Nehemiah 5:14-19
The former governors who were before me laid heavy burdens on the people and took from them for their daily ration forty shekels of silver. Even their servants lorded it over the people. But I did not do so, because of the fear of God.
Sermon Transcript:
I’d like you to turn with me to Nehemiah chapter five. We’re gonna just send a few moments here, Nehemiah chapter five, verse 14 through 19. If you don’t know where Nehemiah is, open your Bible right to the middle. You’ll probably hit the book of Psalms.
Looks like pals. Um, and keep going to the left, and you’ll hear a book called Nehemiah Nehemiah, chapter five. We’re gonna look at verse 14 through 19. In a moment. Our FCC mission statement says this, FCC exists to be a community of hope through Jesus Christ, our vision statement. FCC seeks to build communities that experience and share the hope in Jesus Christ here and around the world.
It’s a unique Sunday today for two reasons. One, certain certainly is to have Brennan and Kathleen here and to be reminded that this vision statement says that we want to experience and share hope in Jesus Christ around the world, not just here in our immediate community, but to Trenton and then beyond, to our Judea, our Samaria, and then to the uttermost parts of the earth.
We have heard had the exciting privilege to partner in their ministry for these years, and I love the, the, the analogy, the, the metaphor of our fingerprints being on that ministry in so many ways. It’s also a time when we are seriously reflecting as a church in how we can be. Experiencing and sharing the hope in Jesus Christ here in both of our campuses this summer.
God willing, we are going to be doing a significant remodel, uh, down at Collingwood. We’ve talked about this with you. Uh, they’re talking about it a lot there. Here we’re talking about the specific things we’ll be doing here. We’ve had these videos that Pastor Mike has put together every week that have been presenting different aspects of it.
If you haven’t seen the ones related to this room, uh, we are going to be changing to theater seating and, uh, lessening the size of our platform. We’re going to get over 25% greater seating capacity. Through that. We’re going to be putting in a new lighting video system, changing floor coverings, the whole thing, as well as what was discussed out in the lobby.
Two weeks from today. Uh, on April 30th, we are going to be taking an in gathering offering. Our prayer is for $500,000 to come in. Uh, we’re asking you to really be thinking and praying about that as we think about being a community that is seeking to extend hope to others. That’s why we’re doing more seats.
That’s why we’re trying to remodel to more effectively minister to people. I wanna just take a few moments to think about what kind of individuals extend God’s hope toward others, what’s true of their lives. Nehemiah was such a guy, Nehemiah, and the passages we’re gonna read in just a second was a servant in the household and the palace of the Persian king.
Many hundreds of miles from Israel, the homeland of Israel, to the, to the. He was there serving, he was called the cup bearer. He was a trusted servant because he was the guy that would actually serve the king. And if you knew how much assassins took, uh, assassinations took place, you wanted the right guy testing your food and drink.
This was a trusted employee of the King, and he was a Jew. And he had grown passionate to want to go back to Israel because at that point, Israel had lived for 150 years under foreign, uh, dominions and, and foreign, uh, um, can’t think of the word. Anyway, they were there, um, and they were overseeing their area.
And so the, the concern that he had was even the walls of the city were broken down. There was no way to protect themselves. Especially against the local governors that were continually trying to make inroads and take over o over the authority of their leaders in Israel. So Nehemiah got permission to go back.
He was being appointed to build the walls. He has been appointed to be the governor of Jerusalem and the surrounding area of Judah at the time. And as he is going through his ministry, here’s a quick rundown of what the book is about. Chapter one, he makes the trip, chapter two and three. He begins the work on the walls, which is against the opposition of the local governors who didn’t know he’d come to rebuild the walls.
When they find out chapter four, chapter three and four in particular, demonstrate their hostility to the point that some of them are actually talking about invading. So they have to actually post guards every day. And so they’re sitting there building during the day and they’re guarding at night. And chapter five, We see that the opposition that he is facing to build a godly community in Judah is not only coming from the outside, but some of his own nobles are acting in such a way they’re looking for their own, uh, career advancement.
They’re looking for the building of their own portfolios, that they are abusing the Jews of whom they are apart, and he has to, to come to them, rebuke them. And in chapter 14 through 19, he gives a picture of his own passion, his own heartbeat. And here’s what we read in verses 14 through 19 of Nehemiah chapter five.
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 Artis Xi’s the King, 12 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 for their daily RA rations, 40 shackles of silver.
Even their servants lorded it over the people, but I did not do so because of the fear of God. I also persevered in the work on the wall, and we acquired no land and all the servants were gathered there for the work. Moreover, they were at my table, 150 men, Jews and officials besides who came to us from the nations that were around us now that was prepared at my expense for each day was one ox and six choice sheep and birds, and every 10 days, all kinds of wine and abundance.
Yet for all this, I did not demand the food allowed of the governor because the service was too heavy for the PE on this. People remember for my good, oh my God, all that I have done for this people. Lord, we look to you in these moments together, and God, as we consider these four qualities of this, Godly man, this Godly leader.
