Nehemiah 5: Greed and Usury | Sunday Night Service | August 23, 2026

Man, this evening I'm preaching on the subject of financial greed and usury, financial greed

and usury.

And in this chapter, Nehemiah chapter 5, just to give you kind of the historical context,

Nehemiah 5 · chapter mention

if you remember the nation of Judah had gone into captivity in Babylon and now God has

brought them back from the Babylonian captivity.

They're re-establishing their nation, rebuilding Jerusalem, rebuilding the temple, rebuilding

the wall around the city and just, you know, they're getting back and getting established.

But unfortunately, there are people that are just kind of taking advantage of the situation

and instead of trying to help God's people succeed and thrive and be a successful nation,

instead they want to just try to just be greedy and get as much money out of people

as they can and just be lending money to people on interest, predatory lending, etc.

And what you have to understand is that when the Bible used the term usury, it really just

means charging interest no matter what the interest rate is, okay?

Because in our modern vernacular, when we use the word usury in 2026 or laws that have

to do with usury, they prohibit people from charging really high interest rates.

Like usually it will cap it at like 30 percent, you know, just these insane interest rates.

So you'll see credit cards that are charging like 29.99 percent APR compounded, you know,

every split second and literally that's not a joke.

You know, it's just continuously compounding interest.

And you know, the point is that God actually is telling his people not to charge usury period

and he just means don't charge interest.

But now we have this changing of the definition of well, just don't charge 30 percent.

But what you're going to see in this passage, the usury that Nehemiah is upset about is

literally 1 percent interest and Nehemiah is rebuking it.

And so this is not a legitimate way to make money.

And look, all throughout the Bible, what is God teaching us?

Work hard, go out and give it your best at your job, whether you're working for yourself

or whether you're working for somebody else.

Whatsoever thy hand find it to do, do with thy might, work hard, make an honest living

and have enough money to take care of yourself, take care of your family.

And hopefully to be able to help out other people that are in need,

the opposite of that is getting greedy and just wanting more and more money and never having enough.

What does the Bible say?

The love of money is the root of all evil.

Now, here's the thing.

I'm not, I'm going to try not to get super political in the sermon.

That's not really the point.

And I don't want to get super duper economical either because I want to preach through the chapter.

But obviously there are different schools of thought when it comes to government

and when it comes to finances.

And so, you know, we'll typically just in a very vague way talk about like liberals and conservatives, right?

And in our modern day, typically when we think of quote unquote liberals,

we're talking about basically people who want to tax us all

and then give the money away and kind of spread the wealth around,

tax the rich to give money to the poor.

And obviously there are tons of abuses of this where you have all kinds of people

that are just lazy and not working and they're just on welfare and they're just getting free money

and whatever.

And typically the liberals want to have like lots of government spending

and social programs and just have the government provide education for every single person,

health care for every single person.

You know, just even how about just giving everybody money?

Like a lot of people just want a standard basic income just for everyone.

Just pay everyone money to do nothing and whatever.

Okay. Now, obviously unfortunately the conservative side is pretty much into big spending too.

They just like to spend on different things and whatever.

Then there's a more like libertarian mindset

or like kind of like a Ron Paul Republican type mindset

that is basically saying, hey, we need to cut spending, limit government spending.

People need to work and do things for themselves.

The government can't provide everything for everyone.

We can't just pay for everybody's health care,

pay for everybody's education, pay for everybody's housing.

You know, people have to go and work and earn it themselves.

You know, so on the one hand you have kind of this big government socialist view.

And then on the other hand you have this more like libertarian free market economics kind of a view.

Obviously the libertarian free market side is the correct side here, okay?

But here's what's funny is that some people will kind of go too far on that side.

And I remember when I was a teenager in high school in an economics class

and you know the spirit of what we were being taught about like free market economics

and capitalism and everything like that, was true.

But then they showed us a video about how greed was good.

And how like actually it was just outright just saying greed is good.

And this was like kind of an opposite extreme from these kind of left-wing socialists

saying, oh no, no, no, capitalism and free market.

And also it's good to be greedy.

And these greedy billionaires are actually helping society and it's great, whatever.

And that was kind of like a weird over-correction or like another opposite extreme.

So what I want to do is kind of go to the word of God and see what the Bible says.

Because here's the thing, the word liberal comes from the same root as like liberty.

And the whole point of being liberal means you're being generous, okay?

So in my personal life I want to be a liberal, right?

Because I want to be generous.

I want to be very free with my money and not be like a tightwad, stingy guy.

I want to be liberal.

I want to help other people.

You know, I want to help people out and give and be generous.

That's what it should mean to be liberal.

The problem with modern so-called liberalism though is that basically

they want to be liberal with other people's money.

So they want to tax us all and then be liberal with the money and just give it away freely.

And the problem is that they have sticky fingers along the way.

So a lot of it gets just wasted in government waste and government corruption.

And that's why we're $40 trillion in debt and whatever.

So anyway, I'm just kind of talking about this.

Just kind of give a basic foundation for what we're talking about here

when we look at Nehemiah chapter five, okay?

There are a lot of things that are wrong with our society.

Greed is not the answer.

Socialism is also not the answer.

The right answer is that people should have the freedom and the ability

to make as much money as they want and to become millionaires and billionaires

if they can and just, you know, make money and have businesses and work hard.

But that we should, out of our own good conscience and our good heart toward God,

we should want to be generous and giving and not be greedy.

And if you're going to get rich, it should only be through real legitimate work,

not unjust gain and predatory lending and ripping people off, okay?

Now remember, the Bible says the love of money is the root of all evil.

And the Bible says, but they that will be rich will means want to be.

They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare

and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown man in destruction and perdition.

So the Bible is warning you, if you're this person who's just like,

my goal in life is to be rich, that's a bad goal.

And you're probably going to go down a very dark path

because the love of money is the root of all evil.

However, if you're just working hard, building a business,

and you happen to be successful, you happen to make a tons of money,

you happen to make millions of dollars or something, great.

But what do you do at that point?

You're supposed to be generous and liberal with your money,

not that the government is going to steal your money

and give it to someone else,

but rather that you would have your own volition be generous with your money.

Let's see what the Bible says about this,

now that we've kind of thrown around some terms a little bit.

Look at Nehemiah chapter 5, verse 1, it says,

Nehemiah 5:1

There was a great cry of the people and of their wives

against their brethren, the Jews.

For there were that said,

We are sons and our daughters are many,

therefore we take up corn for them that we may eat and live.

Some also there were that said,

We have mortgaged our lands, vineyards, and houses

that we might buy corn because of the dirt.

So they're in a bad situation here

because the Jews are trying to get reestablished in Jerusalem

and there's a famine, there's a dirt.

The economy is not doing well,

it would be the modern analog of this.

And so therefore they're having trouble just feeding their families.

They're having trouble putting food on the table.

And so they're saying we're having to go into debt,

we're having to mortgage our lands, vineyards, and houses

so that we can just buy corn to eat.

I mean this would be like if you're taking a second mortgage on your house

just so you can buy groceries,

you know, just so that you can actually

put gas on the tank and keep going.

So this means you're deficit spending

and it's because of a dearth or a famine.

And the thing is it says in verse number one

that there's a cry of the people and of their wives

against their brother and the Jews.

So this is Jews oppressing Jews.

So this isn't some foreign government that's taxing them

and oppressing them.

This is Jews oppressing each other, right?

And this is obviously wicked.

It's not right.

It's ungodly to treat people this way.

You've got the Jews that are more wealthy

and they're abusing and taking advantage of the poorer Jews

by lending to them on interest,

making them mortgage things and so forth and ripping them off.

So they're complaining about it.

And it says in verse number four,

there were also that said we've borrowed money

for the king's tribute and that upon our land's invaders.

So, you know, they're having to pay their taxes

on a credit card, right?

And so, you know, they're being taxed

and they're being charged a bunch of bank fees

and interest.

And so instead of just working

and putting food on the table,

they're getting gouged by these financial predators,

government taxing them to death, banks ripping them off,

charging them a bunch of interest and fees and so forth.

Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brother in verse five,

our children as their children and lo,

we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants

and some of our daughters are brought under bondage already.

Neither is it in our power to redeem them

for other men have our lands and vineyards.

They're saying, look, we literally are selling

our children into bondage,

selling our children into literal slavery

just because we can't afford to feed them.

We can't afford to take care of them

and we need the money just to pay our bills

and to pay the taxes and pay the mortgage, etc.

And so this is a horrible financial situation that they're in.

So it says right here, inverse number,

I lost my page here.

It says in verse number six,

and I was very angry when I heard their cry

and these words.

And so, you know, this makes Nehemiah mad.

And a lot of people, I feel like,

are frustrated when they see, you know,

a situation where banks and governments

are stealing money from people

and then ordinary people are struggling to get by,

struggling to pay their bills.

Everybody's in debt up to their eyeballs

and just trying to make ends meet and get by.

And so Nehemiah is upset when he hears about this

and he's especially upset to hear that Jews

are doing this to other Jews.

Like instead of them sticking together as God's people

and saying, hey, I want all of us to prosper.

We want to succeed as a nation.

It's like, no, let me just personally succeed

at the expense of others.

So he says he was very angry when he heard these words

and then look at verse seven.

Then I consulted with myself

and I rebuked the nobles and the rulers

and said unto them,

ye exact usury, every one of his brother

and I set a great assembly against them

and I said to them, we after our ability

have redeemed our brethren, the Jews,

which were sold unto the heathen.

Because remember, they've gone into captivity in Babylon.

They've been slaves in Babylon and other countries.

They've been buying people's freedom

and trying to bring them back to the promised land,

getting people out of Babylon and these other places,

only to get there and be enslaved

by other Jews when they get there.

And they're going back into bondage.

Their children are going back into bondage.

The whole point is we're coming out of the Babylonian captivity

and then you're bringing us back into bondage.

And so it says, will you even sell your brethren?

Verse eight, halfway through,

or shall they be sold unto us?

Then held their peace and found nothing to answer.

So they're ashamed.

Nehemiah is rebuking them

and they're embarrassed and ashamed

that they're putting their own greed

over the benefit and well-being of the people around them.

And so it says in verse nine,

also I said, it's not good that ye do,

ought ye not to walk in the fear of our God

because of the reproach of the heathen our enemies.

I likewise, and my brethren and my servants,

might exact of them money and corn.

He's saying, I can do the same thing.

I'm wealthy.

I could loan them money at interest

and rip them off and steal from them.

He says, I pray you, let us leave off this usury.

We got to stop this.

Verse 11, restore, I pray you to them,

even this day their lands, their vineyards,

their olive yards and their houses,

also the hundredth part of the money.

That's the 1% interest rate that I was talking about.

And of the corn, the wine and the oil that ye exact of them,

then said they, we will restore them

and we will require nothing of them.

So what we do is thou sayest,

then I called the priests and took an oath of them

that they should do according to this promise.

Also, I shook my lap and said,

so God shake out every man from his house

and from his labor that performeth not this promise,

even thus be he shaken out and emptied.

And all the congregation said, amen and praise the Lord,

the people did according to this promise.

So Nehemiah is saying, look, you got to stop this.

You're ripping people off.

You're hurting people.

You're being greedy.

You're oppressing the poor.

You're taxing the poor.

You're charging interest to the poor and ripping them off.

And so the problem here is greed.

The people that are oppressing their brethren

are already wealthy people.

They're already doing well.

They have money.

The problem is it's not enough for them.

And the problem is that the Bible says,

he that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver.

You know, nobody's ever going to have enough money

where they're like, okay, now I'm satisfied.

I've arrived.

I'm happy now.

Money doesn't make you happy.

And so living a life chasing money

is a bad way to live your life.

And it's going to lead you down a dark path

because you're just going to keep wanting more and more

and you'll do anything to get it

and you'll become a greedy person.

Now, I think that this is a big part of human nature

in general is greed and not just about money.

But you know, people are greedy of money.

People are greedy of food, right?

They eat too much and get super overweight

because they're just greedy.

It's like, well, this food's good.

So I'm just going to keep eating it.

This is so good.

And they overindulge, right?

People overindulge.

Now, obviously, I don't believe that we should drink alcohol

at all whatsoever.

But yet, even people who do think, hey,

it's okay to drink a little bit, you know what?

They tend to overindulge.

And then you have people binge drinking

and getting drunk and, you know,

becoming alcoholics and everything.

Just showing the greedy nature of man

that he's probably not just going to drink

a little bit of alcohol, right?

They're going to drink another one and another one and another one.

And then it's got to be every day

and then whatever road they go down is an alcoholic.

Drug addicts, same thing, you know?

Gambling addiction, you know?

People are just greedy, right?

I mean, what does God prescribe for us as men?

A wife, right?

We're supposed to be married

and we are supposed to be the two of us,

one flesh, husband and wife.

But then throughout the Bible,

what do we see?

Men who are being greedy and just multiplying wives,

you know?

We see a guy like King Rehoboam

who has dozens and dozens of wives

and then it just says he just wants more wives.

He just desired many wives.

It's like, bro, you already have many wives.

How are you desiring many wives?

You already have scores of wives,

but he just wants more, more, more, more, more.

This is human nature.

And we need to make sure that as Christians,

we don't fall into this trap of being greedy

of anything, you know?

We need to understand, hey, the money that I make at my job,

making an honest living, working hard,

being productive, producing value,

that's got to be enough for me.

It's like John the Baptist preached to the soldiers,

be content with your wages.

Don't go steal and take things that don't belong to you.

He told the publicans, don't exact more

than you're supposed to be exacting

because they're ripping people off.

Instead of just being content with their paycheck,

they have to be stealing as well

because they're being greedy.

We need to be content with the money

that we make at our legitimate job

and not be trying to do something greedy

or unjust on the side.

See, there are legitimate ways

to make money in this world

and there are illegitimate ways to make money, right?

I mean, if you go to your job and work, that's great.

But you know what?

Here are bad ways to make money, selling drugs, right?

This is an illegitimate way to make money.

You're hurting people.

You're destroying people's lives

so that you can make money, okay?

You're also risking obviously going to prison

and having all those consequences

of breaking the law and selling illicit drugs.

But you know what?

People get into this all the time

and they get into things like selling drugs.

They get into just pyramid schemes

and just get rich quick schemes

and they get into just ripping people off

and unjust gain because of greed, okay?

We need to just understand,

hey, let's enjoy the amount of food that we should,

let's enjoy the amount of money that God has given us,

let's enjoy the one wife that God has given us

and not be greedy like,

oh, I have to have a second wife,

third wife, fourth wife,

or I have to have the side piece,

the concubine or whatever,

or go out and cheat on my spouse or whatever.

Hey, be content with what you got.

The opposite of contentment is greed.

And so human nature is greedy.

So these people,

they're already the wealthy stratum of society

here in Nehemiah 5,

but what are they doing?

They're looking at poor people

who are barely struggling to even get by

and they're saying,

let's charge them interest.

Let's make them pay us rent.

Let's get them to mortgage their houses to us

and get them paying rent to us every month

on property that's already theirs

that they already owned and so forth.

And you know, it's just evil.

You know, and so again,

like I'm not trying to be super political

or anything when I talk about this,

but at the end of the day,

there are people out there who are greedy people

who want to take money away from hardworking people

so that they can lie in their own pockets with it.

They pretend that they're giving it to the poor,

like Judas Iscariot,

but really most of it is sticking to their fingers

and a little bit of it makes it to the poor,

but most of it is being used up in the process.

And by the way,

also what we call sometimes poor people

are just lazy people refusing to work.

Now look, I understand there are some people

who are legitimately the poor,

but there's a difference between being poor

and you want to work,

you're doing the best work you can,

you're doing what you can,

and you're a working poor.

And then there's people who are just career

welfare recipients,

career derelicts milking the system.

And so, you know,

I do believe that the Bible is teaching us here

that generosity is good.

Being liberal with your own goods is good.

That's what we're going to see Nehemiah do in just a moment.

And I do think that it is wrong

to go through life just being greedy

and getting as much as you can from other people.

People who've been blessed with money,

if you're well off,

you should be generous.

Nobody should necessarily be forcing you

at the barrel of a gun to give your money to the poor,

but you should want to out of the goodness of your heart

and because of your Christian character

want to help out others and those in need.

So let's see what the Bible says about greed.

Go, if you would, to Proverbs chapter one.

We're going to look at like almost every mention of greed.

We're going to look at every relevant mention of greed

in the Bible and see what the Bible has to say

about being greedy because

I think that's the problem in Nehemiah 5

is just rich people being greedy

and they're just trying to just squeeze

every penny that they can out of poor people.

Instead of being generous and saying,

hey, let's help out the poor.

And Nehemiah is not saying,

give all your money to poor people.

That's not what Nehemiah is even saying.

Nehemiah is literally just saying,

just stop ripping them off.

Stop stealing their money.

Stop charging them interest and charging them rent

and charging them fees.

Just let them keep their own produce of their own labor.

That's all he's saying.

And then the next step though

would be that out of the goodness of their heart

they should want to be helping out their brethren

and actually giving and being generous and so forth.

But look what the Bible says in Proverbs chapter 1 verse 19.

Proverbs 1:19

It says, so are the ways of everyone that is greedy of gain

which take away the life of the owners thereof.

So, you know, the Bible is talking about people here

being greedy of gain to the point

where they're willing to kill people

in order to get what belongs to them.

Kill people to get the inheritance.

Kill people to steal their money or whatever.

Look at chapter 15 of Proverbs.

Proverbs 15 · chapter mention

Chapter 15, while you're turning there,

I'm going to read for you from Isaiah chapter 56.

Isaiah 56 · chapter mention

The Bible says in Isaiah 56-10 is,

Watchmen are blind, they're all ignorant,

they're all dumb dogs, they cannot bark,

sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.

Yay, there are greedy dogs.

Listen to this, there are greedy dogs

which can never have enough

and they are shepherds that cannot understand

they all look to their own way,

everyone for his gain from his quarter.

So, the Bible is saying these greedy dogs,

they just only are just thinking about themselves

and how they can just amass more and more for themselves

and they're wicked, they're dogs, etc.

Look at Proverbs 15, 27.

It says, he that is greedy of gain

troubleth his own house,

but he that hated gifts shall live.

Now, when the Bible talks about hating gifts here,

this isn't saying that your name is Ebenezer Scrooge

or something and you just don't want to get

a Christmas present

and you don't want people to give you a birthday present.

That's not what this means.

When the Bible talks about taking a gift

in Proverbs or receiving the gift,

usually what it's talking about is bribery.

So, the idea here is you're a judge

or a public official or an authority figure of some time

and someone is giving you gifts

bribing you to do evil.

Now, here's the problem with our government

is that many people in government are being bribed to do evil.

They love gifts

and the way that this is referred to in Washington DC

it's not called gifts, it's called lobbying.

And these lobbyists will take these politicians out

and whine them and dine them and give them gifts

and then these guys will,

instead of doing what's right for the American people,

they're going to pass legislation that's going to help

these certain wealthy businessmen

or whatever the special interest

that is paying them through gifts and whining and dining.

Another way that they will bribe public officials

is they can give them insider information

and they can do insider stock trading

and make money at the expense of other people,

hurting other people, you know,

because for everybody who's a winner in the stock market

there's going to be losers

and so these people are cheating,

getting inside information

and making money at the expense

of other people's retirement accounts or whatever.

And then not only that,

but they will give them these speaking engagements

where basically they won't bribe a public official outright,

they'll just say,

hey, I want you to give a speech over here for five minutes,

here's $250,000, right?

So we're going to pay you just this insane speaking fee

and that's why you'll see a lot of presidents

and congressmen,

when they finish their term,

they'll go on these speaking tours

and they're speaking

and they're getting paid these insane amounts of money

because it's already been agreed earlier

that like, hey, you do X, Y, and Z for us

and then when your term ends,

we're going to pay you millions of dollars

to come make speeches for us.

And so there are a lot of ways

that these gifts are given

and what does the Bible say?

He that is greedy of gain trouble at his own house

but he that hate it, gifts shall live.

The Bible's saying, you know,

you should be the kind of person that says,

you know what, I'm going to do what's right

and I'm not going to be bribed,

nobody's going to pay me

to do something that's immoral

or unethical or not right.

I'd rather just live off my paycheck,

live off my wages

than to take money for doing wrong.

And interesting as a preacher,

how this manifests is the Bible says

that false prophets will teach things

that they ought not

for filthy Luke or sake.

So just as the politician

will pass legislation

that is not right

because he's being bribed

and getting gifts

and people are lobbying

and whining and dining him

and paying him for speaking engagements,

giving him insider tips

for stock trading or whatever.

Well, you know what,

the same way as a pastor,

I don't want to get up

and teach a false doctrine

because I know, hey,

this is what people want to hear

and then people are going to donate

money or give me gifts or whatever.

You know, we can't let that

cloud our judgment

as leaders.

So that's what the Bible says,

he that hated gifts shall live.

The guy who is actually

you know, going to do what's right

and he hates the idea of being bribed.

He hates the idea of getting up

and preaching

because there's a paycheck

involved to preach something wrong.

There's nothing wrong with getting paid

as a politician

or getting paid as a preacher,

but you got to be content with your wages

and not say, oh, well,

I want to make the big bucks.

So I'm just going to teach

what's going to make me super popular.

Get me on the New York bestseller list

or what, New York Times bestseller list.

You know, because I'm going to write a book

about how God's not mad at you

and no matter who you are

and no matter what you've done,

God is not mad at you.

Hey, that's a lie,

but she made millions of money off that.

And I'm talking about the female Joker

if you're not sure what I'm talking about.

But look at Proverbs chapter 21 verse 25.

Proverbs 21:25

Proverbs chapter 21 verse 25 says this,

Proverbs 21:25

the desire of the slothful killeth him.

Slothful means lazy, right?

The sluggered, the slovenly slothful man.

The desire of the slothful killeth him

for his hands refused to labor.

He coveteth greedily all the day long,

but the righteous giveeth and spareeth not.

So notice that greed and covetousness

go hand in hand.

Covening is desiring something

that is not legitimately yours.

And so he covets greedily all the day long.

He's too lazy to work legitimately

but he still just covets greedily all the day long.

Whereas the righteous gives and spares not.

Here's another way of saying that,

the righteous is liberal.

You know, the righteous gives and spares not.

He's free with his possessions, free with his money.

He's not just like greedily coveting other people.

So he wants to help other people

and give and be generous to his people.

Go through it to Psalm 17, Psalm 17.

And we're looking at, like I said,

we're looking at virtually every mention of greed

in the Bible is what we're doing.

You know, because like I said,

I was shown a video in high school

and the guy who showed it to us

was a born again Christian actually.

My economics teacher in high school

was a born again Christian.

He was conservative.

He had a lot of great views on economics

and politics and everything like that.

But the thing is like Bro just went a little too far

when he's showing us a video

about how greed is actually good.

Like that's when you've gone a little too overboard

on that viewpoint.

Okay.

So look at Psalm 17, verse 8.

Psalms 17:8

It says,

Keep me as the apple of the eye.

Hide me under the shadow of thy wings

from the wicked that oppressed me

from my deadly enemies who compass me about.

They're enclosed in their own fat.

With their mouth they speak proudly.

They have now compassed us in our steps.

They've set their eyes bowing down to the earth

like as a lion that is greedy of his prey

as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.

Arise, O Lord.

Disappoint him.

Cast him down.

Deliver my soul from the wicked which is thy sword.

From men which are thy hand, O Lord,

from men of the world which watch this

have their portion in this life

and whose belly thou fillest with thy head treasure.

They're full of children

and leave the rest of their substance to their babes.

As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness.

I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.

So again, he's graphically describing these people

who are enclosed in their own fat

and yet they just can't have enough.

They're just greedy.

They just want more

and they're willing to hurt other people to get it.

And so I hope you're seeing a pattern.

Go through it to Ezekiel chapter 22.

Ezekiel 22 · chapter mention

I hope you're seeing a pattern

that as we look up these mentions of greed,

it's always very negative.

This is never a good thing, right?

Greed is people wanting more than is legitimately theirs.

They're never satisfied.

And you know, the Psalmist is saying,

as for me, I will be satisfied

when I awake with thy likeness.

It's like I'm just satisfied to be saved,

to be a new creature in Christ.

I'm just gonna be satisfied to just go to heaven one day

and to be like Christ

and we shall be like him

for we shall see him as he is.

I'll be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.

Whereas these people that are enclosed in their own fat

and greedy like lions,

you know, they're never satisfied.

Their greed is endless.

You know, it talks about this in Habakkuk chapter 2

Habakkuk 2 · chapter mention

when it talks about Nebuchadnezzar,

the king of Babylon,

how his desire is enlarged as hell

and is as death and cannot be satisfied

but gathered under them all nations

and heapeth unto them all people

just no matter how much he conquers,

it's never gonna be enough.

It's never gonna be enough wealth and power.

That's the greed of the human condition, unfortunately.

Look at Ezekiel 22 verse 12.

Ezekiel 22:12

In thee they have taken gifts to shed blood.

This goes back to what we said earlier

about how the gift is talking about bribery.

And here when it says they've taken gifts to shed blood,

the idea here is you could look at it as obviously just,

you know, paying someone to kill someone,

like be, you know, just basically, you know,

paying to have someone murdered.

But also this could be also an illegal setting

where you're bribing judges or bribing people

to condemn the innocent and put someone to death

who's just in your way,

somebody that you want to get out of the way,

a business rival or you want to get the inheritance

or whatever, you know,

and you bribe someone to get that person put to death

wrongfully through false witness.

Like remember the story of Naboth's vineyard, right?

Ahab just really wants his little garden of herbs or whatever.

I mean, he's king of Israel.

He's got a palace.

He's got all kinds of property,

but he has to have this one little special garden of herbs.

And so what do they end up doing?

They end up bribing false witnesses

to testify against Naboth

and put him to death wrongfully

so that they can seize his property, right?

Taking away the life of the owners thereof.

So all of these scriptures that we're seeing,

Bible stories illustrate these principles

that we're reading in Proverbs and in the Prophets.

We see Bible stories that illustrate these principles.

And so it says in Ezekiel 22, 12,

in thee have they taken gifts to shed blood, right?

That's like the people who testified against Naboth,

for example.

There obviously could be a lot of other things.

Thou hast taken usury and increase

and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbors

by extortion and as forgotten me sayeth the Lord God.

What is extortion is forcing people to pay you, right?

And saying, hey, you know,

this is the neighborhood safety association

and everybody's got to be a member

because we'd hate for something to happen

to your business, you know?

And so it's like, you got to pay us money

and we'll leave you alone basically.

Pay us money for safety.

It's really just organized criminals stealing your money, okay?

And that's what extortion is.

He says in verse 13,

behold, therefore I've smitten my hand

at thy dishonest gain which thou hast made

and at thy blood which have been in the midst of thee.

He's saying, look, don't get dishonest gain

through extortion, charging interest,

predatory lending, charging a bunch of fees

and ripping people off and stealing from people is wrong.

How about Ephesians chapter four?

You don't have to turn their turn to first Timothy six,

if you would.

Ephesians chapter four says,

who being past feeling have given themselves over

unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness.

So, so far all the scriptures we looked at about greed

were about money, greedy of money.

But in the New Testament in Ephesians,

that's talking about the kind of greed I mentioned earlier

of not being satisfied with your wife

and you know, you're going out and committing fornication,

lasciviousness, uncleanness with greediness, right?

Just being unsatisfied with what God has provided for you

and you want to just go out and be a whoremonger

instead of being satisfied with the God given remedy

which is your wife and you know,

having that physical relationship with her.

So, look if you would at, and then also the last mention

that I found is Jude where he says,

woe unto them, they've gone in the way of Cain

and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward.

And again, Balaam's a false prophet,

taking money to do wrong, teaching things

was they ought not for filthy Luke or sake.

So, actually keep your finger in first Timothy six

and let's go finish up in Nehemiah five

and then we're going to come back to first Timothy six.

So, keep a finger in first Timothy six

and let's finish up in Nehemiah chapter five here.

Because first of all, the first part of the chapter

is Nehemiah is rebuking them for being greedy

and for rich people ripping off poor people

and just trying to take as much from them

and just squeeze them for as much money as they can.

And that's obviously wrong.

We as Christians, and by the way,

if you're a Christian business owner,

you should not have a goal to just see

how little you can pay people.

You know what I'm saying?

Like, obviously you got to make money

and you got to have a business that makes sense

and everything, but you know what?

You should try to be generous and pay people

an honest wage for an honest day's work

and not be like, well, how little can I pay this guy?

How can I just squeeze this guy

and get as much work for as little money as well?

I mean, is that really the right Christian attitude?

And then on the other side of that,

if you're the worker, you shouldn't be like,

well, how little work can I do for this paycheck, right?

The way that the world should function

is that the boss is being generous with the employees

and not trying to pay them as little as possible.

And then the employees are trying to work as hard as they can

and not work as little as possible.

They're trying to go above and beyond

and do extra and work hard.

You know what?

That's a beautiful thing.

That's the way it should be.

But instead, this world is filled with workers

phoning it in, patting their hours,

lying on their timesheet, doing as little as possible,

and bosses just trying to pay people as little

as they can get away with

and just the cheapest possible person that they can hire

and paying them as little as they possibly can.

Neither of those are godly situations.

And they're both driven by greed, in a sense.

And so greed is the enemy.

So now let's look at the other side of the coin

because the first part of Nehemiah 5,

he's rebuking the Jews

who are oppressing other Jews.

Now he's going to bring up the fact

that he actually is a very wealthy man, himself.

He's extremely wealthy

and he's actually being generous.

Instead of trying to rip the people off,

he's trying to give and be generous with what he has.

Look if you would have verse 14.

Moreover, from the time that I was appointed

to be their governor in the land of Judah,

from the 20th year, even under the 2 and 30th year

of Artaxerxes the king,

that is 12 years,

I and my brethren have not eaten the bread

of the governor.

What's he saying?

He's saying, look,

I am not even taking some of the pay

and some of the compensation that's due to me

as the governor,

I'm returning that stuff

because I don't want to oppress

people that are already struggling financially.

I don't want to have to tax people.

So I'm not even taking what's coming.

This would be like a politician,

not using his old budget

or not taking his full paycheck or whatever.

And like, for example,

Congressman Ron Paul famously would return part of his budget

every year

and he was the only congressman

who didn't just spend all the money

that he was allowed to spend or whatever.

And so Nehemiah is basically saying,

hey, I have not eaten the bread of the governor

but the former governors that had been before me

were chargeable under the people

and had taken of them bread and wine.

So here's the thing,

it's like the people are struggling,

the people are poor

and these rich fat cat governors

are taking bread, wine,

beside the 40 shekels of silver.

Yay, even their servants bear rule over the people

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

He said, look, former governors have done this.

Now, do you think that there's anything new under the sun?

In 2026, unfortunately,

a lot of leaders will live a really high life

and take people's money

and just abuse the privilege of being a governor

or in government in some way.

He's saying, you know,

the reason I didn't do that is because I feared God.

You know, he's saying,

I didn't do it because it was the right thing to do

to not oppress people that are already poor

and so because I feared God,

I didn't oppress the poor by taking money from them.

And then he says in verse 16,

yea, also I continued in the work of this wall,

neither bought we any land

and all my servants were gathered under the work.

He's like, look, I came here to try to rebuild Jerusalem,

build the wall and help things out.

I didn't come here for like some real estate investment.

So I'm not buying up all the property

so that I can charge people rent to live on the property

and drive up the real estate and have some scam

where I can get rich in some big real estate scheme

or whatever.

He's like, no man, I'm here to work to help everybody.

He says in verse number 17,

Moreover, there were at my table

150 of the Jews and rulers,

besides those that came unto us

from among the heathen that are about us.

Now, that which was prepared for me daily

was one ox and six-choice sheep.

Also, fowls were prepared for me

and once in 10 days store of all sorts of wine,

yet for all this required not either bread of the governor

because the bondage was heavy upon this people.

He said, look, the bondage is heavy upon the people.

I don't want them to pay more taxes

than they're already paying.

I don't want to charge them.

And he's like, I already have money.

Now, this is a pretty impressive amount of food

that is being cooked for him every single day.

Now, you can understand why he has 150 people

over eating of his food

because obviously this is not what one person eats.

Okay, daily one ox.

So this is an entire cow every single day.

Now, I don't know about you,

but like my family, we've bought entire cows,

but actually I think we've never bought more than half a cow.

So we would do these things

where we would actually buy like locally raised Arizona beef.

You know, because you know the rancher,

you know where it's coming from,

you know it's all truly free range,

organic, good stuff.

You're helping out your local rancher business.

It's a benefit for everybody.

So who's ever been to my house

and like got a piece of a cow that I bought?

All right, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

Yeah, so it's not 150, but no, I'm just kidding.

But yeah, so there's like 10 people here

who've been to my house

and when we did these big like beef buys

and we'd buy like a full cow or a couple full cows

and then we'd all split it up

and that would last us for like months.

Right?

This guy's killing a whole cow every single day.

So that's crazy because if we killed a whole cow,

we're gonna, our whole family's gonna eat that

for like months and months and months, okay?

But that's just the one ox, okay?

And then after that, it says six-choice sheep.

So one ox, six sheep, also fowls.

So you know, just on the side,

they got the, you know, the birds

and the chicken and the Cornish game hens

and the geese or whatever they've got

that they're eating on the side.

So one ox, six-choice sheep and fowl.

And then once every 10 days, all, you know,

that's where they get out the fruit punch

and the fruit juices and, you know,

and indulge in that stuff

because that stuff was extremely expensive back

before you had machines

that would actually make the juice and so forth.

And so it had to be made by human labor.

So the bottom line is that he has this massive amount

of food being prepared every day.

So he's sharing with like 150 of the local Jews,

but then also a bunch of foreigners are coming.

So it's more than 150 people

that he's offering just this giant buffet to.

And then he says in verse 19,

think upon me, my God,

for good according to all that I've done for this people.

So he's praying to God and he's saying,

God, look, I'm being generous.

I'm helping people out.

Bless me for doing that, God.

And you know what?

God is going to bless you

when you are generous and not greedy.

If you are generous and helping other people,

caring about other people,

God's going to bless you.

And if you're greedy,

God is not going to bless that.

God's going to curse that if you're greedy

because what did he say in Proverbs 28,

he said,

he that by usury and unjust gain

increases his substance,

he shall gather it for him

that will pity the poor.

So the Bible is saying,

God will take it away from you

and give it to somebody

who is actually a good, generous person.

Now I do want to say this.

Nobody's asking Nehemiah

to live like everybody else

because here's the thing.

If you work hard,

you're entitled to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

So if you go out and work 16-hour days

and build a business,

and look, building your own business

is a lot of work.

It's stressful.

It's strenuous.

It takes a ton of work

and there's risk involved.

So look, if you go out

and actually start a business

and put in all that work

and effort and blood, sweat, tears

and take that chance,

you deserve more

than just some guy

who's just clocking in and out

at McDonald's, right?

So this weird,

commie idea

that everyone should be equal

is foolish

because then people

aren't going to be motivated

to go out and do all this work

and push themselves

so that they can just

be like everybody else.

It's like, well, no.

Obviously, people who work hard

and excel and do more,

they're entitled to have more, right?

And so what we want in our world

is we don't want equality of outcome.

We want equality of opportunity, right?

We don't want to say,

hey, we're going to give white people

more of an opportunity

than black people or vice versa.

We just want everybody

to have the opportunity,

but at the end of the day,

you're going to get rewarded

according to what you do.

And I mean, even Jesus Christ

when he returns one day,

he says, behold, I come quickly

and my reward is with me

to give every man

according as his work shall be.

Notice when Jesus returns,

he's not giving to everyone equally.

When we get to heaven,

sorry, we're not all

going to be the same in heaven.

Some people are going to have

a higher rank and a higher status

and a higher level of reward

than others.

And God is going to reward

everyone according to their works.

We're not saved by works,

but once we're saved,

if we do works,

we get rewarded for our works.

And so when we get to heaven,

it's not going to be

this egalitarian utopia

where everybody's the same.

There are going to be people

who did more for Christ

that are going to be ruling

and reigning and at a higher level.

And then there's going to be

the people who just barely got in,

yet so is by fire, right?

The first Corinthians three types,

like the thief on the cross or something,

he's not going to be in the same position

as the apostle Paul in heaven.

So at the end of the day,

we want to have equality

in the sense of we want to have

equality of opportunity.

Everybody should have the same

opportunities and the same chances

to go out and work hard and make money.

But saying that we all end up

in the same size house,

driving the same vehicle,

eating the same food,

getting the same level of services,

that's stupid and doesn't make sense.

And by the way,

everywhere it's been tried,

it has failed.

All of the socialist systems

of the 20th century have failed.

All of the little socialist utopias

that they promised,

they didn't pan out.

And who have been the most

prosperous countries in the world

over the last 150 years

have been the freest countries.

The countries that have

the freest economies,

free market economics works

everywhere it's tried.

Socialism fails every time it's tried.

It's just that simple.

Okay.

So economically it works out that way.

So I'm not up here saying

that everybody should live the same.

Because let's face it,

Nehemiah is living pretty good.

I mean if it's your table

and you got an ox

and six sheep

and various fowl

being prepared for you,

not to mention all the veggies

and side dishes

that he doesn't even bring up.

You're doing pretty stinking good.

Okay.

But here's the thing.

Is that nobody's saying

that you can't work hard,

build a business,

make money,

and enjoy the fruit of your labor

and have nice things.

But you know what you should also

be doing is being generous

with other people.

And that's what we see Nehemiah.

Yeah, we see him enjoying

the fruit of his labor.

But then we also see him

being super generous

and helping other people out as well.

So go to 1 Timothy chapter 6

1 Timothy 6 · chapter mention

and we'll close there.

1 Timothy chapter 6.

1 Timothy 6 · chapter mention

So I hope that the sermon

makes sense to you.

I'm not trying to get all

into some political

or economical thing.

I more want to deal

with the text here

that you know,

God is against making money

by lending to people.

Okay.

This is not a legitimate way

to make money.

Okay.

Lending people money,

charging interest,

foreclosing on their stuff.

You know, that's not

a good godly way

to make money.

He wants us to work hard

and produce things

and to be able to help

other people.

You know, that's the ideal situation.

And if you work for your boss,

you should give 100%.

And if you have employees,

you should be generous with them

and love them

and care about them

and pay them a decent wage.

That's what I've always believed

when I was an employee.

That's what I believe

when I was a business owner,

you know,

because it's just

either side of that coin

that you're on,

you know,

you want to do right

by the Lord

and fear God

in everything that you do.

Because the Bible says,

you know, that servants

should obey their masters,

but then it says,

you masters do the same

things unto them

for bearing, threatening,

knowing that your master

also is in heaven,

neither is there

respect of persons with them.

So God's up in heaven.

He's, even if you're

the top dog in your business,

you got to master up in heaven

and he doesn't respect your person.

He sees you the same

as the poorest person

because the rich and poor

meet together

in the Lord's sight, right?

The Lord lightened

both their eyes.

And so in 1 Timothy,

chapter number six,

it says this,

verse 17,

charge them that are rich

in this world

that they be not high-minded.

He's saying, you know,

if you are wealthy,

if you have a lot of money,

don't get prideful,

don't get arrogant,

don't think that

you're better

than other people

because it's the Lord

that gives you the power

to get wealth.

And so you really

ultimately owe everything

to him anyway.

Charge them that are rich

in this world

that they be not high-minded,

nor trust in uncertain riches.

So he's saying,

don't get arrogant

and don't think

that you're untouchable

just because you have

so much money.

Just say, oh, I don't need God.

I can do everything on my own.

I'm untouchable

because you know what?

God can take it away from you.

Riches are uncertain.

There have been people

who thought

that they could never lose

their money

and they did.

Don't trust in uncertain riches

but trust in the living God

who giveth us richly

all things to enjoy.

He says in verse 18

that they do good.

This is what

you should tell rich people

that they should do good

and that they should be rich

in good works.

Don't just be rich in money.

Be rich in work for God.

Be rich in good works.

Ready to distribute.

Willing to communicate

and the communicate here

if you look up that word

it's talking about

donating

and giving money

that's what that actually means.

So you want to be ready

to distribute.

Willing to communicate

meaning that you're willing

to send money

to other people

and distribute

and share the wealth.

So the Bible is saying

that rich people

should be generous.

They should be giving.

They shouldn't be just

greedily hanging on

to everything for themselves.

They should do good.

They should be rich

in good works

and they should be

ready to distribute

and willing to communicate.

Laying up in store

for themselves

is a good foundation

against the time to come

that they may lay

hold on eternal life.

He's saying look

they should be

laying up treasure

in heaven

not on this earth.

And what does the Bible say?

Lay not up for yourselves

treasures upon this earth

where moth and rust

with corrupt

and where thieves

break through and steal

but lay up for yourselves

treasures in heaven

where neither moth

nor rust with corrupt

and where thieves

do not break through

nor steal

for where your treasure is

there will your heart

be also.

And so God doesn't want us

to just be greedy

and just storing up

a bunch of money

on this earth

because then our heart

is going to be on this earth.

Whereas if we're giving

and generous

and helping others

and investing in people

and working for the Lord

then now we're laying

up treasures in heaven

and our heart's going to be

in heaven.

Set your affection

on things above

not on things on the earth

is what the Bible says

as well.

And so rich people

are commanded

to be generous

with their money

and to think about

other people

and to care about

other people

but the problem

that we have in our society

today

is an idea that says

well let's just have

the government

take their money

at the barrel of a gun

and force that.

