 Hey man, keep your place there in Nehemiah chapter one, so we're starting a new series tonight and this new series is on prayer. So for the next few weeks what we're going to be doing is seeing what we can learn about prayer and we're going to do it in a certain way. What we're going to do is we're going to look at special prayers in the Bible from specific people in the Bible, look at their actual words that they prayed to God. This is definitely one of those sermon series that we're going to have to cut short or we would just have dozens of sermons because there's so many great prayers in the Bible but we're going to start out this evening looking at a prayer of a man who is asking God for something. So we're going to look at Nehemiah's prayer in Nehemiah chapter one. So first of all, who was Nehemiah? Nehemiah was a man who was serving the king of Persia in the end or the end, the captivity I guess is past at this point. If you look at the books of Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther, these are all kind of books around the same time. The timeline kind of goes like Ezra went back first, Cyrus the first king of Persia gave the decree to let the Jews go back and build the temple, Ezra was back first, then we kind of have a book of Esther fits in there, the things that happened in the book of Esther even though it doesn't have to do with the captivity and the building of the wall and the building of the temple, that's the same timeline of Esther and then we have of course Nehemiah overlaps the timeline of Esther, that's not obvious when you read the book of Esther but I believe as I look at the kings of Persia, I believe that the same king, I believe that Asaharis of Esther's husband, I believe that is Artaxerxes that we're talking about in Nehemiah chapter 2 that we'll look at at the end of the sermon. So there's just some historical context but basically what we have here is Ezra receives some news from, he's in captivity serving the Persian king, he receives some news about Jerusalem and he receives news that the walls are burnt down, the gates are burnt, the walls are in disrepair and he wants to be able to go back and build the walls and rebuild the city. Look down at verse number one, the words of Nehemiah, the son of Hakeliah and it came to pass in the month Chislu in the 20th year as I was in Shushan, the palace, of course these are the same words used in Esther in Shushan, the palace, that Hanani, one of my brethren came and he and a certain men of Judah and I asked them concerning the Jews that it escaped and which were left of the captivity and concerning Jerusalem. And we asked them, how are things back in Jerusalem? And they said unto me, the remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem also is broken down and the gates thereof are burned with fire. And it came to pass when I heard these words that I sat down and I wept and mourned certain days and fasted and here we are and prayed before the God of heaven. So first of all, we're going to be looking at what is about to come in the next verses in Nehemiah chapter one is Nehemiah's prayer to God, what he's asking God. So first of all, what type of prayer is this? The reason I'm starting with this prayer is because this prayer kind of encompasses what a lot of people's prayers are. When they're actually they're praying to God, they're asking something from the Lord for themselves, something that they would want from something. We'll get to that in a minute what Nehemiah is asking for. But let's be honest, that's a lot of prayers today. That's a lot of prayers that we pray. We're asking God for something. Hey, you know, God, I need something is what we're asking. That's what Nehemiah's prayer is about. So let's look. So Nehemiah's prayer was successful. So let's learn from a success story here and see if we can recognize a pattern of how Nehemiah did this because look, God said, okay, God granted this prayer. We'll look at and much more than just said yes. God said more than yes to Nehemiah's prayer. So let's look at the pattern of how he did this and see if we can learn, you know, how we should approach God to ask him for something this evening. Okay, look at verse number five. This is the beginning of Nehemiah's prayer. Let's see if we can come up with some patterns and maybe take some notes on how we should approach the Lord so we can get a positive result from our prayers in our life. I mean, wouldn't you like to have a positive result when you ask God for something in your life? I certainly would. Look at verse five and said, is that I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth the covenant and mercy, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments. So first of all, just as I said previously, he's beseeching the Lord here. So what he's doing is he's, to beseech means he's, he's fervently asking for something. He's, he's urgently or fervently, you know, he's like, God, I really need this. He's putting some seriousness to his, his prayer right at the beginning. Now look, you know, all of our prayers shouldn't be like this, right? We shouldn't like hit the emergency button on every single prayer that we have to God. But let's just look at how he does this. He's beseeching the Lord for something. And the first point is this. How does he address God is the first question. All right. Does he say, Hey, God, you say, Hey, God, I need something. Look at how he addresses the Lord here. And I think that this is super important. And as you look, as you listen to this prayer, think about this from the perspective of a parent. All you parents in the room, think about this as a perspective of a parent who has a child that is asking them for something. Now, is it important how your children address you when they ask you for something? Look