We began a series towards the end of last year that it titled: On Becoming a Servant Leader and I am sure you were blessed about what the Holy Spirit shared with us. Today we will continue in that series and we will be looking at something along the line of you and I becoming servant leaders in our generation. Something that we must actually address as a people, we cannot delegate it, it must be addressed and responded to by each one of us. So, what are we looking at? On Becoming a Servant Leader: The 3 Strategic Questions of your Purpose. I want us to quickly go to the book of Nehemiah chapter 2, we will read a few verses there and the Holy Spirit would help us from there. Nehemiah 2 from verse 1, the Bible says:
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And it came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King [a]Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, that I took the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had never been sad in his presence before. 2 Therefore the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This is nothing but sorrow of heart.” So I became [b]dreadfully afraid, 3 and said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire?”
4 Then the king said to me, “What do you request?” So I prayed to the God of heaven. 5 And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it.” 6 Then the king said to me (the queen also sitting beside him), “How long will your journey be? And when will you return?” So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time.
Nehemiah 2:1-6
Now, I am sure we are familiar with this Scripture, especially the book of Nehemiah, we understand the beginning and perhaps, the end of his journey as a leader. But this period, we are considering how the whole thing began. The last time on the series, we considered the 3Ps, we rediscovered the 3Ps that every servant leader must rediscovered towards the emergence and towards fulfilling their assignment in leadership. Now in chapter 2, we are introduced again to something about the man called Nehemiah. He said something that I don't want us to miss as leaders. He said "I had never been sad in his presence before."
I have been his cupbearer and I have been fulfilling this mandate as a cupbearer without any form of sadness. I have been passionate about it, I have been self-motivated as it were and encouraged. Now, it is important we notice that there is a trust bank or a credibility bank for Nehemiah here. I don't know if you would be in any position and it would be said of you that you have never been sad in your assignment or in your place of work. Or do you just do things simply because it is given to you or you have an obligation to do it or you do it with sadness. For Nehemiah, he had never been sad before.
So, he had always been fulfilling his task, the job at hand without sadness. He has been doing it excitedly and the word of Jesus actually rings very loud in my heart at this point when Jesus said "Who will commit to you your own if you are not faithful with another man's responsibility or somebody's property." Now for Nehemiah, being a cupbearer, served the king directly. He did it with the whole of his heart, and when it was time for God to elevate him and widen the scope of his influence, to give him more responsibility, he was found to be faithful, for the king even acknowledged that the only reason why Nehemiah could be this sad is if Nehemiah is sick. So, ordinarily, when he is not sick, Nehemiah was always cheerful.
I believe there is a word for somebody here and I want us to learn from it. Now in verse 4, look at what the king said: "and said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire?” 4 Then the king said to me, “What do you request?" I am sure that you remember that our focus this week is on the 3 strategic questions of your purpose. You see, every man, every woman, everyone of us has a purpose to fulfill on the earth and our influence, our relevance and our authority is closely linked to our purpose. It is because of it that God has created us, and it is because of it that we are here as well, so that we could be given the opportunity to lead others, be entrusted with resources, both human and material resources.
Now, these three questions are very clear in the verses that I read earlier that Nehemiah was confronted with and by the help of God, he had answers and so, he was able to begin the process of his leadership as a servant.
Now, the first question is in verse 4. "Then the king said to me, “What do you request?" So I prayed to the God of heaven. 5 And I said to the king,.." But that prayer was preceded with a question: “What do you request?" Now, if I ask you, Sir and Ma, what is your request? You know, it is possible for you to be sad working with Glo, working with MTN, working with this and that company. Now, if God confronts you with this question in your dreams; "brother, my son, my daughter, what do you request?" What would be your answer? Do you have a ready answer to give to God? Now, even though it was king of Persia that asked Nehemiah this question, I believe everyone of us is being confronted with this question by God. This is a question of your purpose and you must find an answer. You see, when I was looking up the meaning of "request", I found something that I think is very important. Request is the action of asking for something formally and politely.
You see, until your burden translate to request, you may actually not be able to live for anything meaningful in life. You must have a request built on your burden. Now, Nehemiah was burdened, because you must note the answer he gave. Verse 5 tells, it says: "And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it." That was his request, very much defined. Was he requesting to go to Judah to become a lord in Judah, and perhaps enjoy, get married to women; and you know, build houses.
You must note why he wanted to be sent to Judah. He said I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it." My assignment is very clear. My vision and my focus is very clear, simple and clear. I want to rebuild the place, the city of my father's tomb. What do you request? That is the question that you have to answer. Now you have started 2020, I am sure you could have had a lot of issues in 2019; now you have come to 2020. The Lord is using this medium to ask you this hour: What do you request? What is it you asking the Lord, your Father, formally and politely? What would you have Him do for you and to you? How would you have Him use you in your own generation?
Now, earlier we saw that Nehemiah was saddened simply because he was thinking about the place of his father's tomb which was in ruins and the city walls was burnt with fire. That was his burden, and then he translated that burden to a formal request, to a polite request and said; the king, live forever. If I find favor in your sight, send me to Judah. I remember the word of Isaiah, in Isaiah 6:1 that says "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up.." You know later on in that chapter it says "Here I am, send me" because God was asking: "Who should we send?" Isaiah said "Here I am, send me." You see, if you must become a servant leader in your generation, you must tell God "Here I am, send me."
"Here I am, send me", I am making my life available, I am making my marriage available, my organization is available for your use, my ministry is available for your use, send me. Send me to the city, send me to the nation, send me to that age group, send me to that church, send me to that denomination, send me to that organization, send me to that ministry. Maybe ministry of works, ministry of interior, ministry of defense, just send me there. Lord, do you need someone to rebuild the broken walls of my nation, the broken walls of my generation? Lord, Send me! You cannot say send me until you have what you want to be sent for.
