Well, here we are in Nehemiah Chapter 13.
We've made it to the end of this wonderful book.
How relevant has it been for us in 2026 as we've studied?
And that title tonight is finishing well, leaving a legacy
that last. The big idea, as we see in this
passage as Nehemiah 13 and the end of the book shows us that
finishing well isn't about the fairy tale ending that we
typically think, but it's about knowing God's call for our
lives. What that is, what it is that
you and I as Christians are to be about and to be busy with.
And then to guard that with integrity and leave and trust
the results in the hands of God Almighty so that we can hear.
And this is what I think we all desire to hear at the end of our
days, whenever they may be. Well done, my good and faithful
servant. I don't know if you've ever been
reading a book or invested in a great story.
And then you've come to the ending and you've gone, wait,
that's it. And you've been disappointed by
the ending. You've been invested in certain
characters and the narrative arc that they've been on.
And then you've been dissatisfied as you've read
that. And you've, I remember as a kid
reading a series that I'd been invested in and, and I felt so
upset by the ending that I, I nearly put pen to paper.
This is back when remember pens and paper.
And I nearly wrote to the author to complain about the ending.
I didn't go that far because I thought, well, where am I
actually going to send it? But we've grown up on fairy tale
stories and the old and they all lived happily ever after, you
know, and that's, that's kind of what we see as they, they waltz
on off into the sunset and live their best life ever.
And some people like those and, and those stories appeal to us
in many respects. And after all, it, it is the
grand meta narrative of the Bible.
You know, at the end of the book that we all live happily ever
after with Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, that all the
difficulty or the trial or the struggle that we encounter now
does cease, does end and we long for that.
But Nehemiah 13 and and so ends the book.
And as I say, the study, it's not necessarily a happy ending.
If you've read ahead, you'll know what I'm talking about
because what has happened since we last left off?
There's there's been a few years of absence as Nehemiah, remember
that he's been on borrowed time. He'd asked King Artaxerxes that
he was the the cupbearer in the Persian Empire of to to leave
the capital in Susa and to head into Jerusalem because God had
put a burden, a calling on his heart to go and help repair and
rebuild the wall. And he'd functioned as governor
in Jerusalem, we're told, in the book of Nehemiah for some 12
years and given so much time and energy and, and resources of his
own, trying not to be a, a burden on to others.
And there's been great revival that's come into the land as a
consequence. And God's been moving and doing
a work and, and the people have come covenanted and, and signed
a contract and will obey God's decrees and, and God's words
come out and they've been living and it's just been this
wonderful thing. And last week we left off with
this idea that praise so filled the city of Jerusalem that even
the neighbouring nations heard it.
It's a beautiful wonder, wonderful picture.
And so there's been this gap now as we pick up chapter 13 that
looks like that Nehemiah had had to go back.
Maybe he was called back by King Arctic Xerxes to fulfil his
duties and he'd been absent for a number of years.
And some suggest that it's anywhere from two to seven years
that he's been absent from being the governor in Jerusalem.
And so he he then returns. Maybe he finds a reason to come
back to Jerusalem and is given permission to do so.
And yes, the people that rebuilt the walls and yes, they'd
repented in tears that we'd we'd seen.
But now what we're going to get to in Nehemiah 13 is remember a
fellow called Tobiah who'd been one of the enemies of Nehemiah
all through it. We'd encountered this guy called
Sam Ballot and another Tobiah. Well, Tobiah actually has an
abode, a resident in the very temple that has been set aside
for him and the Levites who had been employed with the giving of
the tithe and offering unto the the ministry of, of, you know,
the sacrifices and the worship of God in the temple.
They had to leave and return to fields and eking out in
existence because nobody was bringing the tithe in.
So they're like, we've got mouths to feed.
We've, we can't make ends meet here in the church when no one's
bringing things in. So we've got to go back.
And, and so they, they'd return to serving in the fields and
there was no one really servicing the temple anymore and
the sacrifices of worship that was needed.
The Sabbath had become just another shopping day for them
instead of resting and honouring the Lord on that day.
Then commerce and trade was being brought into the city of
Jerusalem and it was functioning like any other ordinary day.
And worst of all, we read and see of God's people marrying the
very nations that once tried to destroy them, giving their sons,
giving their daughters to to marry them.
And it tells us in Nehemiah that their children did not even know
the language of the Bible anymore, but they couldn't read
it. So it's not a happily ever
after. It functions as a warning to you
and I as we read this. And yet right in the middle of
all of this that Nehemiah returns to you think if you were
Nehemiah and you'd invested all that time and energy and
resource and you'd come back to this.