at how he, you know, imagine, imagine meeting someone that's very important. You know, imagine meeting like the president of the United, okay, that's not a good example for this crowd. But imagine meeting somebody who is really respected, who you have a lot of personal respect for. You're not going to walk up to them and just say, Hey, man. Or, you know, just give them some just super casual, like, Hey, bro, or whatever, you know, I mean, even though this is the way people talk today, but look, he addresses God with some formality here in verse number five. He approaches the Lord with some formality because look, the way you start a conversation, you know, in your lives, men and women and kids, the way you start a conversation many times will determine how it goes in your life. I mean, they say like people decide in the first few seconds if they're going to talk to you, if they like you, this is good for the soul winner as well. How do you address people? How do you look? Men, when you come home from work, oftentimes I've made this mistake several times and you know, I wish I could stand up here and say, I'll never make this mistake again. But men, when you walk in the door after work, the first few words that you say when you walk in the door will determine how your entire night goes. Many times, I can't tell you, you know, I shouldn't tell you how many times I've come home from work and there's been like, you know, that one of the kids like, mowed half the lawn or something silly or crazy and they didn't do their chores or something was laying all over the yard and I came in the house and I said something negative right off the bat. And right away, that just determines how the whole night's going to go. And this is what Nehemiah is doing correctly. He's starting the conversation on a respectful, positive tone. Wives, I mean, wives can, you know, let's beat up on the wives a little bit. I don't want to just put it all on the men. How do you address your husband? You know, the Bible says that wives are supposed to reverence their husband. So, wives, when you talk to your husband, do you get too casual with your husband? Do you reverence your husband? The Bible says in 1 Peter 3 that Sarah addressed Abraham calling him Lord, meaning she was just having this respect and reverence for him as Ephesians chapter 5 says that we're supposed to do. But look, it's the same thing with addressing God. It's the same thing. Turn to Exodus chapter 20. God's name is super important. Matthew chapter 6 in verse number 9 says this, after this manner therefore pray ye, our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name, meaning God's name, how we start, how we treat the name of the Lord is to be respected. Look at Exodus 20 in verse number 7. Exodus 20 in verse number 7, thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that take his name in vain. So, number 1, Nehemiah is coming at the Lord in verse number 5 when he says things like, I beseech thee, O Lord God of heaven, the great and terrible God. Terrible meaning he is able to create terror for his enemies and he's just, he's just pointing out how powerful God is. And I mean God's name is super important to God and how he is addressed, meaning we shouldn't be flippant with God's name. You know, outside of prayer like everybody is today. So be careful about that. But look, the entirety of verse 5 is about addressing the Lord properly. He says he's great and terrible. He acknowledges God's power. He's coming and he's standing before God. He's saying, God, I know you have, he's basically saying I know you have the power to do anything is what he is saying to God. Then look what he does. Then look what he does. He calls God trustworthy and just in the same verse. He says that keepeth covenant. That means that keeps his promises. It's like, God, you are reliable. You keep your promises and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments. It's brilliant how he just starts out this conversation. Just approaches God with so much respect, so much respect for who God is, who his name is, and the power that he has, and the justice that he puts forth, the promises that he keeps, and just the mercy that he has for those that deserve mercy. Notice how he just doesn't say, God, you just give mercy to everybody. No, he says you're merciful God to those that keep your commandments. So he acknowledges God's justice. Look at verse number six. Then he reminds God of his promise to be merciful. Look at verse number six. Let's continue. Let thine ear now be attentive and thine eyes open that thou may us hear the prayer of thy servant. Again, putting himself in his place that he serves the Lord, that the Lord is above him and more powerful than him, which I pray before thee now day and night for the children of Israel, thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee, both I and my Father's house have sinned. Now, there's a lot that he did right there in that verse. First of all, look at the middle of the verse where he says, which I pray before thee now, right now I'm praying for you right now only. Look what he says. He says, no, he says day and night. Nehemiah says that he prays day and night. Look, this is not, you know Nehemiah is telling us here. He's saying this is not a quick prayer for me. This is not a quick prayer for me. And guess what? This is not my only prayer is what Nehemiah is saying. Nehemiah is somebody that prays day and night. So Nehemiah is not this type of person that even though, look, even though Nehemiah is, he's in trouble here and he needs something from the Lord. But look, he is not the type of person that just gets it. He's not an emergency room Christian. Nehemiah. Nehemiah is somebody that is praying day and night to the Lord. He's not somebody that's