Nehemiah 5:14-19

Well, my name is Kyle, and I'm pinch hitting for Nathan this morning.

Nathan and his family, as Wes mentioned earlier, they're on vacation.

They're suffering for Jesus on the beach, and so y'all be in prayer for him as he's suffering this week, I'm sure.

I'm humbled to be here with you, though, to share God's Word.

So if you have your copy of God's Word, I invite you to turn with me to Nehemiah 5.

Nehemiah 5.

And as you're turning there, I want to hopefully catch you up on where we are in Nehemiah.

In case you haven't been here with us, we've been walking through the book of Nehemiah.

And Nehemiah is a book that really centers around the story of a great city, the city of Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is a city that's really fallen into disrepair, and the people who live there have essentially fallen into disrepair as well.

So God burdened a man named Nehemiah, who was the cupbearer to the king, the king of Persia,

to rebuild this city and to restore the hearts of its people back to God.

Essentially the theme of Nehemiah in a nutshell.

In the earlier chapters of Nehemiah, Nehemiah was opposed by outsiders.

He has seen a lot of opposition to this mission that he's on, to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem.

And so in that opposition, he's struggled through it.

He's overcome a lot of opposition.

And up until we get to chapter 5, most of the opposition is coming from outside of the city.

People who don't want the people of God influencing the city of Jerusalem.

And we get to chapter 5 and we begin to see some opposition coming from within.

Opposition coming from within the city of Jerusalem.

Anybody ever experience that?

The people that you thought should be the closest to you?

The people that you think are the believers in your inner circles?

And all of a sudden you experience opposition from that?

Sometimes we do.

Sometimes we experience opposition from within.

And Nehemiah finds himself in a place where he's having to deal with some things.

I wish we could go through the whole chapter, chapter 5.

I wish I could focus on the whole chapter.

We'd literally be here for a couple hours.

So you can thank me later for not doing an entire chapter of chapter 5 of Nehemiah.

But in the beginning of chapter 5, we see the rich people are essentially taking advantage of the poor.

They're committing a sin that's known as usury.

I have to explain this a little bit because usury today is defined a little bit different than usury was defined back then.

Today, usury is defined as charging excessive interest on loaned money.

It doesn't happen a lot today because in our country we have checks and balances that prevent things like that from happening.

But back then, usury was defined as any interest charged to your fellow countrymen.

And so Jews were not allowed to charge interest on borrowed money to their fellow Jews.

It was illegal in God's law.

And so that's what's going on here.

They're basically the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer.

They're charging money to their own countrymen.

And tragically as well, Nehemiah finds himself, the great leader, falling and succumbing to the same sin.

And he himself had to repent publicly and really followed it up.

He's an incredible leader.

He realizes his sin.

He repents publicly of that sin.

And then he goes on to repay all the people, all the money that he owes back to them.

And that's essentially what we're picking up in Nehemiah chapter 5.

Nehemiah 5 · chapter mention

We want to start in verse 14.

And Nehemiah says this,

Moreover, from this day, I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah from the 20th year to the 32nd year of King Artaxerxes.

That's the ruler in the day.

For a full 12 years, Nehemiah was undertaking this urban rebuilding project.

For 12 years, neither I nor my kinsmen have eaten of the governor's food allowance.

So the first principle that we're really seeing in this passage is that we must understand that first we've got to understand our mission.

What is our mission?

And Nehemiah's mission was to rebuild a wall.

He moved into Jerusalem.

And his little bit more than that, we're going to get into that in a minute.

But Nehemiah's mission is essentially to come into Jerusalem and to rebuild the wall, to reconstruct the city.

It's in disrepair.

But what is our mission today?

Matthew 28.

To go and make disciples of all nations.

Baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

It's Acts 1.8.

You'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.

You'll be my witnesses in Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

That is the mission that's given to us.

It's not the great suggestion.

It's the great commission.

God has called all believers to this.

It's not just pastors and people who are in vocational ministry.

We're missionaries.

It's all believers are called to this commission.

We're all commissioned to do the great commission.

Which is to make disciples of all nations.

That is our mission.

So first, we've got to understand the mission that God has called us to.

Secondly, we must accept the fact that there are times when our personal interests are misaligned with the mission.

There are times when the needs of the mission call for us to give up some of our personal interests and our personal desires.

And we'll find ourselves as believers in situations where we have to serve the needs of the mission at our own personal expense.

