Thank you Chrissy. Let's go to a Bible study. If you turn your Bibles to Nehemiah chapter 5. Nehemiah chapter 5. I'll tell you what, Nehemiah is a great book. I don't know what you think about it, but I really enjoy this book. Very good book. All right, we can meet a lot of applicants. Oh, they're all good books when you begin to start, right brother Tom? They're all good books. You say this is a good book, then you start the next book. This is a great book. Praise the Lord, right? That's God's Word, you know. Well, let's look here and tonight we're going to take a look at the leader. Let's take a look at Nehemiah tonight, okay? Let's look at chapter 5 verse 1. And there was a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brethren, the Jews. For therewith, that said, we our sons and our daughters are many. Therefore we take up corn of them, that we may eat and live. Some also therewith, that said, we have mortgaged our lands, vineyards and houses, that we might buy corn because of the dirt. There were also that said, we have borrowed money for the king's tribute, and that upon our lands and vineyards. Ye now, our flesh, it is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children, and lo, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants. And some of our daughters are brought into bondage already, neither is it, I'm sorry, in our power to redeem them for other men have our lands and vineyards. And I was very angry when I heard their cry and these words. Then I consulted with myself and I rebuked the nobles and the rulers and said unto them, ye exact usury every one of his brothers and I set a great assembly against them and I said unto them we after our ability have redeemed our brothers the Jews which were sold unto the heathen and will ye even sell your brethren or shall they be sold unto us then held they their peace and found nothing to answer shall we pray heavily father thank you lord for this passage of scripture wow Lord these people came from bondage in Babylon and look they've come to their land and they find themselves in bondage again And what I pray father help us Lord Even in local church help us to be kind loving to one another in Jesus name. I pray Amen. All right tonight is a interesting passage of scripture right here. It says take a look at the leader. I So as we move into chapter 5, Saint Ballad and his friends kind of recede from the view. And the chapter 6 is a subtle problem is revealed right here. So when conflict arises with the enemy, it is easy to spot the trouble and to effectively deal with it anyway. But trouble among the people of God is much more difficult to handle than outside. You know, I've been a pastor for eight years and let me tell you, sometimes problems within are harder to deal with than problems without. I'm going to tell you why. You say, Pastor, why? Just tell them as it is. It's easy for you to say. This brother is a conflict with this brother is a conflict. So, what is the goal of the pastor? Restoration. You don't want to shoot anybody. So you want to restore both. You want to get them to the same mind of peace. And that's forgiveness, right? All that. You don't want somebody to move this way. You don't want conflicts and arguments. So it becomes hard. It becomes hard. It's hard because you know what? We want to forgive one another, which sometimes is difficult. Some people say, I forgive you. The other one goes, eh, you know. So, you know, you have to have a heart of forgiveness. So you have to be there in the middle of it. And the outside world's a little different. The people outside the church are a little different. But inside the church can be hard sometimes, can be hard. I remember years ago, many years ago, oh, goodness, I was a young Christian. That was my first year as a deacon. We had a situation in our church that was not good. I was not even aware. The pastor has been dealing with this situation for the longest time. He found the need to consult with the deacons because he didn't know what to do anymore. So there were two families in the church and they weren't sitting on this side, they were sitting on this side. They didn't see eye to eye with each other. One cap asked, you know, I'm fine and I'll forgive you. The other one, I won't forgive you. There was this conflict constantly going on. So we bring them to the office, we talk with them in a very kind way, loving way. The purpose was not to tear anybody down. If you want to resolve something, you don't point fingers. You follow that? If you point fingers now, somebody's going to put their guards up. So if you try to resolve a conflict, you're just like, OK, everything is exposed. OK, all right, OK, we need to make peace. Three of them were ready to make peace. One person in that whole group was not. It was one of the wives, and she would not make peace. And they wound up leaving the church because of that. It was very hard on the pastor, very, very hard. But anyway, conflicts within. So we're going to look at the conflicts within tonight, OK? So internal, number one, if you want to follow the outline, internal problems are inevitable. Internal problems are inevitable. Verse 1 tells us that there was a great outcry of the people against their Jewish brothers. Look at there verse 1. Look what it says. It says, and there was a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brother and the Jews. So we can see there was a problem amongst them right here. So the fact that even the woman joined in the protest reveals that this was no small problem there. There was a great problem there. In verse 2, look what it says in verse 2. It tells us that people were running out of food. Look what it says. For with that said, we, our sons, our daughters, our many, therefore we take upon corn for them, for we may eat and live. so there was a great struggle there so there are many there are many families who had come from from captivity and it was necessary to get some more grain for these families to be able to survive but in order to get money for food verse 3 tells us that many of them were mortgaging their fields and vineyards and their homes look at verse 3 and some also they were with us said we have mortgaged our lands vineyards and houses that we might buy corn because of the dirt. So think about it. These people came from Babylon. They left everything behind. They come to the promised land. They knew it was not much there, but this is now it's supposed to be happening here. They were not supposed to happen this stuff, but it was happening. You know, problems within. Okay, so This is how severe the famine was. According to verse 4, when the note came due on the mortgage, the people were forced to borrow from their Jewish brothers. Look what it says. That said, we have borrowed money for the king's tribute and thereupon our lands and vineyards. So this problem was compounded by the fact that the Jews who had loan money charged exorbitant interest rates. And when the crops failed, the Jewish creditors took the property of their Jewish brothers and sold their children into slavery. And the Jewish people who had them taken advantage of felt helpless. Listen, this is from within right here, what they're doing to each other. So they cry out to Nehemiah because their lands now belong to another. Now, obviously, Nehemiah caught up on what was being said right here, that people had to invest some time and energy into developing their lands rather than working on walls. After all, you can't eat walls, right? You can't eat stones anywhere. The subtle argument is that they are spending too much time on building the project right here. landholder asked to do part with this this title deed to raise money for seed corn and taxes he is doomed right here so but this thing is in in all of this is that the end of the road that selling a man's children to slavery was forced on him by his own Jewish kinsmen right here that is sad to the point you have to sell your own kids to slavery see how desperate they were here goodness All right, I have one person that came to me in the church one time said to me, Pastor, can you loan some money and I pay your interest back? What do you say to that? I said, I'm not a bank. I mean, I'm not a bank. I don't charge interest. I'm not a bank. What in the world? So do you need money? OK, I can lend you money. But I'm not a bank. I'm not going to charge you interest. I can have two choices, right? I can give it to you, say, don't worry about it. Or I can say, all right, pay me back when you can, or pay me back within this time. But the charge interest and stuff, you know, like, well, goodness. But anyway, it's just me, maybe it's just me. So there's no perfect family, no perfect organization, no perfect church, right? Is there any perfect church? Is there any perfect family? All right, show me one because I'm going to dig the problems, okay? There's no perfect church, no perfect organization, no perfect family. Why? Because all the people that compounds that thing, they're all sinners. There's this particular truth in the local church. Satan will see that it is that internal conflicts arise. You know, like he's a roaring lion. He's always trying to instigate something, stir problems. And of course we sinners. All right. So what do you do? You get a phone call. Bastard. Yeah. Couldn't hear nothing tonight. Why? There was a phone on. This person was talking. This person was moving too much in the seat. What do you say? It's difficult sometimes, because sometimes you're out of words. You don't know what to say. Because there's one thing that I, for my years being a Christian, and you can understand this, and I'm going to tell you why. Well, my years being a Christian is what you have inside the church, okay? That's what you have inside the church. You have non-believers. Correct? You have brand new Christians that sometimes come from all sources of walks of life and are struggling immensely. Correct? And they need to learn. They have some Christians who are very carnal minded. And they have Christians that are very critical of others. And you have them all. And you have the spiritual ones who understand all this stuff. See, I think we have to be sensitive and kind and loving enough to understand that not everybody is in the same pace together. You follow that? Otherwise, there's always conflict. Okay. Look. Now, it is strange that some people, I put this on my Facebook, seeing that to be constant looking for the perfect church. And of course, these people fail to recognize that once they arrive on the scene, that church will cease to be perfect. Right? Now, of course, we want to keep internal conflict to a minimal level. But it is delusional to think that any organization will get to the place where internal conflict will be completely eradicated. You show me a house, you say, there's never a conflict in the house. And I'm going to call that person a liar. There's always something. You know how many times did you get up with the wrong foot out of bed this morning? Did you sleep in the wrong side of the bed? Did you fall out of bed last night? We always have those Monday mornings, you were