Well, greetings, Inglewood. Good to see everybody here.
For those who are here, thank you so much for coming.
And I mean that I'll say more about that in a moment.
For those who are watching online, we're so thankful that
you were able to join us. For those who could not be here
on Friday night, we have a good, great crowd here.
I just want to say thank you for coming at such short notice.
Also, just want us to share our appreciation to the worship
team, to greeters, to everybody who's who's helped pull this
together. Your staff has worked very, very
hard and I appreciate them and, and I know you do too.
So thank you for that. Let me share just a couple of
important words with us. There are a couple of mission
trips still coming up. If you've been here for
Wednesday nights, you know, I was talking about our trip to
Uganda and our trip to Iraq are both that we've got good teams
going, we're going, there's no problem, but we have a couple of
spots open and if you're interested in that, the Uganda
trip is coming up very, very quickly.
So you need to see me or Cassidy for March 21st through 30th.
We need to know about that pretty quickly.
And then the Rocky trip is April 24th through May 2nd.
Incredible trips with important ministry.
Both of these are safe places, wonderful places to go, dear
friends of mine that you'll be working with and just hope and
pray that some of you could still go on those.
I know several of you are going on later trips and I appreciate
that very much as well. Listen, I just, I'm, I'm so
thankful for you all. I'm, I'm a little overwhelmed by
tonight. I appreciate it.
Had no idea what was going to happen tonight and just again,
so appreciate that, you know, you are an incredibly awesome
congregation to me. And in fact, I have proof.
I have proof because because it says right here that this
pastor, this pastor has an awesome congregation.
Can I get a name in? Can I get a name in?
Can I get a Hallelujah? I'm telling you, I wear the
proof as I believe it. We're having an awesome time
because God is so awesome. Turn to somebody sitting next to
you and say God is awesome. He really is.
And he is an incredible, incredibly awesome plan for us
that no little snowstorms going to stop.
And so we just look forward to what he's going to do.
So just think about our next face to FaceTime, which I'm
pretty confident we'll be able to gather a week from Sunday for
sure. And, and think about being back
in your connect groups singing together.
And we had a new member presentation.
Listen, we got a whole bunch of people.
We got a backlog of baptisms of people who need to get baptized.
And so just a lot of things to celebrate.
We're excited about your kids being in kids ministry, learning
and growing with those incredible ministries.
And I know that some of the kids are here tonight with us and in
this setting or they're sitting in your living room right now as
you're watching online. But this weekend before you rush
out to either look for snow because this is North Carolina,
or you're having a snowball fight or you're you're going to
go sledding or slipping down a hill.
Are you going to make a snow ice cream or a snowman or you're
going to go out and make snow angels, which of course, in my
world, I call those snow tresses.
Thank you very much. Good to see everybody.
I'll be at the door signing autographs.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
For those of you who need to come to the marriage conference,
take notes. So I listen, there was a little
testimony earlier when Jordan was sharing about the East Coast
men's Bible Conference about are there any single men and can
single women come? And so that was another
conversation we were having right before I got up here.
But that's a that's a whole nother thing.
So I do want to stop and let's pray about seriously about the
weather because there are people who are out in there.
One of the things you all may or may not know, some of you
probably know this well, some of you don't know this, especially
those of you who are newer. We do, our building is used as a
shelter. So one of the roles that we play
at Inglewood is we work with Nash County Emergency Services
and the Red Cross. And so Pastor Jean Davis has
been working with them. There's a big generator Outback.
So especially the Lewis Building becomes a shelter for those who
need it. And so just be praying that a,
we don't need it, frankly. But we're also so thankful for
the people who are out and helping people.
And just so you know, your church is right in the middle of
that. And we appreciate Pastor Jean
for leading that, that charge and working with those great
organizations. So let's just pray about the
weather. Let's pray for people who might
find themselves in a, in a, in a tough spot during these winter
days who don't have shelter, who don't have warmth.
And so let's just go to the Lord for a second.
Father, we're so thankful that we could gather safely and
warmly in this place here. I pray that those who are
watching online are doing the same thing.
But Father, we also recognize in our community there are those
who who maybe don't have that opportunity.
And so Father, we do pray for them.
I also especially lift up our first responders who are will be
working, who'll be out there, people who will be in accidents,
people who are going to suffer from the cold, people who are
going to have medical emergencies.
So, Father, we thank you so much for all those who are working so
hard to keep us safe and to keep people safe.
Father, I do pray that we have no power outages.
I pray, Father, that it'll be a beautiful snow where we
celebrate your creation, perhaps, Lord, but that it will
be something that we can actually enjoy and celebrate and
not have to worry about. So Father, we thank you for
that. I do pray, Father, you'll speak
to us through Your word. As we look at Nehemiah and we
keep moving through this book together, Father, there's a very
important message for us. And so I pray that we'll pay
close attention now and just speak to us in Christ's name,
Amen. So I want you to go to Nehemiah
chapter 5. This really is an important
message. I shared what I'm about to share
with you 2 weeks ago. I'm very aware.
