Success at Last!

*The sermon manuscript below was generated from the recording by AI …

We all want success in life, don’t we? Now, I don’t mean success necessarily in the sense of like a famous person’s success, but we all want to succeed at what we do. Maybe for you it’s being a mum or a dad, maybe it’s just managing to get out of bed in the morning, maybe it’s keeping your children in line, maybe it’s being kind or loving to a sibling, or maybe it’s a job, maybe it’s getting married. There’s lots of different things, and we want to be successful in them, we want to do well. We want to succeed. A- And often, that consumes a lot of our thought, doesn’t it? We think about success. We think about how to improve, we think about how to advance in our workplace, or how to get a better degree, or how to better be a, be a better wife or father or child.

I wonder if you give the same level of thought to the success of God’s kingdom. You see, we are called to seek first the kingdom of God, aren’t we? It’s the command of Jesus, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” It’s not seek it third or 5th or second. It’s first, right? And so, that’s going to mean something for us. Seeking first the kingdom of God is kind of the theme for our book, as I said at the very beginning.

And we’ve been following so far with Nehemiah, who, who we saw was passionately concerned about the state of the kingdom, if you were those first 4 verses. He heard the news that the kingdom of Israel was in dire straits. Jerusalem’s walls were broken, the gates were burnt with fire, the people were in trouble, and, and he was grieved, right? His heart was broken. He wept and he mourned. And then, we see what he did with that and that broken heart. His kingdom concern, he was driven to the only thing he could do, to seek God’s face, just like David when Ziklag was burned His first response was to seek God’s face, and so too Nehemiah.

You see, Nehemiah gets it. One of the things Nehemiah gets is that success in the kingdom is very different to success in the workplace, and here’s why. If you work really hard and you apply yourself in your workplace, you will advance. That’s the way it works. Uh, proof is in the pudding. One of my children started to work in a retail job, and I said to the child, “To advance in your career is very simple. Be on time, always be cheerful, always work hard, and whenever you run out of work, go to your boss and say, ‘Do you have any other jobs I can do?’” And I said, “If you do that simple thing, you will advance in your workplace.” And lo and behold, it’s exactly what happened. It’s exactly what happened to me. Someone gave me that advice when I was a salesman, and I worked my way up through the business to becoming a sales manager.

Now, there’s a big difference here between that and kingdom building, because in kingdom building, you can do everything right and labor tirelessly and the kingdom have no success, because there is only kingdom success when a sovereign God is on hand. We are utterly dependent upon the hand of God for us to see any success.

And, and we have desires for success here, don’t we? I mean, we’re not just meeting here because we love one another, though you know what I mean, we are meeting here because we love one But we’re also meeting here because we want the Kingdom of God to advance here. I mean, who of us would be satisfied if in 100 years time, well, we wouldn’t all be sitting here, but you know what I mean, we hadn’t changed? No increase, no blessing, no conversions. We would be discouraged, wouldn’t we? Why? Because we want the Kingdom of God to advance. We want sinners to get saved, and saints to be built up, and God to be glorified.

And our text before us provides us 4 wonderful helpful words, pictures, attributes of God as He sovereignly works in His kingdom, and some of them are surprising.

So firstly, what we see in our passage is that God’s timing is not our timing. God’s timing is very different to our timing. We remember, don’t we, that it was back in the month Chislev, which is our November-ish, that Nehemiah heard the news about the Kingdom of Jerusalem and had started praying? We’re now told in Chapter 2:1 that we’re in the month of Nisan, which, if you were a Persian, you would understand that that means that he’s been praying for approximately 3 or 4 months. Their calendar systems were different to ours. So approximately 3 or 4 months Nehemiah’s been praying.

Now, you’ve got to remember also that he’s been praying a very particular type of prayer, hasn’t he? If you have a look back in Chapter 1:11, “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.” Not tomorrow, not next week, not next month, not in 3 months’ time, but today. And guess what? Day after day after day, what has Nehemiah done? “Nehemiah, give us success today. Lord, please give us success today. Give us success today.” He has prayed over and over, looking for answers.

