Nehemiah 1: When God Gives You a Burden for Your City

Introduction

"Was Nehemiah a leader?" Clive Urquhart, pastor of Kingdom Faith Church, opens his message with that question. His answer may surprise you: at the start of the story, no. Nehemiah was the king's cupbearer, a man doing his job, just like the rest of us.

The pastor builds on a theme his church has been reflecting on for several weeks: not doing church or going to church, but being the church. Jesus did not come to found an organization or a series of programs, he explains. He came to save people and to establish a family of the kingdom on the earth, called to multiply in neighborhoods, regions and nations. The church is about to launch its "home hubs," house groups designed as missionary communities.

Walking through the first chapters of Nehemiah, Clive Urquhart shows how an ordinary man receives a burden from God for his city, how that burden leads him to prayer and then to action, and how a whole people ends up rising to rebuild.

Outline of the message

1. An ordinary man who asks a question

The cupbearer tasted the king's wine before he drank it, to make sure it was not poisoned. Nehemiah was not a politician or an influencer. He had no position, he had a job.
He asks his brother and a few men for news of Jerusalem. The answer is harsh: "The remnant who are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and its gates are burned with fire" (Nehemiah 1:3).
The pastor invites you to replace "Jerusalem" with Horsham, Crawley or Burgess Hill, the towns where his church lives, or with your own city. They have no visible walls, but through the eyes of the Spirit, their spiritual walls and gates are broken and burning.
"Anyone who does not know Jesus has a life in trouble," in two senses: their eternal destiny is not to be with God, and their life right now is already in trouble.
His prayer: "Holy Spirit, open the eyes of our hearts to see as you see. Father, let me see my city through your eyes." He does not want to go about his business untouched by what is happening in people's lives.

2. The burden leads to prayer

"It happened, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned for days; and I fasted and prayed before the God of heaven" (Nehemiah 1:4). Nobody told him to fast: his heart simply reacted. "This is not right. Something has to change."
He begins by exalting God: "I beg you, Yahweh, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God" (Nehemiah 1:5). He starts there because only a great and awesome God can change the situation. He then places himself before the God of the covenant, who shows loving kindness to those who love him.
He confesses the sins of the people and includes himself: "I and my father's house have sinned" (Nehemiah 1:6-7). He does not pray only for them, he prays for "us."
He does not start by complaining about the state of things, neither before God nor to others. He weeps, he fasts, he humbles himself and he asks for mercy.
He does not ask for the salvation of politicians or influential people. He asks for God's mercy for the whole people. And it is while he prays that God puts something in his heart.

3. "Send me": provision and protection

The king notices his cupbearer's sadness. Something had changed in Nehemiah over the previous days, and it showed. The pastor stresses that God wants people to see our joy, but he also wants to give us a burden for our neighborhood, our city and our nation.
Nehemiah prays to the God of heaven, then answers the king: "Send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers' tombs, that I may rebuild it" (Nehemiah 2:4-5). We do not need an earthly king: we stand before the King of kings, who is already willing to show us grace.
When a burden is born, the prayer becomes: "Lord, send me to my city, to my neighborhood." We are already sent by the Great Commission, but God wants to place a particular burden in us, and that happens over days and weeks, not only during a meeting.
Nehemiah asks for letters, one for timber for the construction and one for safe passage (Nehemiah 2:7-8). Provision and protection: when God puts a project in your heart, he already has the provision and he is your protection.
The king also gives him army officers and horsemen (Nehemiah 2:9). The pastor sees in this the spiritual army and the angelic forces that accompany those whom God sends. "When God places a burden, it is a mission."

4. Praying for your city, street by street

Sanballat and Tobiah are very displeased that someone has come to seek the good of the children of Israel (Nehemiah 2:10). When a believer starts to obey, it disturbs the enemy in the spiritual realm.
"I didn't tell any man what my God put into my heart to do for Jerusalem" (Nehemiah 2:12). Nehemiah does not post his latest prophetic word on social media. He carries the burden, he prays, and he inspects the city.
A few years ago, during a time of prayer and fasting in January, the Lord told the pastor to walk down every street in Horsham and pray for every house. He set out at 5 in the morning, in the dark of winter, asking God to make him invisible so that he would not be taken for an oddball.
During the two months this walk lasted, God was at work in him. In some streets, he felt a holy indignation and took authority. In others, he turned the corner and began to weep: "Father, this is your heart for the people on this street."
Then the Lord asked him to pray for all the churches in the town, "because you have bad attitudes toward them." He prayed day after day for the Church of England, for the Baptists, and then for every denomination.
God told him he would be asked to become moderator of the association of churches in the town, and that he should say yes. A week later, the invitation arrived. Since then, the leaders have prayed, worshiped and listened to God together: "Together we are the spiritual elders of the town."