I, I haven't, I haven't lost that cognitive ability yet, but
I was asked by a few people to share it again and to put it on
a slide, frankly. So I just want to repeat this to
you. If a person, this is a euert
ISM, so to speak, it's something that I've I've had hanging my
office and something I've taught people over the years.
But if a person can possess biblical common sense or wisdom
and they can retain objectivity, that means to see and focus on
the big picture and they can keep their own ego and pride out
of the way humility, they will serve well in the Kingdom.
But the problem is one of these key ingredients is almost always
missing. So wisdom, objectivity,
humility. If you were to be honest with
yourself, how would you rank yourself in those areas?
Which is my stronger area? Which is my weaker area?
What? What is, is the thing I need to
work on the most? A dear friend of mine, and I've
shared this story with our staff, but a dear friend of mine
that we will see on the Brazil trip, who's the president of the
Brazilian Baptist Convention. He's a true level 5 global
leader. And I would, that's a, that's a
holy, holy title for me. I, I could name those people
I've met on one hand. And Fernando Brando, who we will
go see, we were eating dinner one night and he, he was talking
to me about leadership because I, I, I went down there every
year to, to work with his leaders.
And he said a man was holding a seed in his hand and, and he
asked others what they saw and, and one man said, I see a seed.
Another man says, well, I, I, I see a tree.
And Fernando said, the one I weren't working with me is the
one who says I see the forest. So proper vision, faith and hope
are important things for us. Nehemiah possessed this wisdom.
Nehemiah possessed this objectivity.
Nehemiah possessed this humility.
And he models them for us as he sought God's restoration.
And so as we move through this series together, this is an
important lesson for us, especially today, because you
got to remember that many of his people, many of the Hebrew
people, had just spent decades in exile.
And others that were actually there had been left behind from
the exile. And so these were people who had
years of struggle that marked their life.
And it drove them. It drove them as they sought to
exist and they sought to move forward in some new way from the
ruins of their past. They carried legitimate past
hurt. They carried legitimate past
issues with them. And it resulted in a stunted
present at times and a clouded future for many of them.
And maybe as you're listening to this that describes you, maybe
your life is marked with similar struggles.
Real hurt, I mean, real hurt, legitimate hurt.
Not just stuff you've fabricated, not just stuff
you've embellished, not just stuff you've overreacted to, not
just stuff you've dramatized, but real hurt, real need from
your past that that still has an effect upon your present.
It hinders, it distracts, it might even prevent you from
embracing what God's future is for you.
So, so this message is for all of us with the past.
Some of us have a bigger ones than others maybe, but but it's
all, it's a message for all of us with the past.
It's for all of us who are working to figure out our
present. It's for all of us who are
seeking A hopeful future. So this is important for us.
Nehemiah 5 is going to teach us how we might just need some new
goals. We might just need some fresh
priorities. We might just need a proper
perspective. And so as we look at Nehemiah
chapter 5 verse one says this. Now there arose a great outcry
of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers.
That's an important sentence. Notice who they're who they're
complaining about. They're not complaining about
Sambalit and Tobiah and the Arabs and the and all the I TS,
the Philistines or whoever. It's not the outside people
they're complaining about. They're complaining about their
own people. For there were those who said
with our sons and our daughters, we are many, so let us get grain
that we may eat and keep alive. There were also those who said
we are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards in our houses to
get grain because of the famine. And there were those who said we
have borrowed money for the King's taxes on our fields and
our vineyards. Now our flesh is as the flesh of
our brothers. Our children are as their
children, yet we yet, yet are. Yet we are forcing our sons and
our daughters to be slaves. And some of our daughters have
already been enslaved, but it's not in our power to help it for
other men have our fields and our vineyards.
So this is a hard part of the story, and there's a few points
we want to make out of this and apply to us today.
First of all, as our emphasis can't simply be on ourselves.
That may seem like an odd thing to say after what I just read,
but it'll make sense in a minute.
They were in a very difficult, historically unique situation
after the exile. They'd never been through
anything like this. The closest might have been the
Exodus out of Egypt, but but this was a very different time.
And as they were walking through their transition from the past
to the present to the future, there were some very difficult
things going on. It was a hostile environment.
It was, there were tough physical things going on,
circumstances and people were hurting under the strain of
life. People around us all the time in
our community who are hurting because of the strain of life.
And, and what was making matters even more complicated is more
and more and more people were coming.
More and more people were coming out of Babylon.
More and more people were being born.
You got to recognize that some of these people had been there a
long time already. So new kids were being born and
children were being reborn there in Jerusalem, in the area.
And to make matters worse, some of their own people sought their
own agendas for their own benefit.
That happens in life, doesn't it?
Where people around us, people we would consider our own
people, seek their own agendas. They're only thinking of
themselves that that they don't have that humility.
They don't have that objectivity.
All they do is think of themselves.
And that might, that might sound a whole lot like this current
culture. Frankly, it might sound a whole
lot like the life that you now experience.
They were physically, financially, emotionally,
relationally and spiritually strained.
This was a very difficult time and they were experiencing
famine because the fields hadn't been worked.
You got to think about it. The fields hadn't been worked
properly for years because of the exile.
And also now that they're back, they got to build a wall, they
got to build a temple, they got to re re fortify Jerusalem.
They don't have time to go out and farm the fields, and so
there's a famine going on. So food was scarce, money was
scarce. So some of the wealthy, some of
the wealthy Jewish people were taking advantage of the
situation for personal financial gain.
That's what was going on. And the people cried out to
Nehemiah, not about their enemies, but about members of
their own community. They weren't just hurting
because of what the external world was doing to them.
They were hurting because of what was happening internally
among their own people. Jews were exploiting Jews,
causing this great misery. We need food.
We have to mortgage everything to have any money to buy it,
which means then we have to borrow even more money to pay
our taxes. There are people I know living
this way. They have to pay the taxes to
the Persian king. So the Persian kings were
notorious for charging massive amount of taxes.
Of those they conquered, they'd collected in coinage.
They'd melt it down into bars and they stored it back in their
capital, a place called Sousa. When Alexander the Great
conquered Sousa, he found 340 tons of gold and over 1500 tons
of silver. Now kids, you all ask your mom
and dad later how much money that is, how much allowance
should you get to equal 340 tons of gold and over 1500 tons of
silver? King Artaxerxes was one of the
worst. He he, he taxed even even
heavier than some of the others on both property and the
harvest. So he might have set them free,
but it wasn't free. There's nothing free about it.
So there could be as high as a 40% interest rate from these
land over land owners. So they fell prey to to
basically loan sharks who are making huge amounts of money on
their misery. And these loan sharks were
Jewish people. It wasn't like it was the
Philistines coming in to do this wasn't the Ammonites or the
other Termites. It was the Jewish people doing
this. So it what happens is to survive
this, to be able to pay their debts, they had to sell
themselves. They had to sell their children
into into basically debt slavery.
Now, could you imagine? Could you imagine doing that to
your kids? I'm telling you, in the world
today, it's still going on in the world today.
Debt slavery still exists. Slavery still is thriving all
around the world in different places.
This is still happening in the world today.
And so the people basically become these indentured servants
to one another and they're saying, Nehemiah, we need help.
Maybe that's your cry today. I, I, I have so much going on in
my life right now, emotionally, relationally, financially,
spiritually, Man, I got a job I hate.
I can't get along with my spouse.
My kids are driving me nuts. I, I don't have enough money to
pay what I got to pay. That might be your life for
somebody. You know, we need help,
Nehemiah. We need somebody to show us what
to do and to help us. Our brothers are selfish.
The rich exploit the poor for profit and the result is this
miserable situation. So selfishness like this, it
defies the formula that I repeated earlier.
See that selfish, there's no wisdom in this.
There's no objectivity in this. There's no humility in this.
Self focus at the expense of others is very dangerous.
In fact, this is the root of most sin, all the way back to
Genesis chapter 3. A theologian once wrote.
To consider persons and events and situations only in the light
of their effect upon myself is to live on the very doorstep of
hell. If I just use people, I'm just
using people for my benefit, trying to manipulate
circumstances for my benefit. We've got to remember our
essentials of discipleship here at Inglewood.
Those essentials include we're to unite in fellowship through
hospitality and authenticity, and we're to commit to service
with generosity and compassion. So selfishness leaves no room
for that kind of qualitative growth.
Can't make disciples. Well, in that kind of
environment, how could a people move forward?
How could if some, if some of them are only in it for
themselves and what they can get out of it, how would they ever
be able to move forward? So instead of being disciples
who love God and love others, they love themselves and what
will profit them. They're selfish and it makes
others miserable. But here's the the key, the
twist to all this, It not only makes other people miserable,
but in the end it's going to make you miserable too.
In the end, your selfishness will cost you when you when all
you end up with is yourself, your own wisdom, your own
opinions, your own perspectives, and your own pride.
Your prize is extremely temporary selfishness.
Any profit gained from selfishness is lost in eternity.
That's why the Bible says in Mark 836.
For what does it profit a man to gain what the whole world and
forfeit his soul? Kids, if mom and dad say no to
you, with several kids here, some of you listening at home,
listen closely. If mom and dad say no to you,
it's probably the best thing for you.
And here's what I want you to do.
And so when they tell you no, I want you to say to them, thank
you for loving me. Now you all figure that out
later at home. I think that'd be fun.
Let's see how that goes. Send me.