And, and do you wonder if, if he maybe got a bit impatient? I, I remember, I, at 1 point in my life, felt a desire to become a pastor. I know that might be shocking, but I had a desire to become a pastor one day, so I quit my job. Then I got the blessing of the church and I started studying, and I thought to myself, “Well, 5 years study and crack into it, right?” So I gave myself to my studies, and I labored hard and did 5 years of study, and then I got to the end of it, and I didn’t just fall into a church. Well, I did some lay ministry here, and I did some lay ministry there, and I preached for a call here, and I preached for a call there. And I had churches say to me, “Well, you’re too biblical. We don’t want you to be our pastor.” I said, “Well, that’s a blessing. Thank you for the encouragement.” And I preached here and there, and I went back and forth, and then I had to do some training in Rotorua. And from the time I left work, it took just under a decade before I got ordained. And can I tell you a secret? I wasn’t particularly patient. I griped at times, and I murmured at times. “Lord, come on. How long is this gonna take? It’s been 6 years already. I’m sure I’m ready by now. Please, Lord. Surely this church is the Church.” Nope, another door closed. And I became impatient with God.

Well, the wonderful thing about this story is we see no picture of impatience. Nehemiah doesn’t give up, does he? Day in and day out, in fact, morning and night, we’re told, he comes to his God, and he patiently lays down his prayer, and he waits. And he goes to work, and he comes home, and he prays and he waits. And the next day, he gets up and he says, “Today, Lord. Give me success today.” And then he goes to the king, and he works, and he doesn’t get it. But he doesn’t give up, does he? Why? Because he trusts God. He believes in God. He has faith. He has expectant faith.

You see, he’s not just patient, but he is expectant. What I mean by that is he is looking forward by faith, expecting an answer at some point. It might not be today. It might be tomorrow. It might be in a month. It might be in a year. But we know he’s expectant, and this is how we know. You notice that as soon as the king says to him, “What do you want?” he has a completely formulated answer. “Then what do you want, Nehemiah?” “Well, I want you to send me there. I want you to write letters. I want you to do this so that that way I can go and do” Why? Because while he’s praying and waiting, he’s expectantly planning. And he’s thinking to himself, “Well, when the day comes, what will I do? How will we do the plan? How will we march forward?” That’s a wonderful attitude to have, isn’t it?

M- Maybe you’re, maybe you’re praying for a loved one that’s lost. Or maybe you’re praying for, for a marriage or for a child or any number of things. Well, ask yourself the question, “Well, when the Lord grants it to me, what would I do?” And look by faith.

And yet there is a difference here, because Nehemiah had a spoken word of promise. ‘Cause we’re not talking about getting married, are we? Talking about the building up of the Kingdom of God, and God promises to advance His kingdom, and He promises that the gates of hell will never prevail against it. And so, when you lay hold of the promises of God, you can come with the same expectant faith. “Lord, you tell me not to be afraid. Well, I feel quite afraid right now. And so I’m looking you, to you to give me courage for tomorrow. So give me strength, give me courage.” And then you start thinking, “Well, what would I do when the Lord gives me courage?” And you plan, and you expect, and you look by faith to the promises of God.

But notice the other thing. He doesn’t move ahead of God, does he? You see, we can be tempted to, to pray and then become impatient, me waiting for ordination, and then try and force the door. So, we try and move ahead of God. It would’ve been like Nehemiah, not waiting for the Lord to bring success, but running out of the house and running back to Jerusalem to get to work, abandoning his post and forsaking his calling where he was right there and then with distrust in God. “God’s clearly not gonna do it, so I have to take matters into my own hands.” And maybe that resonates with some of you. Maybe in your life you’ve been tempted to do this, to think to yourself, “Well, this praying thing’s not really getting me anywhere. You know, at some point, we’ve gotta work. Can’t just sit around waiting for God to do it.” Well, brothers, sisters, that’s not the story here.

