How Does the Fear of God Protect the Mission of His People?

Amen.

You may have a seat.

Good morning, church.

If you would open up your Bibles to the book of Nehemiah as you're turning there, my name is Pastor Sammy, one of the pastors here at Idawild at the spring.

So glad that you are with us today.

If you don't have a Bible, you could find a Bible in the seat in front of you underneath and get a Bible.

You know, in most organizations, it's very easy to see a threat from the outside.

You know, if you think of a company, maybe it's seeing a company, uh opposing company across the street that may be taking uh consumers or potential partners.

Maybe if it's a uh a sports team, like a football team, um, you know, like Jeff, I know he's pretty excited about NFL.

That started up what?

Last week?

I don't even, I don't know.

I don't keep I don't keep up with that.

But you know, you could be threatened by the opposing team, right?

So you watch the their strategies and their players and all these things, or you know, it's easy to see that.

The threat from the outside, but sometimes it's hard to see the threat from within.

You know, Augustine, the theologian, he writes of you know the fall of the Roman Empire and how this grand empire, the strongest in all the world, crumbled, and it crumbled from within.

And oftentimes the same thing happens within the church.

Now we've talked about this before, but we see it specifically here in Nehemiah.

If you remember in chapters four and chapter three that we saw last week, there was, especially in chapter four, there was opposition that was happening from the outside.

They were people who were mocking, who were making fun of, and then also wanting to cause a physical threat.

Do you remember this?

They were coming ready to kill these Jews as they were building.

There was a threat happening from the outside.

And here in chapter 5, there's a threat that can stop the building, really stop the mission that God has for his people to build this wall from within.

So here's the question, the text, the word of God is gonna answer for us today.

It says, How does the fear of God protect the mission of his people?

How does the fear of God protect the mission of his people?

And you're gonna see this idea of fear of God and where it comes from the text.

But let us, in this moment now, as we do tradition here at Ottawa to stand for the reading of the Word of God.

We are a church that is grounded in the Bible.

Amen.

That every time this book is open, so is our heart, so is our ears to hear the word of God.

And so we're here hungry to receive, to lean in.

We're expectant.

Okay, so here, Nehemiah chapter five, and we'll see the whole chapter today, but we're just going to read till verse 13.

So starting in verse 1, this is the word of God.

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

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

There were also those who said, We are 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 field and our vineyards.

Now our flesh is the flesh of our brothers, our children are as their children, yet we are face 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.

I was very angry when I heard their outcry in these words.

I took counsel with myself and brought charges against the nobles and officials, and said to them, You are exacting interests each from his brother.

And I held a great assembly against them, and said to them, We, as far as we were able, have brought back our Jewish brothers who have been sold to the nations, but you even sell your brothers that they may be sold to us.

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

So I said, The thing that you are doing is not good.

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

Moreover, I and my brothers and my servants are lending the money and grain.

Let us abandon the exacting of our interests, return to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive or uh uh orchards, and their houses, and the percentage of money, grain, wine, and oil that you have been exacting from them.

Then they said, We will restore these and require nothing from them, we will do as you say.

And I called the priests and made them swear to do as they had promised.

Last verse.

I also shook out the fold of my garment and said, So may God shake out every man from his house and from his labor who does not keep this promise.

So may he be shaken out and emptied.

And all the assembly said, Amen, and praise the Lord.

And the people did as they promised.

Pray with me.

Lord God, as we just sung, we pray that you would be exalted and lifted high in the preaching of your word, that you would take me out of the way every distraction that would want to take up your spot, your glory.

So, Lord Jesus, I pray that you would be lifted up, Lord God, in our seeing of you through the preaching of your word, that we would be in awe of you.

Be reverent of you, Lord God, to have a holy fear of you, God, that would lead us to be a people on mission that cares for one another, Lord God.

So we pray for your help for me, the speaker, and for all of us, of those who listen, to listen and obey, God.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

You may have a seat.