5. Rising up and building despite opposition

Nehemiah says to his companions: "You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come, and let's build up the wall of Jerusalem" (Nehemiah 2:17). He is honest about the situation, but he is not negative.
"Our complaints will not change anything, they only add to the rubble." Change begins on our knees, for a friend, a colleague, a city or a nation.
The people answer: "Let's rise up and build" (Nehemiah 2:18). One man's burden spreads to others: the place does not look like much, but God has spoken, and nothing requires things to stay as they are.
The adversaries mock: "Will you rebel against the king?" (Nehemiah 2:19). The pastor observes that even today the truth is presented as a lie, and that those who carry God's love are sometimes accused of not loving people.
Nehemiah's answer: "The God of heaven will prosper us; therefore we his servants will arise and build" (Nehemiah 2:20). When the enemy asks "Who do you think you are?", it does not matter who you are: God is on your side.

6. Every family at its own gate

In chapter 3, each family rebuilds the gate closest to its home and the neighboring section of wall. They are not masons, but goldsmiths, perfumers and merchants.
We often disqualify ourselves: "I'm not that person on the platform." The pastor replies that nobody has a special direct line to God. "We all have a direct line to God: it is the Holy Spirit. He is the direct line to the Father."
A house group is like a gate. A gate opens to let people in and out, or closes to stop what should not get through. Through prayer, agreement, love and testimony, we let in what comes from God and stop the rest.
Faced with insults, Nehemiah prays, and the people keep building: "for the people had a mind to work" (Nehemiah 4:6). When you carry a burden, you no longer work because you "should," but because something is burning in you.
When the workers' strength fades, "The strength of the burden bearers is fading, and there is much rubble" (Nehemiah 4:10), they gather to encourage one another. "Jesus does not come with a whip to get the work done. He comes with love." A burden is God's love living in you so fully that you have to act.
They work with one hand and hold a weapon in the other (Nehemiah 4:17): praying and working go together. At the sound of the trumpet, everyone gathers (Nehemiah 4:20). For the church, that rallying point is Sunday morning. And the wall is completed in 52 days (Nehemiah 6:15).

7. Positioning yourself before God right now

With "Pray 365," each member chooses a day of the month and prays that day for the church, for those who do not know Jesus and for the nation. When ten or fifteen people pray like this every day, a wall is built in the spirit, to resist the enemy and to launch what God wants to do.
Several members of the leadership and intercession team are beginning 21 days of prayer and fasting, joined by the pastor and his wife Jane. It is not imposed on everyone, but everyone is invited to consecrate themselves again.
The nation is fragmenting, he says, because everything is built on sand. Whoever builds their life on the rock does not collapse in the storm. Hence his advice: be careful what you listen to and what you watch, do not feed on alarmist videos, and redeem the time, because the days are evil (Ephesians 5:16).
Asking for a burden does not work "like ordering a hamburger at McDonald's." The Lord sometimes asks: "Do you really want it?" The spirit of prayer comes upon those who pray, until it becomes easier to pray than not to pray.
"That's my pace," someone will say. "Very well, but is it the Lord's pace for your life?" The pastor concludes with a prayer: "Holy Spirit, shake me if I need to be shaken, stir me if I need to be stirred, strengthen me if I need to be strengthened."

Key takeaways

God did not choose a leader, but an ordinary man who let himself be moved by the distress of his city.
The burden is born and grows in prayer: worshiping God, confessing by saying "we," asking for mercy.
When God puts a project in your heart, he has already planned the provision and he is your protection.
Complaining only adds rubble. Change begins on our knees, then we rise up to build together.
Every family has its gate: nobody is too ordinary to build, because everyone has access to the Father through the Holy Spirit.

Personal application

If you replace "Jerusalem" with the name of your city in Nehemiah 1:3, what do you see through the eyes of the Spirit?
When you talk about the state of your city or your nation, is it more to complain or to pray?
For which people, streets or workplace could you start praying every week?
Are there churches or Christians toward whom God would like to change your attitude?
Is your current pace of life the one the Lord wants for you, or is he inviting you to consecrate yourself again for a time?

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

Was Nehemiah a leader when God called him?

No. Clive Urquhart points out that Nehemiah was the king's cupbearer. He was not a politician, not wealthy, not an influencer: he did his job. He is an ordinary man who heard about the distress of Jerusalem, who wept, fasted and prayed, and in whose heart God placed something.

How can you receive a burden from God for your city?

A burden cannot be ordered like a hamburger. According to the preacher, God places it in you through prayer. Start by praying for the people close to you who do not know Jesus, your neighborhood, your workplace and your city. The spirit of prayer comes upon those who pray, until it becomes easier to pray than not to pray.

How did Nehemiah respond to the opposition of Sanballat and Tobiah?

He did not try to justify himself. He answered: "The God of heaven will prosper us; therefore we his servants will arise and build" (Nehemiah 2:20). Then, at each new threat, he prayed, he kept working and he gathered the people so they would be strengthened.