Nehemiah: Selfish or Selfless | Guest Speaker: Brad O'Kelley

Well hey, thanks everybody for being here this morning.

Um my name's Brad O'Kelly.

I am just a relief pitcher here at Redeemer.

Um yeah, if I I tell people this every time I preach, if you don't like it, it's it's perfectly fine.

Just come back next week and uh, you know, I won't have anything to do with it.

We'll all be back to normal, okay?

So it's just enjoy yourselves today, get through it.

Um Alex will be glad to show you a popsicle outside after this to ease your pain, and then uh we'll be good to go.

Okay?

We've been working through Nehemiah for the past couple weeks, took a break at Easter, got back into Nehemiah.

So I have Nehemiah chapter five today.

Typically, Nehemiah chapter five is one that you would it's kind of a flyover chapter, you know, you just kind of sail through it uh as you read to the good stuff, trying to figure out what's going on.

Chapter 6 is where a bunch of good stuff happens.

So we're in chapter 5, uh, but I gotta tell you, there's something going on here that we can all benefit from that we're gonna see today, hopefully.

And the first thing, though, that I I want to just start you out with what we're gonna look at, okay?

And what we're actually gonna look at is we're gonna look at selfishness versus selflessness, okay?

That's that's where we're headed today.

Selfishness versus selflessness.

Now, I have a great litmus test to tell if you are selfish or not, which this ought to help you a lot.

All right?

Look, you order something off of Amazon, okay?

You order your item from Amazon, and somehow, in his infinite wisdom, Jeff Bezos gets that item from the shores of Bangladesh to your front porch with in less than 48 hours.

You open the box, you take your item out, you look at it, you do whatever it is you do with it.

Maybe you throw it in a corner because you really didn't need it in the first place, or maybe you actually use the item, you take that thing, you put it into your life, your life is complete for the next 30 seconds until you need to order something else off of Amazon.

But the real test of whether you are selfish or selfless is this.

What do you do with the cardboard box it came in?

Some of y'all, you just look straight at the ground because you know you're guilty.

You're selfish, aren't you?

I, me, me personally, I mean, I'm I'm not trying to brag, I'm selfless.

I'm a good human being.

You want to know why?

Because I break down boxes.

I break down boxes into their smallest form.

I place them into the receptacle where they should go.

That's what I do because I'm selfless.

Now, someone else in my house takes those cardboard boxes and she places them in strategic places, namely at the top of the steps leading to our garage.

So that, in hopes, maybe, I still haven't quite figured this out, I'm still on the fence on this.

My thought process is this though.

She puts it there in hopes that A, I will either take it and break the box down and put it in the receptacle, or B, I will trip over it, fall down the stairs.

She gets rid of me and the box all at once.

I'm still not sure which one it is.

Working on.

But I'm the box breaker down.

I take the box, I put it in the receptacle.

Some of you, you're kickers.

You kick the box into the garage, next guy's problem, right?

Selfish.

Selfish.

But I am selfless.

I break the box down.

I put it.

Maybe you're here today and you're like, Brad, not only do I break the box down, I put it in the recycling bin.

Well, Jesus loves you more, obviously.

But I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but here's the deal.

You put that thing in the recycling bin, and let me tell you something.

That recycling bin is like buying a first-class ticket on an airline.

You're going to the same place and poor people and coach went, you're just getting there in a better chair.

You know what I mean?

That recycling's going to the same place the trash went that you put in that other thing, but uh you gave it a first-class ticket.

Give it a little salute on the way out the door.

That's what you did.

But in Nehemiah, what we're seeing today in chapter five is this.

We're seeing what a perfect picture.

Nehemiah's even going to compare and contrast, really, being selfish and being selfless.

And in chapter 5, he starts right from the beginning.

Here's chapter 5, verse 1.

Here's what it says.

It says, Now there arose a great outcry of the people and their wives against their Jewish brothers.

Don't forget that, Jewish brothers.

For there were those who said, With our sons, with our daughters, we are many, so let us get grain that we may eat and keep alive.

There were also those who said, We're mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain because of the famine.

And there were those who said, We have borrowed money for the king's tax on our fields and our vineyards.

Now, our flesh is the flesh of our brothers, our children are as their children, yet we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but it is not in our power to help it, for other men have our fields and our vineyards.

What's happening right here is that Nehemiah has taken a group of people, they are rebuilding the walls, and what we are almost to the point where the wall is completed.

A lot of times when we study Nehemiah, we get into our heads that this building process took years and years and years, and it was a long process and all this stuff.

I'm going to steal some thunder for whoever preaches next week, but in chapter 6, we find out that the entire wall building process of Nehemiah, do you know how long it took?

52 days.

So how in the world have we gotten into this much trouble with people crying out against their own brother saying, we've got massive problems?

The reason this happens is because Nehemiah is actually dealing with something that has been systemic from generation to generation to generation, and it's come to his front door at this point.

That's what Nehemiah is dealing with.

And what he has is he has a group of people that are mad and that are angry and that are upset because all of this has happened to them.

But the worst part about it is if you look at verse 1, he says, against their Jewish brothers.

This is Jewish people enacting taxes and taking money and essentially robbing the laborers who are also Jewish brothers.

This is people against the same people.

People that believe the same thing, people that understand the same thing, people that are working for a common good, yet you have the haves and the have-nots.

And the haves are looking for the best way to take care of it and take advantage of the have nots.

That's what's happening with Nehemiah.

So you have three groups of people.

The first group is people who are hoarding grain because they know there's a famine, and they have enough strength and power to do that.

The second group is people that have mortgaged their fields and their vineyards and all of this stuff, and they're in debt up to their eyeballs, and there's no way that they're ever going to be able to repay that.

And the third group is people who are being taxed so heavily that they can't come up with the tax payment.

So they're also in debt up to their eyeballs, and they've lost everything they've had to the point where they've had to send their children into slavery to try to repay the debts that they owe.

Can you imagine?

This is all landing at Nehemiah at one time, right here in chapter 5, and it is brother against brother, the haves and the have nots.

And it is a selfish, selfish game.

And all of this comes to Nehemiah.

Nehemiah hears this, and he's processing all of this, and this is great.

I love this verse in verse 6 because here's what Nehemiah says about the whole situation.

Verse 6, and I was very angry.

I was angry.

He says, I was angry about this, and when I heard their outcry of these words, I took counsel with myself, and I brought charges against who?

The nobles and the officials.

And I said to them, You're exacting interest each from his brother, and I held a great assembly against all of them.

Nehemiah brings in the people.

You have laborers and you have nobles and officials.

The laborers are building the wall, they're doing exactly as God has called Nehemiah to do, and the nobles and officials are watching them and going, How can we profit from this situation?

That is a selfish act.

And what they're doing is they're taking their selfishness and they're going to enact it on the very same people that are working to rebuild the wall for them.

Does that sound familiar?

Some of you, it sounds very familiar.

You do that every day, right?

You got to go to work.

You got a boss.

You got to do what you have to do, right?

All of these things are familiar, but Nehemiah says, I get angry about this because it's brother against brother.

So he finds an assembly, he brings them all together, and this is what he tells them in verse 9.

Well, first of all, I'm sorry, verse 8.

And he said to them, We, as far as we were able, had brought back our Jewish brothers to have them be sold back to us.

They were silent and could not find a word to say.

Verse 9, so I said, The thing that you are doing is not good.

Ought you not to walk in the fear of God to prevent the taunts of the nations our enemies.

Here's what you have to understand.

These nobles, these businessmen, the people that are profiting off the work of the laborers, all of this is one of those you ought to know better things.

And I can prove it to you.

We're not going to look at it today because it's just light reading for you later on when you go home.

You should go home and open your Bible to Leviticus chapter 25.

Leviticus 25 · chapter mention

Go read Leviticus chapter 25 later today.

Leviticus 25 · chapter mention

Your eyes will roll into the back of your head.

You'll have no idea what's going on.

You just throw your hands up and go, yes, sounds great.

But Leviticus chapter 25, actually, Moses is on Mount Sinai and God is giving him a process by which you are to loan money, by which you are to enact interest, by which you are to sell back to those laborers the land that you buy from them in the year of Jubilee.

Leviticus 25 · chapter mention

All of this in Leviticus chapter 5, God lays out, knowing that one day this is going to be a problem.

Leviticus 5 · chapter mention

So now we're in Nehemiah's day, and what does Nehemiah do?

He takes the very law that these Jewish brothers should know, and he brings them together and he says, You know what you're doing is wrong.

You know it.

I don't think there's a better way to describe me, to be honest with you.

How many times do I need to look in the mirror and go, you know what you're doing is wrong?

Yet what?

We're still doing it.

You know it's wrong.

You know that God has specifically put this law in place because of this situation.

Yet, what do these people do?

They cast that to the side in hopes that they can make a profit off of it.

Knowing that God is specifically in his word, forbidding them from doing the thing that they're doing.

How often do we do that where we take the things that we're involved in, the very nature of our sinful hearts, and we take it and we try to shove it down into the pages of Scripture to make it fit so that we can justify ourselves when the only justification we have is to hold up the very things that we do to the Word of God and say, This is not right, and my only way to be justified is through Christ.

Yet we take our very things and we say, I'm trying to justify what I am doing.

These nobles, these people in Neo's mind are doing the exact same thing.

Justification after justification, selfishly looking for their own gain.

But Nehemiah sees this, calls them together, calls them out, and says, We're not gonna do this anymore.

And his solution to the entire problem is this.

Verse 12.

Then he said, We will restore these and require nothing from them.

We will do as you say.

Nehemiah walks into the room and he says, We're not gonna do any of it anymore.

Give everything back, let it all go.

Everything's going back to zero.

Everybody's forgiven.

I want all of their stuff back in their own hands.

And every single person in this room, do you know what they're the very last thing they said in uh in verse uh what was it, verse 12 13?

It says they said, Amen.

Amen.

Hey, uh, you know all that stuff you guys stole, all the money and the wealth you amassed over uh taking advantage of these people, you're gonna give it all back to them right now.

And we're just gonna go back to zero.

You're gonna hand it all over.

And all of them go, all right.

I think if we did that in this room today, the the the tone might be a little different, don't you think?

Hey, everybody, anything that you've got from uh maybe not so great gain, like you're gonna give it back to the people that uh that you took it from.

I think it'd probably be like, well, hold on now.

Yeah?

Wait a minute.

Nehemiah walks into a room and he literally says, We're going back to zero, getting everything back that you've ever taken.

And all they say is, Amen.

Let's do it.

Here you go.

Why?

Because they knew they were wrong.

And the only solution was to make things right.

So now we move forward and we see this act of selfishness, and Nehemiah has to call out selfishness in these people, and then it comes home to him because he has an opportunity.

Look at verse 14.

In verse 14 it says, Moreover, from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the 20th year to the 32nd year of Art Exerces the king, twelve years, neither I nor my brothers ate the food allowance of the governor.

The former governors who were before me laid heavy burdens on the people and took from them their daily ration, forty shekels of silver, even their servants lorded it over the people.

But I did not do so.

Why?

At the end of verse 15.

Because of the fear of God.

Nehemiah now has a chance.

He's governor.

He has all of these resources allotted to him.

Do you want to know how the governor got those resources?

Let's stop and think about this for a minute, okay?

How does your current governor or official or government have resources allotted to them?

They tax you, right?

They tax me.

And they take that and they make it a resource that they use.

Same is true in Nehemiah's day.

They would tax the people so that the burden on the very people that are already burdened gets greater and greater and greater so that he can have more and more and more.

But what does Nehemiah do?

He doesn't take a selfish approach.

He instead turns to selflessness and says, I don't want any of it.

You can keep it.

Because if it's going to tax these people even more, if it's going to hurt them, if it's going to become a burden to them that they can't overcome, I don't want anything to do with it.