like, what's wrong with you? So nobody's perfect, right? OK, so something in the church, too. He said, what's wrong with Lord John today? I'm just kidding, John. So, internal problems are inevitable. With His people, there are always going to be problems, always going to be problems. I'm not perfect, neither are you. Listen, don't look at me and say, my pastor is perfect. Listen, please don't say that. I'm far from that. Okay, praise the Lord for His redeeming, for His blessing, His mercy, and His grace, and His forgiveness, right? goodness and it is by the grace of God that we actually can serve together in the same local church listen look at us look at us look at I mean look around look around go ahead look around look out on the camera too so you can see those who are online okay look we're so different from each other Some are taller, some are whiter, some are skinnier, some are a little darker, some have accents, some come to defend cultures. But you know what? Praise the Lord, we can sit all together and serve the Lord together even though we're so diverse. And it comes with the unity of mind. listen listen even in a home or in an organization in a home you know it don't matter if you have mom dad kids you know what they'll think different they'll act different they'll respond different they'll react different right and it's by the grace of god everybody can be under the same roof okay that's point number one on okay letter a internal problems cannot be ignored I think a pastor makes a mistake if he ignores internal problems. Look at verse 6. And I was very angry when I heard their cry and these words. So and then I can then I consulted with myself and I rebuked the nobles and the rulers and said to them, uh exact usury over one of those brothers and I set a great assembly against them. So Nehemiah heard, Nehemiah took it in, Nehemiah pounded in his mind and said I talk with myself. I mean he doesn't have a double uh what do you call that uh personality over here and you know he's thinking he's pounding in his mind and he when he he came to his own conclusion he got angry. Sometimes, you know, listen, sometimes it is right to get angry, righteous anger. Sometimes you have to stand up with indignation and say, you know, this is the way it's going to be. Jesus did that, didn't he? Even the apostle Paul did that. But we're going to get to that, okay? So, Nehemiah, fortunately for his people, could still be shocked here. But you know what? It is amazing to me, in our day, the number of people that cannot be shocked by sin anymore. It is amazing to me the number of people who simply cannot find within themselves to give to righteous indignation about anything anymore. So they talk about, listen, we should be fully indignation when we hear about somebody saying, oh, it's okay if somebody committed an abortion. No, it's not. It is murder. I mean, I can go on all kinds of nonsense and we say, I would not stand for that. Listen, I love you in Christ, but I would not approve of your sin. And I'm not going to shove it under the rug and say, it's okay. You know, it's okay. No, it's not. so nehemiah saw this and he got angry okay so there's been a time when you heard of news of sin and respond like nehemiah said and you said i'm very angry you ever said that you ever heard something and you just like it just your blood pressure went up and you're fuming you're like like Popeye boo boo boo you know you're like really you know hot you know not mean mean and unkind and wicked or evil you're just righteous indignities I can't believe this is going on okay In Mark chapter 3 verse 5, when Jesus healed the paralyzed man on the Sabbath day, and people got upset about it, the Bible says that Jesus looked around at them with anger of being grieved because of the hardness of their heart. You see Jesus said, you know, you guys have hard hearts. When Paul was confronted with false teachers who were bragging about their efforts, the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 11 29 that Paul had a right to be indignant. I mean he was angry. We are all familiar with John 2. Jesus was was eaten up with zeal for God's house and he turned over the tables. it was righteous anger he got over there and he goes my father's house is a house of prayer not a house of business was jesus wrong no he was absolutely right so get this there are times when it is all right to get angry at sin And certainly love and forgiveness are right and proper, but it is all right to get mad at sin. Nothing wrong with that. Indeed, it was the anger of Nehemiah that motivated him to action. If Nehemiah went like this, oh well, you know, you guys fight for yourselves, they're fighting for themselves. The whole thing would keep on going. But Nehemiah saw that, he pounded in his mind and heart, and he said, this is wrong. This is absolutely wrong. And what he did, he rebuked them openly. Sometimes we get the idea that sin should only be rebuked secretly, but public sin should be rebuked publicly. Sometimes, you know, we get that idea. That is not what Nehemiah did here, especially because they were rulers and nobles. They needed to be rebuked before all in the presence of a great assembly. Look at what it says in 1 Timothy chapter 5 verse 20. Then the sin rebuked before all that others also may fear. You see, listen, private sin is dealt privately. public sin is dealt publicly. If there's a church member that humiliates the church publicly, should have the heart to come and ask the church for forgiveness publicly to the local church. Right? Because if somebody is going