I've titled my sermon this morning, The Importance of
Leadership and Sacrifice. Before I get into my sermon, I
just want to mention a few things about the nature of the
last few days for me personally, and I won't go into the details,
but as we all know, it's been a difficult journey for us as a
congregation for many individuals and things like that
and the stuff that went on and so on.
I was really contemplating, do I want to preach out of Nehemiah
and all of what's happened and so on.
You know, we cannot control a lot of it and it's been
difficult and, and so on. How do we navigate and process
this? Maybe I should preach on that.
And so those are some of my thoughts as I was contemplating,
as I was meditating and in prayer and thinking what would
be helpful on a service and a service like today to bring
togetherness to common focus and a common goal and so on.
What's the best thing to say and what should we do?
And as I was thinking about this and I was reading the chapter
and it seemed to just fit. It's a totally different
dynamic, different context there.
But there's a there's a parallel there.
I thought there is validity to preaching this sermon.
And so this morning we're continuing our sermon series in
Nehemiah. As I mentioned, all of us know
by now, perhaps that our church has undergone some serious
situations that we didn't see coming.
And so this this last week that really weighed on my mind.
What do I preach? And after much thinking and
praying and considering this, I just decided we're going to
continue with the book of Nehemiah.
Nehemiah Chapter 11 is a description of how the city of
Jerusalem was to some was to an extent depopulated, had been
depopulated after the destruction that had lasted for
over 100 years. But then God sends Nehemiah to
the city of Jerusalem. That's nothing more really than
a heap of rubble, the walls broken down.
And then we find in the Neo, in the passage of Nehemiah, how
Nehemiah reconstructs the walls. Some houses were reconstructed
as well, but that didn't fix the problem.
There was still something missing.
The people, the people were still missing.
And today's passage goes into how that was rectified or how
that changed. So I want us to to turn our
Bibles to Nehemiah Chapter 11. This morning, Nehemiah Chapter
11. And we'll read verse one through
verse 4. Nehemiah Chapter 11, one through
verse 4. Now the leaders of the people
dwelt at Jerusalem. The rest of the people cast lots
to bring one out of OK. The rest of the people cast lots
to bring one out of 10 to dwelt in Jerusalem.
The Holy City and 9/10 were to dwell in other cities.
And the people blessed all the men who willingly offered
themselves to dwell at Jerusalem.
These are the heads of the province who dwelt in Jerusalem.
But in the city of cities of Judah.
Everyone dwelt in his own possession in their cities.
Israelites, Priests, Levites, Nethanim, descendants of
Solomon's servants, and also also in Jerusalem dwelt some of
the children of Judah and of the children of Benjamin.
A bit of backdrop here. When Nehemiah was working as
serving king, the king of Babylon, he had received
permission from the king to go to Palestine, to the city of
Jerusalem and to rebuild its walls.
He finished the project in record short time through a lot
of opposition and resistance internally and out, but he stuck
to his task. He finished the job.
That was the job he came to do, but there was much more that
needed to still be done. The city need restoration in
many more ways than just that. The work had been done
outwardly, but now the inside of the city had to be also
restored. And that meant people.
We have read in previous chapters how they organized.
They had celebrations, they organized times of rejoicing and
repenting. They committed themselves to the
keeping of the law of Moses and to live in obedience to God.
But again, something was still missing.
The people were not living in the city.
One might wonder, well, why would anyone want to live in a
city that still was inside to a large extent just a heap of
rubble. The houses were broken down or
in bad Rouge pair in bad shape have been destroyed.
And not just that. Besides all of the disarray and
this and the the rubble and the broken down shacks and shambles,
what it might have looked like, we can only imagine.
It had a bad reputation. Jerusalem had a bad reputation.
You see, the bad in life is remembered long after it's gone.
People have memories, and not all of them are pleasant living
in Jerusalem. Why that city?
No, if it had been a great place to be, it would have been
packed. It would have been crowded.
Real estate would have been high.
But it wasn't. Nobody really cared.
It was an empty place, not attractive.
The wall was built, sure, and some houses.
