Skip to content Episode 7 | Nehemiah: Make it Right Aug 24 · 41 min ...more
Episode 7 | Nehemiah: Make it Right
August 24, 2026 · 41 min
Series Nehemiah August 24, 2026 · 41 min · Nehemiah
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Nehemiah's Call to Rebuild 0:00 I'm gonna catch you up on where we're at in the story right now. And for those of you who's heard this 6, 7 times, well, you'll just know it better. Right? Okay. You'll be able to teach it to your kids. Nehemiah is a0:09 very, very, wise guy. He's a leader of all leaders. He is now the 2nd hand in command. He works for the king, of Persia, King Artaxerxes. He's the most trusted guy in all0:21 the kingdom because he's the cup bearer. Now the cup bearer would sip the wine and taste the food before it got to the king to to make sure it didn't have any poison in it because that's how they would assassinate kings0:30 in those days. And so he is the most trusted guy in the kingdom. And Nehemiah never thought that his life would be where it's at. He never thought he would have such a position.0:42 Going great at this time. He's off at kind of Camp David, so to speak, with a king. And there's other, you know, powerful players there. And while he's there just enjoying the food and enjoying the conversations and,0:54 you know, everything is great in the land of Nehemiah, he sees his brother come in and he sees some people from his homeland and he excitedly approaches them and says, how are things back home? And they, with a puzzled1:06 look on their face, began to explain to him what he did not know. Destruction. And and the walls that used to protect the people1:18 are now falling down. And the officers were no more that protected the people. And there was no protection. There was all sort of chaos going on. And those beautiful gates that represented such things, they were1:30 they're spiritual and meaningful for them were now burnt with by fire. And the whole place is in destruction. But the worst part was that the people the people were so confused and the people were hurting and the people1:42 were in great great distress. And when Nehemiah heard this, he fell to the ground and began to sob and weep. His heart was broken and he began to fast1:55 doing today, actually, for the nation, Franklin Graham has called for us to to fast and and pray. And so I'd urge any of you to feel led to to maybe skip a meal and pray for this nation and pray that God's will is done.2:06 And so, he begins to do that. And then he begins to do this get this for 4 months, he prays to God about what to do. And then God would say, I wanna use you to do something about it. That's what God2:18 often does. But here is where Nehemiah is in just a really between a rock and a hard place, because God now tells him to go do something about it, to that he's he finds out he's gonna be the person to help rebuild the2:28 walls of Jerusalem. But the guy that he works for is the guy that wrote the law that it would not be rebuilt until he gave permission. And and kings usually don't change their mind. Right? They're decrees. And2:40 so now he's between a rock and a hard place. God told him to do it, but the guy that he works for is, totally against it. And he begins to pray for him to soften his heart, and apparently he does. And he begins to pray2:51 for favor in the sight of the king. And 1 day when the timing is just right, he asked for permission to leave his job and go rebuild his hometown. And the king grants it, which is amazing. And he3:02 also asked that he would pay for it. And he grants that too. He gives Nehemiah basically a blank check. And and the word of God says he did all these things because the good hand of the Lord was upon Nehemiah. That's why3:13 he did that. So Nehemiah sets off on a 4 month trip now to his hometown. And when he gets there, it's worse than he even imagined. It's it's horrible what he3:24 sees. And he begins to survey and see what he needs from a leadership standpoint and where he can position people. And after he gets that figured out, he brings all the people together and he says, open your eyes and3:35 look around. This shouldn't be like this. And he cast the vision, which is what every great leader does. And he says, we should rise up3:47 something about it. And they say, let's do it. Let's rise up and build the wall. Just how, you know, when you start anything, you know, how you're highly motivated. Well, they started highly motivated. But the moment3:57 they got about halfway, they started getting criticism from the outside, from people who are really, really just highly political people, from Sam Ballard and Tobiah. It was a political thing to them. They didn't want to4:09 see the Jews rebuild the wall because this now took away some of their political power. And they didn't like it. But here's Nehemiah that doesn't care about politics. He just wants to do what's right for the people. And4:20 so he's coming in and he's trying to make a difference. And these