to humiliate East Bay Baptist Church, he's not going to humiliate the building, he's going to humiliate the people that is part of that church. So when a person generalizes, oh, that church, especially somebody that may have been here or is here, say, that church is like this and like this and like that. You know what they're saying? You, me, and everybody that makes part of that church, they are like that. I take offense in that, aren't you? OK. Now, that these rulers and nobles done, look what they've done. The words used here in verse 7 imply a strict business relationship. Look at verse 7. Then I consulted with myself and I rebuked the nobles and the rulers and said unto them, ye exact usury, every one of his brothers, and I set a great assembly against them. So Nehemiah charged, charged therefore, it is that these leaders were behaving like pawnbrokers and harsh ones at that instead of behaving like brothers. They were landing with the best cover and the worst motives. Certainly the law permitted men to take a pledge, but in hard times, exercising one's full legal rights could deal that blow to another man. That's a cruel trick to play on your brother. And Nehemiah brought this all out to the open. The word actually rebuke in verse 7 is a legal term word right here. Nehemiah in a very real sense was a public prosecutor right here. And when you compare these Jewish lenders had done against generous action of of others they look even like uh even shabbier right here but other jews had gone out of the way to help redeem their brothers who were in captivity and with these men not trying to sell sell back into captivity those who had been redeemed so these people came from from uh uh um babylon they left everything behind they got reading they came back to find themselves back in slavery What a sad thing. They came to living freedom and worshiping the Lord in freedom and all that. Now they're back in slavery. How sad is that? Now, obviously this was shameful activity and those who had done it could not say a word. When Nehemiah confronted them, when Nehemiah told them, when Nehemiah went right in front of them, they didn't have a word to say. You know why? Because they knew Nehemiah was right. they could only hang their heads in shame. There's no question that the thing that they had done was not good. But please understand that the big crime was not even that they had done to the people of God. The big thing was not that these men had failed to... I'm sorry. The big thing was not that these men had failed to fear society. The big thing was that these men had failed to fear God in here. Ought we not to walk in fear of our Lord every day? We are. How is it that Christian people can live in such a way that even the heathen view is as reprehensive here? Nehemiah is essentially saying that the same thing that Paul did in 1 Corinthians 5, verses 1-2, Paul said that the church is now saddened over the conduct that even the heathen find deplorable. And Paul could not let the condition continue. He had to take action against it, and so did Nehemiah. And so do we. If it's wrong, we act up, and we say this is wrong. We should not let one Christian brother or sister take advantage of another one. We should not. That is not right. Okay. Let's put it like this. Let's say Chrissy comes to me and says, I'd love to borrow some money. Can I borrow $1,000 from you? I said, sure. 30% interest. She's even laughing. And let's see. She felt so stuck. And then she said, OK. Am I taking advantage of it? Yeah, I'm taking advantage of her situation or her weakness. That's what's happening in here. You know, we shouldn't do that to our brothers and sisters. No. Because it's wrong. So let it be. We see internal problems are solved by example. We see this from verse 10 all the way to verse 13. So, in verse 10, Nehemiah disarms the rulers and the nobles by including himself in the charge. Now clearly, judging by his shock in verse 6, Nehemiah's leaning had been on a different term than theirs, but Nehemiah was beginning to realize that these days they're not called for loans at all, but gifts. And Nehemiah makes no excuse of disclaiming for himself. Adjusting had to be made, and he would lead the way. So when restoration needs to be done, there's only one time to do it, and that is immediately. Follow that. Restoration is to be urged today. Don't wait another day to do what you can do right now, what you can do what is right right now. So we are seeing in this passage that repentance ought not only to be public, ought to be done immediately. He didn't ask them to go home and pray about it. He asked them to do it now because it was the right thing to do. See, many years later, Jesus would talk to another man who had to extract money from others in an immoral way. And when the grace of God touched the heart of Zacchaeus, he immediately volunteered to restore all that which he had been taken away from people. And that is all Nehemiah is doing here. He's like, no, don't go home and pray about it. Don't go home and think about it. You do it right now because you know what you're doing is wrong. And Zacchaeus did that. Listen, it goes like this. How we apply this to practical today, don't take advantage of your brothers and sisters in the local church. Don't do it, because it's wrong. Don't take advantage of them. Listen, if a brother is so destitute that he doesn't have anything and come and ask you for maybe money or something, don't say, oh, I'll do this, but... Listen, if you can't give it, just give it. If you can't give it, just give it. All