like, Oh, I'm just in trouble right now. And God, I need money right now. Or God, you know, God fixed my problems right now. And that's the only time God ever hears from him. No, he's praying day and night fervently. You know, I mean, it's like, you know, when you pray, do you pray quickly? Like, Dear God blesses food so I can eat right now. I mean, that's not Nehemiah. Nehemiah is fervently praying and he prays day and night. So all this might be a new ask for Nehemiah in his life. He has a relationship from God. Think about this. Think about this from a parent's perspective. As I said, think about, you know, a long lost child or, you know, a relative that you haven't seen in years that just shows up on your doorstep. It is like, Hey, man, I need some money. I'm in a lot of trouble right now. I mean, what are the odds that you're going to, you know, help that person out? You haven't seen them in years. They have no relationship with you. And they just show up asking for money. I mean, it's not going to be successful. But with Nehemiah, there was a relationship here. So the lesson here is that we shouldn't be these 911 Christians. We shouldn't be these 911 Christians where, you know, the only time God ever hears from us is when, you know, someone's in the emergency room or the only time God ever hears from us is when we're in just terrible financial straits or we've just ruined things to the point where we don't even know what to do anymore and we're just, you know, now we pray. That's not Nehemiah. He was praying day and night and there was a relationship with God. God knew who this man was. Look back at verse number six. Now look what he does. Gets even better. Now look what he does in verse number six. That's still where. Look what he says. He says, he says, which I pray, he prays day and night. For what? For the children of Israel, thy servants and confess the sins of the children of Israel. Look, look what he does. He confesses the sins of the nation. He confesses the sins which we have sinned against thee, both I and my father's house. Look, he confesses the sins of the entire nation. He confesses the sins of his family and he confesses the sins of himself personally. In verse number six, he completely gets right here. He just for everybody. I mean, imagine the humility that he is showing here as he comes before God by taking responsibility for this. Look at verse number seven. He continues. So saying, saying, the nation, my family, and myself personally. Look, he's not even like, it would have been easy for him to be like, look, I'm righteous. But these wicked people, the children of Israel, you know, let me just talk about that. He's not throwing anybody under the bus. He's throwing everybody, including himself under the bus and they deserve it. Look at verse seven. He says, we have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandest thy servant Moses. Turn to Psalm chapter 51. Turn to Psalm chapter 51. He just lays it all out on the table with complete humility. Look at Psalm chapter 51 and look at verse number 17. Now this is what God wants to hear from you. This is what God wants to hear from you. Look at Psalm 51 in verse number 17. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. That's what God wants from you. A broken and contrite heart, O God, thou will not despise. You know what God is saying here? You know what the Bible is saying here? It's like saying, look, you know what God wants? He wants the opposite of pride from you. He wants everything broken down in your heart, where you just lay it all out on the line and just confess it all and just acknowledge the judgment that you deserve, and that's exactly what Nehemiah is doing. He's just completely laying it out there. He's saying, look, he's like, we have done wrong, the nation, my family, myself. We've done wrong, and we deserved everything that you did. He acknowledges God. Look, they just went through the captivity. The captivity is over, coming to an end. They're starting to rebuild Jerusalem, and he's just laying it out on the line saying, we deserved it all. He wasn't bitter, nothing. He's like, we deserved every single bit of it because you're just, as I said, two verses ago. Now, I mean, this is big. This is a big one. Why? Because isn't it possible, isn't it possible for someone to go through judgment? Isn't it possible for someone who's a child of God who's saved to be going through chastisement? I'm not going to tell you it's possible. It's common. It's common that people are going through chastisement and they don't accept it as chastisement. They don't recognize it as chastisement. They don't realize that it's chastisement from God. You're like, what a terrible place to be. That would be a horrible place to be. And you're like, you know why? Because no correction will be made from that person. Turn to Proverbs 16. And if you're going through judgment, if you're going through chastisement of God and no correction is made, guess what you're going to go through? You're going to go through more chastisement. That is the opposite of what Nehemiah is doing. Nehemiah is laying it all out there. He's saying, we've done wrong. We deserved it all, is what Nehemiah is saying. Look at Proverbs 16. Look at verse number five. The Bible says everyone that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord. But just look at the last part. Though hand joined in hand, he shall not be unpunished. As long as somebody is prideful and they're going through chastisement and they remain prideful, they're going to continue going through chastisement. That's the brass tacks of it. So you always need to ask yourself through the storms in your life. You know, when you're going through the valleys in your life, look, not every single valley in your life is going to be