Tony Evans - Rebuilding A Broken Culture (10/08/2023)
This sermon from Nehemiah chapter 1 focuses on developing a kingdom vision—seeing God's purpose for His people beyond personal circumstances. It highlights Nehemiah's response to Jerusalem's broken walls, showing that kingdom vision starts with a burden, leads to persistent prayer, and results in divine strategy and provision, even using secular positions for God's mission.
A Broken City and a Burdened Heart
I want to call our attention today to Nehemiah chapter 1. Here is a man who had to develop kingdom vision. Kingdom vision is not just about you, your future, your career, your salary, your desire, or your education. It is about the imprint of God through you in history—this glimpse of the future now. The words of Nehemiah are introduced in verse 1.
"It happened in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, when I was in Susa the capital. Hanani, one of my brothers, and some men from Judah came, and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped and had survived the captivity, and about Jerusalem. They said to me, 'The remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire.'"
These are God’s people in distress and reproach—not taken seriously, not believed, not followed, not requested for their perspective because we don’t take them seriously. They’re as racially divided in the church as we are in the culture. They’re as class-divided in the churches as we are in the culture. They have as many divorces in the churches as we have in the culture.
We have as many men abandoning their responsibility in the church as they do in the culture. So how are we going to listen to them? How are we going to listen to their God when they don’t even listen to their God? They are a reproach. He says the walls are burnt down; the walls have crumbled. The walls encase the city, so that means there’s no security; everybody’s got to fend for themselves.
There is no police and community agreement because crime can go through the wall. They burned up, so stuff can infiltrate the city and bring havoc to the community. In other words, it’s a mess up there. Things have not gotten better since they left captivity. Since they left Persia, since they started with Babylonian captivity, then they were with Persia, and now that they’ve been released to go back home, nothing’s better in the old neighborhood.
That’s how they felt going back to the magnificent city of Jerusalem, the apple of God’s eye. All they could report is bad—I mean, it’s really bad. Nehemiah hears this in verse 4, and when he heard it, he sat down and wept and mourned for days. That’s the problem. The problem is regression in the community of the saints, which made them a reproach to the environment in which they were situated, and it brought him a broken heart.
The First Response: Prayer
The first thing he does after hearing about the problem is go to prayer. It says at the end of verse 4, "And I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven." He’s got what looks like an unfixable problem that drives him to fasting and prayer. I mean, this is so deep for so long and so bad, only God can fix this. So I better talk to heaven because of how messed up things are on earth.
Please notice we’re going to conclude by seeing what happens, but he doesn’t go to heaven last; he goes to heaven first. He doesn’t pray after; he prays before. God is on the front end, not on the back end, because the nature of this problem demands heavenly intervention. Kingdom prayer is designed to call down earthly intervention because you need to access heavenly authority.
Does prayer work? God has an unconditional will and a conditional will. What’s the difference? An unconditional will means things He’s going to do regardless of what anybody else does. In other words, it’s just based on Him deciding to do it regardless of anybody else doing anything. His conditional will is tied to things He decides only to do when you meet the qualifications for Him doing it.
One of the primary conditions that God says has to be met to activate His conditional and desired will is prayer. That’s why He says, "You have not because you ask not." We don’t know whether this is unconditional or conditional. Is it His desired will, or is it His determined will? Since we are not sure often which is which, that’s why the Bible says pray about all things.
He goes to God and says, "You are great and awesome." Why in verse 5 does he say God is great and awesome? Because you have to know how big God is when you see how big your problem is. So he extols the character of God in light of the crisis. Far too many of us have a God that’s too small, which is why we don’t go to Him.
If we thought He was really that big, we would go to Him more. But since we have this tiny God, we go to Him for tiny things—to the great and awesome God. Does that mean He’s going to say "yes" to every prayer? Absolutely not, because some things He has determined that even if you pray, He’s not going to do it. So He’s got a determined will.
But don’t miss out on the things He’s agreed to do if you meet the qualifications because you did pray. He says, "Who keeps His covenant and lovingkindness to all who love Him and keep His commandments." See the qualifications. Now he comes to the situation. Verse 6: "Let Your ear be attentive and Your eyes open to the prayer of Your servant, which I am praying before You now. I confess."
Verse 6 continues, "My sins and the sins of the sons of Israel." So let me tell you now, if you’re not willing to deal with sin, your voice won’t be heard in heaven. Now He says, "I need You to forgive me for how we have abandoned You." Then he comes to verse 9 and says, here it is. "Remember the word which 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 those of you who have been scattered were in the most remote part of the heavens, I will gather them from there and will bring them to the place where I have chosen to cause My name to dwell.'" Now let me give you another point of prayer. First of all, you have to recognize God’s person and how big He is.
