The Daily Walk | 05.15.2026 | Pastor Mike Gibbons | Nehemiah 5:18-19

Good morning, First Baptist Wimberly.

This is Mike Gibbons.

Welcome to Friday.

Well, the walls are going up around the temple as we continue in Nehemiah this week.

Despite the external opposition we saw last week in chapter 4, they keep working.

Now in chapter 5, we find that they not only have to deal with the enemies outside the wall, but enemies inside as well.

The Jewish leaders are seizing property from their own and even selling people into slavery.

The work of God is being threatened from inside the camp.

As verse 6 says, Nehemiah was very angry because of this.

He challenged them and reminded them that they were contradicting God by their actions.

The leaders and the people returned what they had taken.

Then we come to verses 18 and 19, and let me read those.

Now what was prepared at my expense for each day was one ox and six choice sheep and birds, and every ten days all kinds of wine in abundance.

Yet for all this I did not demand the food allowance of my governor, because the service was too heavy on this people.

Remember, for my good, O my God, all that I have done for this people.

Nehemiah, at his own expense, prepared a feast for the people and the leaders.

And instead of taking his authorized governor's allowance, he served at his own expense again for over a decade to avoid burdening his people.

Like the Messiah who was to come, he modeled Jesus, who came not to be served, but to serve.

That sounds a little self-serving.

But read properly, Nehemiah is not claiming merit, but professing sincerity.

His motive is not to be noticed.

His motive is to maintain the unity of the people and to move on from this conflict.

He is trying to tell God that, poor and feeble as his actions may have been, he did it for no other reason than to honor God.

What he is saying is that he has done this for no other motive but to bring God glory.

May we all be conscious of receiving greater generation from generosity from God than we can ever repay.

This is Mike Gibbons, and I love being your pastor.