Just a recap as we've been going through Nehemiah.

Nehemiah has been called of God to rebuild the broken down walls of Jerusalem.

And we saw in uh last week, chapter 3 and chapter, or chapter 4, yeah, chapter 3 and 4, that they began rebuilding the walls.

They got to this halfway point, and then enemies were coming to distract them and destroy them from the walls that God had called them to build.

And Nehemiah rallied the people together, they had a brick in one hand, a sword in another, and they continued the work.

And so we saw there was an attack on the outside, and now, as we've read, there's a threat on the inside.

And so, how does the fear of God protect the mission of his people?

Right?

Because they're called to this mission, they're called to this task to repair the walls, and now there's this threat on the outside that's been taken care of for the moment.

And now this threat on the inside that may prevent them from living the mission, the task God has for them to repair the wall.

Look at verse 1.

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

Again, now the outcry isn't Sambalod and Tobiah, who we saw last week, and their threats.

The outcry is against who?

Their Jewish brothers.

And so in this whole chapter, there is not one mention of the people in this moment building the walls.

They had to stop because of what's going on.

And it's against their own, the Jewish brothers.

The war has moved from outside of the walls now within.

And look at verse 2.

What were these outcries for?

What did they have against each other?

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

See, the people were in need of food.

The people were hurting.

And this leads to the first point here is hear the hurting.

That when we have fear of God to live out the mission he has for us, we will hear those who are hurting.

This is what Nehemiah is doing.

But specifically, they didn't have food.

It says, we are many, but we don't have enough.

There was need.

Right?

I mean, think about this.

All of their effort, these are people who barely had anything, and all of their effort, their time, their work is being put into what?

Rebuilding the wall.

They're spending all of that.

Rather than taking care of their crops or their families or trade or what maybe they were doing before, we saw in the chapters before, many of them were staying up late into the night, watching.

They were working on the wall, and this caused problems.

But it wasn't just that.

What's going on?

Look at verse 3.

It says there were also those who said, We are 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.

So what is the reason for this shortage of food?

Okay?

First, we see there's a famine.

There was scarcity with food.

Second, we see there's a king's tax.

Reminder that they're still, the people of Jerusalem, although they're rebuilding this wall, they're still under the occupation of Persia.

And so there's a tax they have to pay.

And then third, they've been what?

They've been focusing on building the wall.

Notice that in verse 1, it was the wives.

It said the people and their wives.

As we saw, there were some women that helped in the wall, but we can assume a lot of it was the men's task, and the wives are saying, hey, as you guys are trying to fulfill this task, there's children at home who are hungry.

There's a need.

And what's beautiful, even in the midst of all this trial, that the people of God that we've seen in these chapters are serving God.

But what's the major issue?

It's not the famine, it's not the tax, it's not the working of the wall.

Look at verse 5 and 6.

It says verse 5, now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers.

Our children are as their children.

What they're saying is here is they're just like us.

Our flesh is just like their flesh.

Our children is like their children.

They're one of our own.

Or what?

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 our men, other men have our fields and our vineyards.

So what's going on?

See, the problem was so bad.

The debt was so large that they had that they had to force their children to be slaves, to give their children to the debtors.

What's the problem with this?

Look at verse 6.

Nehemiah hears this.

He says, I was very angry when I heard their outcry.

Why?

Was it because the king's tax?

Was it the famine?

Was it the working on the wall?

Was it even the lending?

No, look at verse 7.

This tells us what Nehemiah is angry about.

Look at this, verse 7.

It says, I took counsel with myself, and I brought charges against the nobles and the officials, and I said to them, You are exacting interest, each from his brother.

That is the heart of the problem.

Is the interest.

See, the noble Jews were making a profit out of their brothers and sisters' issues, their struggles, their famine.

They were in need with all these things going on, this famine that's going on, the taxes, and these noble Jews, the brothers, there were what?