What that means is, for example, you're a person who is one to get married or maybe you are married in this room this morning.

And there's times when the needs or desires of your spouse will have to supersede your own needs and desires.

And we, being loving spouses, we sacrifice sometimes our own desires because it's what we're called to do.

We're called to love our spouses in Scripture.

To put it in the words of my seminary president, Dr. Danny Akin, he's a real funny guy at times.

And he says, man, if you haven't figured it out already, I'll let you in on a little secret that I learned a long time ago.

Women, they give you two options.

You can either be right or you can be happy.

He said, I just assume be happy.

You parents in the room, you can relate to this as well.

How many of you who are parents in this room, but whether you have little ones now or whether you used to have little ones,

would have rather have been sleeping at night than being up awake with your children as they're crying,

or better yet, if your children are throwing up and you're having to clean up the mess.

There's often times when that happens.

I remember my dad sitting in the back row right now.

I remember a time when my dad literally caught it in his hands.

And he had to carry it to the toilet and clean himself up afterwards.

It's what we do as parents.

We sometimes sacrifice our own needs or wants or desires to see that our children are raised in a godly manner.

It's the same way in our calling as Christians, particularly as it relates to our commission to make disciples.

It means that there are times when we make sacrifices.

You might have to give up watching your favorite TV show one week in order to have a family over for dinner.

Maybe neighbors that you're wanting to minister to that you have over for dinner.

It might mean that you give up your cable or satellite service altogether so that you have the extra money to be able to help a family put food on their table.

A family who's struggling to put food on their table.

You see, this is what's going on in this text.

Nehemiah is working in a situation where as a governor, he has the legal right to tax the people as much as he wanted to.

And he could have made himself a very wealthy person.

He could have been very affluent.

He could have had all the nice things that the world could offer him in that day.

But what he determines to do is not to impose an additional tax burden upon the people.

And he takes it a step further.

He forgoes his salary.

For 12 years, he essentially works for free.

He doesn't take anything out of the governor's food allowance.

How many of you would be willing to do that?

Your boss comes up to you and says,

You know, the times are kind of lean right now and we're not going to be able to afford to pay for 12 years.

So if you'd just work for free for 12 years, that'd be really great.

And by the way, we're going to make you pay for your desk as well.

We don't have enough money to buy you a desk.

And we're going to have to pay for your laptop.

And you're probably going to be traveling a lot for your job.

So you're going to have to pay for your own car and your own gas mileage.

We don't have money to pay for that stuff.

Oh, and by the way, you might die in your job.

How many of you are going to take that offer?

There's no hands, right?

No, you're going to say, I think I'm going to find a better job.

Something that's not going to cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars and possibly my life.

But Nehemiah is willing to set aside his own interest for the sake of the calling on his life.

Furthermore, he tells us in verse 15,

The former governors who were before me laid heavy burdens on the people

and took from them bread and wine besides 40 shekels of silver.

What I hope we're beginning to see as we travel through this book is that Nehemiah is kind of a different guy.

He's not the typical leader.

And he's really not the typical person to begin with.

He is set apart for the glory of God.

He has set himself apart.

He doesn't do things the way that previous leaders have done them.

He says,

Just because former governors lay these tax burdens upon the people doesn't mean that I should.

Nehemiah goes against the grain of the culture,

and he went to great lengths to be unusual.

But why?

We see it as we continue reading on.

It says,

Even their servants domineered the people,

but I did not do so because of the fear of God.

So we're beginning to see the whole picture here.

We're beginning to see the whole picture that Nehemiah isn't just being different for the sake of being different.

He's not being different just so the people would like him.

He's being different because he is set apart for the glory of God.

He is a man who loves God.

He's a man who understands the mission.

He's a man who wants to fulfill that mission no matter what the cost.

And what we learn and glean from Nehemiah is that if we're going to fulfill this mission that God has set before us,

and if we're going to live a life that's set apart,

it's going to come at some personal cost to us sometimes.

For some of us, it might cost a job.

I have a friend who used to work for a big insurance company.

I won't name the company.

I don't want to talk bad about a company by any means.

But he was an underwriter for an insurance company.

His boss came up to him one day and he said,

you know, Adam, we're going to send you on a business trip.

And we're going to send you with your female co-worker, just the two of them.

He's a married man.

He made a commitment not to travel alone with another woman that's not his wife.