Listen, let's give Send reports. See taylor@inglewoodbaptist.com
We'd love to hear back from you. How did that go right last week
when I said turn to somebody and everybody's listening online.
I've one family I heard about. They were all high fiving each
other in the in the living room. So we'll see how that goes.
Because our emphasis can't simply be on ourselves.
We got to make disciples who love God first, love others as
themselves. Look at verse 6.
This isn't to Nehemiah's response.
I was very angry when I heard their outcry in these words.
I took counsel with myself, and I brought charges against the
nobles and the officials and said to them, You were exacting
interest. Each from his brother and I held
a great assembly against them, and said to them, We, as far as
we are able, have brought, have bought back our Jewish brothers
who have been sold to the nation's, but you Even so your
brothers, that they may be sold to us.
And they were silent, could not find a word to say.
So I said, the thing that you are doing is not good.
There's the understatement of the Bible.
Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God to prevent the
taunts of the nations, of the nations, our enemies?
Moreover, I and my brothers and my servants are lending them
money and grain. Let us abandoned this exacting
of interest. Return to them this very day,
their fields, their vineyards, their olive orchards and their
houses, and the percentage of money, grain, wine and oil that
you have been exacting from them.
Then they said, We will restore these and require nothing from
them. We will do as you say.
And I called the priest, and made them swear to do as they
had promised. I also shook out the fold of my
garment, and said, So May God shake out every man from his
house and from his labor who does not keep this promise.
So may he be shaken and emptied. And all the assembly said, Amen
and praise the Lord. And the people did as they had
promised. See, our emphasis can't simply
be on ourselves. But the second thing we see here
is we desperately need accountability.
As human beings, we desperately need accountability.
We don't like it, this world chase against it, it preaches
against it, but we desperately need it.
Nehemiah was furious when he heard of this sin.
It made him miserable. He suffered in misery himself.
And so he had to take time to seriously think about a
response. If you read this passage and the
the idea in Hebrew is, is his his heart needed to be ruled
before he spoke. He needed to step back for a
minute and think about this. In fact, one translation would
say that his heart consulted with him.
He, he had to process this. He needed to get control of
himself. He was so upset, not in some
emotional fit, but in righteous indignation.
But he knew he had to respond in a certain way because this hurt.
It struck deeply in his heart. And so this was about the way
they were treating one another and not just this conflict with
these outside pagans. Think of the testimony a divided
people. Think of the testimony that
sends out into this world. There are moments in ministry,
my friends, when you shake your head.
There are moments in ministry when you just shake your head
and you got to strengthen your heart.
You got to step back for a minute, process it when you hear
a fellow believers treating one another this way.
The lead in ministry requires the heart of a child, the mind
of a scholar, and the height of a rhino in today's world.
Nehemiah was disturbed, he was saddened, he was upset.
He needed a moment to gather himself.
I got, I got, I got, I got to have a moment, God.
And then I want you to notice. Notice how these chapters, if
you've been following along in this Nehemiah study at all.
If not, you can go back and see this.
These chapters are contrasting anger.
So last time last week, the enemies were intensely wrongly
angry, raging mad about what the Jews were doing to rebuild.
They were selfish in their desire.
They were selfish. They wanted to retain control.
They wanted to fight with their earthly power and control.
They were mad because they didn't get their way.
I don't know if you've ever met a human being who got mad
because they didn't get their way.
Now, you parents at home, talk to your kids about that too.
Tell them no and see if they thank you.
I just want to hear about that. But in contrast, here we see
this godly leader righteously angry.
Angry. This is strong word for anger,
but not because of what will or will not benefit him, but about
what hurts God and brings misery to his people and a horrible
testimony to the world around them.
And so he's hurt because it's distracting from God's purpose,
from his calling. These people were being hurt by
sin, both, both those who were victims of it, but Nehemiah knew
also those who were committing it.
When you commit sin, you're hurting yourself.
And as we learned back in our help series some months ago on
midweek, the, the Bible doesn't say don't be angry.
It says to be angry, but don't sin.
Sometimes we ought to be angry. Sometimes we ought to be angry
about sin. We ought to be angry about
injustice. And Nehemiah got his heart and
his head together. He got it under rule, literally
the Hebrew, he got it under control.
And, and you're going to see in his response, he focuses upon
what would God say and upon what God does say in his word.
What, what, what a godly leader, what a practice of a godly
leader. He, he, he, he's, he's very much
involved in moral indignation, but he doesn't simply react or
overreact with emotion. He pauses.
What does God say? What does God's word say?
What do we need to do about this?
And he shares what God says about the issue.
So he gathered them all up in the assembly, gathers these
businessmen and these politicians and all the people,
and he talks to them about their hardship.
And he says, this is you're responsible for this, this is
wrong. He rebukes them and he rebukes
these these wealthy Jewish oppressors for their
selfishness, for their greed. They're violating the Torah.