They were taking advantage and said, okay, we'll lend to you, but guess what?

There's interest.

And we're gonna make a profit out of your suffering.

They're taking advantage of them, and Nehemiah is furious because they should know better.

Look at this.

I'll show you in the word of God.

There's nothing wrong with the lending of money.

Exodus chapter 22, verse 25.

Exodus 22:25

This is the law that these people should have known and lived by.

It says this if you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a money lender to him, and you shall not what?

Exact interest from him.

Look at Leviticus chapter 25, verses 35 through 38.

Leviticus 25:35–38

It says, if your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you.

Verse 36, take what?

No interest from him or profit, but fear your God.

You see something here?

The fear of God is mentioned here, and Nehemiah also speaks into this.

That what?

That your brother may live beside you.

You shall not lend him your money at interest, nor give him your food for profit.

I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.

One more, Deuteronomy 23, 19 and 20.

You shall not charge interest on loans to your brother, interest on money, interest on food, interest on anything that is lent for interest.

It's clear.

And this is why Nehemiah is upset, is that the people of God aren't obeying the commands of God.

Saying you should know better.

So Nehemiah was angry.

He was upset.

Let me ask you this.

Do you get angry?

I know you get angry.

Most of us, all of us get angry.

But let me ask you a question.

What makes you angry?

Is it angry when you maybe you're hurt or someone steps over you or doesn't treat you right?

Or are you angry when you see the injustice in the world?

Are you angry when you see other people hurting?

See, we need to have our ears open to hear the hurt, the cries.

That's what Nehemiah is doing.

He's listening.

It says, in his listening to these outcries, he is angry, and it's his anger that we will see that will lead him to action.

Because we know anger is not a sin.

We see Jesus in the New Testament that has a righteous anger when we see people within the temple making profit from the things of God.

Distracting people from the thing that mattered most.

That the place, the house of prayer, was a den of thieves.

There was a place to be righteous and angry.

And again, this is happening not outside in the community of the world.

This was happening within the people of God.

And that's why there was so much anger, maybe even more, of him saying, you should know better.

You should know better.

This is not what we are called to do.

Do you have that anger?

Maybe within the church, would you have that anger if you see someone mistreated because of their background, their ethnicity, their class, someone taking advantage of them?

And yeah, we're in a different context, different situation where maybe it's not in regards to slavery, maybe not in regards to lending and having interest, making a profit, but there are ways where we want to elevate ourselves over others.

Do we have anger when we see that?

Or do we have anger within ourselves when we see ourselves fall short?

Here's the thing I want to challenge us with, though.

If we're gonna hear the herd, hear the cries like Nehemiah, brothers and sisters, are we close enough in each other's lives to hear the hurt?

Because we live so independently within our culture.

And it's so easy to come and to go, to come in the church and put a face on and sing a song, listen to the message and go, and have no idea of the hurting that is happening in this very room.

And we can amen and we should amen, but what will you do about it?

Will you stay a little longer after service and meet people and talk with people?

And how can I pray with you?

What are you going through?

Would you make time to come on a Thursday night in a setting that's where we do our Bible fellowship, that's an environment to hear each other's stories and what's going on and lift each other's burdens.

We need to know one another.

We need to know each other's names.

We're gonna hear the cries from within.

Again, this is within the people of God.

But notice in verse 7, it doesn't stop with hearing the cries, it moves.

It says this, I took counsel within myself.

Another translation, this is what he's saying is here is I had serious thought.

He heard this and really contemplated this.

And I brought charges against the nobles and the officials, and I said to them, You are exacting interest each from his brother, and I held a great assembly against them.

Here's the second point.

First was hear the hurting.

Second is this, halt the hypocrisy.

Halt the hypocrisy.

Here we see that Nehemiah stops the work.

Where do we see that?

The great assembly.

He gathers everyone.

He says, put the tools down.

We need to meet.

We need to stop what is going on.