politicians, so to speak, they didn't they didn't like it. And and now they start getting criticism. Now they start getting threats that they were gonna4:29 come and take their lives. And now the people on the halfway spot are highly discouraged, like what we talked about last week. Highly discouraged. And now Nehemiah is trying to help them with that. And you gotta think4:40 from their standpoint for just a moment. This is not a job they're paid for. This is after hours. They're traveling. Most of them live on the outskirts. They're traveling to Jerusalem and they're rebuilding the walls4:52 when they should be spending their time on their own vineyards time, you know, in their own homes and their own endeavors. And now it's beginning to pull them away from that. And I5:04 begin to believe that they start resenting this project after a while. But they start resenting though, okay. It was fun at 1st, but now every time we turn around is we're back going back to the wall. Let's grab our5:14 stuff and let's go rebuild the walls. And what we see here in chapter 5 is we see something interesting. We see that the people are up under great pressure. They're up under greatPressure and Internal Strife 5:26 pressure. Yeah, they've got progress. And yeah, they're halfway done. But now they're sacrificed so much time and money that could have been made. Something, with5:38 them not even, you know, saying anything yet. Have you ever been around somebody, you know something's wrong and and you can feel it before they even speak it? That's where Nehemiah is. He he begins to feel that5:46 something is wrong. That something is causing this pressure that he's feeling. And and as we jump into this, I I I gotta wonder how many of you are up under great pressure right now? How many5:58 of you are going through this same story? How many of you are having pressure at a job to perform? Pressure to remain pure as a teenager? Pressure to make the right decisions? I was talking to my wife just the other day6:10 and we're talking about this guy that he's he's up under a ton of pressure And his workload is more than you can imagine. And my wife said, I just feel bad for him that he's got so much on his plate. And I said, you know6:20 what I think it is? It's not it's it's not the workload. He's always had a crazy workload. And, I said, I think it's the pressure of the big decisions in his life that he has to make. It's the weight of these6:32 decisions because our decisions shape our destiny. And if I make the wrong decision, do I sell the business? Do I keep it? Do I do It's the it's the weight of the decisions. And so he's up under this great pressure.6:44 And I wonder how many of you today are up under pressure that maybe no 1 knows about. Pressure to make ends meet financially. You know, pressure in other areas for the kids to turn out right. You know, I I I deal with6:53 pressure. My pressure may be different than than than your pressure. Not even only the pressure to public speak. I read a article why about this. It said the 2, biggest fears are public speaking and death. And public7:05 speaking was number 1 and death number 2. Is that not crazy? From God every week and then speak. And so, the pressure I deal with sometimes is making sure God is7:17 this where you want me to be? Is this what you where you want, you know, what what they need? And not and it's not just that. You know what it really is? Just being transparent for a minute. It's it's really the pressure7:28 to be perfect or near about perfect in every area. Think about this. Like, my kids have got to turn out right for me to be qualified. My marriage has got to be, you know, passionate and near about perfect7:40 for me to remain qualified. My emotional, state has got to be, you know, great. My spiritual life's got to be right. My financial right I gotta make all the right financial decisions unless I'm unqualified. Who else's7:52 job who else's job depends on if your kids turn out right? Who else's job depends on if you buy the kind of car you want or you make a dumb financial decision or not? But that's that's the8:04 pressure that I deal with. And I know what you you probably think. You say, well, no one's asking you to be perfect. No. No one's asking me to be perfect. But everybody's pretty much expecting me to be. I remember to be8:14 pretty darn close to it. Right? And and so that that's some pressure. And we all deal with pressure. Even athletes deal with pressure. You know, the the highest level athlete is the person that can perform under8:25 pressure. Right? And and so now, Nehemiah begins to to feel that the people are up under pressure for some reason. And the odd thing about pressure is it comes from without, but it's battle within. But if we8:37 don't battle correctly within, it affects everything external without, doesn't it? And Nehemiah begins to feel that what is going on and why are these people up under so much pressure? And8:49 and Nehemiah begins to feel the