So he explains to his boss, I appreciate the opportunity, but I'm not going to be able to do that.

I'll be happy to pay for my own rental car.

I'll be happy to pay for my own hotel room.

I'll be happy to pay whatever expenses I have to pay in order to not do that.

So his boss goes to the human resources representatives for the company and they say,

look, you can't make him based off of religious reasons.

So the boss is like, okay, well, fine.

I'll go back to our employee.

And so he goes back to my friend and he says,

look, I can't make you go on this business trip,

but what I'm going to tell you is that you're not going to make it very far in this company

if you're not willing to take these types of business trips.

And he said, fine, I understand.

See, my friend was willing to be set apart for the glory of God.

He was willing, if it cost him his job, he was willing to go,

to move to a different position, to move to a different job in order to be set apart, to be different.

And I submit to you that Nehemiah is somebody who is being different in this case.

Maybe your job has been the excuse for you.

Maybe you've been so busy in your job

and that's the excuse for the reason why you haven't been sharing the gospel with people.

Maybe you've delayed your mission, the Great Commission,

and your job has been your excuse.

It might be that God's calling you to free up some time in your life

in order to fulfill the Great Commission.

It might be that God's calling you to use some of your own personal finances

to go toward a foreign mission trip to share the gospel with unreached people groups.

Or maybe you're a business owner.

God's calling you to take your business in a new direction

to give a percentage of those funds

in order to help fund mission groups that would be serving both here and abroad.

There's a great example of a company that does this on a regular basis.

It's Chick-fil-A.

And if you decided you wanted to go get a Chick-fil-A after church today,

if you wanted to go get a big, juicy Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich,

you know that we all...

Or maybe you're like a...

Maybe you like the Cool Wraps.

I don't know what your preference is.

But, man, everything that they serve is just so good.

It doesn't just taste good.

We all just crave Chick-fil-A sometimes.

And it seems like we always crave Chick-fil-A the most on Sundays, right?

Because why?

You can't go to Chick-fil-A.

If you go to Chick-fil-A today, you're going to be very disappointed

because they're closed.

But why are they closed?

Because the leadership at Chick-fil-A believes it's important

for their employees to be able to attend a corporate worship service

if they so choose.

Chick-fil-A also gives a lot of money

away to things like their wind-shaped camps

and make an impact on Georgia's children

and children all over the place.

They go to their camps.

But would Chick-fil-A make more money

if they were open seven days a week as opposed to six?

Of course they would.

In fact, Sundays are some of the biggest revenue-making days

for the fast food industry.

But they close their doors

because they understand

sometimes the mission that's before us

will cost us.

You say, well, I don't own a business

and I don't really have a lot of money to give away.

That's okay.

I know exactly where you are.

I completely understand.

In fact, the Apostle Paul also understood

when he wrote in Philippians 4,

where he says,

I know what it's like to be in need.

I know what it's like to have plenty.

I've learned the secret of being content

in any and every situation,

whether well-fed or hungry.

So Paul had learned what it was to be content,

whether he had a lot of food,

whether he had a lot of things,

or whether he had very, very little.

But I guarantee you,

there's a place in Paul's life

where he was not content.

And Paul was never content

with where he was with the spread of the gospel.

He always knew there was more towns to visit,

that there were more people to share the gospel with,

and there was more strangers to meet

to make an impact on them with the gospel.

That's one thing that Paul completely understood.

And you see, it doesn't matter

where we stand financially.

It doesn't matter where we stand spiritually.

With 4.5 billion people in the world today

that are without Jesus.

I want you to just let that soak into your mind

and into your heart right now.

4.5 billion people in this world without Jesus.

1.4 billion of those people

have no access to the gospel.

We can't really fathom that in our culture.

You see, we live in a culture

where the Bible is translated,

I don't know how many times,

but probably at least 50 times

in our own language.

There's people who don't even have access

to the scripture

that we have access to each and every day.

They don't even have access to it

in their own language.

1.4 billion people.

Zero access to the gospel.

Believers.

There is much more to be done.

Too few of us in our culture

are sacrificing for the mission.

This mission is going to cost us something.

What Nehemiah here is saying

is that God has placed this desire in my heart.

It doesn't matter how much the cost.

It doesn't matter how much it is.

It's all worth it

to be able to see people's lives

and people's hearts changed.

Verse 16.

I also applied myself to the work on this wall.

We did not buy any land

and all my servants were gathered there for the work.