chastisement. You know, you're going to go through, you're going to go into storms, be in storms and come out of storms in your life. That's life. Not every storm is chastisement from God, but you always need to ask yourself personally as a Christian that when you're in that storm, could this be chastisement for something? Look, if you're smart and you're humble and you don't want to go through more punishment in your life than is necessary and you want to get right quickly, you will always ask yourself personally that question. And look, you have to do it personally because it's not our job as your brothers and sisters to walk up to you and be Job's friends to you when things are going wrong in your life. You always need to be asking yourself that question. Nehemiah is right here. Nehemiah is correct. He's humble and he's saying, look, he's like my nation, my family, me personally have messed up. We deserve everything that you did. You are just, we're getting right. That's what Nehemiah is doing. Has Nehemiah asked for anything yet? Has Nehemiah said, God, can I have something yet? No, Nehemiah is just, he's still approaching the Lord. He's still approaching God. I mean, how long, I mean, we've been, I've been preaching this sermon for 22 minutes now and we haven't even gotten to what Nehemiah has asked for. He's still addressing God, getting things right. When you pray, remember this. When you pray, remember this. Don't be like, dear God, I need a million dollars. Dear God, you know, I need X, Y and Z. Hey, approach the Lord, get things right, approach in a respectful manner, get things right, acknowledge any judgment that's happened to you, and get things right. And Nehemiah, he's not upset with God. He does not foolishly charge God for any of the judgment that they've gone through. He says we deserved it all. Look down at verse number eight. He says we deserved every single bit of it. Look at verse number eight. He says remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandest I serve at Moses saying, if he transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations. But now he's appealing, he's appealing to God's mercy here. But if he turned unto me and keep my commandments and do them, though there were of you cast out in the uttermost part of heaven, yet will I gather them from this? And I will bring them unto the place that I've chosen to set my name there. Look at verse 10. Now these are the servants and thy people whom thou hast redeemed by that great power and by thy strong hand. So here he is saying he's appealing to God's mercy, but he's offering God something here. He's appealing to God's mercy and he's saying, look God, you said that if people get right, you will have mercy. He's offering, he's telling God that, look, this nation is ready to get right now. He's like, we are ready to get right. We are ready to walk back in your judgments. We deserved everything that happened and we're right. Look, he's offering God something in return. He's saying, we're ready. We're ready to serve you now, Lord, is what Nehemiah is saying. Look, this is a really smart prayer right here as Nehemiah approaches God. Now look at verse number 11. Verse number 11, he says, oh, Lord, again, I beseech thee. Let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant and to the prayer of thy servants who desire to fear thy name. Again, he repeats that we're going to get right now. We're with you now. We deserved it. We're back. We're humble. Here we go. Now he makes the ask and he says, and prosper I pray thee, thy servant this day and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. This man meaning King Artaxerxes, that he's about to go ask this question too. Here's the ask. Finally, in verse number 11, these 18 words which is basically 95 percent of this prayer was just beseeching God, you know, you know, addressing God with respect. You know, I mean, look, we should all address everyone with respect. Kids, you know, you shouldn't walk up to men in the church or ladies in the church and say, hey, Jeff or hey, you know, it's brother Jeff, it's Miss Heidi, it's sister this, sister that, brother this, we should all, you know, you will get further in life if you address people with respect. For sure. But he spends the whole prayer up to this point just addressing addressing God properly, showing God respect, confessing sins, getting right, acknowledging and accepting judgment and telling God that they're ready to serve him. And then he asks God for something. Let's look at how it, I mean, you say, okay, spent a lot of time there. He spent a lot of time doing this. How did it turn out? Turn to Nehemiah chapter two. How did it turn out? What does he ask? He asked for mercy from the king. That's what he asks. That was his prayer. God, will you grant me mercy from the king? Look at Nehemiah chapter two and look at verse number six. And the king, so he's sad, he comes to the king, the king says, hey, what's wrong? He's like, I've never seen you sad before. What's wrong? He tells him what's wrong. And the king says unto him, he says, I would like, you know, he asked him to go, you know, help out Jerusalem. And the king said unto me, the queen also sitting by him, I believe there's a very good chance that that queen is Esther right there. Okay. For how long shall thy journey be? And when will thou return? So it pleased the king to send me and I set him a time. Moreover, I said unto the king, if it pleased the king, let letters be given to me to the governors beyond the river, that they may convey me over till I come into Judah. He's asking, you know, for an escort here. And a letter unto Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertain to the house and for the wall of the city and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me, according