friction and the division and he begins to try to figure out what exactly is happening. Here's what he writes, 1st 5. He said, about this time, some of the men and their wives raised the9:00 cry of protest against their fellow Jews. They were saying, we have such large families. We need more food to survive. In essence, we're spending all of our time9:12 on the wall, outside of our job, and now we're in a not only in we're in a famine, but we're in a financial crisis. And we can't even feed our families. Then it goes on and says, others said9:24 so more came to them. We mortgage our fields, our vendors, our homes to get food during this famine. So now other people come and say, yeah, me too. I've mortgaged my home just to buy food. I've mortgaged my business9:35 just to buy food. We are in a financial mess. And you could kind of feel that they would start resenting Nehemiah for this. Now verse 4 says this, and others said it kept getting worse. We have had to9:47 borrow money on our fears and our and our vineyards to pay our taxes. Now let me let you know what he's saying there. The king of Persia, Nehemiah's boss was still charging big time taxes on these people.9:59 And so now you can really feel it because it's like, yeah, you came to be a hero. You came to help us out. We love the great vision and to rebuild this culture and wall. And you've got the permission and you got the king10:09 to pay for the wall, but what about us, The People. You didn't throw that in there, Nehemiah. I did you. You didn't throw that. Maybe he could give us a tax break because we're in such great distress. Maybe he could hold10:20 off on that. If you're really our friend, why didn't you go to bat for us on the tax break? And now we're having to mortgage our business, our homes, on everything, just to pay for your bosses' taxes and the weight that10:30 he's put on. And you could feel the the pressure amounting here. And verse 5 says, we belong to the same family as those who are wealthy, and our children are just like theirs. Look at this.10:41 Slavery, just to get enough money to And we have already sold some of our daughters. And we're helpless to do anything about it. For our fields and vineyards are already mortgaged to others. And then it says, Nehemiah10:52 heard their complaints and I was very angry. Now, Nehemiah, shouldn't you have wrote and I felt very bad for them. And I felt compassionate for them.11:03 But Nehemiah sees something that's beneath the surface that was there causing all this pressure. You see Nehemiah looks at it and says, it's not just a financial pressure that you're in. It's not just the pressure from11:14 the famine. There is something that you have done that has kept God from blessing you. There is something that you have done that has blocked the hand of God from blessing us on our essential11:26 needs of food and homes and our businesses. Something is beneath the surface of the financial problem that is causing God not to bless us. To remove his hand of blessing upon. You11:38 have done something to block the blessings from heaven. And now look at this. Because look at the 1st line that he wrote. So look real real closely, He reveals it. It says, about this time, some of the men and theirMake It Right: 5 Steps to Restore Relationships 11:49 wives raised the cry of protest against their fellow Jews. Then he goes on verse 5 and and he says this. He says that we belong to the same they said, we belong to the same family as those who are wealthy.12:01 Your our there are children just like theirs. Here's what he's doing. He's finding out that the pressure was coming not from just finances. The pressure was coming because the wealthy in the12:12 community was charging the poor interest. The wealthy was taking advantage of the other people. The Jews were taking advantage of the Jews. They were taking advantage12:24 of they were What they were doing was illegal. According to the law of Moses, you could not charge another Jew interest. And now, here they are and Nehemiah spent all this time building this wall to12:36 protect people from people just like them. I mean, from people just like them. So what's the point of the wall if we're going to do the same thing that we were trying to protect ourselves12:48 from? And this is a story, we've talked about this over and over, not just about building a wall. Remember, this is a story about God building a leader, who then build a group of people, who rebuild a culture, who would12:58 follow God in the world that didn't. But now we're acting just like the world that doesn't. And now we're charging each other and now we have caused God to stop blessing us because how we are treating others.13:11 Just real frankly. We can cause God to stop blessing us by how we treat other believers. You see, the cross is like this. It's a vertical and horizontal. It represents our relationship with God13:23 and man. Right? And and and now we see here that they have major issues with each other. And