You see, we have to acknowledge that God’s timing is very different to us. If the Lord says no, it’s because whatever you’re asking for is the worst thing in the world for you right now. If the Lord chooses not to bless us, it’s because the timing’s not right. If the Lord chooses to not advance His kingdom into Karaka, that’s because the timing isn’t right. We must learn to wait patiently, and at the same, prepare faithfully. So as our deacon and I love to talk about, we need to have a 5 year plan, and we need to have a 500-year plan. Laboring for today, expectantly, prayerfully, and for the next generation, because we don’t know when the Lord will pour out blessing, but we know He will one day. Whether it’s in our life or not, one day, He will pour forth His Spirit and change our land.

And so, we see this timing of God’s that’s very different to our timing. The next thing we s- thing we see is God’s means. And God’s means are not what we expect. God’s means are not what we expect. Often when we pray, um, we, we begin to determine in our mind how God has to answer our prayers. Have you ever had this thought? You think to yourself, “Lord, I really need some money, and it would be really great if Bob or Sue turned up with a cash check for me.” Well, they don’t do checks anymore. Some cash for me. Sorry, children. W- a- and we begin to determine how God’s gonna do it, right? “So God, I want you to do this, and this is how you should do it.” Because, you know, our plans are wise, right? We’re pretty clever people, and it “Well, it’d be convenient if someone just dropped some money off at my letter box.”

God’s means are very different to our means, sometimes remarkably so, and especially so in this situation. Nehemiah goes to work that day having prayed, “Grant me success today.” And after 3 months of fasting, praying, mourning, weeping, you can imagine he probably doesn’t look that great. However, Nehemiah knows that to be sad or mournful in the presence of the king is to risk death, because the assumption was, “If someone doesn’t look happy in my presence, he’s probably plotting my demise. So if you’re not radiantly joyful around me, you’re probably trying to kill me.” I mean, when you’re a terrified dictator, that’s the way it works, right?

Well, Nehemiah goes to work one day, and he’s putting on his best smile. But, you know, sometimes when you’re around a person a long time, you can’t fake it, can you? I, I have long since discovered this with my wife. Occasionally, I struggle with melancholy, and it can get pretty bad sometimes. And, and I think to myself, “Chin up, Logan. We’ll just quietly ignore it, and we don’t need to bother anyone else.” And sure enough, not very long later, my wife comes to me and says, “Is everything okay, honey? Something’s not right.” And of course, I fob her off and say, “Everything’s fine.” But she pesters me until I tell her. Why? Because she knows me through and through.

And Nehemiah as well known. He spent a lot of time with the king. He’s there every time the king drinks wine. When it’s Nehemiah’s turn, he would take the cup, he would pour it out on his hand in front of the king. He would swirl it, he would drink it, and then he would wait, and if he didn’t curl over dead, he’d give the cup to the king. So the king’s pretty close with him, right? And the king looks at him, and he perceives something’s not right. And he says to him, “Nehemiah, why are you sad? You’re not sick. This must be a sadness of the heart.”

Now, as an aside, isn’t that beautiful? I mean, he’s a pagan king, but isn’t it wonderful that this king would have such concern for a cupbearer that he would just stop and ask him, “What’s wrong?” And I think there’s just a lovely little lesson for that, in that for us, right? Do we have that same level of concern for one another, or for those under us in workplaces, for those that you see in the supermarket? When you notice that there’s something wrong, or you see a tear upon a cheek, or you see a person looking a bit different to normal, “What’s wrong?” “Are you sad? Are you sick?” It’s a lovely concern, isn’t it? And as believers, we should be doubly marked by this, because we don’t dwell with cupbearers and kings. We dwell with brothers and sisters of the same Father.