Uh, may you speak into our own hearts of just our own heart orientation toward you. In Jesus’ name, amen. Amen. For quick things we see about Nehemiah. Number one, we see a man who is, who had submitted his personal rights. In verse 14, he says, I’ve been in this role for 12 years, and in these 12 years, I have not taken what was my right to take what the other governors had done before him.
He had not taken the daily allowance. He talks about the, the, um, the provisions that has made, been made for him. He had rather out of his own pocket, had provided for the care of what was at times a thousand people per week that he was taken care of. Financially. He didn’t take advantage of all the perks that were available to him in the job.
His spirit was not, this is what I can get out of this role, or his primary question was not what’s, what’s in it for me? What do I need for me? What do I need to protect my future and be secure for myself? The ultimate question was, what has God called me to do? Because he was a man that surrendered his rights.
It was his right to take some of this. All the men before him had done it As governors, all the surrounding governors did this, but there was a heart that was ruled by him. It reminds us of the New Testament principle of one Corinthians six in verse 19 and 20, where Paul is describing how we ought to live our lives.
Here’s what he says. Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own. For you are bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. He says every part of your life has been purchased. You are not your own. You belong to Christ. One of the foundational realities of life with God is that you don’t have your own personal rights to claim.
He saved you. He freed you from the penalty of power, uh, and the power of sins. He called you. He adopted you. He redeemed you. He forgave you, but he bought you. He gave his own son’s life. For you to belong to him, to say, God, my time is your time. My talents are your talents. My treasure is your treasure. All of my life belongs to you.
You bought me. Now you’ve been bought by the kindest, most compassionate, most compellingly kind individual in all of the universe, but you didn’t enter a democracy when you joined the Kingdom of Christ. You entered a theocracy where Christ is the king and the Lord, and Nehemiah got it, and he says, all these are my right.
I can claim ’em all. But if my goal here is to be a servant of God and to serve his people, and he’s brought me back from a cushy job in Persia, that I am here by the, the decree of God to serve his purposes among his people
that he calls the shots. I don’t have the right to say in light of how my wife treats me. I have a wife to, I have a right to give her the silent treatment. With the economy being so volatile, I have a right to not tie or give faithfully. My boss is such a jerk. I have a right to gossip about him. The fundamental flaw in our thinking is to forget we belong to Christ.
He bought us.
And we have given our rights to him. The second thing we find in Nehemiah is a strength of character. In verse 15 and 16, he has an integrity that replaced accepted practices. I’ve mentioned the former governors. He highlights these in verse 15. And following that, they took their daily ration. That, that he said, I, I didn’t take it.
I didn’t acquire land. He said this was a great opportunity. One of the benefits, uh, of, of being a leader. It’s like in the, in the colonial days, you know, a lot of the English lords were happy to come over here and serve in the military because they tend to get tracks of land as a benefit. It was a perk of the job, uh, in the new land.
And this was similar. And he says, I, I didn’t take any land. As a matter of fact, he’s gonna say what I’m actually doing during the day is I’m on the walls working. He did not take that, which was his to necessarily take, he went against accepted practices. Now, here’s the thing. When you don’t go along with accepted practices, you make people mad.
Now, the other governor that was before him was gone. Right? But some of his people are there, some of his aides are there, some of his cabinets still involved. We’re gonna, if, if you study the book of Nehemiah, you’ll find out a number of those people had had infiltrated the whole leadership structure in Jerusalem, and he walks into this.
So every time he says, no, we’re not taking the perks, he’s ticking people off. It’s hard to go against. I mean, he is the new guy in town. It’s hard to have people mad at you. None of us are saying, I’m gonna wake up tomorrow morning, and I’m just looking for opportunities to have conflict with the people in my life.
If you are, please don’t work with me.
And you wanna say about Nehemiah, he’s got all these enemies out there. He’s got so much coming at him. Doesn’t he have enough people mad at him? And then he goes out and works on the wall and you can just imagine the voices, you know, you can just imagine be What kind of a ruler does that? I mean, who does he think he is anyway?
Is he trying to show us up? What’s he trying to prove? Oh, the
somehow he’s willing to go against accepted practices. He’s able to be a man of integrity, which the word integrity is from the word I means straight. He’s able to follow a straight line when everything else is so twisted around him. How was he able to do that? Well, we’re told here in the verse, We’re told here down in verse 15, even their servants lorded over the people.
But I didn’t do so. Why? Because of the fear of God. The fear of God replaces other fears, all replaces fear. Many of you know, over the last number of years, I just spent hundreds and hundreds of hours, uh, some of it on my own time unrelated to work, some of it in preps for various series, studying the fear of God.
It has become probably the most precious principle of scripture to me, to understand what it means to be awed by God. I signed my newsletters now living in awe. I, I, I want a God that stunts me. I want a God. And the longer I live my life in ministry and life and the more I face disappointments and confusions and hurdles and and things where we need the power of God, as we were singing about this morning, the more I find I’m drawn more and more for a God that is big and transcended a God that doesn’t just love me.