If it were me, I know I'd I'd turn my horse right back around
and go. I give up, but he refuses to
quit. And there's something that we
see in Nehemiah that we're going to learn from tonight.
He gets angry, but it's a righteous anger and will
distinguish the difference. There's a God centred anger
that's biblical that we see and he acts and sets the wheels in
motion, brings judgement on to the people again.
We'll see him throwing furniture out into the street, rebuking
leaders. We'll read of him pulling hair
of shutting gates out, and then he cries out to God in this
chapter a few times. Oh, God, Remember Me, Remember
Me God. So as we close our Nehemiah
series tonight in this chapter, this chapter want us to see it
as a gift that God gives to you and I for any of us who want to
finish. Well, I know how many times I've
seen people start well. And you know, we, we have a lot
of that in Christianity. People make a profession of
faith and start coming along to church and reading the Bible and
they're all excited and passionate.
And then before a long time and days after days, weeks, months,
years. And then it's like, oh, where's
so and so? What happened to so and so?
And, and the story is not that they finished well.
We go to the athletic arena and you'll often see, particularly
in children's carnival carnivals, I'm coming from a
school background and being the MC many times at carnivals, how
many kids on a big, big race will burst out of the blocks and
running down the straight and everybody's cheering.
And then what? They get gassed, they get tired
and they tank and they don't finish well if at all.
And we want our Christian lives to be those that have this
perseverance and durability that finishes well too.
As I said at the beginning, have at the end of our days, God say
to you and I well done, my good and faithful servant.
So we're going to glean from the wisdom that we see here in
Nehemiah and we'll learn from others mistakes.
We'll learn from others wisdom and we're going to see three
things through this chapter. For you and I, if we're desirous
of, of doing that, of finishing our lives well, of, of leaving a
lasting legacy #1 know the calling that God has given you
#2 guard that calling with uncompromising integrity.
And thirdly, trust the results. Give the results to God.
Keep praying all through it. As you're faithful to that call,
Remember Me God. So Nehemiah 13 verses one
through to 8 As we consider this first point says on that day
they read from the book of Moses in the hearing of the people.
Now on that day is in reference to from verse 4 onwards, hearing
of the people and in it was found written that no Ammonite
or Moabite should ever come into the Assembly of God.
If you know your Bible, in the book of Genesis, we understand
the origins of the Ammonites and of the Moabites and then of what
the Ammonites did in particular and in the Moabites all
throughout Israel's history and of how it was that they were
such a nemesis to Israel over the years.
You can read into that yourself and be a student of the Word
because they had not met. Verse 2, The children of Israel
with bread and water, but hide balaam against them to curse
them. We see that story in the book of
Numbers. However, our God turned the
curse into a blessing. So it was when they had heard
the law that they separated all the mixed multitude from Israel.
Now before this liarship, the priest, having authority over
the storerooms of the House of our God, was allied with Tobiah,
and he had prepared for him a large room.
Verse 5. Where previously they had stored
the grain offerings, the frankincense, the articles, the
tithes of grain, the new wine and oil, which were commanded to
be given to the Levites and singers and gatekeepers in the
offerings for the priests. But during all this I was not in
Jerusalem, for in the 32nd year of Arctic Xerxes, king of
Babylon. Now Babylon was not the empire
at the time, the Persian Empire was, but Babylon retained that,
that name as as probably the capital city, and where a lot of
the, the jurisdiction and time would have been spent by Arctic
Xerxes as well. I had returned to the king.
Verse 6. Then after certain days I
obtained leave from the king, and I came to Jerusalem.
Verse 7 discovered the evil that Elias ship had done for Tobiah
in preparing a room for him in the courts of the House of God.
So the enemy of Nehemiah, the enemy of God's people is very
comfortable in the the middle of the congregation of God's people
in room. A spacious room has been made
for him to just set up shop and feel like he can pull the
strings and and rule the roost, we would say.
And Nehemiah verse 8, it says it grieved me bitterly.
We'll stop there. I want to take you back to
chapter one in Nehemiah. For those of you that have been
here, you would know this, but you'll remember and I'll tell
you if you don't. Nehemiah's life had a very clear
North Point compass direction, a focus for it.
It heard word of what was going on in Jerusalem, of how the
walls were in ruin, and it grieved and burdened his heart.
And he spent months praying and fasting before God.
And God did a work in Nehemiah's heart that effectively said,
Nehemiah, you're the solution to this.
