A Servant’s Heart:

A ServantR= 17;s Heart:

DESIRING TO SUCCEED

NEHEMIAH 2:4-5, 17-18

We come this morning to our third look at “A Servant’s Heart.” Our Lord demons= trated servanthood while He was on this earth, and He calls all of us to have serv= ant hearts as well. So far, we= 217;ve talked about:

1) ‘Responding When Christ Calls Us;’ and =

2) ‘Majoring on the Majors’ when we say = “yes” to following Him.

3) Today, we turn to = the Old Testament book of Nehemiah and find a man who had a great ‘desire= to succeed’ as a servant of the Lord. I trust his story will inspire a si= milar desire in us—a heart-felt desire to be good, effective, and, yes, successful servants. Look with me, please, at Nehemiah 2:4-5, 17-18:

⁴ The king said to me, "What is it you want?&qu= ot;
Then I prayed to the God of heaven, 5 and I answered the king, "If it pleases the king and if your servant h= as found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah w= here my fathers are buried so that I can rebuild it."

(The passage continues by telling us that the king not only granted permission, = he sent officers and troops with Nehemiah to make sure he arrived safely. Nehemiah saw the destruction with = his own eyes; then we pick up the story in verse 17:)

¹⁷ Then I said to them, "You see the trouble we = are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebui= ld the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace." ¹⁸ I also told them about the gracious hand of my God upon me and what the king had said to me.= They replied, "Let us start rebuilding." So they beg= an this good work.

(((The king asked Nehemiah, “What do you want?”)))

The king asked Nehemiah, “What do you want?” It’s an important question, isn’t it? Seems to me it would be difficult to succeed at anything until you first answer this question. If you don’t = know what you want, how would you ever know that you had succeeded in getting it= ?

We can learn a lot about ourselves—and our hearts—by honestly answering this question: “What do I want?” From the standpoint of Christian servanthood, we need to know if we only want to benefit ourselves, or are we seeking to bless others?

Do we desire to demonstrate our love for our spouse, or only be on the receiving end of love? Are we more concerned with raising= our children or lowering our handicap? We learn a lot about ourselves, friends, from what we want!

When the king asked, Nehemiah knew exactly what he wanted; and with God’s = help and the king’s blessing, Nehemiah inspired others to accomplish what = had seemed to be an impossible task: the rebuilding of the wall around the holy city of Jerusalem<= /st1:City>.

Now, success has to be handled with great care.= Our drive to succeed can become obsessive and detrimental to everyone around us. But achieving succ= ess at what God wants for our lives is right and good. Following God’s plan is a vi= tal part of having a servant’s heart.

In the life of Nehemiah, we find qualities that enabled God to use him successfully--not only in building the wall around Jerusalem, but also as a caring and compassionate governor who championed the cause of the poor and oppressed and brought integrity back to the governance of the city. From the world’s perspective= --and more importantly from God’s--Nehemiah was a success.

So, with that, let’s continue to look at his story and, as we do, listen = for those qualities in Nehemiah’s life that allowed him to be used by God= so successfully. We’ll loo= k at several passages, so follow along as we go to the first chapter of Nehemiah= , verses 3-4 and 11:

³ They said to me, "Those = who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusale= m is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire." ^=
4 When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven…. ¹¹ O Lord, let your ear= be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your serv= ants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by grant= ing him favor in the presence of this man." I was cupbearer to the k= ing.

1.= Here we find the first quality that points us toward success: UNDERSTA= ND WHO YOU ARE. Nehemiah had a s= ense of who he was and, thus, how God might use him. He was already in a position of responsibility as the king’s cupbearer.

This was more than a servant’s role. The cupbearer would taste the king’s wine and food before the = king did. He would oversee official gatherings for the king, making this a position of trust and, potentially, = influence--due to his daily access to the king.

So there were qualities in Nehemiah’s life--qualities the king recognized--that equipped him as a leader and a trusted servant. But there’s something else h= ere: when Nehemiah heard about the conditions in Jerusalem, he wept. He mourned and fast= ed and prayed. It seems that Nehemia= h had both the head and the heart to accomplish great things for God.<= /span>

And he recognized this about himself: he was the perfect man for the job. Now, it’s been observed that= less than one percent of the population ever achieves perfection...which is the reason so few people can recognize it in us!