When a When a place has a bad reputation, it does not die
easy. It had been called the Holy
City, and Nehemiah refers to it as the Holy City, but it hadn't
been holy for over 100 years. And he had rebuilt the wall.
The leadership were living there.
Jerusalem had been the problem had been the root of so much
sin, so much pain. And after a long time of
captivity for the people of of the Jews, the Israelites, they
finally had been able to go back and they settled the towns and
the villages and whatnot and lived in an agricultural life.
But now it's time now to go where it all happened.
God had pronounced judgement on that city.
Yes, he had had been destroyed, been in the disrepair for many
generations, but now it's time to change it.
Niemah had done a part of it, made at least made it secure
physically from attack and rebuilt the wall to a security
was there, but not attractive. Nobody wants to live there.
So how did they go about not just having a rebuilt city, but
a city that meant something, that stood for something?
Well, they decided to live there.
And so the leaders, they led by example.
It says in verse 1, the leaders of the people dwelt at
Jerusalem, the seat of power. It had been the seat of power.
Consequently, it had also been the seat of trouble too have
been destroyed. You know, often times in life
you go back to where the problems began to fix them.
It's important to note that leaders were living in
Jerusalem, not a reputable place had not been restored yet.
Yes, the wall was, but not the not the not the houses.
But they lived by example. These leaders not just say you
guys go live there. No, they first lived there.
True leadership does not just tell people to do something.
True leadership is about doing it themselves and being the
model. True leaders lead by lifestyle.
Jesus accused the religious leaders of his time, the
Pharisees and their structure. And he says you guys put heavy
loads on men's shoulders that you're not willing to lift with
a finger. But these guys in Nehemiah say
no, we'll live there. It was not risk free.
Sure, the wall had been built, the houses had been restored,
and while some houses have been restored, but it was still a
place of a lot of rubble. The other thing was the enemies
of the Jews had their eyes on it.
You know, it's interesting how people in society normally
choose carefully where they're going to put down roots, right?
Not at some place where it's all just kind of a rundown place
where, oh, I ain't moving that part of town.
It's not good neighborhood. I won't move there.
So and so lives there or such and such live there, the crime,
whatever. But let's think for a second.
How does God make bad neighborhoods good?
How does God make bad neighborhoods good when he
places good people into bad neighborhoods, when groups of
good people move to the place where nobody wants to be?
In this story, the leaders lived in Jerusalem, and if it was
going to be populated, they couldn't do it.
They started. They led by example.
For Jerusalem to again become a good place, good people had to
move in. Who wants to be the good people?
When people make personal comfort and convenience and
security their priority, that's not a good sign of walking with
Jesus. So how does a community become a
better community when people become good?
How do people become good when good people become their
neighbors? This principle holds true so
many areas of life, whether it's at work and the home and the
church in many places. I'm not here saying there's
never time to move. There is, but we need to
evaluate, am I moving because of the glory of God or because, you
know, it's too uncomfortable, it's too inconvenient.
I don't like it. Sure, the wall was built.
That part was nice, but still empty of people in broken houses
for the most part. The city needed people to clear
the rubble, rebuild, start businesses, a daunting task.
As I was thinking about this, I was thinking to myself, you
know, imagine a scene in heaven. Imagine this just an imaginary
thing, God in heaven having a conversation with his angels and
talking with him and saying, you know what?
I really would like that particular town down there to
become a good place where all my people would worship me and they
would say, but God, there's no good people living there.
No one fears you. God says, I know I'm going to
arrange it so my good people will move into that town, start
living out their lives for me as a witness in that town.
And I want you angels to go and touch some good people to make
that difficult town a place where they'll move to and
they'll worship me there too. And you say, yes, God, but
that's a hard sell. Most people on earth don't want
that. Imagine a conversation like
that. But isn't that the truth though?
And practicality? We who are Christians, we say we
love Jesus, we're with him, but then refuse to go where he sends
us. And I'm not saying we're not
children of God here, but how dedicated, how obedient are we?
How serious we are is evident with what we do.
Are we serious with our physical bodies?