There's a couple things going on here.

First of all, he mentions land.

Specifically, he mentions not buying any land.

Let me tell you how this would work.

Let's say you have a place

that's very depressed economically.

A city like Jerusalem.

And the people there are suffering

because of the economy.

But on top of that,

simultaneously, what's going on

is that there is a famine.

There's shortage on money.

There's shortage on food.

And what Nehemiah could have done

is he could have moved into town.

He could have raised the taxes.

And then he could have thereby

decreased the land value.

And he could have bought up all of their land

at pennies on the dollar.

Just a fraction of the cost.

Thereby being a burden on the people.

What Nehemiah is saying,

he says, no,

while that might be legal,

that's not something that I'm interested in doing.

That's not something that God would want me to do.

The second part of this verse.

All my servants were gathered there for the work.

Nehemiah is saying,

not only have I been an example financially,

but I'm also being an example in my work,

in my obedience in my work.

So what Nehemiah is really indicating to us here

is that a leader must be willing to persevere,

to give their lives to the cause,

and be willing to pay the price for the mission.

Then he gives us another leadership insight,

beginning in verse 17.

And I love this.

I hope that you can track with me through this

because this is so intriguing to me.

It says,

Moreover, there are at my table

150 Jews and officials,

besides those who came to us

from the nations that were around us.

Wait a minute.

How many people was he inviting over for dinner?

150?

And they sat where?

At my table?

I don't know about you,

but that has got to be some really gargantuan table

for 150 people.

Maybe they were just really small people.

You never really know.

It says,

Now what was prepared?

At whose expense?

At my expense?

Nehemiah's personal expense.

Can you imagine a dinner party every night

for 150 people?

Can you imagine the cost of that?

It says,

Now that that which was prepared for each day

was one ox,

six choice sheep.

Also birds were prepared for me.

And once in ten days,

all sorts of wine were furnished in abundance.

Prepared each day.

And these were lavish meals.

And Nehemiah's paying for it all.

And he says,

Yet for all of this,

I did not demand the governor's food allowance

because the servitude was heavy on his people.

You say,

Well, great.

That's awesome.

You know,

Nehemiah,

he had a bunch of people over to his house

around what must have been a huge table.

And he was doing these big dinner parties.

What does that mean for us in our culture today?

I want you to track with me here

because mealtime in Scripture,

I know this is going to sound silly at first,

but meals are incredibly important in Scripture.

I want you to think back with me to Genesis.

The story begins where there's a Trinitarian God,

a God that exists in three persons,

the Father,

the Son,

and the Holy Spirit.

This God creates the world

and everything that's in it.

And in that world,

He creates man

in His own image

and His own likeness.

And there's one thing,

before sin enters the world,

there's one thing that God says isn't good.

And that's that man should not be alone.

It's not good for man to be alone.

So what we see from the very beginning

that God is a relational God

and that He's created us to be relational people.

And from the very beginning,

we begin to see that.

But what happens is something tragic happens.

Adam and Eve partake of fruit,

which they were forbidden to eat.

They partake of a meal outside of God's will.

sin enters into the world.

And God made a promise to us in Genesis 3.15

that Jesus Christ,

the second member of that Trinity,

would enter into human history.

Even as early as Genesis 3,

we had that prophecy.

And then you zoom forward,

Jesus comes.

Jesus being a pretty important guy, right?

He is God.

He's pretty important.

He,

over and over and over and over again,

throughout His life,

throughout His ministry,

He takes time to sit down

and to eat with people.

He has dinner with them.

In fact,

His ministry even begins

at a wedding feast.

The wedding at Canaan,

where He turns water into wine.

That's where His ministry begins,

is at a meal.

Then,

Jesus,

over and over again,

spends a good portion of His life

at the dinner table

eating with sinners like Zacchaeus.

And it,

man,

it lit the Pharisees on fire.

These religious leaders of the day,

they hated the fact that He ate with sinners.

And they would whisper among themselves,

Can He believe that He's eating with sinners?

Surely,

if He was God,

He would know those people were sinners.

But Jesus found it incredibly important

to spend time with sinners,

to eat with sinners.

He sits down and has a drink beside

a well in Samaria with an outcast,

a woman who is an outcast.

He also made time to eat with His friends

like Mary, Martha, Lazarus.

Then,

as the cross was approaching,

as His death was imminent,

He has the most famous meal

in all of human history,

where He sits down with His twelve disciples.

