“My Circus” - Nehemiah 1:4-11
May 7, 2023
Jim Stratton
May 7, 2023

Nehemiah 1:4-11 - As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. 5 And I said, “O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open, to hear the prayer of your servant that I now pray before you day and night for the people of Israel your servants, confessing the sins of the people of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Even I and my father’s house have sinned. 7 We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments, the statutes, and the rules that you commanded your servant Moses. 8 Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples, 9 but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen, to make my name dwell there.’ 10 They are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand. 11 O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.”

Your Life Has to P.O.P.

 


 
 

You Have to Care

  Care Means


  Care Means

They Are Your Monkeys and It Is Your Circus

  See It, Take

of It
  Accept - Good and Bad
  Where Things Went Off the Rails
      Pray
      Nehemiah’s Prayer Is a “Prayer of Repentance” (Breneman)
            Praise of God (Getz)
                 “Lord” -
                 “God of Heaven” -
                 “Great and Awesome” -
            of Sin
            of the Lord
                 Remember Us
                  Us Success

Your Circus Can Bring Joy and Blessing or Terror and Destruction

Deuteronomy 30:1–5 - And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, 2 and return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, 3 then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. 4 If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will take you. 5 And the Lord your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers.