Nehemiah and The Joy of the Lord

You know, I know a story about somebody who had a scepter. He was a king. Now you may know a story about another king who had a wife named Esther, who had a scepter that he would hold out if he was happy with people. He would hold it out and they could talk to him. If he didn't hold it out, they had to leave. Well, this was that king's grandson, and he had a grumpy problem. Do any of you have a grumpy problem? This was his grumpy problem. He was like this, and if people came in to him sometimes to see him and they were grumpy, he didn't like it. And so if somebody came in front of him, in front of the king, and said, "Um, hello, king, I am really, really, really, really, really angry at my neighbor because they stole one of my horses." And he'd say, "I don't like it that you're upset. Leave." "But I want my horse back. Can't you make him give me my horse back?" "No, 'cause you're grumpy." So they would go away. And so the king had a man whose job was just to make people happy before they saw the king. And this man's name was Nehemiah. And what Nehemiah would do is he would go to people and he'd say, "Okay, you're here to see the king?" "Yes, I'm here to see the king." "What's wrong?" "Well, you wouldn't believe what my neighbor did. My neighbor, when I wasn't looking, I was away on holiday, he came and he moved every fence post. He started over here and he pulled up the fence post and he took 3 big steps and he put the fence post back in the ground." And he stole 3 big steps into my yard and he went down his whole fence and he moved the whole fence and he stole my property. He said, oh, you know what though? If you go in front of the king and say that, I can see that that really upsets you and I'm sorry. But if you go in front of the king and you say that, he's not going to help you because you sounded pretty upset again when you said that. So what I want you to do, I want you to say that over, but I want you to say it like you're happy. What? I'm not happy. He stole my property. I want you to pretend. Can you just smile and say it again? Smile and say yes. Um, okay, um, um, I have this neighbor and, uh, he— you're not gonna believe what he did. It's actually pretty funny. He, uh, he moved his fence and he moved it over and now he stole my property and I'm not really happy about it, but I just I wanted to let you know, and I want you to give me my land back. And Nehemiah said, that's great. That's the kind of thing the king likes to hear. And so Nehemiah would then let people go in and talk to the king. But Nehemiah also had to be happy when he went in front of the king, because if the grumpy king saw him, he could say, Nehemiah, you're grumpy, go away. So he was always happy. He always dressed his best, and he always did his hair perfectly, and made sure his beard looked really good, and made sure that he smelled nice, and he'd had a good bath. Until this one day. And he went in front of the king, and he had a really sad face, and his hair was all messy, and his beard was like— and he didn't have a shower. He smelled. And he went in front of the king. Morning, King. And the king said, Nehemiah, what is wrong with you? He said, I'm sad. Yes, I can see that, Nehemiah. I don't like it when people are sad. Why would you come in front of me and be sad? Don't you know that I could I could send you out of here, and you could maybe never come and work for me again. Yes, but I can't be happy. I'm so sad. Well, what's making you so sad, Nehemiah? Well, my city where I come from, Jerusalem, it's knocked down and nobody's building it. And the king said, Nehemiah, Jerusalem's been knocked down for over 100 years. Why are you crying about it now? Well, because my cousin, he came from there, and they're supposed to build the wall. And the last king, Cyrus, he gave them all this money and said, go build the wall. And they were supposed to build it, but you know what they did, King? They took all the money and they built farms and they built properties and they made themselves nice places outside of the city. And God's wall is still just a mess. There's no city because there's no wall. And without a wall, there's no protection. And so there's no city. I just wish there was a wall. He said, well, if I built this wall for you, would you be happy, Nehemiah? Oh, I would be so happy. Well, who do you want me to have build the wall? I want to build it. You want to build, but you need to be here to serve me. Oh, but I would serve you so happy forever and ever if you would let me build the wall. And the king said, all right, so if I let you go and build the wall, you'll come back and you'll be happy? Yes, I will. I'll be so happy forever and ever. Okay, was there anything else you need? Um, yes, actually. Could you write me a letter that says anything I need, that you'll pay for it? He said, what do you mean