Where we go when God calls a person to sacrifice to make a
change, he doesn't say, well, by the way, I'd like you as a part
time follower, part time commitment as a volunteer
follower. He wants us sold out.
Jesus taught us, lay down your life, take up your cross and
follow me. John 15 verse 12, it says this
is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
All right, Lord, send me some good people.
I will. No, His greater love has no one
than this, than he laid down his life for his friends.
OK, I'll give you a few days, maybe a few bucks.
He's his life. It's a very deep and powerful
concept. These of course does not explain
the exact nuts and bolts of all that he means, but that's for us
to flesh out and to to contemplate.
And how does he want me to serve whatever it is we have to serve
100%. The love for others always comes
out, whether it's there or not. If we it's seen, if it's not
there, what we do, it's seen. If it's there and what we do,
how available am I? These leaders, the nation of of
Israel, the Jews, the leaders in Jerusalem, they lived in the
city and they lived by example. But a community is not made of
just a group of leaders. It's a body that makes a
community. Some do one kind of work, some
do another kind of work and everyone has a purpose and says
in verse one Part B says the rest of the people cast lots to
bring one out of 10 to dwell in Jerusalem, the holy city and 9
tents were to dwell in other cities.
I find this little verse incredibly fascinating because I
would like there to be there and ask them.
So what's with this was a lots, man?
I mean, I don't volunteer. I ain't either.
Well, let's cast lots. He has to go.
I don't know if they did that or not, but they say they cast lots
to bring one out of 10 to dwell in Jerusalem.
Just don't start that here, right?
What an interesting way to go about getting people to move to
Jerusalem. I wonder how open we would be in
our day to that kind of a decision making to send out
missionaries or to send people to live in another town.
There are communities, face communities that literally do
this today in our time. I'm not kidding, but imagine
being one of them. I don't know if Jews still do
this to this day, but stories I've read years ago when they
would want to start a synagogue in another city, they picked 11
couples, 11 households. OK, you 11 people, you have to
move to such and such city, buy houses, get jobs.
And one, one was a rabbi, 1 didn't have to have a day job.
His job was to minister to the congregation and reach out.
That was his job. But the rest of them, they had
to feed the rabbi and that's how the whole thing would go.
A great idea, great, great system as long as people can
volunteer to do it or or want to do it.
But here they didn't have much choice.
They cast lots and just hope it hit.
Doesn't hit me right. Imagine moving you.
You're moving to a community because you're chosen by a lot
to do that. Getting to know your neighbors
and you would talk to them and say, So what made you move to
Leamington? My church picked me.
Really. That's commitment.
Almost feels like it's a roll of the dice, right?
Well, not quite like that. What it took from these people
before they cast laws, they had to have an attitude that worked
in that kind of a system. Usually that's where the issue
is. The inside these people could
not be self focused or self minded.
For this to work, it has to be a mindset that says it's not about
me, it's about something far greater than me.
In other words, these people had to be willing to sacrifice.
These people willingly sacrificed.
It does not say the people gave money.
They might have. It does not say they gave
supplies for the city. They might have.
They gave themselves as the lot fell on them.
And reasonably, there would have been numerous reasons why it
would not be wise to move to Jerusalem.
For one, they had their places. They didn't need to leave.
They had their jobs, they had their farms, their houses, their
agriculture, their flocks and their herds.
They did not need to move to Jerusalem.
Which one of us here today, don't raise your hands, would be
willing to sell their houses, to quit their jobs, to pack up
everything, move to a different town, find a job, buy a house,
start over. Just because I want to be a
missionary or I want to be a, in this case, repopulate the city.
The people that they earned their living differently than we
do today. They were basically farmers and
so on. For the most part, that was the
main thing. For them to leave all this
behind was asking for a huge sacrifice on their part.
And for those who moved, it was significant in other ways.
What about friends? What about my social
connections? You get it.
And on top of that, remember, Jerusalem ain't popular.
Nobody wants to live there. It's not like they're asking you
to move to Hawaii or to Cancun or someplace they're asking you
to move to, or telling you to move to a place that nobody
really wants to be part of. And true, the the wall had been
built, but still, this city had enemy eyes fixated on it.
