Nehemiah: Leadership Keys and the One Perfect Leader

Now, if you would stand together as we read the scripture for today, go ahead and stand together.

This is Nehemiah 3, 1 through 5.

Doug said he did not want to read this passage because it has about 18 difficult names.

So I'm gonna try my try my best.

Then Eliashib, see right away, second word.

Eliashib, the high priest, rose up with his brothers the priest, and they built the sheep gate.

They consecrated it, set its doors.

They consecrated it as far as the tower of the hundred, as far as the tower of Hananel.

And next to him the men of Jericho built, and next to them Zakor, the son of Imri, built.

The sons of Hasanah built the fish gate, they laid its beams and set its doors, its bolts, and its bars, and next to them Merrimouth, the son of Uriah, son of Hakaz, repaired.

And next to them Meshalom, the son of Barakiah, the son of Meshazbel, repaired, and next to them Zadok, the son of Banah repaired, and next to them the Tekoites repaired, but their nobles would not stoop to serve their Lord.

The word of the Lord.

Alright, what in the world?

What in the world did that have to do with my life, right?

That's what you're thinking.

And thank you that you were not asked to read that, right?

Alright, so we're in the third week studying the book of Nehemiah.

Nehemiah's Old Testament book.

Nehemiah lives about a thousand miles from Jerusalem.

He lives in this town called Susa.

But what he hears while he's in Susa, a thousand miles from Jerusalem, he hears that the center of his faith, the city called Jerusalem, the walls around it are broken down.

They're just demolished.

The city's vulnerable.

And so he decides he's gonna do something about that.

Now studying Nehemiah is sort of like uh seeing Karate Kid Part 2 without seeing Karate Kid.

Okay?

So stick with me.

Very profound.

Uh so Daniel and Mr.

Miyagi and Karate Kid Part 2, they go to Japan.

Right?

But you don't understand how deep and wonderful this relationship is if you haven't seen the first movie, right?

Mr.

Miyagi rescues Daniel, trains Daniel, right?

I mean, everybody over 40, we know, wax on.

Paint the fence, right?

I mean, we we know it, right?

So in Karate Kid Part 2, when he's fighting like a ninja expert, like we're going, like, man, Daniel has come so far.

Like, we're so proud of him.

We know Mr.

Miyagi trained him.

Because we remember when Daniel got the beat down, right?

From Johnny and the gang, and Mr.

Miyagi like appears out of the mist and jumps the fence and takes everybody out.

So we need to know the full story for something to make sense or to be able to get the meaning of all of it.

And Nehemiah is the same way, it only makes sense as we know the bigger stories.

We know the story coming into Nehemiah, and we know the story of where Nehemiah is taking us.

So here's what we learned.

Pastor Matt laid this out in the first sermon on Nehemiah.

The book of Nehemiah takes place at the end of a period called the exile.

So in 722 BC, that's before Christ, the northern kingdom, Israel, is conquered by Assyria.

Around 597, 586 BC, the southern kingdom, Judah, is conquered by Babylon.

And at that time, the temple is destroyed.

Many of those people at that point are taken into exile to a foreign land.

So then 539 BC, King Cyrus of Persia defeats Babylon.

In the first wave, a group of Israelites return back to Israel.

They begin to rebuild the temple.

And then we get Ezra, which is the book before Nehemiah, 458 BC.

Ezra, right before Nehemiah, is sent to Israel, begins to restore worship in that temple that was rebuilt.

And then we get, finally we get, to Nehemiah, 445 BC, and Nehemiah is sent to Jerusalem to rebuild these walls around the city.

So Nehemiah 3 is the chapter we're in, just filled with names.

Filled with names.

This guy's building this, this family's building this, this person's building, filled with names.

It's all about repairing the walls.

And so our question this morning is like once we're burdened with something, to do something, anything, whatever that thing is for you, like how how do we work to accomplish that thing?

How do we work to accomplish that something?

A couple of months ago, I was on my way home from a class in St.

Louis and I was on a Delta flight from St.

Louis back to Atlanta.

About halfway through the flight, a lady walks out of the bathroom.

As soon as she walks out of the bathroom, she collapses on the floor in the aisle.

Immediately, one of the flight attendants, a guy, he rushes up to her kind of her head.

He kneels at her head.

He never moves from her head for the next, say, 20 minutes or so.