But that, that’s just an aside. But, but notice what this question does to Nehemiah. He’s terrified, right? The text tells us, “The king said to him, ‘Why is your face sad, seeing that you’re not sick?’” Verse, at the end of the verse 2, “I was very much afraid.” It’s, it’s very expressed. “I was very greatly afraid. I was terrified.” Why? Because he, he knows his head’s on the line. “That’s one thing. I could lose my head over this.” Secondly, I think he’s clicked, “This is the moment. This is the opportunity. I’ve prayed for success, and God just opened the door.” And so what’s his immediate thought, potentially? “Well, what if I stuff it up?” “I mean, what if I get it wrong? What if I blow it? This is my only chance.”

And yet, isn’t it striking that the place of his fear is the answer to his prayer? I mean, what do you think he wa- him What did he imagine it would be like when the Lord brings success? Probably not this. He probably wasn’t praying and going, “God, if you could just get the king to notice that I’m really sad, so that I could be terrified, and then ask him my quest-” No, he probably was imagining grandeur ideas of courageously walking into the king one day and saying, “King, I need to talk to you about something that’s on my mind and heart.”

Brothers, sisters, God’s ways are very different than our ways. God works in ways that we don’t expect. His movements in the world are mysterious. This is why the Old Testament in Deuteronomy says his ways are higher than our ways. We can’t comprehend them.

You know, have you ever asked yourself the question, “Why the cross?” I mean, it makes no sense Right? I mean, if you had to sacrifice your son to save the world, would you choose the cross as the method? I mean, wouldn’t you choose a guillotine or something that’s way quicker and less painful? Why the cross? You know, and there’s 2 striking passages that reflect on this, the first one in Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 2:6-8. It’s, it expresses that had, had the enemies of God, had the enemies of God known what the death of Christ would do, they never would have crucified him. Even the demons did not expect that this was the solution to the sin. They thought they were winning, right? “We’ve done it! We’ve conquered!” And yet, Colossians 2 tells us that, “By nailing him to a cross, he,” being Jesus, “he put all of his enemies to open shame.” And we look at it and go, “This is just insane!” And the world does too, right? “Look at you weirdos wearing crosses! And celebi- celebrating a crucified king! What’s wrong with you?” And yet, it’s in the very crucifixion of Christ that the purposes of God are advanced, because God’s not like us.

And we must trust in God’s means, and it might be that in the timing of God, His means to advance the kingdom here is through pain and suffering and agony and death because He knows better than we do. It might be favor. It might be joy. It might be sunshine and rainbows. We have no idea. But do we trust Him? Do we trust Him to use the means that are best?

Thirdly, we see that God’s power is nothing like we imagine. Or to use the words of Paul in Ephesians 3, “He does far more abundantly than all we could hope or think.” And so Nehemiah is confronted with this opportunity to speak, and he speaks to the king, and, and he bumbles out his first answer pretty coherently. He says, “Let the live king forever Let the king live forever. Why should not my face be sad when the city, the place of my father’s graves lies in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”

Now, he has no idea what’s coming from this, right? It could be just let me go, that’s all I ask for. But notice that when God moves, He moves abundantly. The king says, “What do you want?” He says, “Well, I wanna go rebuild Jerusalem.” Now, that doesn’t sound very amazing to you and me, but do you remember that this very king stopped the rebuilding of Jerusalem? This same king made a decree in Ezra 4 that they had to stop, a written decree. Now, it’s a very significant thing when you are a godlike king figure to change your mind. You remember the, the part in the story of Daniel in the lion’s den when Darius really regrets his decision, but he can’t do anything about it? He says, “I can’t do anything, Daniel. I’m sorry. I hope your God saves you, ’cause I can’t because I’ve made a law.”

