Scroll down past Sermon for more info
Nobleton Community Church
29084 Sentinel Street PO Box 224
Nobleton, Florida 34661
Rev. Paul V. Lehmann, Pastor
813-389-8683
Nobletoncommunitychurch.org
info@nobletoncommunitychurch.org
OUR VISION IS:
To experience SPIRIT-FILLED WORSHIP AND PRAYER
To be involved in EVANGELISM, DISCIPLINING AND TRAINING PEOPLE
To use our SPIRITUAL GIFTS
To SERVE AND REACH PEOPLE FOR CHRIST, BOTH
“ACROSS THE STREET AND ACROSS THE WORLD”
Nobleton Community Church
Date November 16, 2025
Text Nehemiah 2:1-10
Pastor Paul Lehmann
The burnt offering is the Old Testament picture of entire consecration to the service of the Lord. The burnt offering was voluntary; it was all upon the altar; it was made by fire; it was a sweet savor unto the Lord.
THE BURNT OFFERING required complete and detailed OBEDIENCE.
The principle of the burnt offering illustrates the message of
Nehemiah 2:1-10, for this is the principle which not only lies behind the preparation and provision, the equipping of Nehemiah for God’s service, but applies to every one of us in the service of the King of Kings.
No matter whether we are retired or working at a job, either full-time or part-time, all of us should think about these things.
There are three thoughts we want to recognize from this portion of Scripture. First, observe what we talked about last week:
THE BURDEN WHICH NEHEMIAH CARRIED
Looking at the beginning of chapter 1 and the beginning of this chapter two, it seems about four months have passed since he first heard about the condition of Jerusalem and the time when God opened the way for him to take action. He carried this burden even though he couldn’t do anything about it right away, but he PRAYED. Since Nehemiah was King Artaxerxes’ cupbearer, he was before the king every day, so the king noticed that he wasn’t sick, but he looked unhappy. Nehemiah was experiencing a deep sorrow in his heart, and it showed. He knew he had to have the king’s favor before he was able to do anything about the walls and gates of Jerusalem. He either had prayed that God would remove the burden, or else make it possible to do something about it. Appearing sad in the presence of the king was, believe it or not, punishable by death. He was trusting God for a miracle to open the way for him to do something about his burden. He was very patient in waiting on the Lord. Sometimes we rush in instead of being patient. We get ahead of God’s timing. This is hard to do because often our tendency is to wait too long and never do anything. But in this case, the initiative was not in Nehemiah’s hands; it was in God’s.
IT IS ONLY A PERSON WITH A CRUSHING SENSE OF BURDEN AND RESPONSIBILITY WHOM GOD CAN TRUST WITH HIS WORK
We mustn’t confuse emotional response to need with a call.
THE NEED NEVER CONSTITUTES THE CALL.
How many people hear of appalling conditions in some country or area, and immediately respond out of deep sympathy, and the result is disaster, or at the very least, they get discouraged and quit. If it is a missionary overseas who was never “called,” they go back home.
When Jesus told his disciples, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.” He isn’t talking about a load on our physical bodies, but a burden we are carrying in our hearts —an emotional or spiritual burden. These words are for those who love him and are following him. I know that many of you here this morning are carrying some heavy burdens in your personal lives. Some are known to your fellow believers, and some aren’t. There are different kinds of needs, outside of our own personal problems, in the lives of people in our neighborhoods; problems and needs that threaten to overburden or crush us when we know about them. Jesus is saying: “Come to me. I can meet your needs.”
When a need or specific burden in our souls gives us a burning desire that comes as an outcome of prayer, and becomes so intense that we cannot leave it alone any longer, then He calls us to fulfill His purpose
When that happens, God acts. The initiative for opening doors of service is never ours, but his. When we are called and we are in God’s will, he will open doors.
THE BASIC RESPONSE TO THE LORD MUST BE THAT WE ARE WILLING TO GIVE OF OURSELVES. WE MUST SURRENDER EVERYTHING TO HIM.
We must be willing to do anything he asks us to or go anywhere he wants us to go. When he calls and sends us, even the hardest ministry on earth becomes enjoyable and easy. That doesn’t mean that it won’t be done under extremely difficult conditions, including danger, but what keeps you at your task and makes it all worthwhile is the fact that God has called you, and you are exactly where he wants you to be. We must bear the burden of the work, and want it as much as the Lord does, and know that in our heart we couldn’t be satisfied doing anything else.
Not only was there a burden that Nehemiah carried, but there was;
A BLESSING THAT NEHEMIAH WANTED.
He not only wanted the blessing of the Lord, but the King. Nehemiah first “prayed to the god of Heaven,” and then he said to the emperor, “If Your Majesty is pleased with me and willing to grant my request, let me go to the land of Judah, to the city where my ancestors are buried, so that I can rebuild the city.”
Now he discovers that the King is listening, and his Queen is sitting there too, and there is no negative responses coming from them. Instead, the King simply asks, “How long will it take you to get there, and when will you be back?” Nehemiah is so encouraged by this response and sees that the King is willing to send him that he tells him the time he wants to go. Then he boldly asks a favor. Could you please also send letters of recommendation to the governors of the Trans-Euphrates (that is, West of the Euphrates River), providing me with safe conduct until I arrive in Judah?
Then on top of this, he has the courage to ask for another letter to Asaph, who is the keeper of the King’s forest, asking him to give timber to make beams for the gates to the citadel (that guards the temple), and for the city wall, and even for the house that he is going to live in while he is there.