Had for years, and now more than ever it was the seat of power
and leadership. And it's always the seat of
power and leadership that gets attacked first.
Somehow, it seems to me I would not want to live in a place
where that was marked on an enemy map somewhere in some
enemy war room bunker. Yeah, if we ever attack, we'll
attack that. I wouldn't want to live there.
Jerusalem had been in the past a place of where there's a lot of
trouble. Enemy kingdoms had targeted
Jerusalem, broken down the city, the walls, the temple, and
destroyed it. And after Christ, it did happen
again. Nehemiah does not say that
everybody was eager, oh, let's move to Jerusalem.
He doesn't tell us that. But the system they used to
decide was a very interesting one, decided to who would move
by a lot. They used the tithe principle in
doing this. For instance, they said we'll
cast lots and count off every 10, one of every 10, one of
every ten families would have to relocate.
What would happen to us if it happened to us today?
Granted, they were not asked to give up their lives.
That was not it just their livelihood or their way of life,
so to speak. As I said before, there's some
churches even today when they want to elect a new leader, they
pray, they have a meeting, they come before the Lord.
Lord, we need a new leader, another leader.
What do you want from us? And they pray some more.
They have a number of meetings. Then they say it's time for a,
for an election, time for a vote for nomination.
And they come up with one or two names and then they cast a lot.
The person who's it is it? I remember one of our conference
churches in fact talked to one of their leaders one time and
they said in their church, he said when we vote in a minister,
they we don't ask are you willing to serve?
We have prayed, we've discerned. We believe God has called you to
serve. This person doesn't think of oh,
now I can get to say no yet no, OK, If the congregation has has
discerned and prayed and voted, then I'm it.
It's not about self. I had a friend 43 years ago.
He and I got baptized together in the same day back in 1982.
We were friends. We've lost contact over the
years, met briefly here and there, but I remember him
getting married, raising a family and having a small
business. Was very involved in the church
he was part of, very active in ministry and one day they
decided they wanted to do. Send somebody out and he got
picked. I don't know how they picked
him, but I was kind of surprised, actually really
surprised this man did it. Gave up his business, packed up
his wife and children and off he went into a foreign country.
Just like that. The body had sensed the need,
that prayed, discerned he was it self supporting self,
self-employed man with small business.
Gave it all up went on a trip that's not unbiblical to do that
actually it's actually biblical Acts chapter 13 verse one says
now in the church there was an Antioch.
There were certain that was an Antioch.
There were certain prophets and teachers.
Barnabas Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene Manian
who had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch and Saul as
they ministered to the Lord and fasted the Holy Spirit said, now
separate to me, Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I
have called them. Then having fasted and prayed
and laid hands on them, they sent them away.
I wonder what kind of conversations they may have had.
I don't know, but I'm confident that personal conveniences and
comforts were most likely not on the list that were part of the
deciding factor. God's Spirit had moved.
They had responded and they obeyed.
They were in communion with God and says here the Holy Spirit
told them to separate to me, dedicate to me, and they did.
He had called them. This was God's calling, just as
it was in Nehemiah's time. God was working within the
structure of that day and age and now in the church age and
God's still working today, there was a clear sense and
understanding of what God wanted.
It was very clear this was not about Barnabas, not about Saul,
but about God's work that God wanted these two men to fulfill.
It was about God. A vessel is a container to put
something in. See, the contents are what the
vessel is for. The vessel is not for the
purpose of benefiting from the contents.
The vessel exists for the contents.
And you and I, we have the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit doesn't exist because of us.
We exist to serve Him. Are we that loyal?
Are we that committed? I want to say I trust we are,
but we have to examine ourselves.
In the early church, did Barnabas and Saul view
themselves as being called? We don't know.
We don't know if they felt called.
Just because a person doesn't always feel something does not
mean that it doesn't exist. On the other hand, Well, I feel
the Lord has called me. What's the body say?
It's always important to check. In the story of Nehemiah, there
was a sense of unity and oneness and all of this.
It says Nehemiah Chapter 11, verse 2.