They're violating the Mosaic Law by what they're doing.
They were charging fellow Jews interests on loans.
This was clearly specifically forbidden in the Law of Moses.
There are several places you could see this.
I'll just read out of Exodus 22. It says if you lend money to any
of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a
money lender to him and you shall not exact interest from
him. I mean, it's about as clear as
you can get. They're violating the law.
As the commentator Warren Whistby says, both the people in
the land belong to God and he wouldn't have anybody using
either one of them for personal gain.
We're his, we're not each other. We don't get to you.
I don't get to use you for what I want.
You don't get to use me for what you want.
We've got to focus on what God wants and what his word says.
I mean, listen, they were even selling fellow Jews into debt
slavery to non Jews and then buying them back for a profit.
And this, this is actually specifically against the law.
You can go back in Exodus 21 and this is specifically against the
law. So emphasizing only yourself and
what might profit you and not what God commands, always going
to lead to problems. This is what I want.
Well, that's not the question. Question is, what does God want?
So, so so Selfishness LED their steps, not a reverence for God
or his Word. So for now.
Now maybe we cut him some slack. Perhaps they had been away in
exile so long that they'd forgotten.
In exile, they might not have been able to study the law as
much. Maybe they'd forgotten.
Maybe they need to be reminder, reminded and restored to proper
obedience to the Word of God. Maybe they had been so far away
from it that they'd forgotten what God said.
They'd been removed from temple worship and they'd been removed
from the sacrificial system for so long that maybe their memory,
maybe their knowledge, maybe their love for the law had
diminished. And so that's the most benefit
of the doubt that I think we could give them.
But maybe, maybe they felt it was time though, for them to put
themselves 1st to get what they could get.
I'm going to get mine. Everybody else getting theirs,
I'm going to get mine, man. I hear that out there.
I'm going to get mine. I hear that in sports even.
But they were putting themselves right back.
You got to pay attention to this.
They were putting themselves right back into the position
that caused the exile in the 1st place.
And this is part of the problem. One of the reasons Nehemiah so
mad is because greed was one of the sins the prophets warned
them about and denounced to them before the Babylonian exile.
And so here they are just repeating the same sin.
Listen to I could quote Isaiah, I could quote Jeremiah.
Listen to Amos, therefore, because you trampled on the
poor, and you exact taxes of grain from him.
You've built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not dwell
in them. You've planted pleasant
vineyards, but you should not drink their wine, for I know how
many are your transgressions. And how great are your sins, you
who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe and turn aside the
needy in the gate. So accountability for past sin
was demanded is for us too. They were right back in the same
cycle of repeating the same old sin.
I don't know how many of you are trapped in that.
I find myself I this, it's almost like it's, I'm just, I'm
just living out Romans 6 and Romans 7.
I'm doing the very thing I don't want to do and I've done it
again. I don't want.
That's not what I but I'm doing it again.
I'm just caught in a cycle of sin.
And Nehemiah says you got to stop.
You got to stop for God's sake. You've got to stop for the
people's sake, and you got to stop for your own sake.
You can't keep bringing the same sin from the past into your
future. It's time to stop.
You can't keep bringing the same sin from the past into your
future and expect to fulfill what God wants you to do.
This is a new day, it's a new chapter.
It's a historically unique for them.
For us, it's the same way. We're in a unique historical
moment with a new future. We got to confess, we got to
repent, and we got to replace. So leave that miserable rubbish
back there, Nehemiah says where it belongs.
Stop trying to build on it. Don't.
Don't carry it into the future. Don't carry it into his future.
Not that stuff from back there. It's not going to create the
foundation that you need to build your life on.
Remember past mistakes. We were talking about this and
staff. Remember the past mistakes.
Learn from them. File those lessons properly and
then don't repeat them. That's what you do.
Learn from them. We've all met anybody here ever
made a mistake? Raise your hand if you ever made
a mistake, kid. You ever gotten in trouble, say
yes, some of you are older kids. That was good.
That was good confession. Listen, we've all made mistakes.
Listen, we got to learn from them and we got to file those
lessons properly where we can pull them out and remember them.
And then we've got to not repeat them, but praise the Lord
because no matter how far away, no matter how long ago, no
matter how, how, how long ago it's been, it's never too late
to return to obedience and to return to the love for God and
his word and his will. So true restoration is just his
grace and our obedience away. That's, that's the step.
It's just his grace and our obedience.
That's the formula. And he's ready to give that to
you. So using his authority under
Persia, Nehemiah steps in and he orders the greedy to stop it, to
stop their usury, to stop this interest and return taken
property. Property.
Now, if you know anything about the Old Testament, basically
what he's called for is a modified year of Jubilee for
some of you, you'll know what that is.
In Leviticus 25, it talks about it where debts were to be
forgiven in the 50th year, every 50th year, land was restored to
its owners, servants were set free.