to the good hand of my God, upon me. Then I came to the governors beyond the river and gave them the king's letters. And now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me. So not only did the king listen to Nehemiah, the king gave Nehemiah men, the king gave Nehemiah materials, he gave him protection, the king gave Nehemiah anything that he wanted and more. You know, all he wanted was permission to go. And, you know, Artaxerxes just gives him everything. Now, look, this is a great example on how to ask the Lord for help right here. And, you know, finally we see here, I mean, just one final point about this is that when we see the results of what God did for Nehemiah here, we have to remember that, look, God can solve your problems in ways that you never understood. They could be solved. You need to understand that. You know, God can solve your problems with outcomes that you could never even think of. We have to remember that because a lot of times we will turn to James chapter five. Which is a lot of times we will try to solve our own problems in our head. We will have a problem and we will try to overthink things and we will try to, you know, in many times the way we end up, you know, before we even ask God anything we'll try to fix things ourselves. And, look, many times we make things worse than if we would have just asked God in the first place when we should have just beseeched the Lord, is what we should have done just like Nehemiah did. Look at James, I'm sorry, James chapter four. James chapter four. Look, God wants us to do this. He doesn't want you to sit there and grind your wheels and sit there and try to fix all your problems yourself and mess up other parts of your life by fixing problems that, you know, you don't even know how to fix. Look at James four, look at verse number two. James four, look at verse number two. It says, ye lust and have not. It means ye want things but you don't have things. Ye kill and desire to have and cannot obtain. It's like you want things so badly you kill people for things. And you still can't get them. You fight and war, yet ye have not. He's like you still don't have things after going through all these things, killing people, going to war, you still have not. Why? Because you ask not. God is saying, look, God is detailing two problems that we have in James chapter four here. Look at verse number three. It says, ye ask and receive not. Okay, so I should have asked but I asked and then I received not. In verse three, why? Because ye ask amiss. They may consume it upon your own lust. So we see two problems. In James chapter four and verse number two and verse number three. Look, here's the two problems that we have with all the problems in our lives. The first problem is this. We don't ask for help. That's the first problem. We don't ask for help. We go through all. We try to fix everything ourselves to the point in James chapter four, verse number two. We're literally killing people and going to war with people. You're going to try to fix your problems by train wrecking other people in your life, by train wrecking your own life, by just wrecking your Christian life, whatever. But you don't even ask. It's the first problem. You didn't even ask for help. You should have asked for help before he started all that trouble. It's what God is saying. Look at verse number three. Here's the next problem. It's like you ask and you receive not. You're like, yeah, but sometimes I ask like, oh, man, I got these financial problems. Ah, I have all these bills. All these bills. God, give me a million dollars. And God didn't just drop a million dollars on my head in that second. No, because God said no. Because what did I ask? I asked for something stupid. I asked for something bad. I asked for something that wasn't the solution. You say I got all these spending problems and gambling problems and I can't keep a dollar in my pocket and God's going to give me a million dollars so I can ruin my life with it. I mean, that's a good, this is one example. Where we think we have a solution and we pray for that and God just says no because that's not the solution. We ask for the wrong things. We don't ask and we ask for the wrong things. That's our problems. Right there. So, how to solve that? Here's what we should do. Before we trainwreck everything, before we start trying to figure out everything ourselves, we should ask the Lord. We should beseech the Lord. And then, if he says no, guess what? We were beseeching the Lord for something that was wrong. That's the flowchart right there, folks. Just ask God and if he says no, we're not asking for the right things is what James chapter four is asking for. And God says no to us. When God says no to us, it's for our own good. Asking things of the Lord. Look, go to Matthew chapter seven. Go to Matthew chapter seven. I can't, I mean, the money one is a perfect example. I mean, if you just go look up, go look up all the people that have won the lottery. I mean, so many people, if you look up like financial stress, financial stress is like, number one, it's consistently, like financial worries. I mean, you look at a country that has a divorce rate of 50 to 75% depending on what charts you look at. And you look at why are people getting divorced? Other than like infidelity, like financial stress is like, number one or number two consistently. People think, look, people think, people think generally across this country, probably across this world that if they just had more money, their problems would just be gone. That's what people think. That's like a consistent, regular thought. You're probably thinking that yourself a little bit as I'm saying this. If I just had more money, all my problems would be gone. Go look up people that have won the lottery and