And so this king is faced with, “Well, I’ve already made a decree that you can’t rebuild it, and now Nehemiah’s asking me to rebuild it.” He says, “Well, how long are you gonna be gone?” And you can imagine Nehemiah’s heart, you know? This is amazing. And then, notice how Nehemiah just pushes it even further. He goes, “Well, I’m gonna be gone for a while.” He says, “And while we’re at it, can I have a letter that gets me there? Because, you know, there’s all these enemies between here and there. And can you give me a letter to your favorite forest?” that’s what he means when he says to the king’s forest. It’s, it’s actually a word that refers to It can be used to express paradise or pleasure garden, the king’s personal favorite summer forest. And he says, “Hey, and can I take a bunch of wood from there?” And it just so happens that the guy in charge of it is Jewish. He’s called Asaph. Do you remember the guy in the Psalms, Asaph? Well, it’s not the same guy, obviously, but he’s a Jewish dude running the place. Why? Because the Lord’s on the move, and He does far more abundantly than you can hope or think.

Our ideas of God are tiny. Brothers and sisters, one thing we learn from this passage is to have far bigger prayers. I mean, are we knocking on the door of heaven and coming into the throne room of God and saying, “Lord, I want New Zealand”? Like John Knox. John Knox said, “Let me have Scotland. I’ll die if I don’t get Scotland.” He didn’t say, “Give me my local town. Give me Glasgow.” We don’t say, “Oh, give me one person.” But dream bigger. “God, give us New Zealand.” It’s like praying high. He prays every single day up to 16 hours a day in India. Why? Well, because he’s a really bad missionary. He can’t learn the language. He can’t speak to them, but he can pray for them. And so he begins to pray, “Lord, give me one convert every day.” Lo and behold, at the end of a year, there’s one convert every day. He says, “Well, if God gave me one every day, then He can give me 2 every day.” And so he prays for 2 every day. And lo and behold, by the end of the year there’s over a thousand converts. This is how our God works. He delights to abundantly pour out blessing upon His people.

Sure, the timing may be very different to ours. The means might be very different to ours. but none of that limits His abundant power. He could convert all of New Zealand through one short video out of RBC in the breath of a moment, and none of it would be too hard for Him, because our God is infinite in power.

But there’s one more, more briefly, but more important, if things can be more important in God’s Word. Fourthly, God’s glory is the goal and not our own. Do you notice how the letter fin- the, the section finishes? “The king granted me what I asked. I had success, for the good hand of my God was upon me.” That last statement, “The good hand of my God was upon me,” is like the bold underlining, the most important part. If you’re a highlighter, you highlight that.

Why? Because Nehemiah could have written this story very differently, couldn’t he? This is his life and diary, we remember, it’s like a journal. “Well, you won’t believe what happened. I finally plucked up the courage to talk to the king.” Now, no one else is there, right? “I finally plucked up the courage to talk to the king. I went to the king and, and, and I, I asked him for permission to go, and, and the king wanted wasn’t sure it was a good idea, so I convinced him that it was a good idea. But after much back and forth, he agreed with me, uh, I strong-armed him a little bit, but we got there in the end. And, you know, I, I was courageous and I asked even more stuff, and, and I got letters, and I got wood, and I got everything we needed so that we can do this kingdom. It was hard work guys, but I did it for you.” Now, you could imagine that story being written in the newspaper every day of the week, right?

You notice there’s none of this. Nehemiah looks timid and afraid, and what he wants you to know above everything else is that the only reason he succeeded is ’cause God did it. Why? Because God deserves the glory, God deserves the praise, God deserves the honor for everything that happens, and Nehemiah wants to write that in big bold letters under everything through this book, and even s- especially here.

Why? Because we are tempted to forget the one thing that Israel must never forget. Remember? God says to Israel, “When you come into the promised land, and you eat from vines that you did not plant, and you live in houses that you did not build, and you sit under fig trees that you did not grow, do not think to yourself it is because of my righteousness that I am here, but it is because of the wickedness of the Ammonites and for my name’s sake.”