It is a picture of selflessness that Nehemiah lays down all of the resources at his disposal and instead focuses on the very people that God has called him to lead.

And he becomes a selfless leader that people can look in on and go, that is a great picture.

A picture of what Russ was preaching last week, and I love that we make this so clear as we study Old Testament chapters like this, and we study Old Testament books.

We go verse by verse, line by line, through each Old Testament book when we preach through them.

And here's what Russ said last week.

He said, What we're doing in Nehemiah is not only learning from the life of Nehemiah and how he led these people, but we also see these important pictures and points to Jesus.

They go directly to where Christ is in the New Testament from this Old Testament passage in Nehemiah.

Well, how does that work?

Well, I think the totality of scripture, from this point all the way through and even before this, gives us pointers on how we're supposed to live our daily lives.

One of the great places to begin is Psalm 119, verse 36 and 37.

Psalms 119:36

Psalm 119, verse 36 and 37.

Psalms 119:36

Look at what it says.

Incline my heart to your testimonies and not to selfish gain.

Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things and give me life in your ways.

The psalmist points out to us that it is not our selfish ambition that we should be looking for.

Instead, it is what?

The way of God that should focus our hearts every single day.

James does the same thing in James chapter 3, verse 14 through 16.

James 3:14–16

James 3, 14 through 16, James says, But if you have bitter jealousy and what?

Selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.

This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.

For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be what?

Disorder and every vile practice.

It is selfishness that leads to disorder and vile practices.

And we hear this and we understand this and we know that scripture points us in this direction, that our selfishness is what truly holds us back.

And yet we look in the mirror and try to justify it every single day.

But we go forward and thank God that we just didn't get left there.

Instead, we get to Luke, Luke chapter 14 and verse 10.

Luke 14 · chapter mention

Luke 14 and verse 10, Jesus is talking and look at what he says.

He says, But when you're invited, go sit in the lowest place.

So that when your host comes, he may say to you, friend, move up higher.

Then you'll be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you.

Why?

Verse 11, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

This is a picture of Jesus and what he's going to do on the cross for us.

And the Apostle Paul takes this very act that Jesus speaks of in Luke 10, and he ties this beautiful bow onto it and lays it all out for the Philippians and for us in Philippians chapter 2.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

Here's what Paul says in Philippians chapter 2, beginning in verse 3.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

Listen to this.

Let each of you look not only to his own interest, but also the interest of others.

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death.

Even death on a cross.

Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name.

So at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Do you understand what the Apostle Paul does here with selfishness?

He takes it and he completely blows the idea that we should be selfish out of the water.

How he uses Jesus to show that God in the flesh, the one who could have come to this earth, dwelt among us, looked at our sinful hearts, and said, You're on your own.

I'm done with this.

You care nothing about me, and I want nothing to do with you.

He could have used every bit of his deity to do that to us.

Instead, in his humility and in his humbleness, he shows up and he says, Not only do I care for you so much that I can't allow that to happen, but I'll give you the perfect example, even death.

Death on a cross for God in the flesh.

So that your selfish heart doesn't win out every single day.

Instead, you get my grace, my mercy, my peace, knowing that I have come to earth to dwell among you and die on the cross for your sin.

It is the perfect, most complete picture of a selfless act that anyone could ever commit.

And Jesus did that for us.

That we would not die in our selfishness, but that we would live a new life in him through his grace and his mercy every single day, knowing that he was selfless on our behalf.

Church, it is our selfishness that keeps us in the place where we are, and it is the selfless, wonderful act of Christ on the cross that offers you freedom from that selfish gain.

Follow Christ and His humility and the work he did on the cross, that our selfish hearts may be put to rest.

Father, we thank you for this day.

We thank you for an opportunity to open your word.

Lord, to hear from you.

To understand that if left to our own devices, we would be selfish to the point of death.

But in you we are alive because of your selfless act of death on the cross.

Father, we thank you.

May you incline our hearts to hear that every single day.

As we look to you.