Then he checks her pulse, checks her breathing, he makes sure she's stabilized.

He starts barking out orders to the other flight attendants, get some oxygen, get a pillow, get this, get a blanket.

He asks for medical personnel.

No medical personnel in the entire flight.

Nobody can help.

So they get a C B out of the wall.

Have you seen this?

They plug it into like the ceiling of the plane and a late, like the flight attendant's on a C B, like a C B radio, like an old C B radio, like I guess talking to a doctor somewhere on the ground somewhere.

And then once we were like, once we know she is stable, I take this picture.

I'm not taking a picture of like a dying woman.

Like, I mean, I'm hard-hearted, but that's a line for me.

So she's not dying there.

She's fine.

We know she's fine.

Um, and this guy right here, this slide scene, he's unbelievable.

He was unbelievable.

I mean, he is like a leader of leaders.

How calm he stays, how kind he's delegating.

I mean, toward the end of the process, he looks up from where he's at.

He looks at the people, the couple sitting in one A and one B, and he says, Hey, would you mind moving to the back of the plane?

And this lady and her daughter moving up and sitting in these seats for the rest of the flight.

This is the kind of leader he is.

One A and one B people move to the back of the plane.

Like he could convince them.

That's the leadership we have here.

He was leading one A and one B people to the back of the plane.

I mean, it's unbelievable leadership.

I was like, this is unbelievable what's going on here.

The guy is just a leader.

He's willing to work.

He was calm, he was seeking help.

He wasn't trying to do everything.

He was communicating, he's delegating.

Now, maybe you're here and you have something.

Something.

Something in front of you, some problem, something you need to accomplish, you need to work through.

There's a goal.

Grades, college, a better job, church, a job, a ministry, a small group, a Bible study, investments, retirement, a garden.

Anybody work in the yard yesterday?

It's beautiful.

Anybody work in the yard?

Anybody think about working in the yard?

You just thought about it.

Thought about it.

A better golf swing.

I'd love to be able to cast a fly line into the wind.

Like on a windy day.

That's really hard.

So Nehemiah 3 gives us lessons on leadership and how to accomplish something because that's what's going on here.

It's a big group of people building some walls.

So we get some lessons.

And then Nehemiah also points us to our one perfect leader.

So let's read the text, Nehemiah 3, verse 1.

Nehemiah 3:1

Then Eliashib, the high priest, rose up with his brothers and priests, and they built the sheep gate.

So they built the gates first and then they went out from there.

They consecrated it and set its doors.

They consecrated as far as the tower of the hundred, as far as the tower of Hananel.

So point number one is this none of us are above hard work and grit.

Fifty names are mentioned in this chapter.

Fifty names in one chapter.

Fifty people working, but the first name mentioned is the high priest Eliasha.

Now why?

Because nobody is above hard work and grit.

But, look at verse 5.

And next to them, the Tekoites repaired, but their nobles would not stoop to serve the Lord.

So the idea here in the Hebrew language is the nobles, these nobles, would not bend their necks to what the Lord called them to do.

See, at first we think the issues between like hard work and laziness, but there's an issue under the issue.

And the issue is submission.

Will your heart bend to God?

Or do you think you're above Him?

The very God who incarnates and washes feet?

Like, do you think you're above?

Do I think I'm above certain types of work?

Can we humble our hearts to what God is calling us?

And then when we do that, and God is calling us, there will probably be hard work and grit required.

Which gives us point number two.

While God is in control, we are called to hard work, to work hard.

Theologically, we can say it this way: divine sovereignty uses human means.

So God had decreed the restoration of Jerusalem.

And then God uses the hard work of his people.

God being sovereign over your life doesn't mean that you don't need to work hard to find the job or keep the job or get the better job or to make the grade or get encologed or work through some issue.

God's sovereignty lets you work hard without fear and anxiety.

We get to be free from obsession over the outcome because God is sovereign, but it doesn't excuse us from hard work or grit.

Nehemiah 3, verse 2.

Nehemiah 3:2

And next to him the men of Jericho built, and next to them Zakor and the son of Imra built.

So point number three is this the church ministers, the church works best when we peacefully work together.

Priests, rulers, common people are all included in this chapter three.

They all worked on this wall.

So much of our world breaks us down by socioeconomic status or ability.

The places we go, the places we can't go, the places we can afford to go, the places we don't want to go.