That’s why when I hear a problem, I try to—I’m not always successful—but I try to juxtapose it up against the size of God: awesome God. Then he goes to God’s purity: "We have sinned, we have not met Your standard, we’ve disobeyed You." He comes clean with God. And why not? He knows it anyway. But then he says, "Remember what You said." He says, "Remember Your word that You spoke through Your servant Moses."
Did you know—this may not sound right—but did you know you can hold God hostage to His Word? He has exalted His Word above His name. You can hold Him hostage: "God, You said," and if you need some help, read it to Him. Just open up your Bible and read it to Him. Just say it: "Right here You said," okay? "So we’re Your people." Verse 10: "Who You have redeemed by Your great power and Your strong hand."
We’ve seen what You can do yesterday; I’m asking You to do it for us today. We’re in a bad situation in our country, in our culture, in our church. And so verse 11: "O Lord, I beseech You," I’m begging You. "May Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant and the prayer of Your servants who delight to revere Your name. Make Your servant successful today and grant him compassion before this man."
What man? The last line of verse 11: "Now I was the cupbearer to the king." The cupbearer to the king is like the chief of staff. It doesn’t mean he just drank before the king drank and ate before the king ate; it was a high-level administrative position called the cupbearer—the chief of the staff, the executive. So he was way up there. So when I go before this man today, I need You to go in that room with me because this is a bad situation.
The Gap Between Prayer and Answer
Now, why did I point that out? Why did I even bring that up? Because of chapter 2, verse 1. "It came about in the month of Nisan." Why does that matter? Because of chapter 1, verse 1: "Now it happened in the month of Chislev." Those are two different months. There is a four-and-a-half-month gap between Chislev and Nisan.
They are four and a half months apart from each other. He got the news in Chislev. When he got the news, he prayed. In his prayer he said, "Do something today." But nothing happens for four and a half months because your time and His time are not always the same time. I know because when you are in a crisis, you want God to do something right now. So it’s four and a half months later. What happens?
This is where you have got to see; you have got to have kingdom sight. He goes in to serve the king. Verse 1: "So the king said to me, 'Why is your face sad though you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of heart.' Then I was very much afraid." Okay, I don’t want you to miss that. He’s sad for four and a half months because he’s still sad, and it’s four and a half months later.
So that means there’s a big problem when you’re sad for an extended amount of time. But notice what God did. He let the king bring it up. He said, "Let the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies desolate and its gates have been consumed by fire?" He said, "You asked me, and I’m scared."
And look at what he did in verse 4. "Then the king said to me, 'What is your request?' So I prayed to the God of heaven." Wait a minute now. He prayed in Chislev; now he’s praying because a specific opportunity has arisen. The king says, "How can I help you?" He prays again: "Lord, give the right words to say; I don’t want to mess this up."
You know, you’re going in for a job interview, pray first. You don’t want to mess this up. God has got something special here. He says, "And I prayed that God would do something." Now, I want to show you something else that is easy to miss unless you have spiritual eyes, unless you are looking heavenly first. He says that he is now talking to the king.
Verse 6: "Then the king said to me, with the queen sitting beside him." He said to me, with the queen sitting beside him. The queen had nothing to do with nothing. She doesn’t come up; it doesn’t tell us anything about the queen; it doesn’t give us any information about the queen. All it tells us is when I was talking to the king, the queen was sitting next to him.
Why would Nehemiah tell us that? I mean, it doesn’t seem to fit. It just looks like a throw-in phrase—that the queen is sitting next to the king when I’m just talking to the king about the problem the king asked me. And now this throw-in: but the queen was there too. He’s in Persia. You know who else was in Persia? A lady named Esther. Stay with me here.
You remember Mordecai told Esther, "I need you to go before the king and plead my case and the case of the Jewish people before the king." But Esther said, "I can’t go in there because until you are invited to come before the king, and he has not invited you, I will be putting my life in my hands." Mordecai says to her, "You have been called to the kingdom for such a time as this."
"And if you don’t do it, God will find somebody else who will." Because God has a kingdom vision and a kingdom purpose. She said, "If I perish, I perish." She goes in; she saves all the Jews from Haman, who wants to destroy all the Jews. This influence of a woman on a man set the stage. See, Nehemiah wants us to know that this queen was critical to this decision because it comes from the same circumstance that was in play in Esther.