Okay, then…Nehemiah wasn’t perfect either, but he had the “right stuff” to do what needed to be done.= He seemed to understand this about himself; so Nehemiah went to the king, and asked him to send him to Jerusalem to rebuild the city.

The king agreed to this, so Nehemiah made the long, difficult journey to Jerusalem; and again, in verse 17, we find him speak= ing to the people there: “You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates = have been burned with fire. Come, = let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem<= /st1:place>, and we will no longer be in disgrace.”

2.= To be successful, you must SEE WHERE YOU SHOULD GO. It was a bold move for Nehemiah to approach the king with this request. But Nehemiah was a man of vision.&n= bsp; He could see where he needed to go and what he had to do. Without vision, we perish. But with God-inspired vision, we h= ave courage to attempt great things.

There’s an interesting animal in Africa called an impala (you thought that was a Chevy, didn’t you?). An impala can jump to a height of = ten feet while covering a distance of 30 feet (lots of hang time!). But here’s the thing: these magnificent creatures can be enclosed behind a mere three-foot wall.

They will remain in captivity behind that wall even though they have this incred= ible leaping ability. Why? Because impalas will not jump if t= hey cannot see where their feet will land.&nbs= p; Just keep them from seeing their landing spot, and they will play it safe and remain in captivity behind a three-foot wall.

Vision, on the other hand, is a function of faith—the kind of faith that is willing to risk something for God--to jump, even when the landing place is = not well-defined. Too many people (churches, businesses, others) lack the vision to be successful. They are not willing to risk what = we sometimes call “the leap = of faith.”

Nehemiah had the vision—he saw where he needed to go--and he was willing to ta= ke some risks in his attempt to get there. This was part of his success; but there is more, so let’s look= now at chapter 4, verses 1-3:=

¹ When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed. He ridiculed= the Jews, ² and in the= presence of his associates and the army of Samaria, he said, "What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wa= ll? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble—burned as they are?&qu= ot; ³ Tobiah the Ammonite, who was at his side, said, "Wh= at they are building—if even a fox climbed up on it, he would break down their wall of stones!"

3. So…here we find another roadb= lock to success: criticism. To be successful, we must deal with it. Which brings us to a third necessary quality: ANTICIPATE and ACCEPT CRITICISM.

There are very few endeavors in life that do not involve relating to others, work= ing with others, and in some way affecting others. And those “others” will criticize what we do, just as we are so prone to do in return. We might as well expect it! Of course, we should do all that w= e can to minimize the need for criticism. And we should listen to what’s being said, and learn what we c= an from it--it just could be valid, after all.&nbs= p;

We may need to swallow our pride and revise our plan a bit. In other words, we need to be able= to accept it when our critics are right. At the same time, though, we shouldn’t let criticism paralyze us or we w= ill find ourselves unable to succeed at anything--because the critics will alwa= ys be with us!

A man flew into the Atlanta airport late one evening. He = thought the pilot may have been tired--because the landing had been usually rough.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> The pilot stood at the door and gr= eeted the passengers as they exited the plane.&n= bsp; The man telling this story said he was one of the last people to lea= ve because just in front of him, there was an elderly woman making her way down the aisle with the assistance of a walker.

The bumpy landing had evidently upset this spry little lady, because when she g= ot to the pilot, she didn’t smile and she didn’t shake his hand. Instead, she glared at him and sai= d, “Sonny, did you land this thing...or were we shot down?”

Anticipate criticism, friends. On the wa= y to success, you will encounter plenty of it.&= nbsp; Sanballat ridiculed Nehemiah and his fellow workers. Tobiah said if even a little old f= ox climbed up on their feeble wall, it would come tumbling down.

It’s easy to second-guess ourselves when we’re being criticized: “Maybe they’re right,&= #8221; we begin thinking. “What we’re trying to do is impossible.&nb= sp; We don’t have what it takes.&= nbsp; It’s not worth this much time and effort. It’s bound to fail.”