Nehemiah says, I I saw their complaints and I became very, very angry. And it shows us13:34 this, that God cares about how we treat other believers. Those are his children. God cares about relationships. You can't be right with God and13:46 be not be right with other believers. It's impossible. You cannot be right with God and remain not right with other believers. So I wanna talk to you today for just a 2nd so that we can so that we can remove13:58 hopefully, there might be someone here watching online today that is in the same spot and has just refused to make it right with another person. And maybe you didn't realize it, but you literally are are blocking God14:09 from blessing you. And I wanna remove that list. I wanna talk to you just for a few moments real short, on a message called make it right. I wish I could have it with a better title. I tried. I really did. I I I tried. I14:19 asked all the young people on the staff. I said, hey, give me a better terminology for for for making it right with others. Just seems kind of bland, boring, make it right with other make it right. And and and so they14:28 said 1 of them said, oh, you're talking about, like, when we're cool with other people? I said, yeah. And 1 of the young girls said, that means, well, we Gucci. So what? When I was growing up, Gucci was something like14:40 rich people could wear. Or, you know? I'm like, we we okay. So for the and and I by the way, I figure out how old I was. You always have you're in denial. You know, I am getting older. Here's how I know I'm getting14:50 older. Some of the staff, when I was asking this, I said, we had an idea to do something eighties theme or something, and I liked it. But, I can tell some of the staff who wasn't connected with these15:02 younger groups. And I said, let me ask you a question. What is old school to you? And when you think of like old school song, old school television, what's old school to you? And 1 of them, I I swear to you, he raised15:12 his hand, got my as my witness. And he said, you won't be like real old school? I said, yeah. Like old school. Probably o 3. Like, 215:24 I said, 2003? Yeah. Like, you know, pastor Brent, Molly Cyrus, you know, Hannah Montana. Wow. I'm getting old. 1 of them, I promise you, she didn't know who Hulk Hogan was. I threw a joke out.15:36 Didn't who doesn't know who Hulk Hogan is? I could read it all over her face. I'm like, she has no clue. I said, you don't know who Hulk Hogan is? I have no clue. Okay. Alright. Now I am officially getting older. So for15:47 the young people, we're gonna call this message We Gucci. Alright? For the old people, we're gonna call it Make It Right With Others. Let's look at this. 5 things that, that Nehemiah teaches us on how to get right with15:57 others. The 1st thing is found in the very 1st verse. It says about this time some of the men and the women raised the crowd protest against their fellow Jews. Raised the cry. Raised the cry. The 1st thing we must know16:07 if we're gonna get right with others is there's a cry to be heard. What I mean by that is we must be very attentive to the cries of others when we've hurt other people. And we also must be very attentive of16:19 our the cries of our own hearts when people are wanting to be right with us. Now, this is not a financial problem. This is a problem where they weren't right with each other. More than your personal success, more than16:30 your projects, more than your popularity, more than just about anything, God cares how you treat people. Remember, God cares about relationships. He's a relational God. God sent his son Jesus to die16:42 for us, to live for us, so that he could reconcile what? A relationship. Right? So God cares about others and our relationship with others. Is there a cry to be heard in your own16:54 heart? Is there a cry to be right with someone that maybe you've wronged? And I know when I say that you can almost you feel it? It gets clouded. I did this last night. Just this is 1 of these messages that don't really17:05 feel good. It just it's more of like, okay. What do you gotta go do? So it's more action or or is there a cry, in someone else's heart to be right with you and you haven't allowed it? We gotta be attentive to the cries.17:17 Now understand, you can only make it right with people that are willing to make it right. Right? You could but you ought to do everything on your end that you can. If they don't they don't wanna get right with, that's17:29 okay. You do all that you can do on your end. Because here's what I know. Giving forgiveness should always be the action, but forgiveness is possible even when trust is impossible.17:42 See, people mark the waters of this deal, and they try to make forgiveness and trust the same thing and they're not. Forgiveness is given and trust is earned. So forgiveness is possible even when trust is impossible. The17:53 Bible tells us in Romans 14 19 that we ought to pursue peace with those. Look at this. It says, so we