anything you need? Well, you know, to build a wall we need lots of rocks. Could you pay for the rocks? I guess I could pay for the rocks. And we need some boards, we need timber, we need lots of timber. Would you pay for that? I guess I could pay for that, yep. And the people working, they'll need some food. Would you be able to pay for the food? Oh, I guess I could pay for that. They said, so that's great, so you pay for everything? Yes, I guess I could do that. Okay, and then I'll be very happy when I come back. And so Nehemiah went and he took these letters from the king and he bought lumber and timber, and he bought stones, and he bought everything he needed. And he got all the people around him, and the people heard that he was coming, and they all rushed in, and they said, "We want to help you build the wall." And so they all started building. And you know what he did? It was smart. He said, "You pick where your house is going to be in the city." So they went and stood where they're going to have their house, and he said, "I want you to build the part of the wall right in front of your house." Do you think you'd build the wall pretty good if it was right in front of your house, the part you built? What would happen if all the wall was really good except for your part and the enemy came? Where would they go through the wall? In front of your house. And so everyone built their part of the wall really, really good, and they did it so well and so fast that in 52 days they had the entire wall built all the way around Jerusalem. Nehemiah called all the people together and they had a big party, a celebration, and he wrote down everyone's name. Who lives in Jerusalem? What's your name? And they said their name. And what's your family name? How many children in your family? And they wrote that down. Next person. What's your name? What's your family's name? How many children? And they wrote that down. And they made a big long list of Everybody who lived in Jerusalem. And then Nehemiah said, "Thank you so much for coming. You can go home." And they did. But they didn't stay at home. They all came back the next day. And they went and they talked to the priest, Ezra. And they said, "Ezra, when we were cleaning up and building the wall, we heard that you found a scroll, God's book. Could you read that to us? We would all come and we would listen. We haven't had church in 100 years. We would love to hear your word, God's word, and His law." And so Nehemiah, I mean Ezra, said, "Okay, I'll do that. Come in the morning." So everyone came in the morning. They built this big stage, really big stage. And Nehemiah, or Ezra, sorry, climbed up on the stage, and he got the scroll out, and he started to read. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And people were listening as he started from Genesis. And you know, he read all the books of Moses, because that's what they had back then, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. And you know, when he finished, the people were crying. You know why? Because they heard in that law and in those letters from God where God wanted them to be. God had this perfect way that he wanted them to live. But do you know what they were doing? They were so far away because they were going, wait a minute, did he say we're not supposed to steal? I didn't know we weren't supposed to steal. I better give back that stuff I took. And And wait a minute, did he say we weren't supposed to lie? Oh, I told a lie the other day. And the people were getting sadder and sadder. And so then Nehemiah comes into the story. And Nehemiah walks up onto the stage and he looks at all these people. And do you remember what Nehemiah's job used to be for the king? What did he do for people? Made them happy. Made them happy. Well, he looked out and saw all these people crying. And he said, oh, this will never do. And he called in all the leaders and he said, can you please, Come here, listen. Go tell the people to look at the stage. And so the people did. They all looked. And he said, please stop your crying. And the people said, well, but we are sad. He said, stop your crying. Let me tell you something. The joy of the Lord is your strength. Not crying. The joy of the Lord. And he said, you imagine if somebody comes into your shop and they want to buy an apple and you go, no, the apples are over there. Okay, you go buy an apple, you bring it up, you go, "Um, how much is it?" "35 cents." "Okay." And you leave. Man, he's grumpy. Or if they came in and you said, "Hello, how are you today?" "I'm good, how are you?" "Great, what would you like?" "An apple." "Fantastic, the apples are over there. They're just 35 cents." So you go and get one. Do you think you'd want to go back in the second shop? You would. Not in the grumpy guy's shop. And that's exactly what Nehemiah said to the people. The joy of the Lord is your strength.