right, so a brother comes to you, or a sister comes to you, and say, I don't know, I keep saying pastor, let me say pastor, okay, I say pastor, can I borrow $500 from you? I'll give you $1,000 a week from now. So you know the person, you know how needy they are, you really think, they're not even gonna have $500 to give you a week later, might as well give you a double the price. I say, you know what? There's not a place right there to take advantage of it. We should never take advantage of a brother. Listen, we are brothers in Christ. We should love one another, not take advantage of one another. So you have two things to do there. You either say, okay, that's me. Maybe, you know, maybe you don't think like me. This is what I would say. You know what? Pay me when you can. Or pay me in a month. Or pay me a little bit at a time. Oh, you know what? Okay, just forget about it. Just a little blast you with that. But I tell you, I would never charge interest to anybody. You say, Pastor, you're wrong. Okay, so I'm not gonna argue with you about it. But I would not. I never have, I never will. See, one final thing Nehemiah did was he give a visual aid right here. Nehemiah took his own garment and shook it up, and Nehemiah said that God would shake out every man from his house and from his possessions if he did not fulfill his promise. The man who refused to keep his vow would be empty and shaken, just like Nehemiah's garment. But this is even more than a visual aid here. This is an act of condition conditional judgment compared to the Old Testament prophets. For an example, it reminds us of Elijah's errors in 2 Kings chapter 13. It reminds us of Jeremiah's broken flesh in Jeremiah 19. It reminds us of Paul shaking garments in Acts chapter 18. So Nehemiah placed himself in this too, and using his own code right here, Nehemiah is saying, God judge me too if I don't act right. This is a great lesson that you and I can learn from Nehemiah. One of the reasons why he was successful in handling a very intense and difficult situations that he exemplified by his own life and he asked others to do as well. He used his own personal action to illustrate obedience to God's law and that he went a long way. So internal conflicts is inevitable, internal conflicts cannot be ignored and internal conflicts is solved by example. How we solve it? By our own examples. So number one is the internal problems are inevitable. Number two, good leadership is a must. Good leadership is a must. I don't care what organization it is. I don't care. Listen, any place, a church, a home, a business, good leadership goes a long way. Good leadership, now I do what I do or else. No, no, no. We lead by example. That's good leadership. If you say, you know what? We need to clean the church. You know what? You might find your pastor clean the church too. That's good leadership. That means my pastor is not above everybody. He's not better than anybody. He's willing to pick up the broom or pick up the vacuum cleaner and do it. That's good leadership. I believe that. We lead by example. so good leadership is a must now we as we have moved through the book of nehemiah we have examined nehemiah's leadership skills we have seen nehemiah deal with the verbal attacks of the enemy we have seen nehemiah deal with the brutal assault of the enemy and we also seen nehemiah deal with the internal conflicts and he had risen among the people perhaps the entire bible in the entire bible there's no better case study of what it means to be a leader than here the book of nehemiah But most of what we know about Nehemiah's leadership is gained by looking at a narrative right here. Very few times in the book does Nehemiah pause to give us his own personal philosophy of ministry. But in this text we have one of those rare times here is the the principles that nehemiah viewed to be important for leadership all right let's look at them number one letter a it is the responsibility of leaders to lead look at verse 14 moreover from the time that i was appointed to be the governor in the land of judah from the 20 years even until the two and 20 years of exorcist, I'm sorry, the king that is 12 years, I and my brethren have not eaten the bread of the governor. you see there are 13 different words translated governor or governor in the Old Testament this particular word is one that means a deputy right here the idea of one being over a people and yet under a superior it was a mid-level management position right here so Nehemiah was under the king and yet under the king he was responsible to govern a particular people so now it is it is vitally important some people fear exercising authority okay but sometimes they fear exercising because they are afraid of failure some people don't want to be in positions of authority because they don't want they don't want to fail listen if you don't if you're afraid to fail you never try anything you follow that oh Some people are afraid of going to try to drive a car. Why? I don't know. I might get into an accident. I don't know. I might not be able to turn the car. That's all fear. Fear of failure. Right? And some people are afraid to go outside when it's snowing. Why? Because they're going to fall. Well, at least fall. Fall down and get up again. I mean, just being silly. But anyway, some people, they don't want no place of leadership because they're afraid of failure. Now, this is a visual importance. Some people fear exercising authority. They fear that. They fear exercising authority because they are afraid of failure, like I said. Sometimes they are afraid