what happened to them. I mean, I'm not gonna say it's 100% because I don't like blanket statements, but the vast majority of people that have won the lottery have literally destroyed their lives. They've destroyed their lives. They've destroyed, look, the reality of it was their life was a mess already. But they get all this money and they just, I mean, things get really bad then. They destroy their lives. There was this guy in Texas when we lived there and he won the lottery. The guy was in the news, like the guy was in the news like every month. He was 60, 70 years old. He won the lottery and it was terrible. Like he had all this money stolen from him. His grandchildren were dying. Like his grandchildren got all addicted to drugs. They, one of them like killed them. I mean, it was like a nightmare. This guy's life. And but look, maybe not as bad as that guy every single story, but look, money. I mean, God's not gonna drop a million dollars on your head because look, that's not gonna fix your problems. That's why God's not gonna do it. That's just one example. Look at Matthew chapter seven. Look at Matthew chapter seven. So Nehemiah, Nehemiah gives us a great example of how to approach and beseech God. Cause look, you should be praying to God every day. You should be having a good relationship with God every day. You should be confessing your sins to God every day, every night. You should have prayer time, but there's gonna be times when you need things from God. And guess what? You don't have to worry about that because look down at Matthew chapter seven. Look at verse number nine. The Bible says, or what man? Look, go to verse number seven. It says ask and it shall be given you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveeth and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. He says, or what man is there of you? These are red words. This is Jesus talking here. He says, what man is there of you? Whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then being evil, look he's appealing to just as I appealed to your parental thoughts at the beginning of this sermon, he's appealing to you and your children. Kids, let me tell you something. Your parents in this room, every single kid in this room, listen. Your parents want the best for you. Your parents want you to succeed in this life. They want you to grow up and be strong Christian girls and strong Christian women and strong Christian young men that work hard and that serve the Lord with their lives. They want everything that is good for you. But you're like, well, every single time that I ask my parents for something, they don't say yes every time. It's the same thing. It's the same thing. Your parents want the best for you. God, even more so, wants the best for us. And God's saying the main problem that he has with us. He's like, my main problem with you down there is that you don't ask me. You don't ask me for anything. Look at verse number 10, verse number 11. He says, now he says, if you, like he's like, you people are evil. He's like, you're just sinners down there. He's like, you'll treat your kids that way. How much, God is trying to convince you to ask him for things more here. That's what he's trying to do. He's literally begging us to ask him when we get in trouble. You know, look, as a pastor, I can relate to this. I mean, he's saying, he's like, when you get in trouble, just ask me. He's like, don't go run down these roads and just destroy everything. He's like, ask me back here. Ask what God is saying. He's like, if you, as parents feel that way, how much more, you know, he says, if you know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him? God is literally begging us. God's literally trying, he's trying to convince you to pray to him and ask him more things here. I mean, that's a loving God. You know, we see that there's this guy this morning, I don't even wanna repeat his name. This guy, you know, Richard Dawkins, we talked about this morning. He's like, God, just this unmerciful, unforgiving. God is literally begging us here. Trying to make a case. He doesn't just say, hey, ask me more. He makes this huge case to try to persuade us to ask him for things. He's like, hey, back here. Before you start making all your dumb decisions, ask me for stuff and I'll fix it for you. You know, this Dawkins, I didn't mention it this morning, but this guy who thinks God has no idea what the Bible says. This is mercy right here. This is love right here. This is a God that cares for us. This Dawkins, he has more ex-wives than children. I mean, he's train wrecked his own personal life and he's giving these great moral advice about what the Bible says. It's crazy. It's crazy that people listen or read the things that people like that write. But anyway, not the point of the sermon. God needs us to ask him more things. God needs them to ask him more things. When you get in trouble in your life, when you have questions in your life, you need to just ask God. You need to ask God. And when you ask God things, a great way to do it is to turn to Nehemiah chapter one and follow Nehemiah's pattern. The prayer is in verse 11. You don't even have to look at verse 11. Look at the pattern running up to the prayer. And you're just like, because you know what? If you have any problems with that pattern, I would get those problems fixed before you beseech the Lord for things. You know, you're like, I don't know. I don't think I have anything to confess. Well, you're not humble. You know, get right, address God properly, get right, confess things. If God has punished you, just take it. Take it because God's right, you're wrong. And then ask him more, just like Nehemiah did. And I bet you things will start changing in your life. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.