pursue. Now that's an action. The things which make peace and for the building up for 1 another. We ought to18:05 pursue peace at all costs. God cares about your your relationship with others, and we can block the blessings of God when we're not right with others. I'll tell you a quick illustration. It happened to me maybe a year18:15 ago. All you know me and me and my dad are are best buddies. I we talk at least twice a day. I stopped by his house all the time just to steal food. Did on the way this morning coming over here. And stopped by and18:27 knocked on his door. What's the matter? Nothing. I just need a ginger ale. I'm out. And so we're we're, like, we're best buddies. And about a year ago, and we have candid conversations, by the way. Any of those that work18:37 with family, know that's just how it is. You gotta be a different breed to work with family. You really do. And 24 or 25 years ago when I came on staff, we had a deal. Our deal was the day the the relationship18:49 is more goes ahead of the church. Okay? The relationship is more important than than our jobs to the church. And the day that the church gets in front of our relationship, I'll leave. I'm not. That was our deal. And19:01 about a year ago, we had a candid conversation that he misinterpreted some of the things that I meant and I misinterpreted some of the things that he meant and it caused a little bit of friction. Now I love my father. I19:13 can't stand there to be anything between us. That is my best friend in the world. I remember coming to church and it feels like an elephant is on my chest because I I would do anything to just be right with him. And I19:24 know he didn't he didn't know what I meant and I didn't know what he meant and we I knew that it was just a misinterpretation. But I refuse to allow anything to get in between that relationship. I also know this. I'm a a19:36 man of up being up under authority. I believe God works through authority. I I really do believe people that have problems with authority, they really have problems with God. It's because God works through authority.19:46 That's just how he works. And I knew also that I was blocking the blessings on my own life if I wasn't right with that. And I I know some people that they can go years and years and years and live with that. I can't. I19:58 can't go 24 hours. And so I left church and went over to his home and sat on the porch, sat in the steps in the dark, getting bit up by mosquitoes and all kind of stuff. And I didn't know he had a20:10 dinner meeting afterwards. He pulled up. I had never spent 5 and a half hours on the porch. I refused to leave. Pulled up and then headlights hit my face and, you know, he knew I was there. And he got out and he said,20:21 Brian, what's what were you doing here? I said, I'll come to make it right. If we gotta stay up all night, if I gotta own everything, I'm not leaving until we make it right. That was a breakthrough moment for us because20:32 what the devil wants is division. What God wants is unity. And we ought to do whatever it takes in your life. If there's someone that you're not right with to make it right. But there's a cry to be heard. And are you20:44 attentive to that cry? Now the 2nd thing that we see is this, there's a candid conversation to be held. There's a candid conversation to be held. Look at verse 7. It says, after thinking it over, I spoke out against the20:56 nobles and officials and I told them, you're hurting your own relatives by charging interest when they borrow money. Then I called a public meeting to deal with the problem. And then he went on to to say, listen, we're21:06 trying to redeem them and yet you're, you know, hurting them by doing this. And they had nothing more to say in their defense. Notice he said, I spoke out against them. I held a meeting. There's a candid conversation to21:17 be held if we're gonna make it right with others. I've always said this. 1 of the measures 1 of the measures of a person's love for you is this. Are they willing to have uncomfortable conversations with you in order to21:29 be to make you better? If so, that person is not trying to hurt you, but trying to out of love to help you. Lean into those voices in your life. Young people, your21:40 parents are gonna tell you the truth. You may have a godly friend that wants to speak truth in your life. To be candid about how you could go off course. Don't don't don't rebel or repel against those21:52 voices. Lean into those voices. No, it doesn't feel good. No 1 likes to have a candid conversation, but maybe God is trying to give you some wisdom in your life so that we avoid mistakes.22:04 Learn to lean into those conversations. Those people love you. They're not against you. They love you. I've seen so many kids that become, you know, teenagers then it rolls over into their adult life. They just22:16 cannot they can't take correction or rebuke or anything, and their life just seems to stop growing because of that. Lean into those