of exercising authority because they are afraid of the accountability that goes with authority. It is. When you're in a position of authority, a lot of things go on top of your shoulders. Right? And you have to say, okay, this is what we're going to do. Some people are afraid to do that. They don't want to hurt this, and they don't want to hurt that. They don't want to hurt this person. What's this person going to do? Listen, do you think sometimes I'm afraid? Yeah, go like this. Yeah, but you know what? Somebody's got to make a decision. Let's do it. And you go like, oh, Lord, please help me. I'm going to go along the way. You know? But you know what? You've got to move on. You've got to do it. But don't listen, leaders are not made out of steel. They're not cold hearted. Listen, if you lead by example, you're going to love your people. And you look back to the people, you care about them. And sometimes there's certain issues that you have to do on what you like. Oh, I don't know if I'm doing this right. But you know what? We got to make a decision here. Which one we go? Pastor, you ever made a mistake when you make those decisions? Yes, I regret it and should go back and, you know, if I could go back and fix it, I would. You know, see some people shy away from authority because they simply do not want to add responsibility. I hear this all the time. Oh, you know, I just want to come in, do my thing and go home. That's it. I hear that in the workplace all the time. I just want to come here, clock in, and clock out. No worries. Until they make a mistake. And now they're like, they don't want to worry, they want to blame somebody else. I said, they don't want leadership in anything. I'm telling you. Okay, some people, some Christians have banned reason that the exercise of authority is somehow wrong and inappropriate. They have read verses about Lord, lording over God's inheritance, and have twist such verse to mean that any exercise of authority is wrong. But of course, this is a failure of reasoning. It is true that God does not want us to be lords over His inheritance, but in the same God, you said, do not lord over God's inheritance, also said, take the oversight thereof. 1 Peter chapter five, verse one to three. So, you know, it's not like we take, Listen, it's not like we're taking possession of this thing, but somebody's got to lead, right? We have a music leader. We have a sound room leader. We have a pastor that leads. Somebody's got to be, you know, somebody's got to... Otherwise, nothing moves. Imagine if everybody... Who's the leader here? Oh, I think that one is. Oh, I think that one is. I think Little John is. Okay. See, by definition, leaders lead and governors govern. That is the part of their job. Nehemiah recognized himself for what he was appointed to be a governor, and from 445 to 443 BC, a period of 12 years, Nehemiah governed. Even though there was a greater king over him that did not mitigate against Nehemiah himself exercising authority, And many times Christians feel that if someone messes up, we just allow God to deal with them. After all, God is the greater king. But my friend, the way that God wants to deal with situations is through human agents. For example, in Romans 12, 17-13, I'm sorry, 12, 17-13, verse 4, God does not want us to take the law in our own hands. But that does not mean that the situation is left untouched. It is to be handled through properly appointed rulers who are the ministers of God to execute wrath. So it is the responsibility of a leader to lead. Follow that? Okay, letter B. Leaders care and love those he leads. You believe a leader should love their people? Leaders should lead with the interests of people in mind, not their own financial interests. The king gave Nehemiah a liberal food allowance, and it was part of his expense account to the official entertainment. Nehemiah however choose not to use it this expense account even though he was entitled to it and if you look down at verse 17 and 18 you can see that this would have amounted to a sizable amount of money look what says in verse 17 moreover there were at my table 150 of the jews and rulers beside those that came into us from among the heathen there are about us and verse 18 it says in now that which was prepared for for me daily was one ox and six choice sheep and also fowls that were prepared for me and once and once in ten days store for all sorts of wine yet for all this required not I the bread of the governor because the bondage was heavily upon this people." So Nehemiah refused to be a burden to the people. This was remarkable proof if any Was neither than near my entire entire ministry was a labor of love now merely a job He loved the people listen this man went to jerusalem To build the walls because he loved the jewish people This man was dealing with his spiritual condition because he loved the people and i'll tell you what listen a pastor Is to love his people I'll do my thing and I'm going home. That's it. No, that's not that's not a pastor a Pastors to be a shepherd. No. Okay. Do you ever see a shepherd to give sheep? We never see real sheep besides in the petting zoos never see sheep besides being a petting zoo You guys need to go to other countries to see some you know, but a shepherd is cares for the sheep. Even Jesus talks about that. While a pastor is an under shepherd, there was people in the church that need care, some more than others. But if you don't preach with love, if you don't talk with the people with love and care, I'm sorry, but you're not a good leader. You have to preach