And here's the thing Nehemiah could ignore the problem.

He could have said, guys, guys, we're so close.

The wall, it's almost done.

Just wait a little bit.

Wait a little bit and some time and then we'll fix this.

Right?

He said, okay, you know, I'll go talk to them.

Don't worry about it.

I'll go, I'll figure this out.

No, what does he do?

He calls everyone together.

He says, we have to deal with this.

There's a hypocrisy.

I just want to say this too.

This happens so often in church where sin, mistreatment of others, bad doctrine is overlooked because of the mission.

To say, well, look at all we need.

To do or look at all what we no, no, no.

God here and Nehemiah, as we've been saying, this is not about rebuilding a wall, this is about rebuilding a people.

Why?

Because they're gonna go right back to what brought them there in the first place.

It was their disobedience to God and their idolatry that led them to a broken city and broken walls.

And Nehemiah knows this and says, no, no, no, no.

This is more than walls.

This is about obeying the command of God.

So he handles the conflict, he calls out sin, faces it head on.

So what does Nehemiah do?

He puts a pause to the building and he calls out the hypocrisy.

He gathers everyone together.

Verse 8, what does he say now?

In this great assembly, imagine these outcries, the working to stop everyone there, the nobles are there.

He says this, verse 8, and said to them, We as far as we are able have bought back our Jewish brothers who have been sold to the nations.

But you even sell your brothers that they may be sold to us?

What is he saying?

He said, We are a people that were, we we were just taken over.

We were put into slavery, scattered all over the world, and now we've been brought back, we're finally able to be here and settle.

And now you're trying to put us back into slavery?

And what do they do?

Says, the offenders what?

It said they were silent and could not say a word.

Why?

Because they knew.

They knew what they were doing was against the law.

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

Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God?

To prevent the taunts of the nations, our enemies?

Here Nehemiah points to the heart of the problem.

It's the fear of God.

What you are thinking about in that moment is simply profit.

You're thinking about yourself.

You're thinking about your needs.

You're not thinking about the people that you are hurting, and not only that, you're not thinking about God.

He knows what's going on.

Look at this.

I want you to just see these verses.

Because when you take advantage and sin against people who are already down, or people in general made in the image of God, you must be afraid because they have a defender.

And that defender is God.

Look at this.

Psalms 10, 17 through 18.

O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted.

You will strengthen their hearts, you will incline your ears to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that the man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.

Proverbs 22, 22 through 23 says, Do not rob the poor because he is poor, or crush the afflicted at the gate, for the Lord will plead their cause and rob of life those who rob them.

Deuteronomy 10, 17 through 18.

For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who is not partial and takes no bribe.

He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow and loves the sojourner.

Give him food and clothing.

See, they should know from the word of God that God cares for the outcast, for the downtrodden.

He says, Don't you fear God?

Said, if you would fear him, you would not live this way.

I was just thinking as a parent and parents in here, thinking of the anger you may feel or have felt when someone does something to harm your child.

And I think of what does God feel when someone harms his children, made in his image.

Look at this in verse 9.

Nehemiah says, The thing that you are doing is not good.

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

See, we talked about this last week.

Nehemiah, he understands that the people of God are called to be a light unto the nations.

And he's saying, think of what our enemies are thinking about us.

That we've bought some of our brothers out of slavery and we've put them back?

He said, we represent God.

And unfortunate that happens in the church today.

That me and you are the we represent who God is on the earth today.

And when they peer through the door or the or the windows, what do they see?

Do they see love and service and patience and compassion?

Or do they see greed and pride and self-interest?

Verse 10.

It says, moreover, I and my brothers and my servants are lending the money and grain.

Let us abandon this exacting of interest.

And Nehemiah says, We are lending.

But we're not making a profit.

Verse 11, return to them tomorrow.

Did it say that?

Return to them next week.

Return to them when it's convenient for you.

No, he says, return to them this very day.