conversations. For some people, it's hard to have a22:27 difficult conversation, isn't it? It's not their makeup. Right? For some of us, it is. Like, I think they named me wrong. I should have been Frank, not Brent. I have no problem having candid conversations. I don't like22:39 it. Nobody likes it. You'd be sick if you liked it. Right? But I don't have a problem with it. I mean, my wife has to hold me back all the time. We'll be coming into the staff meeting and I'll see some stuff wrong on the22:50 weekend. And she's like, Brent, they they remember. Here's what she does. They love you. Remember and she'll say, they're on your side. They're not your enemy. This is like, is it23:01 kind? Is it true? Is it necessary? I'm like, what's that matter? It's necessary. They need to hear it. And she then she'll pull the the bullet the ultimate bullet. She'll say, Brent, remember you're a preacher.23:15 So so was Paul. And he spoke what he thought. Now people like my wife, it's hard to have candid conversations with, you know, that's just their makeup. I love them, but they their23:27 ideas, peace at all costs. Sweep it all up under the rug. Never ever ever hurt anyone's feelings. Bed. Don't hurt his feelings. Don't tell him he's got a week to leave.23:39 That'll hurt his feelings. It's just about feelings. So they have a hard time with it. Last week, we had a sales guy that we're gonna buy something, and he didn't do what he said he's gonna do. And I said, I'm not buying23:50 from him. He didn't do what he he didn't uphold his end of the deal. I'm very easy to work with. Do what you say you're gonna do, and we'll do it. Right? And I said, Carrie, you need to tell him no, because he didn't23:58 uphold his end of the deal. I can't do that. What? Brent, it will hurt his feelings. I don't care. He didn't send me a Christmas card last year.24:10 He's probably not gonna send me 1 this year. I said, no. You take the phone. You be a big girl and you tell him no. I don't wanna know. I don't wanna know. What I don't wanna know. What if he got hurt us? She called and24:20 she is sweating over here. I can't buy it because He said he didn't do what he said. He's gonna do My husband said you didn't do what you said. And then he started getting24:32 kinda angry with her, and I I wanted to let her handle it. Okay? Just let her she finally got to the point where she was so upset with the guy. I'm Mister, I'm about to hang up on you. Did you feel24:44 that? I want you to feel how close I got to this red button. I'm I'm like, just hang up on him, you know? But for some people, it's difficult. And I wanna help you. If you gotta have a candid conversation with someone,24:55 think of it as clarification, not confrontation. See, confrontation, what do we do? We come in, we're ready to fight. I gotta confront someone today. Clarification is, oh, we we just clarify. So we're just getting clear25:05 on stuff. John Maxwell said that. He said that helps your tone. He he said this also too. Affirmation always comes before confrontation. So you wanna affirm. It's25:17 called the 1 0 1 principle. You know what the 1 0 1 principle is. Right? If you're going to confront someone or have clarification. The 1 0 1 principle is you have to take the 1 thing that you can find. Sometimes it's25:27 only 1 percent. 1 thing that you can affirm them with and you spend 100 percent of your words before and after on on the 1 percent. It's it's the conversation sandwich. It's like the bread, the meat,25:39 the bread. You affirm. You address. You affirm. Okay? And so that'll help some of you. But that's the that's the candid conversation to be held if we're gonna make it right. 3rd thing is this. There's a correction to be25:50 made. There's a correction to be made. You notice that Nehemiah said in verse 9, he said, what you're doing is wrong. What you know is wrong and he and there's a correction to be made. Correction is an opportunity for26:02 growth. Correction is also an opportunity to reject growth. I wanna tell you 1 of the secrets to I believe God using my life because I'm so unworthy, so unqualified. That's how I feel. Every day of my life, I26:13 wake up that way. If that God stops using me tomorrow, I'm gonna spend the rest of my life thanking him, because I'm unworthy to be used. But I wanna tell you that 1 of those secrets young people to your life is26:25 correction is an opportunity for growth. And correction is also an opportunity to reject growth. I've just been very, very correctable. No 1 wants to be corrected. Right? And I've never met an individual that says, I26:37 just you know what? I love in life being corrected. I just love it. It makes me feel great. No. It don't. We hate being corrected. And there's something in us in our flesh that wants to reject correction, isn't it? We26:47 wanna rebel against it. But I wanna tell you again, lean into that. If you got a parent that corrects you, if you got a teacher that corrects you, if you got a boss that corrects