But the world breaks us out socioeconomically.

The church is different.

You just get to walk in.

Anybody can walk in.

You sit wherever you want.

There's no glory seats in this sanctuary.

I'd be sitting in the back if I was with you.

I'd be sitting with Doug and Bo.

I'd be sitting with Albert.

Like I'd be in the back.

I'm a back row guy.

I'd have to sit up front because of my job.

You sit wherever you want.

You can sit right up front if you want to.

You can come sit next to me.

I don't care.

It's open for anybody.

It doesn't matter your socioeconomic status.

And then the people around you, join whatever group you want.

Certain groups aren't only for certain socioeconomic status.

Join whatever group you want.

And then when you're in that group, you're going to be around people who are priests, rulers, and common people.

And we actually need everyone.

Everyone has something to offer each other.

The church ministers best when we're all working, serving, ministering to each other, and peacefully working together.

Okay, let me get practical for a few minutes because maybe you're here and maybe you're a leader, you lead something, maybe you lead a family, maybe you lead in a friendship, maybe you lead like a business or a work or a friend group or you lead something.

I don't know, maybe you just lead something.

You're trying to accomplish something.

Maybe you lead something in your home.

Four leadership keys from Nehemiah.

Here's what Nehemiah was teaching me this week.

Leadership key number one.

Leaders don't do everything, leaders delegate.

Nehemiah knew the vision to rebuild all these walls.

He wasn't going to be able to pull it off on his own.

He needed other people.

So he broke the work down into manageable sections and began to hand those off to other people.

Right?

He began to empower them, delegate and empower other people.

The hero leader is a dangerous leader.

Puts himself in a dangerous position, puts the people and the organization, the church, the business in a dangerous position.

The good leader understands we have to break work down into manageable sections, begin to hand it off to other people.

We could say it this way: vision requires strategy.

And strategy requires delegating.

Leadership key number two.

People work best when they see that their work matters.

Don't we just we want, like when you're at your job or like you just want your work to matter?

Like to mean something?

That's the worst, is when you feel like your work doesn't matter.

Now, Nehemiah assigns each family a section of the wall near their home.

Well, we could read over that as just practical.

Why commute farther for no reason?

Does anybody commute over an hour?

Anybody over an hour, right?

Like you know the burden of a commute.

I commuted for 55 minutes each way for five years.

This was before podcasts, right?

Like so it's just me, Clark Howard, and Neil Bort.

It's all just every day, the three of us in a car together.

It's more than practical, though.

Because Nehemiah knows, hey, if I assign them a section of the wall closer to their home, not only is it practical to be able to work on it more, but it's gonna mean a lot.

Because they're gonna be building safety and security for their home, their neighborhood.

Leadership key number three, at times we need experts, but many times we simply need willingness.

The builders were not all engineers or stonemasons.

They're just ordinary people, willing.

Just willing.

And then I'll work hard.

Because they believed in the vision, they were committed.

Sometimes we need experts.

But a lot of times we just need willingness.

Leadership key number four, last one, every role matters.

Some people built entire sections of walls.

Some people built very small sections, a few bricks.

We need to celebrate every single contribution.

For this morning to happen, some people arrive really, really early, make sure the building was okay, get the music ready, rehearse.

Some people made sure the classrooms were ready.

Some people welcomed you, cared for the children, teach the children, teach the students.

Every single role matters.

Recently we had a young couple, they were looking for a new church home and they visited us.

They visited us for a few weeks and then they went away and they visited a few other churches, right?

Like you know what I'm talking about if you're looking for a new church home.

And then when they circled back, they took their little boy over into the children's ministry.

And when they got over there, there was a name tag waiting for their little boy.

Annie had made a name tag.

Jimmy Joe.

That's not really the name.

I just made that name up.

Jimmy Joe.

The name tag was waiting for him.

And then the adult in the classroom says, Jimmy Joe, where have you been?

We have missed, we've missed you.

And the mom knew, like, this feels like a home.

Right?

Preaching matters.

Um music matters.

A welcoming spirit matters, good building matters.

And a name tag matters.

And remembering somebody's name matters.

It all matters.

Every single role, every contribution serves the larger purpose of the bigger vision.

Now remember I said in Nehemiah 3 that the people worked in front of their homes.

And so there's a leadership application here for parents.