He owes me. He stuns me with his power and his grace and his love and his holiness. Nehemiah new God like that, the bigger God gets, the smaller people’s voices get. The bigger God becomes the less frightening becomes deprivations and limitations. And insufficiencies in our lives all replaces fear, and it was true with this man.
One of the studies I’m doing right now, again, this is just for my own soul, is just to go through the Bible and say, who were fearless people? What was true of fearless people that weren’t constrained to, to, to, they weren’t afraid to confront others because of fear. They didn’t have to manipulate or gossip or lie to protect themselves from being embarrassed or to avoid conflict.
They didn’t withdraw from people because of the fear of tension. They were willing to obey God. They wanted God because they weren’t afraid of the loss of anything else, because God awed them. God becomes bigger and better than anything else.
When we enter into the path of Nehemiah, which is just to be bought by God. The third characteristic of Nehemiah was he was willing to sacrifice. Verse 17 says this, moreover, they’re at my table, 150 men, Jews and officials, besides those who came to us from the nations around us. Now, what was prepared at my expense for each day was one ox and six sheep, six choice sheep and birds, and every 10 days, all kinds of wine and abundances.
Yet for all this, I did not demand the food allowance of the governor because the service was too heavy on this. People, over a thousand guests a week, he paid for out of his own pocket. And you might respond, well, wait a minute. This guy’s filthy rich. Well, yeah, he, he obviously had some resources. It’s been my experience that the more you accumulate.
The harder it is to start giving with the spirit of generosity later in life. You go with with financial gain, the more difficult it is to let it go, that you may go up some with the amount, but certainly not much with the percentage. I would had lunch with a guy not too long ago, successful business person for sure, and I knew his walk with God in the area of finance and I was asking questions, I was just curious and what his own practice was with the Lord.
And he said, my wife and I covenanted years ago that as God, if God chose to expand our financial situation, we would never evaluate our giving as growing in amount. We would always continue to give growing in percentage. That’s not easy to do.
Nehemiah had a heart of generosity and he said, this belongs to God. God has promised to take care of me. I have so many opposites, so much around me, but I am going to live joyfully sacrificially by faith as an influence and be an influence of God. The last thing, verse 19, he was a God that was surrendered to God.
Remember for my good, oh my God, all that I’ve done for this people, he had a God who was personal. You’re my God, a God who is faithful. Remember for my good, all that I have done for this people. Now that sounds kind of arrogant. But on, you know, he’s saying, remember me for my good, because of all I’ve done.
I, I, I think if you really pray, you don’t feel very arrogant with God. You start with worship, which we see in the book. He, he’s a, he’s a worshiper. He’s a prayer. He is a thanker. You begin by worshiping God, and then you’re thanking God, and then you’re confessing your syngo. You don’t tend to come to God with an arrogant spirit.
He’s listing this because he’s confident that God delights to take care of those that delight, to honor the Lord in their lives. He said, Lord, I’ve done what you’ve told me to do. Remember me. I’m trusting you to take care of me. Watch out for me. God delights to sustain and carry his children to do his will, but it begins with surrendering to God.
I had another conversation recently with another individual. And he, he also was a guy and he made an interesting analogy. He has gone through a number of very difficult things in the last two years, heartaches. Um, and he said, I was asking about his response, how he responded to it. And we, and I, I know him pretty well now, but he said, you know, I’ve learned there’s only two curtains.
There’s a curtain of my will and I can choose that and sometimes I do, and a lot of times I want to. But he said, I always find what’s on the other side of the curtain stinks. He said, there’s another curtain. He called it the curtain of surrender. I can say, Lord, you’re asking me when I go through that curtain to choose your will to say yes to you.
And I don’t know what’s on the other side, but he said, every time I choose that curtain, I love what’s on the other side. Amen. But he said there’s no third curtain. There’s no third curtain. There is no third curtain. There is your will. There’s God’s will. Nehemiah says, Lord, remember me because I’m choosing your curtain.
I’m going through and I’m trusting you to carry me and care for me. To me, this is an exciting day in our church. It’s exciting to hear what God has done. I can’t remember the name of your church. What is it called now? Fellowship Crosspoint. Fellowship Crosspoint, yeah. I’m still back at Capital City, um, here about what God’s doing at at Fellowship Crosspoint.
It’s exciting to see what God is doing and stirring of us to do. It’s most of all exciting to just think we are invited to be a part of the purposes of God, to choose his curtains. To trust him, to walk through, and then to be able to say, Lord, you’re my God. I trust you. To honor yourself in caring for your servant as I say yes to what you ask me to do, Lord, we close this time,
we go away full with gratitude. The story we’ve heard with Brennan and Kathleen, those of us that have watched the choices of faith that they have made just delighting you or proud of you, Lord, for the way you’ve cared for them and used them. God, we delight in the joy and the privilege of being able to walk with you as your children.
We want to choose your curtain. Say yes, whatever you call us to do. In Jesus’ name, amen. Now go in peace to love and serve and enjoy the Lord.