We reveal a lot about ourselves by how we respond to bad news.

Today on Truth For Life, we'll see how Nehemiah reacted when he got bad news about Jerusalem news that was not what he'd hoped for.

So what is his reaction reveal about his character, but his priorities?

Alistair Begg is teaching a message titled From Failure to Success.

And invite you once again to take your Bible and we'll turn to Nehemiah chapter 1.

Now in the opening three verses, we have the record of his inquiry of his brother Hanani concerning the circumstances of his countrymen in Jerusalem.

It may well be that Nehemiah had been a wee bit idealistic.

After all, he knew that apartheid had already gone by, recorded in the first six chapters of the book of Ezra, who had gone up to Jerusalem and they were beginning the restructuring of the temple area, particularly the sacrificial system, and word of that had filtered back to those who remained in exile.

And now as he inquires as to how it's all going on, he discovers that there had been subsequent intervention and the project has once again come to a grinding halt.

And in halting, as with every other work, it does not simply sit stationary or idle, but it begins to disintegrate.

For it is either going forward or it is going back, but it certainly isn't staying still.

And so the word is that the circumstances can be described in terms of, and you'll note the words here in verse three,

Disgrace, broken, burned, and to whatever degree Nehemiah was marked by idealism, this report gives him a fairly large dose of realism.

While he may have hoped to hear news of the secrets of the success back in Jerusalem, he is reminded of the facts of their failure.

And where we pick it up in the fourth verse this morning is just at the point where we're about to observe the reaction of Nehemiah to this news.

And what we'll do is we will note his reaction and then his counteraction and then just look as we anticipate Nehemiah going into action.

Reaction, we always teach our children, we try to teach ourselves that we are responsible for our reactions, right?

That we cannot control the actions of other people. They cut us off in traffic, we're the ones who react.

They're unkind to us at parties, we're the ones who react. We don't get what we think we deserve, we're the ones who react.

And indeed, that principle is so right that we reveal a tremendous amount about ourselves in the way in which we react to any given set of circumstances.

And no less is this true in relationship to Nehemiah as he responds to the information that he has received.

It's vitally important that we are clear concerning this, especially as it relates to the responsibility of leadership.

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