God's Provision and Plan
And so I prayed to the God of heaven, and then what did I wind up with? Here it is: God gives him a plan. "I said to the king, 'If it pleases the king,'" in verse 5, "'let your servant go to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it.' And I said to the king," verse 7, "'If it pleases the king, let letters be given me for the governors of the provinces beyond the River, that they may allow me to pass through until I come to Judah.'"
He says, "Our culture is broken, but I believe God wants to fix it." The king is not a believer. "But the earth is the Lord’s, the fullness thereof, the world and all they that dwell in it." Not only did the king—if you read the chapter—give him the letters that would give him safe travel, he gave him the resources to do the rebuilding.
Wait a minute, wait a minute—you don’t understand that. God used the devil’s man and the devil’s money to rebuild the kingdom program. See, God knows how to use sinners to help out saints when saints see what God wants to do for His kingdom program. Because all of it belongs to God; Satan just wants to use it.
But when God sees that He can use us for kingdom impact, kingdom purpose, kingdom rebuilding because we see heaven’s purpose, then when we are in His will, He provides what we need. That’s how you know you have a kingdom vision: because God always supplies what He calls you to complete. And so what does he say as we close? He makes some profound statements.
Verse 12 of chapter 2: "I arose that night, I and a few men with me. I did not tell anyone what my God was putting in my mind to do for Jerusalem." Then he comes down to verse 18: "I told them how the hand of my God had been favorable to me, and also about the king’s words." Verse 20: "So I answered them and said to them, 'The God of heaven will give us success.'"
You see how much God comes into this? Okay, so let’s bring this home now. Look: a kingdom vision is when God lets you see a need that He wants you to be part of meeting, even though you don’t know how it’s going to get done yet. How do you see that? How do you see your kingdom purpose? He said, "I’m a cupbearer for the king."
That was his job; that was not his mission. But his job opened the door for his mission. His mission was to rebuild Jerusalem; his job was merely a conduit. Don’t confuse your job with your calling. Now, your job may be your calling, okay? You can have a job that’s also a calling. My job is also my calling, but every job is not your calling.
Paul was a tentmaker; that was his job. His calling was to reach the Gentiles with the gospel. So your job may be your calling, but don’t mix up your job as your calling because your calling will always involve something God has given you to do to make a difference for Him, not just make money for you.
The Elements of a Kingdom Vision
Number one, he had a burden. You’ll always see based on a weight God puts on your heart—that’s a burden, something you cannot shake. For four and a half months, he has not been able to shake his concern for this situation. So there is a burden. Secondly, he says, God put it in my mind to do something. So it starts in his heart with a burden, but then it comes to his mind with an idea.
Because the Holy Spirit renews the mind. He brings God’s thoughts into your thinking, even though you don’t know how to do it. He says, "I don’t know, just help me with the king today," and it was four and a half months. You don’t have the particulars. So from the burden came the prayer; from the prayer came an open door; the king comes to him.
From that, God puts an idea in his mind that leads to a plan to make a difference for the glory of God, for the good of people, using the skills that he had learned. Because as the administrator for the king, he knew how to put projects together. So God used his secular employment to prepare him for his kingdom vision.
Yes, you may be employed as a teacher, but God may be wanting you to use teaching skills for the kingdom. How can I take the vision God has shown me, burdened me, and given me, and transfer it for something He lets me see that creates a burden in me? A kingdom vision is a vision where you can see the change that God can use you to make in a world of desperation.
Because I see heaven wanting to make a difference through me on earth in a decaying culture. If Christ does not come back soon, if things keep going the way they’re going, you won’t want to live here anymore. If things keep going the way they’re going at the speed they’re going without divine intervention, this is not going to be a happy place to live.
I don’t have time to get into all the idiosyncrasies of all that could happen as things unravel, but you’re what you’re looking at. So we better get some folk with some kingdom vision who can look to heaven to intervene on earth. But if we can get some folk with some kingdom vision who can see heaven on earth, we can rename this bad boy.
We can give it something that God can be glorified in, and people can be proud to live in, because we’re not looking like they’re looking. We are looking up there and asking up there to make a difference down here. What do you do when society has shredded, when the life that should breathe hope and help in a community has become a wasteland, emptiness surrounding you?
How do you resurrect it? Well, God has not left us to guess about that. He has a specific order and plan for the rebuilding of the lives of people where it’s been shredded by evil, sin, breakdown, and disintegration. We do not have to give up hope even when the culture looks like it’s collapsed because, after all, God created government.
God created civilization; God created society; but He also created rules. And when we follow the rules and when we follow those guidelines, we can see what was broken, rebuilt. Let’s see how to rebuild a culture that is broken down.