you. Lean into that. Okay? That's an26:59 opportunity to become better. Or it's an opportunity to cap off your growth. See the moment someone can't be coachable, he can't be corrected, they put the lid on their life and they cannot grow.27:11 Now everyone like it's easy for people to correct other people, but here's the real question before we move on to the other 1. Can you be corrected? Ouch. You know, it's 1 thing. We we correct some of it, but can you be27:23 corrected? When your husband says, hey, I think you're a little bit overboard on that issue. How do you respond? When your boss, when your teacher how do you respond to correction? That that really tells you your real27:34 heart behind it. Here's what Proverbs 12 1 says, whoever loves instruction loves knowledge. But he who hates correction, this is candid, is stupid. So you wanna lean into it. That's just the Bible's words. Alright.27:45 Number 4. If we wanna make it right with others, there's a commitment to be kept. There's a commitment to be kept. Look at the what the word of God says happens next in Nehemiah. He said, I myself and my brothers, my27:54 workers have been lending the people money and grain, and now let us stop this business of charging interest. You must restore the fields, vineyards, olive groves, homes this very day. You see what he does there? There's28:06 a commitment to be kept. He says, no. You're gonna give it back. You you you took it, but now you're gonna give it back. And then he goes on and says this, and you're gonna repay the interest you charge. That's costly.28:17 It's gonna be a commitment. He said, no. No. No. If you charge them interest, I want you to take it out of your savings account. I want you to find a way, and I want you to give all that back so that you restore28:26 everything, all their new wine, the grain, the oil, the olive oil, everything. Then they replied Then they replied, we will. We will. We will give back everything and demand nothing more from the people. We will do as28:38 you say. We will. See, there's a commitment to be kept. And now Nehemiah raises the commitment level and says, at all cost, get right with them. Yes. It's gonna cost you money, but make it28:50 right. That's the only way to restore God's hand of blessing upon our life. And until you make it right, we're not gonna be blessed. So give it all back. This is the commitment. And he this is a costly commitment. But29:02 yet Nehemiah raises the standards says at all cost, do it right. If you spend your life, by the way, treating people the way that Jesus treated you, that's a God honoring life. I mean, if you just spend29:14 your whole life just treating people the way Jesus treated you. See, we were enemies. We we were full of sin, yet Jesus treated us with love. That's what we should do. Everybody knows the great, you know, commission29:25 is to share the gospel with the entire world. But did you know that the great commitment is found in John 13 34? That you love 1 another as I've loved you. That you love 1 another. That you if you just29:37 love people the way that I've loved you. And I think we can all agree, he's loved us more than we could ever even put into words. I mean, we deserve hell, but yet he came and lived for us and died for us.29:49 He's loved and now God is saying, I want you to love other people the way I've loved you. John 13 35 says this, by all by this all men will know that you're my disciples. You wanna know who follower of Christ is? Who's29:59 the real from the faith? If you have love for 1 another. How you treat other people. You know, the Bible says that, God is love. Not just that he has love. You know, God has wrath.30:11 He has mercy. He has grace, but God is love. We are to be a reflection of that as followers of Christ. John 14 15 says this, if you love me, you will keep my commands. That's 1 of those verses that30:23 always scared me growing up. If you love me, you'll keep my commands. Like, I'm good until I read that and I'm like, oh, snap. Like, all my commands. Jesus, I love you, but I don't know if I can30:35 keep all my commands. I mean, that your command that that that is difficult. But look at this. Paul sums it up for us. He says, Galatians 5 14, the whole law.30:48 This is the the from this cover to this cover, the whole law. The whole law can be summed up in this 1 commandment. Love your neighbor as yourself. God cares how we31:00 treat people, and we ought to do everything we can do. We ought to be so committed to making it right with others no matter what. That ought to be our highest commitment. I was watching the, the last dance the other day.31:11 Have anybody watched that? It's the Michael Jordan, deal. Y'all watch that? Nobody's watched this? Okay. I was about to say, I'll just skip the illustration. All the winners in the room have watched this. I just saw 531:22 people's hands raised. You know what I loved about it? And those of you who watched it, you'll see it. And those of you haven't, check it out. This joker had a different standard, didn't he? And he rate his commitment to31:32 the team, commitment to winning was at a different level. And the team themselves said, none of us would have been this good had he not been on the team. That he had a way of pushing us and driving us and yelling at us31:44 and cursing at us when we would do wrong. But he was but he refused to lose, but he brought all of us up better. 