This was to balance the economy. It was to balance so that the
rich wouldn't just keep getting richer and the poor just keep
getting poorer, and to prevent sin, such as selfishly
exploiting the poor. So the businessmen pledge, if
you notice, we're going to do what we will do as you say,
Nehemiah. And and you got to give them
credit throughout the book because most of the time that's
what they say. Yes, Sir, we'll do what you say.
But Nehemiah took it a step further.
You got to pay attention to this part.
He, he took it to a more formal place to where they had to swear
an oath before God and the people, because it's easy to say
that you're going to do something, but he's going to
make them prove it. It's more binding, more lasting
when you have a whole bunch of witnesses and accountability for
your life. Do not miss this lesson.
We need accountability. Now listen to me.
This is part of the testimony. We desperately need
accountability. This is part of the testimony of
making a public profession. This is part of the testimony of
public baptism. We won't do private secret
baptisms because we need the whole church in the world to see
this testimony, not just so you'll be blessed by it, but so
that the person being baptized in a sense is testifying on the
level of accountability to the church and to the world of
saying I'm identifying with Christ.
It's a big deal. And so basically, I've been
saved, I've been forgiven, and I'm making this new commitment
and the power of the Holy Spirit to live for him.
I'm accountable to the Holy Spirit, see.
And so next Sunday, I believe it, I believe it, you're going
to see people get baptized and do that.
And so it's not just so we'll be blessed and we cheer them on
because when we do and we should, and it's wonderful to
celebrate with them, but it's also they need that.
You need that. If you've never been baptized
you and you've trusted in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior,
you need that. We need to help them remember
and it helps us remember it's of what's going on.
We, we need each other to be our witnesses.
We need each other for accountability.
We need each other for that encouragement.
And so, so sometimes when we don't remember our commitment,
somebody needs to say, remember your commitment.
You need that person there. Why do you think I scream so
loudly and so regularly about, guess what, Connect groups and
100% because we need that as human beings, not just members
of Inglewood. Listen, I'm not trying to pad
numbers on a roll, but when I talk about church membership and
connect group participation and 100% participation in the core,
it's because we need these relationships.
We need to make the connection between what the church is
supposed to be and our desperate need for accountability as a
testimony to that world out there.
And so being in a connect group can help for you to have those
accountability relationships which are vital for you.
You need that community around you.
They see you and simply don't want that.
They know you. A lot of people really don't
want that. And, and, and they're going to
help remember you and they're going to help you remember what
you ought to do. They're going to help you walk
the line. So I hear those who say, I've
heard it too many times. I've heard people, I mean,
people even make appointments with me to make a big deal about
it, to, to argue with me about these things.
And I, I, I, I've heard people say I don't need that.
I don't want that. I'm doing just fine without that
in my spiritual growth. I do not believe that.
I will never believe that. I will never believe you're just
fine on your own. I will not because there's
nothing in this book that testifies to that.
And so in fact, what I want to say, I don't see.
I say it secretly later to myself and to God.
What an arrogant, selfish, silly and I'll informed thing to say.
You're cheating yourself and you're cheating others.
Now listen to this. This is very important.
You don't care about you. Listen to this part.
You're not just cheating yourself, you're cheating the
others who would benefit from your presence or they would
benefit from helping you. You're robbing them of their own
discipleship. You need them and they need you.
They need you to need them and vice versa.
I hope that made sense. So this is listen, and this
isn't just me guessing, it's not just me researching it.
And, and even beyond scripture, I can't tell you the number of
people Teresa will testify. I have.
I've had several friends, several colleagues, several
people in ministry who've had moral failures, no longer in
ministry, no longer serving. And I talked to them because
they're friends of mine. They often come to me for help
when these things start collapsing around them.
And, and this is one of the most consistent things those who fail
admit they used to say and believe about themselves that I
didn't need anybody else. I don't need accountability.
I'm great on my own. And and they'll they'll confess
they also knew it in their heart that that was wrong and they
needed to change. But their pride and arrogance
prevented them. Remember the formula.
There's almost always something missing.
We are created with the need from the very beginning for
relationship. You defy not be the most
important sentence. I say those listening online,
pay close attention, get your pens ready.
You defy your very created nature when you avoid
relationships. You're defying how God made you.
You're defying, you're defying being created in the image of
God when you defy relationship. We've got to recognize how
important this is. We need the godly ones and
hopefully the church can provide that.
Hopefully, hopefully, hopefully, hopefully, please, hopefully we
can do that. So Nehemiah seals their
commitment. He places a curse.
This is great about the Old Testament.
You get to do curses too. In the Old Testament.
He curses anybody who breaks the commitment, right?
Maybe that's what we need. When you start figuring out
Jordan, we need some curses. Let's figure out some curses in
in the in the discovery Inglewood classes.
If you don't do this, maybe that's what we're missing.
Is that what we're missing? Maybe that's what we're missing.