We call it the Last Supper.

And this meal is the reason why

each and every week,

we participate in the Lord's Supper.

This idea that the bread

symbolizes Jesus' body that was broken.

And the juice that we drink,

it symbolizes His blood.

And we partake of this meal

in order to remember the sacrifice

that Jesus made for us on the cross.

The sacrifice that would reconcile us back to God,

but not only reconcile us back to God,

but to reconcile all of us

back to one another.

And that's why we do it each and every week.

That's why we participate in the Lord's Supper

each and every week.

We partake of the elements

so that we can remember

the sacrifice that Jesus paid for us

on the cross.

Then you get to the very end of Scripture.

Just a few chapters

from the very end of Revelation.

It's Revelation 19.

We see another meal.

And man,

this meal is going to be incredible.

It's a meal in which

all people,

everyone who's ever

accepted Jesus

as their Lord and Savior,

we're all gathered together.

Every tribe,

tongue,

nation,

language,

everybody is gathered all together

and we're celebrating

the second coming of the Lamb.

The second coming of Christ.

And let me tell you something.

In this meal,

there's going to be

stuff there

that you've literally

never seen before.

It's going to be like

nothing you've ever seen before.

It's going to be amazing.

It's going to be a celebration.

It's going to continue

through eternity.

And so we see that

sin enters into the world

with a meal.

And yet God concludes

this story

as we head into eternity

with a meal.

And all throughout Scripture

we see how important meals are.

And the reason why

this is important

is because

what Nehemiah is trying to do

is he's seeking

to transform a city.

And he determines

that one of the most

effective ways to do this

is through demonstrating

hospitality toward people.

Showing them how much

he cares about them.

And he's chosen to do that

through inviting people over

into his home

and into his life.

And I submit to you

that it's going to take

us as a church family

as believers

it's going to take us

turning strangers

into friends

to impact

North Georgia

for the glory of God.

I'll give you

one example

of one of the many ways

that this can really work

in your lives.

We

as a seminary student

I went out to eat

one time

in the city of Raleigh

North Carolina

we went to go eat

just as a fellowship

of believers

we wanted to

kind of go have fun

that night

and to eat together

so we went to this restaurant

and we're having a good time

just had a good conversation

you know how things

normally go

when you go out

to eat with people.

One of my friends

gets up during the middle

of the dinner

that we're having

and goes to the restroom

and on his way back

he notices

that there

is what looks like

a single mom

sitting there

having dinner

with her children.

And so he comes back

to the table

and he says

hey guys

explains to us

I've seen this lady

over here

eating with her children

I think she's a single mom

and I don't know why

but I feel like

we should pay

for her dinner tonight.

And so we

kind of shrugged

our shoulders

who are we

to say

that God's not

really truly speaking

to you

so sure

let's do it.