1 of the coolest things about this, deal when I watched it was the Olympic, the Olympic31:55 team. They went to the Olympics and they gathered the best basketball players in the world at that time. I mean, you had Magic Johnson. You had Charles Barkley. Charles Barkley basically said there's not a basketball32:05 court I've ever been on, but I wasn't the best at until I got there that day. And they begin to play and y'all it was crazy competitive because you have the you you have all these alpha males, the best in the world32:17 playing on the same team. And it was a practice with an empty room in there. And they were beating Michael Jordan by 8 points. And Magic Johnson begin to talk trash to MJ. And he begin to say, this ain't Chicago. You32:28 know, this ain't the bulls. What's happening? And he said, I made a mistake when I said, it's gonna take Air Jordan to come back from this. And he said, from that 2nd that I said that, he began to just stomp us, slam32:40 dunk us, 3 pointers. It was just a landslide so much so that the 1 point of the film that, here's Magic Johnson so frustrating from being beaten by this guy that he takes the ball and just32:52 throws it in the, the empty auditorium. Just throws it. I said, they got on the bus and it was just quiet until he broke the silence. He He said, I guess I shouldn't have made the Air Jordan comment. And everybody33:02 started laughing and stuff. But he said, what I learned about this guy is his commitment level to winning just on a whole different level. Our commitment level to making it right with others should be on that level33:14 We should do whatever it takes to make it right with others, lest we block God from blessing our lives Now the next thing we see here is what happens is Nehemiah becomes governor33:26 They appoint him governor. Now he's gonna get a lot of perks. Okay? He's gonna get a lot of perks, but look what he does. He refuses to do what other governors before him had done. He saw that other governors before him33:38 laid burns on the people. He said, I refuse to. He said, other governors took the bread, the wine, and the silver that they were allotted. I refuse to. Other governors had their servants to really go out and rule33:49 over the people. He said, I refuse to. Other governors would stop working and they would just sit in their, you know, their seat in their palace and take care of me. Nehemiah went out. He was still working on the wall.34:00 Look what verse 16 says. He said, I devoted myself to working on the wall and I refuse to acquire any land. What he was saying is I could have made a lot of money off real estate. All these people were broke, poor. I34:09 could have bought up their lands, probably. I could have made myself rich and I was in a position to do so, but I would never take advantage of others. What we see here is that Nehemiah puts people 1st. He34:21 puts people 1st. The 5th and final thing if we're gonna get right with others is we must see here that there's a character to be copied. There's a character to be copied and his name is Nehemiah. I love how he puts34:33 his position 2nd. He puts his project 2nd. He puts the progress of the wall 2nd. He even puts the vision 2nd, but he always puts people 1st. He made himself a servant. Look at34:45 this. Verse 17 says, I asked for nothing. Even though I regularly fed 150 Jewish officials at my table besides all the visitors from other lands, he said, I paid for this each day. And he went through all the stuff34:57 that he paid for. Yet I refuse to claim the governor's food allowance because the people had already carried a heavy burden. Shows us there's a character to be copied. And notice that this what stood out to me is we said35:08 that he fed 150 people at his own table. Anybody ever had company over and it's like 2 or 4 people and you get ready for it all week? Right? Yeah. Like you clean you clean places. You ain't clean in 6 months. And then35:20 when they come in, you lie. I'm sorry. It's such a mess. Excuse the mess. No. And you've been cleaning for 4 days. That's for 4 people. Nehemiah is now 150 people35:33 every night out of his own pocket. You go by Outback for 150 people. Right? And he's doing it every night. He said, I don't wanna burden the people. I'm not gonna hurt them anymore.Show more In this video 0:00 Nehemiah's Call to Rebuild5:17 Pressure and Internal Strife11:45 Make It Right: 5 Steps to Restore Relationships35:47 Commitment to Love and Unity40:14 Servant Leadership and Salvation Call
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