Nehemiah and his crew just kept on building, however; and before long, the wall had = reached half its intended height. At = this point, the criticism intensified and threats were made. Coupled with this was fatigue amon= g the workers. So adversity was com= ing at Nehemiah from two directions.

4.= To be successful, then, we must be= able to OVERCOME ADVERSITY a= s well. Nehemiah addressed the threat from= the outside by arming the people with swords, spears, and bows, and posting the= m at the low points around the wall, in case their enemies really did attack as = they had threatened.

And he dealt with their fatigue by helping the workers to look beyond all the rubble and destruction and see what he, in his own heart, could already see= : a restored Jerusalem, with new houses, a new= Temple, and new walls. He inspired them to ke= ep going and to continue building.

On the way to success, we can so easily get sidetracked by adversity. It’s never something we want= , but we do need to understand that adversity can actually be helpful to us.

You may find this interesting.   = ;     There’s a small town in southern Alabama that has a monument to the boll weevil.&nb= sp; The area used to be cotton country.= Cotton thrived there...until the boll weevil arrived one year and wi= ped out the cotton crop. The farm= ers tried to raise cotton again the following year, but failed again.

Many farmers were forced into bankruptcy, but the few who survived decided to experiment with a new crop—the peanut. Well, peanuts really took to the s= outhern Alabama soil. The plants were hardy and the mark= et for peanuts was strong.

The farmers found peanut farming to be much more profitable than cotton farming. So they pooled their= money and, right in the middle of town square, they erected a monument to the low= ly boll weevil. Adversity taught them= an important lesson.

Now, adversity does not always bring such positive results; but adversity is alm= ost always encountered along the road to success. Like Nehemiah, we must overcome ad= versity if we are to ever be successful at anything.

Now look with me, please, at one other brief passage from this book, Nehemiah 6:15-16: “So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul= , in fifty-two days. ¹⁶ When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God.”=

5.= One final quality I find here in Nehemiah, and I believe this must be present in any successful person: KNOW YOUR MOTIVATIONS (i.e= ., why you do what you do). We can s= uffer from a lack of motivation, but we also suffer from wrong motivations. Nehemiah’s motivation had to= be strong for him to give up his position of influence in the king’s court and = make that 1,000 mile trip to Jerusa= lem to take on a project that many believed to be futile. There was no lack of motivation.



But what was it? When Nehemiah fi= rst heard of the appalling conditions in Jerusalem, do you remember what he did? = He grieved and wept, fasted and prayed.

His motives weren’t selfish. Nor was he simply self-motivated. Nehemiah was God-motivated. This is what gave his work such gr= eat significance. And when the work was done, he gave glory to God in such a way that even the surrounding nations acknowledged t= hat only God Himself could have enabled Nehemiah to successfully rebuild the Jerusalem walls.<= o:p>

Johann Sebastian Bach was a gifted composer of music. Bach once stated this: “All = music should have no other end and aim than the glory of God and the refreshment = of the soul; where this is not remembered, there is no real music at all--only noise.”

Bach began all his compositions with the letters “J.J.” for Jesus Ju= va, which means “Jesus help me;” and he ended them with “S.D.G.” for Soli Dei Gratia, “To God alone be praise.= 221; This great composer desired to kee= p his motives pure.     =

Now, this doesn’t take anything away from the diligence with which Bach did his work, nor the giftedness he brought to it. And the same is true for Nehemiah.= No doubt there have been other peo= ple just as gifted as these men, and just as able to accomplish what they did.<= o:p>

But they were willing to sacrifice and serve, to do what it took to be successf= ul—not for their own glory, but God’s! This comes from having a servant’s heart, which Jesus Christ s= eeks to form in all of us who choose to follow Him.

With the right motives and the desire to work toward the best that God has plann= ed for our lives, we’ll be successful. Whether or not we meet the world’s standards for success, we&#= 8217;ll meet God’s standards. A= nd, ultimately, this is what matters. This is what makes for a truly successful life!