in love. You have to teach in love. You have to talk with love. You have to care for the needs of people. Do you want to solve all of them? No. But you have to show that you care. And Nehemiah is one of those guys. He was there because he loved the Jewish people. The Bible says that there sought to be the thinking of a leader. The Bible says that leadership ought to be taken not by constraint or for filthy luke, 1 Peter 5. Now these verses are not written for the congregation, I understand that, but I have to say we can make some application here. Now let's look at letter C. leaders should be aware of previous history look at verse 15 but the former governor that had been before me were chargeable unto the people and had taken of them bread and wine beside 40 shackles of silver yeah even their servants bear rule over the people But so did not I because of the fear of God. It's interesting that Nehemiah knew what his predecessors had done. He knew that his predecessors had been charged with. Nehemiah's predecessors had taken full advantage of their perks and brought them into a state of rebuke right here. Nehemiah vowed not to make the same mistake. Listen, I'm going to be honest with you. a pastor knows everything about the congregation, individually, right? Because people trust them, trust the pastor, and go talk to them, and they talk because they feel comfortable, you know, about pain issues of life, about victories of life, and these things. A pastor, see, we know that a pastor knows the history of their people. It would be very wrong for a pastor to take advantage of those people. Nehemiah knew about the previous man that was there and what he did. He said, I'm not going to do that. Letter D. Leaders must function with fear of God. Nehemiah makes it clear that he did what he did because of the fear of the Lord. Listen. I see this word. Many people misunderstand the word fear of God in the Bible. They think that God is just, you know, they're going to do something mean to them or something. Listen, He is our Heavenly Father. If you are a Christian, it's a relationship between a father-son, a father-daughter. God doesn't want to harm us. God loves us. So the fear of the Lord is the reverence, the awe that I have towards him a few years. So Nehemiah did what he did because the reverence, the awe that he had for God. He had the ultimate so much respect for God that he said, you know, I'm not going to do this. This is one thing that I always do. And Brother Tom prays for that all the time. Everybody gives, right? Or whoever gives. It ties in offerings. You know how hard it is to use that money that is sacrificially given by God's people? And some of them, I would say, sacrificially given and use it carelessly? If we use it carelessly, it means we have no fear of God. Or no fear means like no respect, no reverence for who he is because we know he's given sacrificially. But when we use it, say, Lord, please help me. How can I use this? Am I doing the right thing? You know what you're showing? Showing reverence for who God is, respect for who he is and respect for God's people, too. So leaders must function with the fear of the Lord or reverence for the Lord. I heard some pastors say, I am the pastor. I can do what I want and say what I want. No, you can't. You are under God and you have to do what God wants and say what God wants. In 1 Peter 5, 4, Peter reminds the pastor that there is a chief pastor. Even the shepherd has a shepherd. And any time that the fear of God is lost in the mind of a leader, that leader will abuse his office. I notice in verse 19 that Nehemiah had a God in his thoughts. Look at verse 19. Think upon me, my gods, for good according to all that I have done for this people. He was aware of the... He was aware of the Lord. There are many leaders who don't want God's scrutiny because they know what they have done to the people of God, but Nehemiah invited. Nehemiah knew that what he had done for the people of God would receive a well-done, good and faithful servant. That was Peter's point in 1 Peter 5. If we abuse the God's flock, how can we hope to be rewarded by the chief shepherd? But if we have functioned well, we will receive the crown of glory that doesn't fade away. Leaders need to function with the fear of God or reverence for God. Now let me tell you this. Sin is to be rebuked, but not to chase people away. You follow that? Listen, let me put it this way. All of us are parents here, right? When you rebuke your children in the Lord or rebuke your children in love because they've done something wrong to you, you didn't rebuke them for them to leave the home. You rebuke them because they were wrong. You try to correct them so they can say, I'm sorry, I was wrong. Right? I mean, they're going to make their choices. Don't get me wrong. But, you know, when you do that, you're doing love. You're doing love because you love them. They did something wrong. And you correct them. What do you correct them in love? How many of you, after the correction, went and hugged them and say, I love you? Why? Because you care about them. And you know what? I like that thing that says that those who love you will tell you the truth. That is true. Sometimes what happens is we don't want to hear the truth because the truth hurts. And we're too stubborn to admit it. But let me tell you this, in here is this, a leader is to fear the Lord or have reverence for the Lord, but we should never, you know, let sin go away. We should stand up and say, listen, but the person needs to take it too. When we refuse rebuke, we are