And. And the people blessed all the
men who willingly offer themselves to dwell at
Jerusalem. That's another interesting
words. Yeah.
Good.
Good job. You just go.
You go. We'll stay here.
You just go. All right, All right, Let's just
go. I don't know if they said that
or if they did that, but to me, like, thank God, I'm not.
I'm not sure. Oh, why I'm so glad it didn't
hit me. That's not a good mindset to
have, folks. We should be as willing and
surrendered as anyone. And we should, we should be
still be part of it in a sense. All right, if you're called, I'm
behind you, I'm with you. Leaders lead by example.
The people are willing to sacrifice because they see that
and they are inspired by that. And then there's the blessing of
participation. It can't be easy for everyone to
just go up and relocate. We must keep in mind God has
even called everybody to do that.
But we're all plugged in. The wall was rebuilt, Outside
was safe, but inside there would be so much.
Then I can just imagine all the work that left to do.
Oh my goodness, how will we ever get those shacks back in to
modern standards and how we ever clear up that rubble?
How we ever get all this work done?
They said they blessed the people that participated in a
way. And I want to believe there's
much more that was involved in this.
Just this little piece here. But thinking to myself, if there
was some rundown city somewhere and God was saying, OK, I want
you to go and start a mission there.
I want you to go and witness to those people there.
Start a church there. I struggle.
I what I would do, I don't think I can say from a fleshly point
of view. I would have just wanted to.
I would have had to do some self crucifying.
Fallen down houses, crumbling structures.
That's not attractive. And besides bad reputation for
the city, maybe there is some rubble.
Places in our own lives, in our community, situations that need
to be embraced, that need to be dealt with, that need to be
brought to restoration. How do we respond when things
are a mess? There seems to be no joy.
Do we respond with surrender and compassion, commitment, or just
walk away? We need to ask ourselves serious
questions. There's an application here.
What do we do when we encounter hurting people, broken
relationships? Maybe even though they don't
want to be with us, this happens.
Do we still reach out? God has called each one of us to
do something in our sphere of influence.
God does want to use each one of us.
It is important that we have a place where we serve and that we
bless each other with where and where and where we serve.
So what is that God has called you and I to do in this passage
of the people who were relocated to Jerusalem, many of them
actually named. And this is an important part
here. We won't name all the, all the,
all the people here. I won't name that.
I can't read the names anyhow. There's so hard to pronounce,
but there's a lot of people that were named here because
Nehemiah, OK, this person, this person, this person, and so many
of those persons. And he describes what they do in
verse 10. He mentions the priests.
So priests were chosen from the surrounding communities and
cities and villages. Priests were chosen.
They all had a part in this. There's a long list of names who
are priests. The job of the priests was the
temple, the sacrifices, the offerings.
They were the religious leaders, the pastors and the deacons and
so on. God wanted had restored the
outside of the city. Now the inside has to get going.
The part of that restoration meant the restoration of
worship. They need a priest to do that.
They were handpicked too, by lot.
They moved in. Imagine having a nice well
built, well built home, maybe a nice church in your community.
Now you move to a city that's not that good.
Then in verse 15, we find the Levites.
They were also from the tribe of Levi.
The priests were from the tribe of Levi.
But the Levites in general, who were not priests were temple
workers. We could say maybe like deacons
and so on. They served as well.
It says in verse 16, the the heads of the Levites that
oversight of the businesses out of the business outside of the
House of God, there was work for everybody.
Running the temple ministries was huge.
The inside of the temple, it employed a lot of people.
The priests were working. The Levites had a job to look
after the temple grounds and take care of all that work.
A lot of physical labor was involved.
Then we drop down to verse 19. There's the gatekeepers of the
city. Cities in those days had walls,
as Jerusalem had a new wall. Then at a repaired wall, they
had gates, and the gates had to be guarded.
City gates are very important places.
They were closed that night and they served like a boundary,
like a border. People wanted to get into the
city, had to go through the gate, and the gates were
guarded. If the gates would not be
guarded, the city could be lost to attack.
Gates are very important, so the gatekeepers.