A good curse every now and then. Is that what we need?
You are a little too eager for that.
That's a little scary, a little bit scary.
But anyway, it was common in that day and time to symbolize
the recognition of accountability and the curse, if
you forgot it, it was a normal thing.
And one of the things that they did is they would shake the dust
off their sandals or off their lower rope.
It was just a symbol of it. We're, you know, we're getting,
we're, we're casting you off, right?
And so, and so that was a symbol.
And so Nehemiah prayed that God, and he did this for the enemies.
If you'll remember this, remember he, he, he, he prayed
that God would remember the sins of the enemies last time.
God. Nehemiah also prays that he
would remember them, his own people, if they failed to live
up to the covenant. So the people witnessed the
proceedings. They approved with praise.
They approved with a loud Amen, which means so be it.
And so they were, they were willing to do this.
And so why? And how we use our
relationships, how we use our influence, how we use our
energy, how we use our giftedness, how we use our time,
how we use our resources, all matter.
It's the stewardship of the totality of life that we're
talking about. It's a major part of our
discipleship and we are accountably so don't force God
to shake his robe at you about to be a scary thought for God to
dust his sandals off. And as the people said, they
they all agreed and they said, Amen.
So you turn to somebody right now and say, so be it.
Now kids, if you're sitting at home right now, listen to this.
I want you to scream at the top of your lungs right now.
So be it, have your parents call me.
It'd be great. I just want to hear that result.
We'll get something on Facebook about kids screaming.
So be it. That'd be great.
But we got to confront selfishness.
We got to condemn and confess sin.
We got to be accountable to God, this word, and to godly friends.
That's part of what the church ought to be about.
So say the same thing that God says about sin.
And this is the way we move forward.
Look at verse 14. So, moreover, from the time that
I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah,
from the 20th year to the 32nd year of Artaxerxes the King, 12
years, neither I nor my brothers ate the food allowance of the
governor. The former governors who were
before me laid heavy burdens on the people and took from them
for their daily ration 40 shekels of silver.
Even their servants lorded over the people, but I did not do so
because of the fear of God. I also persevered in the work on
this wall and we acquired no land and all my servants were
gathered there for the work. Moreover, there, there, there
were at my table 150 men, Jews and officials, besides those who
came to us from the nations that were around us.
Now what was prepared at my expense for each day was 1 ox,
six choice sheep and birds, and every 10 days all kinds of wine
in abundance. Yet for all this, I did not
demand the food allowance of the governor because the service was
too heavy on this people. So we want to avoid selfishness
and the way we want to move away from sin is is we certainly need
around us some examples of selflessness.
We want to be one of these examples.
Just a, a brief word or two here.
Nehemiah worked hard to fulfill God's mission and to care for
the missionaries along the way as well.
And that's important. He served as an example.
He served as a model. In the earlier passage, we
already read that Nehemiah and others who worked with him,
we're setting the proper examples of lending money and
providing grain in the right ways without any kind of
interest. And so his behaviour actually,
it was sharply contrasting to those who came before him.
The governors who came before him made people pay stuff.
They had to pay local taxes to support the governor and so he
or they had to provide supplies for his administration.
And, and this was, this was a normal expectation.
He had the right to for that expectation legally, but he
surrendered personal and positional rights for what was
better for his people. He sacrificed for them and my
friends, for our future. We have to surpass old normal
expectations in this historically new normal context
and moment. We need to, we need to be
examples. We got to let go of personal
privilege. We got to let go of of of
personal privilege for the privilege of service to others
and create that new normal. So Nehemiah focused not on that
which would most benefit him, but on that which most benefited
his people. And he fed hundreds.
Look at you see that he fed hundreds at his own table at
personal cost. He didn't use his position to
exploit exploit. He used his power to serve
thousands of animals throughout his term.
You're talking about entire herds of animals were used over
his years of service to feed people.
It was expensive, but this was the lifestyle of a servant
leader. Service used to give, not to
seek to get. Then look at verse 19.
So we get ready to close, remember for my good, Oh my God,
all that I've done for this people sounds kind of selfish,
doesn't it? But it's not.
What he wants is God to just remember the example that they
needed to learn. So to avoid selfishness and move
away from sin, we need these examples.
And then finally, we need to experience the blessing of
service. Nehemiah ends this with prayer,
just like normal. He was seeking that the Lord
would remember him because he wanted the people to learn and
remember the example. He did what he did to please God
and by doing so, he was also blessed by God.
And that's the way this works. So, so we don't commit good
works to be saved. We know that.
We've talked about that before. You know that we do good works
because we are saved. As a pastor recently in
Washington DC wrote, he says you're not earning the smile of
God. It's not for sale.
It's done, it's finished. You can put that away.
So what's the Christian life now?
He writes it's the process of fighting for an unrestrained
intimacy that Christ purchased. I am not earning his smile.