Point number four, God calls parents to intentionally create homes of safety and peace.

Look at these names that we see throughout, some of these names we see throughout Nehemiah 3.

They teach us something about what we should be creating in our homes.

Nehemiah 3.10, Jedediah, meaning he who calls unto God.

Our homes should be places where we trust God.

We're calling on them.

Nehemiah 3.23, Benjamin, meaning son of my right hand, speaking of a protector.

Our homes should be places of protection and peace.

Nehemiah 3.29, Zadok, meaning justice.

Our homes should be places of justice and integrity.

Nehemiah 3.30, Meshelim, meaning devoted.

Our homes should be places that are devoted and trust in Jesus.

Now back in verse 4, it was the first place that we see this word repair in chapter 3.

This word repair is used 35 times just in chapter 3.

Repair is the Hebrew word kazak, meaning to make firm or strong.

It's the idea of strengthening, encouraging, and making something strong.

Last spring we took a group to Guatemala to serve at the Impacto Ministry.

Remember, Pastor Luis was here a few weeks ago.

It's there in San Juan on Lake Adelon, up in the mountain area, beautiful area.

And there in San Juan in that village, they have a compound, a ministry compound.

They have an outdoor auditorium, they have an eating area, they have a meeting room that a church meets in.

And I'm taking a picture, kind of like up in a dorm room kind of building.

So you have that auditorium, and then you have this wall.

See to the right of it, you can see the cinder block wall that runs around the perimeter of the property.

But back to the right, kind of back behind outside of the picture, there was a section of the wall that was broken down.

It needed to be repaired.

And they just thrown up like a janky chainleak fence.

And all week, as we came and went, we went out and ministered to some children, came back, and we went and did widow ministry, and we came back.

There's two guys repairing this wall, building this wall.

And they dug huge holes and they poured concrete and they had rebar and then they laid the block, block after block.

And before long, that broken down janky fence began to look strong, secure, safe.

And Nehemiah doesn't just give us leadership principles, it begins to ask us something about our own hearts.

How can we as people be repaired from our broken parts?

How do we as people become strong and firm?

Because if I end the sermon here, I've done a huge disservice to you.

I would have, all I would have given you was leadership lessons.

It would have been quite moralistic.

Hopefully good, maybe a seven out of ten, like something you could apply to your life.

You go, oh, I could go apply this.

The problem with it, as good as those lessons are on leadership and what we want our homes to be, we are not perfect leaders or perfect parents.

Our homes are not perfect.

The goodness of the leadership lessons, as good as they are, they begin to point out that I fail.

If this is all I have, I actually am quite hopeless because I'm not perfect.

I'm not the perfect leader, and I'm not the perfect parent.

And I need the lessons, but I need something more.

And I am needing the very thing that Nehemiah points us to.

That the law, why it guides us, it crushes us.

We are in need of grace.

Listen to Colossians 2, 6 and 7.

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him.

Rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

Twice in those verses, in him, so not in your performance, not in your ability to live up to those leadership lessons.

No, no, no.

We walk in him.

And we're forgiven of all the ways we fail, unto those things plus everything else.

That's what the cross is.

Jesus put upon the cross that our sin is fully forgiven, that you're fully forgiven in Jesus.

Fully and freely forgiven.

You're fully and freely righteous in Jesus.

He is rooting us, he is building us, he is establishing us.

That's our last point, point number five.

Jesus repairs us, he rebuilds, restores, and protects us.

As I said, Nehemiah shows us something about leadership and then points us to the one perfect leader, Jesus.

Who, because the story continues after Nehemiah into the New Testament, all the way to the book of Revelation, where we learn that we are the New Jerusalem.

Me and you, the church, we are the new Jerusalem.

And Jesus is building us.

Let's pray together.

Jesus, you are our ultimate gate and you are our walls of protection.

Forgive us for all the ways that we just set ourselves out to be better and better because of lessons or tips or things we're trying to get better.

Forgive all the ways we try to be perfectionist and performative.

God, we want to work hard, but let it be in your grace.

Help us to walk more in Jesus.

God, thank you that you love the broken.

You love the broken parts of us.

You are actually attracted.

You move toward our brokenness.

And it is our helpless estate that you require for us to bring to you.

Jesus, would we trust you more?

Would we walk in you in greater ways?

In Christ's name.

Amen.