It’s exactly what Jesus says. He says, “I’ve come to do my Father’s will.” And when He’s going to the cross in John, He says, as the, as the time draws near, He says, “Father, glorify Your name,” as He goes to the cross. “Glorify Your name.” That was all that concerned the heart of Jesus Christ.

And this is why when His disciples said to Him, “Jesus, teach us how to pray?” He did not say, “When you pray, pray, ‘Our Father, please advance your kingdom really quickly.’” But He said, “Our Father, hallowed be thy name.” The greatest clause in the Lord’s Prayer. “Glorify yourself, Father, and because I want your name hallowed, please advance your kingdom. Please cause your will to be done. Please feed me,” et cetera, et cetera.

You see, if, if we lose sight of the fact that all of our longings for success in this world are solely for the purpose of the glory of God, we’re wasting our time completely. We might as well pack up and go home. The kingdom of God exists for the glory of God. We must be consumed with “hallowed be thy name” before we can pray, “Thy kingdom come and thy will be done.” We must gladly welcome a forsaken name as long as God be glorified.

I remember strikingly seeing this illustrated in a sermon by John Piper where he says to his congregation, “Why do you pray, ‘Lord, please give me safe traveling mercies’?” We pray that, don’t we? It’s very common. You hear it all the time. “God give me safe traveling mercies.” And he says, “Why do you pray that?” What if it’s more glorifying for you not to have safe traveling mercies? Have you ever thought about that? Has that ever entered your mind when you pray it? Have you ever thought to yourself, “Well, what if actually it’s most glorifying for me to careen off the road and die?” Now, understand he’s not and I’m not telling you it’s wrong to pray for safe traveling mercies, but it highlights, doesn’t it, how quickly our hearts get lost from a joy for God’s glory.

See, our joy for the exaltation of God should drive all that we do. It’s not just, “Lord, do this if it’s according to your will.” We’re good at praying that. It’s, “God, do this if it’s for your glory. Lord, if it will exalt your name for this church to grow, do it. But if it’s not gonna exalt your name, let it fold and die.” Do you have the courage to pray that prayer? Do you have the courage to pray, “Lord, may RBC stop unless it’s for your glory”? Do you have the courage to pray, if you’re single, “Lord, do not grant me a wife or a husband unless it’s for your glory”? If you’re a young married couple, “Lord, don’t give me a child unless it’s gonna be for your glory.” If you’re getting older, do you have the courage to pray, “God, bring on death if it’s gonna glorify your name”?

Do you have the courage to lay down everything on the altar of the exaltation of our great triune God? That is the calling of Nehemiah, and it’s exactly what Nehemiah does here, and over, and over, and over again in the book. And brothers and sisters, may God grant us to do the same thing, ’cause it’s not natural, is it? It’s ne-natural, because our nature wants us to be glorified. Our nature wants us to be well-known.

This morning, we were talking before coming to church about what your biggest idol is. It’s a great little activity. So, the way it goes is it goes like this. There are 4 idols that basically summarize all idolatry: honor, money, pleasure, power. Let me say them again: honor, power, pleasure, money. And the game is this: you only get to keep one. So you start eliminating them one-by-one. Now, if you eliminate one, it means that you have the median average. So if you say, “Get rid of money,” you’re not poor, you’re not rich. You have enough to live comfortably, and that’s it. And so you do this with pleasure, and you do it with money, and you do it with honor, and you do it with power, until you eventually find one. And we were doing this. It’s an interesting little game. I’d encourage you to do it with your spouse or your children or whoever. And it helps you understand what drives your heart, and well, mine is honor. I could, I could happily have the median average of power, of pleasure, of money, but my heart’s desire is to be applauded by everybody.

Now, maybe that’s not yours, and maybe this sermon’s just for me. But deep in our heart, is there not a desire to be glorified? I know it’s there in mine. And part of repentance is, is, is killing the idol, laying it down on the floor, and saying, “Hallowed be thy name, not my name.”

May God grant us the strength to do so.

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