOR GOD’S STORY
Notice how God begins to prepare Nehemiah’s heart.
They said to me, “Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.” When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. (Nehemiah 1:3-4)
God begins to prepare Nehemiah’s heart by breaking it. Often, stepping into God’s story begins with a broken heart. When we are in tune with God His heart is revealed what breaks ours. Before we jump into the action of God’s story we need to feel the emotions of God’s heart.
There were many in Jerusalem who saw that broken wall but it didn’t break their hearts. But it broke Nehemiah’s.
We pay a lot of attention to the things we love. But we also need to give some thought to the things we hate. What is breaking your heart?
Are we willing to be agitated, uncomfortable, and emotionally stirred by the good hand of God? Let’s not push that pain away. Maybe God is giving us an invitation into His story.
God continued to prepare Nehemiah’s heart through prayer(1:4-11). This is where God’s vision grew in Nehemiah. Look at the words of his prayer to get an idea of how someone with a broken heart seeks God. Nehemiah didn’t waltz into God’s story without agonizing, heart searching, God seeking prayer.
- V.5 He affirmed God’s Greatness.
- V.6 He prayed day and night.
- V.6-7 He confessed sin.
- V.8-9 He claimed God’s promises.
Before the privilege of jumping fully into God’s story we should expect to seek God with all our heart.
THE GOOD HAND OF GOD POSITIONS OUR CIRCUMSTANCES FOR GOD’S STORY
Notice, this took some time, about 4 months(1:1; 2:1). During this time God was working and Nehemiah was responding. God’s story is worth waiting for. Andy Stanly reminds us, “Waiting time not wasted time”.
God’s story is accessible from our current position (1:11). God is using our circumstances to position our lives to count in God’s story. He prays for God to grant him mercy in the sight of this man (the king). By the end of his prayer he is already able to see how God has positioned him. He could have reasoned that maybe someone else would be better suited for the work in Jerusalem, perhaps someone who actually lived there and not someone serving a foreign king in the land of his exile 764 miles directly across a desert. Sure, his heart hurt. But clearly he wasn’t the one to do something about it. No, he was positioned by God to be a part of God’s story. Are you able to look past the appearances to see that God is perfectly positioning you for His story?
THE GOOD HAND OF GOD PROVIDES THE RESOURCES FOR GOD’S STORY
“My God shall supply all your needs.” (Philippians 4:19)
“All His biddings are enabling.” (Ellen White, COL 333)
“What God originates, he orchestrates”(Andy Stanley, Visioneering).
God provides the opportunities (2:2-8). Pray for opportunities then live as if you actually expect God to answer your prayers. Opportunity 1 comes when the king asks “why are you sad?” and opportunity 2 is when he asks, “what is your request?”. Both of those opportunities were terrifying.
God provides boldness. It was scary to appear before the king sad (2:2). It wasn’t an acceptable thing to do (Esther 4:2). It was scary to make the request of the king. Remember when the work was shut down in Jerusalem in Ezra 4? The people wrote a letter to the king and he made a search and found that Jerusalem had a history of rebellion and he ordered the work to stop. That was the same king Artaxerxes (Ezra 4:17–22)! Later he gave permission (Ezra 7:6). But Nehemiah didn’t know which response he would get.
Then God provided protection and materials. He got letters of safe conduct (v.7) and timbers for the construction (v.8).
We have practical reasons for not being fully engaged in God’s story. How many of those reasons are irrelevant if we really believe that God provides? When we removed these objections the important question shifts from “is this realistic?” to “is God leading in this direction?”. If God is leading He will provide.
MISSING OUT ON GOD’S STORY
What if Nehemiah stayed in Susa? What if he pushed off the broken heart as an unwelcomed emotions? What if he lost interest in praying after 3 months? What if he didn’t have the boldness to make his request? What would have happened? Nothing. That is the scary part. He would have stayed in his story and he never would have known what he missed out on in God’s story. Life would have continued as normal. Nobody would have been expecting Nehemiah to do anything. Nobody would have been waiting for him. Nobody would have been disappointed in him. It would have been so easy to stay in his story and push away the good hand of God. Nehemiah would have continued, just fine, in his story and missed out on God’s story.
LET’S MAKE THIS A CONVERSATION!
Take time to have this conversation with someone! Share your thoughts in the comment section below or on our private form!
How is God preparing your heart for His Story? How is God breaking your heart? How are you praying about those things? What might this tell you about God’s will for your life and His church?
How is God positioning the circumstances of your life and His church for His story? How has He positions you in the past? How might He be positioning you currently? How might you see God’s hand positioning you in the difficult parts of life? What might this tell you about God’s will for your life and/or for the church?
How is God providing resources for His Story? How has He provided for your life and for the church? If we were not limited by resources how might this change our enthusiasm for God’s story? If you could be bold, what request would you make to launch your life and/or the church into God’s story? What might these things tell you about God’s will for your life and for the church?