So we arranged

for our waitress

to go get

her waitress

and to get us

the bill

instead of her

the bill

and we would

make all the arrangements

set it all up

we get the bill

we all chip in

you know

five bucks or so each

there's four or five

of us there

I think it didn't

take too much

for us to pay

for her meal

and we give

the money

to our waitress

and they take

care of everything

and I'd like

to be able

to tell you

that this was

a life changing

thing for this

single mom

I wish I could

tell you that

to be honest

with you

it was kind

of awkward

you know

people don't

normally pay

for other people's

meals

sitting at other

tables

in a restaurant

so this lady

comes up to us

on our way

out the door

and just kind

of says

thanks

and kind

of walks

out the door

we didn't know

what to say

to her

she didn't

really know

what to say

to us

and we went

on about

eating our

meal

and she went

on about

her life

about five

minutes later

our waitress

comes up to

us

and she says

why would

you do

something like

that

and we

just

replied back

to her

well we're

just

we're all

saved by

the grace

of God

by the blood

of Jesus

and we

we just want

to share

the love

of Jesus

with people

and we

thought that

that might

be a simple

way to show

this mom

the love

of Jesus

she was like

okay

she went on

about her

business

serving other

tables and

what not

we went on

about eating

our meal

about five

minutes later

she's making

her rounds

again

she comes

back to

our table

and she

says

can I

just ask

you guys

something

what church

do you go

to

she was

almost in

tears

she was

almost kind

of broken

up at this

point

we all

went to

different

churches

so we

explained

to her

we don't

all go

to the

same

church

we can

recommend

some good

churches

for you

if you're

interested

and she

said

she wanted

to tell

us a story

about how

she was

experienced

brokenness

within the

church

that she

had kind

of been

burned

by church

people before

in the

past

and she

said

you know

I haven't

really since

then had

a desire

to go to

church

but if

there's a

church somewhere

out there

doing what

you guys

are doing

then that's

something I

want to be

a part of

I don't

tell you

that story

to pat

myself on

the back

I don't

tell you

that story

to you

you know

make much

of myself

it wasn't

even my

idea to

do it

it was

my friend's

idea

I tell you

that story

to show you

what a little

hospitality

can do

what a little

trying to

reach out

to somebody

can do

when you

do it

in the

name of

Jesus

and we

had no

idea

when we

decided

that we

were going

to pay

for the

single mom's

dinner

we had

no idea

that would

make an

impact

such a

big impact

on a

waitress

that was

serving us

that night

sometimes it

takes something

very incredibly

simple

in order to

make a huge

impact for

God

Nehemiah as

a leader

understands this

principle

he's having

people over

for dinner

he's interacting

with the

people

he could have

just moved

into Jerusalem

if he wanted

to and not

have paid much

attention to the

people he could

have just rebuilt

the wall and

just moved on

with his

business

but he

doesn't do

that

I hope that

what we're

beginning to

see is that

it was more

about building

a people than

it was about

building a wall

you see the

task on the

surface level

looks like he's

rebuilding the

city of Jerusalem

as physically

what's going on

here in the

process is that

God is using

Nehemiah to

rebuild his

people to

turn the

hearts of the

people of

Jerusalem back

to God

so next time

that you're

near a coffee

shop just go

around introducing

yourself

it might seem

a little awkward

at first

in fact

you might freak

a few people

out

just walking

up to them

and say

hey my name

is so and

so is there

anything that I

can pray about

for you

it would be

fun

it would be

something interesting

it would be

something interesting

later on to

post on your

Facebook status

just try it

but in this

we're sort of

cutting against

the cultural

grain that

hey we're

strangers and

we don't talk

to each other

well yeah

we're strangers

until we break

that ice

until we show

a little hospitality

then we become

friends

and when you

open that door

to friendship

you also

open the door

to be able

to share

Jesus

with the

lost

culture

that we

live in

this passage

concludes in an

interesting way

Nehemiah is

kind of

reflecting on

the series

of sacrifices

that he's

made

for the cause

of the

mission

and the

cause that

God has

called him

to

and he

says in

verse 19

remember

for my

good

oh God

all that

I have

done

for this

people

how many

of you

at first

glance

kind of

read that

as

maybe

Nehemiah

has a

little

hair

of

arrogance

when he's

saying

that

dear

God

please

remember

all the

wonderful

things

that I've

done

amen

right

kind of

seems a

little bit

much

doesn't it

but remember

the words

that were

spoken

out of the

mouth

of Jesus

Christ

nearly

440

years

later

after

this

Jesus

says

in

Matthew

6

you don't

have to

turn

there

just

listen

to

these

words

do

not

store

up

for

yourselves

treasures

on

earth

where

moths

and

vermin

destroy

and

where

thieves

break

in

and

