He says he gave unto the king,
now I had not before time,
I had not been before time sad in his presence.
Did he say I've never been sad?
Up until this point, I had never had a bad day in my life.
The entire time I've worked for the king,
everything has just been perfect.
I've never had a bad day.
No, he said I had never been sad in his presence.
Meaning when he went to work that day to be the cup bearer,
that no matter what was going on,
he went, hmm, I'm here to do my job.
You know, I stepped on a tack on the way here,
I got a flat tire or, you know.
I had an argument with my wife before I left.
I don't know, I'm gonna pay the bills.
My kids are running amok, you know, but I'm here.
You know, whatever excuse,
whatever bad things are going on in his life,
he left them at the door.
And he went into work and he had a,
and put a smile on his face.
Like, what was the saying?
I don't know if it's a military thing,
but they'll correct you on it.
Fix your face, they'll say.
Fix your face.
I don't know if that's a phrase I've heard before.
You know, because you can't have that kind of bad attitude.
You know, especially if you're dealing with customers.
You know, and I mean, I know people that have had
customers call their boss and say,
hey, your guy did a good job,
but he kind of did it with an attitude.
Like, I don't know what's going on with him,
but you might want to check him on that, you know.
But he had a good attitude.
And you could tell because this was the first time
that he was sad in his presence.
And you could tell it's bothering him.
He's like, man, I was worried.
Wherefore, the king said unto me,
you know, the king notices.
You know, people notice your attitude all the time.
Why is thine countenance sad,
seeing thou art not sick?
What's your excuse?
You know, did you eat some bad pizza last night?
What's the matter?
This is nothing else but sorrow of heart.
And he says, then I was very sore afraid.
Because he knew that you don't come
into the king's presence with a bad attitude.
And if you don't have a good excuse,
it could be trouble for you.
Because look, the king doesn't want people
with bad attitudes around him.
That's not who he's gonna work for, work for him.
He's gonna say, next, get that other guy
who'll appreciate the job more,
who'll come in and learn how to just
at least appreciate the fact
that he has somewhere to go to work
and appreciate the position that he's been given.
He said, then I was very sore afraid
and said unto the king, let the king live forever.
Why should not my countenance be sad
when the place of my father's sepulchres
lieth waste, the gates thereof are consumed with fire?
So I guess if that's the case with you,
maybe you've got an excuse to be sad one day.
Maybe you've got an excuse to go in with a bad attitude.
You know, when the city, the place of your fathers,
their sepulchres have just been desecrated.
But I don't think that's ever been the case with any of us.
So this is kind of an exceptional set
of circumstances here for Nehemiah.
This is what it took to bring Nehemiah down.
I mean, an entire city had to be destroyed.
Jerusalem had to be brought to rubble.
And his father's graves had to just be desecrated
before he was gonna get a sad face
in the presence of his employer.
You know, not just, I had a fight with my girlfriend.
You know, or I didn't get the high score in the video game,
or I stayed up too late.
You know, or whatever, I got a hangover.
You know, that should never be said of God's children, right?
But look, people come up with all kinds of stupid excuses
why they don't have a good attitude at work.
And none of them are good.