Nehemiah goes into a quite a bit of detail of who did what and
how the community of people were dispersed in the various parts
of the country. You see, there's no such thing
as a complete community doesn't exist.
Simply by being human, we're always in transition from one
phase of life to another, childhood to adulthood,
adulthood to middle age, from there to old age and those
phases of life. Life is always in process,
changing and changing, and people are being added and
people are dying and so on. In all of that, there's many
different occupations, many moving parts.
We all have roles one way or another.
And as we live and as we connect, as we participate in
our community, we're called to be somewhere and do something.
And Nehemiah's day, the need at the time was to bring security,
stability and community and prosperity into the city.
And they did that. No doubt it cannot have been
easy for some people in their respective roles to fulfill
their jobs. Again, the city was not in the
desirable state, uninhabited for many decades, generations
unpopular, bad reputations in shambles.
Things were going to change and they were going to change by
people moving in. And those that received the
blessing were those who were moving in and the blessing, the
doing the blessing was those the blessing, the sharing the
blessing with those who were not part of it.
So here in Nehemiah, the people were called up to called to give
up their places of residence, the economic, economic standards
that follow, the leaders relocate to help populate the
city. That began with the leaders.
They were at the forefront of the community.
They lived by example before they asked anything of the
people. Jerusalem had been a great place
at one time where everybody would have wanted to be.
Not so much now with the events leading up to Chapter 11, the
celebrations, the rededicating of themselves to God.
Now was the time to start doing physically what they had
committed to do in their hearts. You know, folks, that's often
times. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I will.
I will. I will serve.
I'll do. I'll do when.
Well, we'll see. And it never happens.
They were going to put their bodies way.
They're said their heart was most likely God will not call
you to just give up your job, sell your house, move away.
He does call some people, but we should live as if we're ready at
a moment's notice. And we sometimes say, oh, I want
to do what God wants. Really.
Or do we just want God's blessing and what I've decided I
want. God wants us to love Him with
all of our heart, our soul, our strength, and our mind.
In other words, all that we do is supposed to be focused on God
loving Him and our neighbor. When it comes to putting hands
and feet to what we say, we believe, often times that's
where the break comes. In Nehemiah, God directed the
leadership to take ownership and give leadership to the people.
The people responded willingly, relocating to move into the
city. Does this mean that all would be
good? No.
We will find later in the book of Nehemiah things did not work
out that well. There were issues that popped up
after this. Some of it was very good, some
good stuff happened, but there's some other stuff that happened
that's not so good. We'll follow that in the next
few Sundays. But see, that's life in this
world. If we're only going to do it if
it's perfect or if it's good, then we're already starting to
focus on the wrong things. God is gracious, merciful and
loving and so should we be. I want to bless each one here
this morning and anyone who's listening online.
God hasn't changed. God is still the same.
We must stay the course and ask ourselves what our motives are
for the actions that we take. We must ask ourselves if the
actions we take, are they for God's glory or for ourselves or
even just self preservation? Maybe, maybe you and I, we need
to do some relocating this week with our hearts.
Maybe we need to do some relocating with our attitudes.
There are people we know are hurting in our community.
Are we willing to help? At what cost?
May God help us as His people to you and allow Him to use us to
bring healing and hope and restoration to the community
where there's so much emotional rubble.
And let's pray for one another as we meet, as we visit,
trusting that God will use our efforts for his glory.
And May God bless his church. Let us pray.
Father God, we are so grateful that you do not change.
You're the same today. You were back in Nehemiah's day.
You're the same today. You were in the days of when
your Son Jesus walked this earth, the days of the apostles
when they sent, served. You send it, send out
missionaries. We pray this morning for hurting
people who are not sure what to do, where to turn next.
We pray for healing and restoration.
You are the great healer, Lord. You're gracious and merciful.
We pray that your spirit will restore the hearts of the
hurting and may relationships be restored.
We ask, Lord, that as we go into the week and meet with people,
may our love shine in our hearts and our homes, in our places of
work and wherever else we may rub shoulders.
We thank you, Lord, for your grace and your mercy.
In your name we pray. Amen.