steal

but

store

up

for

yourselves

treasures

in

heaven

where

moths

and

vermin

do

not

destroy

and

where

thieves

do

not

break

in

and

steal

see

Nehemiah

I don't

believe

that

Nehemiah

is trying

to boast

here

what

Nehemiah

is saying

is I've

given

a lot

towards

this

cause

I've

given

up

many

years

of my

life

I've

given

up

a lot

of my

personal

finances

I've

given

up

my

life

for

this

cause

and

I'm

not

likely

to

receive

much

earthly

reward

for

this

I'm

not

likely

to

be

thanked

by

these

people

and

so

God

if

you

would

just

remember

these

things

that

I'm

storing

up

my

treasure

not

here

on

this

earth

but

in

heaven

and

Nehemiah

simple

prayer

here

is

demonstrating

something

that

Nehemiah

understood

that we

sometimes

don't

grasp

in our

culture

in a

day

where

we have

televangelists

on TV

who are

in the

ministry

for their

own

personal

gain

and say

you know

just call

the 1-800

number

on the

bottom

of your

screen

and if

you just

donate

a minimum

of $100

you can

be blessed

by God

and they

hop in

their

helicopter

and fly

home

right

see

say that

tongue

in

cheek

but

this

is

something

that's

really

really

important

because

I feel

like

this

is

something

we

don't

really

grasp

in

our

theology

we're

not

saved

by

our

works

I want

you

to

hear

me

clearly

this

morning

we're

saved

by

grace

alone

through

faith

alone

in

Christ

alone

there's

nothing

that we

can

do

on

our

own

to

bring

apart

salvation

in

ourselves

Ephesians

2

8

9

and

10

say this

for

by

grace

you've

been

saved

through

faith

not

of

yourselves

it

is

the

gift

of

God

not

as

a

result

of

works

so

that

no

one

may

boast

and

here's

what

Paul

is

saying

here

we

owe

a lot

to

God

we

owe

infinitely

to

God

because

of

our

sin

there's

nothing

that

you

and

I

can

do

to

repay

that

debt

that

we

owe

to

God

there's

absolutely

nothing

if

we're

saved

by

faith

but

then

he

says

for

we

are

his

workmanship

created

in

Christ

Jesus

for

what

for

good

works

see

we may

not

be

saved

by

our

good

works

but

good

works

certainly

play

a

large

part

in

the

life

of

the

believer

you're

saved

by

grace

through

faith

so

it's

not

about

walking

in an

aisle

it's

not

about

!

saying

a

prayer

it's

not

about

getting

a

ticket

into

heaven

I've

heard

that

phrase

more

times

than I

would

ever

hope

to

people

say

I'm

so

glad

my

children

have

their

ticket

into

heaven

these

types

of

phrases

cringe

when I

hear

them

you

don't

get

a

ticket

into

heaven

it's

God

who

works

in

you

and

the

point

when

you

receive

!

salvation

he

works

in

through

this

process

!

sanctification

!

as

you

become

more

holy

as

you

work

out

your

salvation

to

do

good

things

for

the

glory

of

God

God

calls

us

to

do

that

as

believers

so

you

see

for

the

believer

there's

one

of

two

options

that

are

going

on

here

you

can

store

up

your

treasures

here

on

earth

and

lose

it

for

eternity

we've

created

this

mentality

in

our

culture

that

we

get

all

we

can

we

can

!

all

we

get

and

we

sit

on

the

can

I'm

sorry

but

most

of

that

stuff

in

that

can

is

not

going

to

go

with

you

to

heaven

or

you

can

pour

out

all

of

your

time

your

resources

and

your

money

toward

kingdom

purposes

and

what

you

lose

here

you

gain

abundantly

for

the

glory

of

God

you

gain

it

in

eternity

and

I

believe

that's

exactly

what

Nehemiah

is

teaching

and

for

some

of

you

I

want

you

to

be

encouraged

today

for

some

of

you

there's

somebody

in

here

I

know

that

there

is

who

feels

discouraged

because

you

haven't

maybe

you

haven't

had

the

opportunity

to

make

this

huge

impact

on

lots

and

lots

and

lots

of

people

in

this

world

I

want

you

to

know

that

it's

not

necessarily

you

don't

have

to

necessarily

do

Billy

Graham

size

task

you

don't

necessarily

have

to

be

holding

these

rallies

where

thousands

of

people

come

to

know

the

Lord

in

order

to

be

working

to

our

kingdom

purposes

in

order

to

glorify

God

in

your

life

in

fact

sometimes

it's

the

little

things

that

we

do

in

this

life

that

make

the

biggest

impact

on

the

kingdom

I

don't

believe

that

what

we

did

that

night

when

we

paid

!

that

lady

and

her

children's

meal

I

don't

think

that

was

a

huge

thing

but

it

made

an

impact

on

the

waitress

you

don't

have

to

do

huge

things

to

make

an

impact

I

want

to

share

with

you

this

quote

from

a

guy

named

Blaise

Pascal

really

intelligent

guy

very

brilliant

but it's

really more

of a

prayer

that he

penned

he

said

God

help

me

to

do

the

big

things

as

though

they

are

small

because

I

do

them

in

your

power

you

see

people

like

Billy

Graham

they

can't

do

the

things

that

they

do

on

their

own

they

do

the

big

things

as

though

they

are

small

because

they

do

it

in

God's

power

but the

second

part

of that

prayer

is

even

more

profound

to

me

he

says

Lord

help

me

to

do

the

big

things

as

though

they

were

small

because