Their fields, their vineyards, their olive orchards, their houses, and the percentage of money, grain, wine, and oil that you have been exacting from them.

Here's the truth you need to hear, church.

Repentance is for today.

It is never tomorrow.

It is never next week.

The call to repent from our sins is today and now.

And it's easy for us, church, honestly, to look at this passage and not see ourselves here.

Because we could say, no, I I don't see myself as the noble Jewish people who oppress others, and maybe we feel the other way around that we're the ones who are oppressed.

But examine your heart and say, God, are there places?

Maybe it has even nothing to do with finances, but God, are there places where there's hypocrisy in me?

That is preventing the mission of God moving forward.

Where I'm not serving others as I should.

Look at verse 12.

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

We will do as you say.

So they respond, we're gonna do it.

But Nehemiah doesn't stop there.

Notice what he does.

He says, And I called the priests and made them swear to do as they had promised.

Why does Nehemiah call the priests?

Does he do it because the priests were also taking advantage of others?

No, it's because they needed to be held spiritually accountable for what they said, for what was going on.

It says that you're not stating this just before me and men.

You are stating it before God.

And these priests represented that.

That they were making an oath.

An oath before God.

And said, I commit.

To love my wife as Christ loves the bride.

And for the wife to say, I submit and serve my husband as unto Christ.

Just a challenge and an encouragement for us to be obedient to the things that we have promised to God, regardless of how difficult and regardless of how hard it may be.

This also just speaks to the truth of the importance of local church.

You know, it should be a dangerous thing when you hear from others, well, I go to this church here sometimes, and that church there sometimes, and then over here.

Because there's not an elder we see in the book of Hebrews.

Hebrews says you should be able to know and point to your elders that they know that you're in the sheep that they are over, that are keeping you accountable, encouraging you, challenging you, calling you out and calling you up into the image of Christ.

But if you don't have a church or a body, you can't do that because here's the thing the enemy knows.

And within our hearts and our selfishness, we know it is far easier to, just like these men, to just say it out loud and just say it.

But when there is the man of God and a local body who can keep us accountable to commit to what we say.

Nehemiah knows it's easy to say one thing and live another in isolation.

But healing begins in the family of God in confession.

How does Nehemiah respond to their commitment?

Look at verse 13.

It says, I also shook out the fold of my garments and said, So may God shake out every man from his house and from his labor.

I love that, his house, but his labor.

It says this task that we have to rebuild the walls, to shake them out of that.

Nehemiah's focused.

Shake out every man from his house and from his labor who does not keep this promise.

So may he be shaken out and emptied.

And all the assembly said, What?

Amen.

And praise the Lord.

And the people did as they had promised.

Nehemiah pretty much at this point states a curse on them.

That if you don't do what you have owed and promised that God would shake you out.

Can I say this authentic worship cannot happen in the house of God until we have clean hearts and clean hands?

Do you see that?

This confession, what does it lead to?

It says they praise the Lord.

See what outcry.

That led to a confession.

That led to what?

Worship.

What is the hypocrisy or sin in your life that is preventing you from truly worshiping God?

As we have said, God cannot begin to rebuild the walls of brokenness within you and around you until you confess your sin to Him.

Until you fear Him in awe and reverence of Him to worship Him.

And it's not just individually, it's corporately.

If God is going to use our church, which we so desire, amen.

To be a light in this community, in this world, we have to walk in purity.

Not just for our own sakes individually, but as a family of God.

Nehemiah says, today is the day of repentance.

Brothers and sisters, why do we fear repentance?

It is a beautiful thing.

It is a common thing.

But the enemy wants to give us the lie that it's better to keep it in.

What will people say or they'll judge me?

But I love this Acts chapter 3, verse 19 and 20.

Acts 3:19

Listen to this.

Repent, therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out.

Verse 20.

God help us see this truth and believe it.

That times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.

And that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus.

