Want To Do The Impossible?
When’s the last time you saw the impossible happen? I mean the really impossible? A dude named Nehemiah saw it happen. Actually, he was part of making it happen. Nehemiah wasn’t an exceptional dude. In fact, he admits that he’s a broken person, who has messed up and not always made good decisions. But he was still used by God to do the amazingly impossible. The walls of Israel had been burned down and destroyed. The most powerful king in the world made a decision that no one could work to rebuild them. Nehemiah was one dude, living far from these walls, and he recognized his own weaknesses. THAT’S the guy that God used to do the amazingly impossible. How’d it happen? It was through Nehemiah’s ambitious faith that God did the amazingly impossible.
Nehemiah Pursued It
In Nehemiah 1, it says that Nehemiah’s brother had returned from Jerusalem. Why would he want to bother Nehemiah with the trouble that was happening back home? He didn’t offer the information. Nehemiah sought it out. He asked them about what was happening back home. He pursued what God was doing. I think many of us don’t see God do the impossible in and through us because we simply don’t pursue it. Call it lazy, or sugar coat it and say that we’re really content, but if we want to see God do the amazingly impossible in our lives, we need to pursue it. Get off the couch. Turn off the TV. Have dinner with your neighbors. Go on the missions trip. Get involved in a community group. Pursue what God is doing in this world.
Nehemiah Cared Deeply
Look how Nehemiah responded to the news of the broken down walls: “As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.” He cared. He cared so much that he disrupted his normal routine, cashed in all his vacation days, and poured out his heart to God. He did this for 3-4 months. Later, when he’d rebuild the walls, it would take 52 days. But here, he prayed and sought God for over 100! We can’t understand how God used Nehemiah to do the amazingly impossible until we understand what happened in Nehemiah’s life during these 3-4 months. God was shaping him, transforming him, building him into the kind of person that God would use to do the amazingly impossible. That’s what God does when we seek him, when we pray, when we fast. He transforms us into the kind of people that he’ll use in powerful ways.
Nehemiah Adored God
As Nehemiah starts to pray to God, he starts out by adoring God. “And I said, “O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments.” He just spends time praising God for who He is, what He’s promised, and what He’s done in history. You’d think Nehemiah would get right to business and start asking God to help, but he spends time adoring God. This doesn’t show us some sort of magic formula to get God to do what want; like if we’d just adore him a little then He’ll answer our prayers. No, this shows us the kind of heart that God will use to do the amazingly impossible. It’s the kind of heart that adores God and recognizes how wonderful He is. Do you ever take time to adore God? What are some times during your day that you could pause and adore Him? On your drive to work? In the shower? As you brush your teeth?
Nehemiah Confessed His Sin
Nehemiah didn’t have his life together. Nehemiah was broken. Look at what he prays: “confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father’s house have sinned. We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses.” Nehemiah recognized that he was a broken man. He didn’t bring anything good to God, only brokenness. But that’s the exact right place to take our brokenness. God only uses broken people to do the amazingly impossible. Where do you take your brokenness? When you get angry, or lust, or don’t love your spouse or kids well? Where do you take it? To a friend? To a drink? To a TV show? Or do you not take it anywhere, just sweep it under the rug and never deal with it? Nehemiah took his brokenness to God, and God healed him. God wants to heal us of our brokenness as well.
Nehemiah Had Faith In God
“Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.” As Nehemiah continued to pray, we see his faith. He believed the promises of God. God had promised to give the descendants of Abraham the land. He promised to send the Messiah through those descendants. Nehemiah believed it; he had faith that God really would keep his promise. Do you believe God’s promises? Do you believe that there’s more joy in following him than in anything else? A great way to deepen your faith in God’s promises is to talk story with someone who has walked with Jesus longer than you. They’ll tell you story after story about how God has been faithful and kept His promises to them, even when times got really tough. Find someone older and more seasoned, and ask to buy them coffee. Ash them about God’s provision in their lives. It’ll deepen your faith.
Nehemiah Acted
Here’s how Nehemiah finished his prayer: “O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. Now I was cupbearer to the king.” He asked God for the impossible. He asked God to change the king’s heart. he asked God to use him, one man, miles and miles from Jerusalem. His praying and fasting led to action. Bro was a dreamer, a visionary. What’s even more staggering is that we learn that Nehemiah was SET UP! It says he was the cupbearer of the King. That’s an amazing gig. It was his job to taste the King’s wine before it was served to make sure it wasn’t bad or poisoned. He had access to the king and influence with the King. He lived in an amazing mansion and was drinking some bomb wine, not that black box stuff from Costco, but some choice wine, the best in the world probably. This was a job for someone who had proven themselves. Who had a good career and moved up the ladder. Who had worked and worked and worked to get this comfortable, amazing, party of a life, and he’s willing to give it all up to go build a wall. He was a man who was ready for action, because he was a man who loved God more than this world and it’s luxuries.
This all sounds great, but how do we know that God is actually a God of the impossible who can answer Nehemiah’s prayer? How do we know that God can empower Nehemiah to do the impossible? Because He’s already done it for each of us. Ephesians 2 says that every person is dead in our sinfulness. We’re all born into this impossible situation: we can’t come to God on our own. But God made the impossible possible. And He did it through a man. Jesus lived a perfect life that is impossible for each of us to live, and then He died for each of us. He died the death we deserve. And then, impossibly, He rose from the dead, He beat death to death, and He’s alive now. You know what that did for us? It made it possible for each of us to come to God, through Jesus.
Are you going to be content watching Netflix, checking your instagram, buying bigger and better toys, chasing promotions at your job, OR like Nehemiah, are you going to have the ambitious faith to follow God into the impossible? The impossible of using you to transform a community, a city, an island, a whole state of people? The impossible of using you to bring Jesus to people in Vietnam or Japan and see them fall in love with God and watch Him transform their lives.
Harbor West, let’s have the ambitious faith to beg God to do the impossible through us, because He’s already done the impossible for us.