Is that what the Bible

is really teaching?

No, the Bible is teaching

that this is something

that they should do

as a Christian

that we should do

as Christians.

It's not saying

hey the answer

is that the government

steals from the rich

and gives to the poor.

The problem with

stealing from the rich

and giving to the poor

again

is that the government

ends up keeping

a lot of the money

along the way

and it's also

just not right to steal.

That should not steal.

You know and so

it isn't right

to rob the rich

sorry rob and hood

but it's not right

to rob the rich

to give to the poor

and I know that

the story of rob and hood

is a little more complex

than that.

Okay

but I guess I just

saw the Disney cartoon

okay so

you know

I'll leave it

that's not true

I've read

several rob and hood books

I've read Ivan Ho

okay

but the point is

that we as God's people

you know

even if you don't care

about economics

even if you don't care

about politics

you know you need

to have a right

relationship with money

and you'd have a right

view toward money

and so

if you're

if you're on the poor

end of the spectrum

and you don't have a lot of money

don't sit around

fantasizing and wishing

that you were rich

be content with what you have

work hard

and try to do the best you can

improve your situation

financially

you know

that's all you can do

right

work hard

pray

live for God

let God bless you

and try to improve

your situation financially

and if you are

well healed

and if you have been

blessed with riches

and abundance

you know what

you shouldn't get all arrogant

cocky

and think you're great

you should be humble

and say you know what

God has given me

God has blessed me with this

I'm going to bless other people

I'm going to help people out

I'm going to be generous

I'm going to be giving

I'm going to be

thinking about heaven

and laying up treasures in heaven

and I'm not just going to sit here

and pay my employees

as little as I absolutely can

and just increase my bottom line

and it's not just paying

your employees too little

it's lowering quality

for the customer too

how about that

it's

I mean

look how many companies

get greedy man

it's horrible

like restaurants

will start out really good

and they're making a great meal

and you're paying

and you're happy

to pay

and get that meal

and then it's like

somewhere along the line

some greedy CEO

gets in there

and just wants to

sell you

all the

lower quality meat

and lower quality veggies

and everything

and just ruin the menu

and then these restaurants

you know

in the words of our

young people

they tend to fall off

you know

and they're just not as good

as they used to be

you know

nothing makes me matter

than to buy a drill bit

at Home Depot

and the thing just melts

into nothingness

it just

it just disintegrates

on the first use

you know

I bought a shovel

one time at Home Depot

and I returned it

like an hour later

and the lady said

why are you returning

the shovel

and I said

this is why

and I reached up

with my bare hands

and I'm not Samson

up here okay

I reached up

with my bare hands

and just bent the shovel

and just went

I said

this is why I'm returning it

because I shouldn't be able

to bend the shovel head

with my bare hands

but why

why is it like

why can I bend the shovel head

with my bare hands

it's a worthless tool

why

because they have used

some super cheap metal

because they're just

being greedy

I mean

you know that

they're making tons of money

it's probably some company

and the CEO

is making millions

and the company is making millions

and then they just have to

sell you crap

that's going to just ruin your day

and ruin your life

and waste your time

because look

I know that

maybe some don't understand this

but when you're a tradesman

having crappy tools

is like the worst thing ever

and having the right tool

just makes everything so wonderful

you know I remember one time

I was out in the coal

I was at this

I was working on this gas station

out in the Midwest

and it was like

snowing outside

and I was freezing

and like my drill bits

were all garbage

and I was just cursing these drill bits

and then

the angel of the Lord

appeared unto me

I think this might have been

an angel unawares

I'm out here struggling

and fighting to do this job

and I didn't have the right equipment

to do what I needed to do

and I was so upset

and this man walks up to me

the angel of the Lord

he walks up to me

and he just walked up to me

and it was so dramatic

he just looks at me

and he just goes like this

don't you just want to get the hell out of here

and he just opens his hand

and he just had four of like

the exact parts that I needed

and I was out of there in like

five minutes

and I would have been there for an hour

and I was freezing

and cold and wet

and whatever

you know

and that but you know

God sent his angel

I was so happy

I was so thankful

this guy just had the exact

like self tapping

bolts that I needed

and he just held out his hand

and he's just like

this is exactly what you need

I was just like

wow

and then you know

he went up in a fire

no I'm just kidding

that part didn't happen

but the rest of the story is true

and I ended up

you know

using those four bolts

that he gave me

and it was just like

the perfect tool

perfect thing that I needed

it was great

you know what

but why are these companies

torturing us

with cheap drill bits

why are they torturing us

with shovels

made out of these weak alloys

and selling you tools

that break all that

you know what I'm talking about

you buy those cheap tools

and they break

what kind of a person

manufactures that stuff

how do you live with yourself

how do you even go to bed

at night

when you're selling

bad tools

you just hate everyone

the spawn of satan

I'm just

I'm serious

you know

what is it

it's greed

so you know what

if you were on a business

don't cut the quality either

and look

obviously you got to charge

you got to charge

money to where

you're making money

you don't want to be

one of these people

that charges too little

and then they go out of

business because

they're not charging enough

obviously yeah

you can pay your employees

too much

you can charge the customer

too little

whatever

but you know what

you should

you do quality work

and charge a decent price

make money

but don't get greedy

work hard

make money

and you know what

I'm not against you

making huge amounts of money

and making money

hand over fist

but you know what

when you do

don't get greedy

don't get arrogant

and be generous

and share the wealth

that's what the bible says

that you should do

you should be generous

toward the lord

you should be generous

toward your fellow man

that's what the bible says

let's borrow it's not

father thank you so much

for this chapter lord

thank you for the example

of Nehemiah

who was a wealthy man

but he shared with others

and he rebuked

and preached hard

against those

who were greedy

and taking advantage

of the poor lord

help us to love one another

help us to love

employees

help us to love customers

help us to love

our fellow man

and to do right

by everyone

and monday tuesday

wednesday thursday

when we go to work lord

help us to have integrity

in business

and to do right

and in jesus name

we pray amen