See, it was the confession and repentance that led to praise.

From keeping me, from keeping us on the mission you have for us.

How does the fear of God protect the mission of his people?

First is hear the hurting, second, halt the hypocrisy, to stop it head on.

And third, to honor a holy God.

Now we see Nehemiah's example.

He exemplifies for us what it looks like to honor a holy God.

Look at 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 Artaxerxes the king, twelve years, neither I nor my brothers ate the food allowance of the governor.

What is Nehemiah saying here?

He's saying, as the governor, I had certain rights and allowance of food to me, and I didn't eat it.

Verse 15.

He's saying the governors before me, they took that allowance and it was a burden on the people.

But I did not do so.

Why?

Because of the fear of the honor of God.

Because of the fear of God.

Because of the fear of a holy God, to honor God.

That's why.

We see that twice now come up.

That's that statement.

The fear of God led Nehemiah to purity to action.

Verse 16, I also preserved in the work on this wall, and we acquired no land, and all my servants were gathered there for the work.

Moreover, they were at my table, a hundred and fifty men, Jews and officials, beside those who came to us from the nations that were around us.

Verse 18.

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

Yet for all this, what's Nehemiah doing?

He's given a receipt.

He's saying, This is what was allotted to me.

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

What is Nehemiah saying here?

He's saying, We got we needed to eat.

Here's the receipt of what we needed, and all that I was responsible for, all these 150 men at my table.

And guess what?

The king's taxes didn't pay for it.

That would have been a burden on you for us taking an allowance, which I have the right to, and the previous governors did.

So who paid for it?

Nehemiah.

Nehemiah.

It's from his own wallet.

Someone has to pay for it.

And he's saying, guess what?

I didn't take from you.

He lives honorably.

He lives sacrificially.

Who does he do it for?

Does he do it so people can say, Wow, Nehemiah, you're so great?

Does he do it for the hurting people?

He does.

But verse 19, it shows us who he does it for.

The last verse, remember for my good.

Oh my God.

All that I've done for this people.

Saying, remember God.

I'm doing this for this people here.

But God, I'm doing this for you.

Because I fear you.

And He honors God.

Do you live a life that honors the Holy God?

Or do you put your rights and your needs before others?

Just as it costs something to serve God, it will cost us.

It's gonna cost us.

If we want to rebuild the broken walls in this community, it is gonna cost us.

You know, I can think about Hope Cafe.

I can't tell you how much people we fed because we ran out of food.

And people were coming after we started packing up.

But that's not free.

That costs something, and you know what costs more is the time of the volunteers every single week.

Can I tell you that was that was the big thing that me and Jeff were going back and forth on?

It said, do we do this once a month?

Do we do this bi-weekly?

Do this weekly?

Like, man, if to start doing this every week, that's a lot.

Every single Saturday, that's gonna cost us.

But we said, no, no, no, no.

We want this community to know every single Saturday there's a place they can come to get a meal and be loved and hear the gospel of Christ.

That costs something.

It costs time.

But it's worth it.

Because we fear God.

Not in a fear of uh I'm afraid and of like a monster in my closet.

No, it's a holy reverence, a fear of God, I will stand before you, and you are holy, and you are perfect.

And I want to live a life.

That honors you, oh God.

Here's a challenge.

I want to go to chapter 3, verse 5.

I didn't have time to go over this because we were going over two verses.

But it mentions these nobles again.

Probably these same nobles in this situation.

But in chapter 3, verse 5, if you remember, it was going through the list of the people who were serving.

I think there was over 50 names of this person was building the wall here.

This person was building the gate here.

This person was.

But it says this in verse 5 of the list, as you can see there in your Bibles, of a group of people who didn't.

And it says, and next to them, Techoetis repaired.

But what?

But their nobles would not stoop to serve their Lord.

I love how it says, their Lord.

Not the Lord, their Lord.

Followers of Jesus, right now, brothers and sisters, we have a Lord.