Now, Nehemiah came to a point in his life that he knew that the reason why he must be sent is that he should and he must rebuild the city and the broken walls. He said "Here I am, send me." Are you willing to answer that question: what is your request? The Lord is asking you that question, and it is a strategic question, and you must find an answer to it.
Now, the next question that we must also consider is in verse 6. Don't forget the first question the king asked was: what do you request? I am sure you know that kings don't talk too much. They go straight to the point. The next question is in verse 6, and it says: Then the king said to me (the queen also sitting beside him), “How long will your journey be? And when will you return?” Now, the king gave two important questions in the same verse. Nehemiah had already tabled his request before the king before now, and so the king asked him: How long will your journey be?
While I was meditating on this particular chapter, the Holy Spirit shoed me something many of us, if not all of us are familiar with. I am sure you know that if you have a DVD player in your house, or in your computer, be it laptop or whatever; you are expected to inject a CD that has either documents, or files or empty CD. You insert a CD into the player and then you close it. Then the CD runs, then the DVD player is expected to play what is in the CD. Now, when the CD gets to the end, it is expected that a CD either ejects itself, or the one who inserts the CD presses eject button. Once an eject button is pressed, even though the CD is playing, the CD would be ejected.
You see, for every insertion of CD into an MP3 or a DVD player, there must be an ejection of the same CD. So, the king asked: How long will your journey be? The question is coming to you too right now, this your journey into this leadership, your journey into influence and service, how long will you take? You won't be there perpetually. There is a timeframe for your relevance and your authority. There is a timeframe that people are willing to respond to you and people are willing to listen to you and follow you. How long will your journey be? You must be able to find how long it would be.
Until you are able to determine that, I am sure you are not ready yet to go out or be sent by God. How long will your journey be? Do you think you have forever to prepare and forever to emerge in leadership? I don't think so. You know, the people of Yoruba land, they have this saying: "If you spend twenty years to prepare for madness, how many years then would you actually manifest the madness?" You see, that is to show the ignorance of their thought, however, we can use it to learn some lessons. You cannot spend forever to prepare for something and then you don't know how long you must manifest.
The reason why you are spending forever to get ready is because you don't know how long you even have to fulfill the mandate. You see, some of us don't know that our time are so short. I remember in Revelation 12 Bible speaking concerning the fallen angel, Lucifer. Bible says he came to the earth with great wrath for he knows that his time is very short. You see, we all have short time on this earth. We have a very short time to do whatever God has put into our hearts. For Nehemiah, there was a burden put in his heart by God and he knew the time was not forever, for the king asked him: How long will your journey be, and then when will you return?
You must also return back to God. You will return, your spirit will return back to God. God has given you an opportunity to be relevant and to serve your generation now. You must understand that the earlier you start it, the better. You can never be too early, especially you that you are over thirty and forty already, and you are thinking it is still early. What are you waiting for? How long will your journey be? Your authority in the earth, how long will it be? When will you report back to God with your report card, your report sheet? Or are you going to be like that king Hezekiah, who was negotiating. Why was he negotiating his exit? Because in his heart he felt he was not yet done. And so, he asked God for more time and the man of God said God had commanded him to tell him that fifteen more years has been added to his years.
You see, you cannot be begging God for more years. When it is time for God to eject you from this earth, He will eject you. I am sure you remember that your forefathers are no more. Some of them died at different age groups. When will you return? Are you thinking about that? Do you think this your authority, this your position would be forever? No! You won't be the CEO forever, you won't be the President or the Chairman forever, you won't be the founder forever. You must handover. You must go back to where you came from. What will you return with? Are you ready?
You remember what Nehemiah said in that place in verse 6. It says: "So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time." Whether you are consciously aware of it or not, everyone of us, before we left the Father, before we departed from God in heaven, we set God time. And we will return back in time, without excuse. You see, some of us could be found at that time in the bathroom, some of us could be found at that time in the airplane, some of us could be on the ship travelling from one nation to another, some of us could be driving, some of us could be farming, some of us could be preaching or teaching, we could be doing different things when that time comes. Some of us could be getting married, some of us could be partying, some of us could be drinking, some of us could be fornicating.
It does not matter what you are doing, when the set time comes, you are going to be ejected from this earth. What would you have to show when you would return back to whom who has sent you? Don't forget, your journey has a timeframe. You must rediscover that timeframe. And then you must become concerned and become conscious that one day, one moment in time, whether 12pm, 6pm, whatever time, you are going to return to the one who has sent you. Don't forget, the reason why you are all about on this earth is because you initially had a request and God has sent you here to do it. It says "Here I am, send me." God has sent you and it is important you rediscover your request.
In the days when you were promising God you would do this and that for Him if He could do this and that for you, you have really revealed your request to Him. It is important you rediscover that request and you give an answer to that question today. Those are the three strategic questions that the Holy Spirit has laid in my heart to share with us. And if you read the entire chapter, you will see how Nehemiah began from there to enjoy favor and progress because the three strategic questions were fully answered by him. He knew his request, he was clear: Send me to Judah so that I can rebuild it. What is your own Judah, are you willing and ready rebuild it? How long will your journey to rebuilding your Judah be, and when will you return back to God?
I believe you are thinking about these questions and you are trusting God to help you answer it. Don't forget, we are on On Becoming a Servant Leader Series and we have looked at The 3 Strategic Questions of Your Purpose. I pray that the grace of God will be multiplied unto you and you will not struggle henceforth with the will of God. You will move in great strength, in great readiness of heart to fulfill it, and you will have the grace of God manifested in your weaknesses. In Jesus Mighty Name I have prayed, Amen!
God bless you!