showing that we are not mature enough. Look what it says in 1 Peter 5, verse 5. Letter E, and we'll get to the end. Leaders should have good work ethics. Look what it says in verse 16. So it was Nehemiah's job to supervise the building of the wall and to motivate his servants to build the wall. himself roll up his sleeves. The reason all of the servants were getting to get into this work was because Nehemiah himself continued to work on this wall. So now Nehemiah said, okay, this is what you did. And he sat around, gazed at the sun. Nehemiah got involved in the work as well. That is a good quality of a good leader. A good leader is not one that just, but one that said, okay, yeah, let's get into work. And he does it himself. Isn't that great? Lead by example. So now people ought to get a sense that their leader is a worker. They ought to feel that he is adequate earning his paycheck. Get this, good work ethics are hard to find these days. Listen to one thing that I never like to hear is somebody come to me and say, you are lazy. I don't like that word, because I'm not. First of all, I don't want to hear that. You see, we live in a society in which work fascinates many people. They can't stand and look at it for hours. Leaders need to have a good work ethic. Good people ought to have good work ethics. I think it fits in every Christian, that a leader should feed God's people. You know what is the problem today of many pulpits? becomes a place for political insights and for comedy. Listen, if I want to hear a politician, I go find one and listen to him. If I want a comedy, I can go to the comedy club and listen to a comedian. But if I come to God's house, I'm here to what? To listen to God's word. You know, God's word got to be teached and got to be preached. That's the reason why we go to church. I want to hear. I want to be rebuked, Pastor. I want to be encouraged, Pastor. You know, Pastor, I want to know how I should love my brother that doesn't love me. Pastor, I want to know how I can forgive those who don't forgive me. Pastor, I want to know how I get a walk away from gossiping and lying. Pastor, preach to me. So a good leader or a leader should be one that be able to preach and teach. The Bible even says that. Unfortunately, we come to church today is a comedy clubs and is places where we talk about politicians. You know how I say about politicians, when you vote, vote biblically. That's it. You get your Bible and vote biblically and you'll be fine. I don't have to tell you, oh, you got to vote for this. Oh, you got to vote for this. If you don't know how to vote, bring the ballot, I'll vote for you. I had a pastor one time that said that. I was like scratching my head. I was like, did I just heard that? If you don't know how to vote, bring the ballot, I'll vote for you. And if you don't know, I teach you how to vote. No, no, no. That shouldn't be that way. You know what? Get your Bible. We people of the book, right? We people of the book, get the Bible, read, study, and vote biblically. I tell you what, you will be good every time. Listen, I have my standards. I do have my standards, and I want to vote for somebody that represent me from what I believe. And if no one is there to resent me the way I believe, this is what I do. I put my own name there. I said, well, that's silly. Okay. Call me silly. Okay. Then I'm silly. See, but you know what? Leaders should feed God's people. You should be able to teach and to preach God's people, not just in the Pope, but outside the Pope. When the service is over, what do you do? Oh, I did my job. I'm going home. That's not a good leader. That's not a good leader. By the way, I'm usually the last one to get out of this church almost every time. No, I do that because I love you. I like to listen to you. I like to be involved in your life. I want you to know that my pastor loves me, and I do. You know what I say to you? Pray for me and I'll pray for you. Let's close this tonight about leadership. Leadership is a great responsibility to have. Leadership demands a lot of responsibility. Actually, it comes with responsibility. Leadership demands a lot of those who lead. It comes with a trade. Nehemiah is an example of how leadership should be implemented right here. Nehemiah was a man of a positive mind and a man that loved God and loved his people. He definitely was a man of prayer and a man of faith. That's qualities of a good leadership. Listen, we ought to love the Lord, all of us, but we have to love people. I even said this here before, you know, in this church, people should know when they come visit us, that we love the Lord and we love people. And when they walk in, they feel like love. They say like, wow, this place is warm, it's kind, the people is kind here, it's loving. That should be that way. It should. May we be as a church, maybe a church that love people and care, love God as well. Well, leadership definitely comes with a lot of responsibility. Praise the Lord for those who are in leadership. Let's pray tonight. Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, so much. for this passage of scripture. Lord, I just thought what you laid in my heart. Lord, maybe somebody can do a better job than me on this passage. But Lord, I have the words that you put in my heart, and I thank you for it. I pray for my brothers and sisters here tonight and those who are online, Lord. May we take the consideration, Lord, and if we were in a place of leadership and any leadership of any kind. Let's love you first and love those we who are we are leading in Jesus name. I pray amen