And will you see what God is doing in this community?

Or in the communities around you and the families around you where there is brokenness and there's needs to be repairing?

And will you say, no, no, no, I'm not going to stoop?

That's too low for me.

I've got my American dream.

I have things that I need to do that I need to take care of.

Or we say, no, no, no, no.

And you stoop down to pick others up.

To love, to serve, to care.

Nehemiah was an example to the people.

Do you think Nehemiah could have called out those guys if he had interest on what he was lending?

Do you think Nehemiah could have called out those guys if he was taking the food allowance and putting a burden on the people?

No, he couldn't do that.

It's the same for us.

If we want to rebuild and be the leaders, every single one of us, God is calling us to be, to use our influence for him, we have to be an example first.

We have to walk in purity and in honor.

But here's the thing: Nehemiah is a picture of a better servant leader.

Jesus, who had the right as the creator of the world, to never stoop down here onto this earth.

But who came and he emptied himself.

Although he was equal to God in every way, because he was God.

And is he emptied himself to be a servant?

To hear what?

The cries of his people.

In bondage to what?

More than physical chains, spiritual chains of sin.

And there was no way out.

And Christ He sacrificed.

He became the servant and paid the price by dying on the cross for us.

And we look to that example.

We look to that example.

That Jesus was willing to do that for us.

That we will go and live on mission for Him.

But what do we have to do?

We have to hear the hurting of others.

Are your ears open?

Even right now, in this moment, there are brothers and sisters in here who are hurting.

Today.

Man, I was just reminded.

I'm not going to go into detail, but just think of someone who is hurting today.

And just wondering, God, did I have my ears open?

We need to have our ears open.

But we have to halt the hypocrisy.

We have to say, God, look into my heart.

Is there anything there?

And we have to encourage our brothers and sisters when we see it.

To say, hey, we have to live a way that God is calling us to live.

And lastly, we have to honor a holy God.

That's where it all starts and ends.

You want change in your life?

You want to be saved.

You want to be closer to God.

You want to be sanctified.

You want joy.

You look to God and see that He is holy and He is worthy.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus.

God, we have made an oath to you.

The moment that we said, Jesus, I turn from my sin.

I accept you as my Lord.

We made an oath.

That our life wasn't going to be about ourselves.

I just want to take a moment.

I know there are people in here right now.

You're hurting.

Maybe you're even these past couple days, you've been hungry and wondering if the Lord can provide, and where is my next meal going to come from, or how are we going to take care of this bill?

I first want to let you know God hears your cries.

And then call out to Him.

But I want to give you some joy in this.

That although you may be hurting, that God still wants to use you.

To hear the hurting around you.

To go to them and say, Me too.

And let's come to Jesus together.

God, we just pray for your help in this moment.

Do a work, examine our hearts.

Today is the day of repentance.

God help us to see you for who you are, holy and mighty and powerful.

And with us seeing that and having that fear and that reverence and that all of you change our lives.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

You can stand in this moment, and as we say here, the message is not done.

The message has just started.

This is the time now to respond.

So a couple ways you can respond.

First way is any way God calls you to respond and you feel Him drawing to you, drawing you to do.

First is if you don't know Jesus in a real and personal way where you've never been saved from your sins, you can do that today.

You can come down right here when we start singing.

When we start to worship, you can come down here and say, Hey, I want to get saved.

I want to be forgiven of my sins.

I want to live a new life.

But maybe you need to come down because there's some hypocrisy in your heart.

Maybe some things have been out of order.

That's prevented you from serving God's people.

And you could come down here, you could receive prayer for that.

Maybe it's coming down and saying, God, I just need to fear you.

I've become numb.

Help me to remember the weight of who you are and the weight of the responsibility you've put on me to know you and share about you.

However, God leads you, we're gonna have a time of response.

So you come now, receive Jesus, you come, respond, and let's sing and worship to this guy.