The bulk of this message is going to come from the first chapter of Nehemiah. But I want to begin by sharing a verse of Scripture I have shared many times. It comes from Judges 2:10-11: “And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. (11) And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served Baalim . . . " I grew up in church, and I remember: Attending services in a mostly full church building, revival services, pastors’ conferences, and other meetings . . . and our family attended ALL of them! On occasion we would have preachers who were attending these meetings stay in our home. I remember attending services and supporting mission works which our church sponsored, sitting on unpadded wood pews in a building with no air conditioning in the summertime. I also remember the godly men I grew up around, men whose names and preaching I can remember to this day. Their character was such that I looked upon these men as almost next to God. When I was around them I was like the residents of Bethlehem when Samuel came to anoint David as king (in I Samuel 16). The elders of the town “trembled” at his coming. (TREMBLED = to shudder with terror; hence, to fear.) It implies a certain degree of awe and maybe even a little anxiety, as well. Remember, they asked Samuel, “Comest thou peaceably?” And there were other faithful men, church members who were not preachers, and my dad was one of them. Now, here is what is sad. Many young people in the Lord’s churches today are like the generation mentioned in Judges 2:10. They are not growing up with those types of memories, and neither the church nor the preaching have any effect on their lives. I did not learn most of what I know and teach about the Bible in seminary. I knew it when I got there. Do you know why? Because I learned it in church from faithful teachers and pastors. Our young people need to know the history of this church, yes, but not just the history of this church, but church history as well. Joni’s cousin told us last week of a kind of sad incident with one of her grandsons which, I think, reveals where many in the Lord’s churches (and in this church) are today, especially the youth. In some discussion they were having someone referred to a time “before covid.” The boy, who was much younger at the time said, “You mean there was a ‘before covid?’” All some folks know of this church is what they have seen and heard since they have been members here. To our youth it may seem that Bethel has “always been here,” and they may assume that it "always will be.” However, read Judges 2:10 again. Think of the history of Israel, their sin against God, and His ultimate chastisement on them, allowing them to be taken captive by their enemies. That is where we are when we come to the first chapter of Nehemiah, and I believe that is where we are in America today. Our nation has been taken captive by the world, the flesh, and the devil. In a recent prayer I asked God, “Can the prayer of one person change the course of a nation?” Shortly after that I began to read from the first chapter of Nehemiah, beginning in the fourth verse. Verses 4-11 of Nehemiah 1 contain the prayer this great servant of God prayed after learning of the condition of the Jews back home and of the city of Jerusalem. I am only one person - with a limited amount of time, a limited amount of money, not nationally known name, and no influence - but I am praying for our nation. I ask you to join me in doing so. I realize I shared a message from these verses a year ago. This IS NOT that message. It is a different one, but it basically deals with the same subject. Let’s read Nehemiah’s prayer. This nation was dedicated to Almighty God by our founding fathers, but there are forces at work in America today that want to make it illegal to even mention God’s name in public. The media is full of crime, vilolence, divorce, suicide, drug addiction alcoholism, unwed teen pregnancy, lust, fornication, and sodomy. The U.S. does more to corrupt other nations in the world than anyone else through our exporting of pornography worldwide. People watch American movies and American filth everywhere. And someone has suggested that the debauchery in the world today is a monument to the failure of the Lord’s churches to obey Him. The word that Nehemiah received about Jerusalem (the place God had chosen to put His name) was that the walls were broken down, and the gates were burned with fire. What are walls for? They are for protection, for separation, for identification. But they were broken down. The gates spoke of the glory of God. Many times in the psalms the psalmist would refer to the gates of Jerusalem. Psalm 87:2-3: “The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. (3) Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God. Selah.” What a picture this is of the Lord’s churches today! The walls of protection have been broken down. The world, the flesh and the devil have declared open warfare on believers today. We need to be on our knees daily seeking God’s protection. The walls of separation have been broken down. It many cases, it is almost impossible to tell the difference between a church of the Lord Jesus Christ and any other worldly “church,” institution, or business. In many churches today you don’t know whether you are at a rock concert, a hootenanny, or a worship service. The walls of identification have been broken down. Few see any difference between a true church and the world’s imitation of a true church. For many doctrine doesn’t seem to make any difference so long as the preacher says a few nice words about Jesus in his sermon. Through Jude (vs. 3) God said we should “earnestly contend (agonize) for the faith which was once (and for all time) delivered unto the saints.” Also, in our nation walls have fallen. Domestic walls have fallen. America’s homes are in trouble. Walls of decency have fallen. (Pornography is a billion dollar a year business in America.) Of course in our schools prayer and the Bible are out, and evolution, humanism, atheism, homosexuality, illicit sex, and abortion are in. Many believe that character does not make any difference in the election of a public official. (Can someone with a rotten character have the wisdom of God?) Jerusalem, the place where God had put His name, had become the place of God’s shame, and I believe something similar has taken place in America. After Nehemiah learned of the condition of God’s people and God’s place, he prayed! And it is a prayer that God’s people today need to be praying - not flippantly, not just in repetition, but from the heart - for the Lord’s churches first and for our nation. We need to agonize in prayer. In this message we are going to see that in his agony Nehemiah’s prayer . . .

I. WAS PRAYED IN ANGUISH - VS. 4.

II. IT WAS A PRAYER OF ADMISSION - VV. 5-7.

III. IT WAS PRAYED IN ASSURANCE - VV. 8-10.