I'm fighting to enjoy what He's already given me by grace.
So expect God's eternal blessing when we serve Him for Him and
His people and His promises. So, so, so as we close, we got
to ask some questions. What am I trying to get out of
this life? Am I so, am I so much in hurt?
Am I so strained? Am I carrying such burdens from
back there that I can't even focus on what's over here?
We got to learn to let that go. So what am I trying to get?
What am I trying to put into this life?
What am I trying to get out of this life?
What am I trying to put into this life?
Why do you breathe, why do you exist, and who do you want to
be? The old Lakota Nation or the
Sioux tribe had a word for The White Buffalo hunters, and the
word they used means one who takes the fat because it
referenced a form of genocide. Frankly.
It referenced those who were greedy and wasteful.
It refers to killing a Buffalo and then just taking the tongue
or some real small part of the animal and allowing the rest of
the animal to just waste away and decay.
And the Lakota depended upon the whole animal for life, and they
were being robbed of that. And so their word was the one
who takes the fat. We need to be really careful.
Let's not waste this incredible gift of life.
Let's not waste this incredible gift of salvation.
We serve an awesome God who has an awesome plan for us.
And, and so don't just settle for the fat or the tongue.
Don't seek simply what you can get for yourself.
We need each other. You need the church, We need
accountability, we need one another.
It's time for you. Perhaps whether you're sitting
in this room and thank you so much for being here, or you're
sitting at home, or maybe you're listening to this as you drive,
someday it's time for you to make a public commitment to
Christ. For some of you, that might be
salvation. For some of you, that might be
baptism. For some of you, that might be
church membership. For some of you, it's 100%
participation in this plan, a commitment with accountability,
something that matters for eternity.
You're never too far away. It's never been too long ago for
you to make that decision, to make that choice.
Listen, listen to me, don't tune me out yet.
Quit holding on to mistakes from your past just because you took
a long time making them and you're used to making them.
Give up the cycle, give up that pattern.
Let him replace him with grace and forgiveness, and then join
us here at Awesome Inglewood to build his future.
Now what we're going to do is we're going to enter into a time
here, but also I pray with you online into a time of, of, of
response and a time of reflection.
So whether you're in this building right now or you're
online, this is an invitation for you to give back to God what
he seeks from you that that might be your salvation.
The pastors are going to be here at the front and we want to talk
to you about that after the service.
If you want to talk to someone more, you can go to our we'll
make sure one of the pastors hangs around the next steps room
tonight. But but we're also going to pass
the place like we normally have started doing at this time, not
necessarily to get your money. And if you're a guest here
today, put a put a next steps card in there for those of you
who need to register for the Valentine's of that prime time
or Valentine's Day, Put, put your card in there.
But but but to pass that plate as a moment of worship, as a
moment of recognition, some of you need to come and you need to
know at these steps and give your life to Christ.
Some of you need to say, I need to join this church.
Some of you need to make a commitment to be in a connector.
Some of you need to be baptized. Listen, we got a line of folks
ready, ready to do it. And we'd love for you to join
the line of commitment of public testimony.
Listen for those listening online.
You can still give you can give your tithes and offerings to the
you can do that online. You can bring them to the church
building later. You can always put things in the
offering boxes around. But if you have any questions
beyond this service or online and you you want to discuss
anything that God is laying on your heart or or to explore your
next steps. AQR code's going to come up on
the screen and you can scan that QR code or, or you can text the
phone number that you see or you can e-mail us and I promise we
will get in touch with you. So remember this information.
We'll get in touch with you and pray for you.
But for those of us here in person, we'd love to connect
with you even as we sing in just a moment.
So pastors are going to be here. You can come and pray.
You can come talk to one of us or you can catch us after the
service. Let me pray for us, Father.
Thank you for being truly awesome, Lord.
And that's not a word we're just going to throw around
flippantly. We mean it.
You are awesome beyond imagination because of what you
have already done for us and what you plan on doing for us
still Now, Father, that demands response.
That demands acknowledgement. And so Father, we want to
acknowledge you by giving you our life, giving you everything
we have. Father, tonight we want to give
you our offering. We give it to you sometimes in
our ties and our resources. For many here though, it's it's
an issue of life, of new commitment, baptism, church
membership, salvation, prayer. So, Father, as that plate
touches a hand, I pray that it's more than just an offering
moment. I pray that's a recognition,
acknowledging, acknowledgement moment of what do I need to give
you, God and I pray others will come and speak to us.
Father, thank you that we could gather.
Thank you for the great number of people who've come here
physically. Thank you for the huge number of
people who are going to be watching online.
I pray, Father, they'll reach out to us so that we can talk to
them, not about us, but about you.
So, Father, bless us now as we respond in Christ's name, Amen.
Well, let's stand together. Our worship team is going to
lead us. Pastors are going to be here.
You come and talk to us. You can just come and pray that
you come. You respond.