Was Nehemiah asking for too much ere? Certainly not! The King was well
able to give him all he asked, and all of these things were absolutely essential if this task, once begun, was to be completed. When God gives you favor with people, He goes way beyond the usual.
As he remembered his commissioning and the promised supply of every need, he recognized that the hand of the Lord was upon him. We sometimes say that he senses “THE ANOINTING.” At any rate, it’s certain that he found favor with the King, because he agreed to send a military escort with him. He was assured that God was with him for the ministry that he was called to do.
Here is the lesson for us: He was sent, he was going to be safe, and he was well supplied. All those factors are important in any service for God. What the King did for him is also symbolic of how the King of Kings (Jesus Christ_ prepares us for service so we can carry out his orders.
The main factor in all of the Lord’s work is not the need of other people, but the command of Jesus. His absolute sovereignty is what matters. Our obedience to Him is what counts.
Nehemiah did not only want to know that he was sent, but he also wanted to be kept safe. We have the right to ask to be kept safe, to ask the Lord to protect us, to build a hedge of protection around us, and our children and grandchildren, and to ask for guardian angels. I believe that, even though I believe this, some pastors, theologians, and commentators might not agree with that. They say things like: “We don’t have the right to be kept safe in a physical sense because we are called upon to sacrifice or hazard our lives for the gospel if need be. “Now it is those who have never been faced with death for the cause of Christ, or because they have never lived in a dangerous country or faced a dangerous situation, who write such things. They concede that we are entitled to be kept safe in the spiritual sense.
It is true that the sentence of death, as it was in Paul, will often be in the true servant of God. But:
We are entitled to pray for both physical and spiritual protection, even though in God’s plan, we must be willing to lose our lives for him.
In the same way that we pray for physical healing, knowing that not everyone will be healed on this earth, that they will find their ultimate healing when they go to be with the Lord, this fact should never stop us from praying in faith, believing that god will heal us. In the same way, just because there may be some who are going to be martyred for Christ, shouldn’t we pray for God’s protection when we enter into a dangerous situation or country? Of course, we should.
Some of you may remember in 2005, there was a movie released called “End of the Spear.” It was about Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Peter Fleming, Ed McCully, and Roger Youderian. The five M.A.F. pilots who flew into the village of the Auca Indians. Auca, meaning savage (that is what most called them back in the 1950s), but the real name is the Waodani people. Do you think that those missionaries and their wives didn’t pray for protection? The M.A.F. pilots that I have known over my 30 years of missionary work, prayed every time they took a plane up. Let alone when they knew they were going to land among hostile people. God’s plan, however, for those 5 men who were martyred by the Waodanis, was to give their lives. Over 600 young people have said that they obeyed God’s call on their lives to be missionaries because of their deaths. The Waodani man who killed Nate Saint is a pastor today, and there is a strong church in that village. He came to the States and promoted that film with the son of Nate Saint.
I’m sure that Bonnie Whetheral, the O.M. (Operation Mobilization) missionary who served in the Clinic in Lebanon, who was gunned down at work one day in 2003, prayed every day for God’s protection. Yet she was martyred.
Nehemiah here was going to face some opposition to the task before him. He had prayed for favor before the king, and he got it, including the military escort to protect him.
We have every right to ask God to give us favor when we are dealing with the world, with evil people, sometimes who want to harm us, so we can ask for protection, and we have every right to believe that the Lord will keep us safe when we are obeying Him and following his command to GO to serve Him.
Finally then,
NEHEMIAH WANTED TO BE SURE OF HIS SUPPLIES.
He had permission to requisition all of the King’s material resources.
Rebuilding for God requires not only materials but also spiritual resources.
It is absolutely essential that we are FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT. That means being CONTROLLED BY GOD’S SPIRIT.
So we have seen that Nehemiah carried a burden to accomplish God’s will, and Nehemiah wanted the blessing of not only the Lord, but also the King. Now, finally, think about verse 10.
THE BATTLE WHICH WE FACE
The battle which Nehemiah caused—
Sanballet and Tobiah were not happy with Nehemiah. They were very much disturbed that someone had come to promote the welfare of the Israelites. Nehemiah was a marked man, but it is always so for God’s people. Like we said last week, when God’s people say, “let us arise and build, the enemy Satan says, let us arise and storp them.”
Nehemiah has now provoked the battle.
Think of it. There were plenty of other Jews in Jerusalem, and they’d been there a long time, but they had no concern for a broken-down wall and a ruined testimony. They were perfectly satisfied with the way things were going; they never thought it to be a reproach to the name of God; they were no menace to the devil. But Nehemiah was a man with a burden, who had been sent and supplied, a man with vision and vocation. Here was a man whose whole attitude was a declaration of war against things as they were. He was willing to “shake things up.: And as the enemy saw his determination to retrieve ground that was lost, at once his enemies ere aroused to oppose.
There is no battle anywhere in the spiritual sense until a committed Christian gets involved. There is no concern in the mind of Satan about the church at all until he sees a selfless Christian seeking only the glory of god, determined to challenge the Satanic grip upon men’s hearts and lives in the name of the Lord. Does your testimony or service for God cause Satan any worry at all? How much overtime does the devil have to do in hell because of our church? It’s only when we are sold out to obeying the Lord no matter what, and have no thought of pleasing ourselves, and when we carry a burden for what God has called us to do, and are under the empowerment and control of the Holy Spirit, that Satan is angry and we are engaged in a battle. That is spiritual warfare, but the scripture tells us that “we are more than conquerors in Jesus who gives us the victory, both now and in the days to come.