I'm going to call you to bring about the rebuilding of
Jerusalem, to make my name great in the land again.
From the very first chapter, the rebuilding of the walls of
Jerusalem and, and restoring the spiritual life of God's people
became a core, a focus, a priority, a goal for Nehemiah.
It was a, a God given burden. It was a God given calling upon
him. And now when he returns and, and
there's been anywhere from, like I say, he'd spent 12 years
ruling as governor and anywhere from two to seven years on top
of that, he doesn't now return wandering around going, oh, what
am I going to do about this? As he arrives on the scene and
and encounters what we've just read, he immediately goes back
to setting the priority of this is what God has called me to.
This is what I'm to be about. And this, by extension, is what
God's people are to be about. And again, look what he finds.
The people had made 4 solemn promises to God in the covenant
in chapter 10 that they agreed with, and they'd broken every
single one of them that we see in chapter 13 here.
They said, we'll submit to God's word.
We'll obey everything that's in it.
And so in the first few verses of Nehemiah 13, we read of
something that they were breaking in this chapter.
They said, we'll separate from the world.
We won't intermarry with the, the races.
It wasn't a, a racist thing. We we looked at that.
It wasn't an ethnic thing. It was a thing of worship.
They said, we'll support God's work.
Remember, they had made that promise.
We'll not neglect God's house. They said that phrase, and yet
they've so now neglected God's house that the spacious room
that should have been storing their offerings is empty.
And so Tobiah goes, Could I come in there and set up shop?
Yeah, well, it's empty, so go for it.
They said. We'll keep the Sabbath day as
holy. Every single one is broken.
The Ammonite. Tobiah is living in a temple
storeroom versus 4 to 9 verse 10.
The Levites and the singers have less left their posts because no
one is bringing the tithes. Look at what verse 10 says.
I also realised that the portions for the Levites had not
been given them for each of the Levites and the singers who did
the work had gone back to his field.
Merchants are selling on the Sabbath right outside the gates.
In verse 15 to 22 we can read that.
And those days I saw people in Judah trading wine presses on
the Sabbath, bringing in sheaves, loading donkeys with
wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of burdens which they
brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day.
And I warned them about the day on which they were selling
provisions. The 16 men of Tyre to the north
dwelt there also, who brought in fish and all kinds of goods and
sold them on the Sabbath to the children of Deuteron in
Jerusalem. And then I contended with the
nobles of Deuteron, said to them, What evil thing is this,
that you do by which you profane the Sabbath day?
Did not your father's do thus? And did not our God bring all
this disaster on us and on this city?
Yet you bring added wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.
So it was at the gates of Jerusalem, as it began to be
dark, Verse 19 before the Sabbath, that I commanded the
gates to be shut, and charged that they must not be open till
after the Sabbath. And then I posted some of my
servants at the gates so that no burdens would be brought in on
the Sabbath day. Now verse 20, this is how
accustomed they were to functioning and, and, you know,
selling their wares and so on. It says now the merchants, verse
20 and sellers of all kinds of wares lodged outside Jerusalem
once or twice. Well, this is strange.
Well, we'll just wait and we'll do it again next week and see if
it sticks out. But no, Nehemiah was consistent.
And you're not coming in. And I warned them, verse 21, and
said to them, why do you spend the night around the wall?
If you do so again, I will lay hands on you.
From that time on, they came no more on the Sabbath, and I
commanded the Levites that they should cleanse themselves verse
22, and that they should go and guard the gates to sanctify the
Sabbath day. Later verse 23 to 28, we see in
this passage, like I said, that Jewish men have been marrying
women from surrounding nations like Ashdod, Amon and Moab.
And as I mentioned, their children weren't even conversant
in the Hebrew language and so the scriptures weren't
accessible to them. They couldn't understand God's
word. Again, what would you do in such
a situation? How would you react?
How would you respond? Nehemiah, He doesn't panic.
He doesn't pivot to a new vision.
Go. Well, that obviously didn't
work, so maybe I was wrong and let's try something else.
He knows what God has called him to.
He knows the goal. He knows the burden that has now
become his call. Rebuild the physical city.
Rebuild the spiritual health of the people.
What does Nehemiah do? Rolls up the sleeves and gets
right back to it. All right, here I go again.
We got to sort some stuff out. He throws to buy his furniture
out on the street. The end of verse 8, he stations
the Levites again. He says sanctify yourselves.
Get get up, get busy about the work.
He shuts the gates on the Sabbath.
He makes the men swear to stop their mixed marriages.
And as you read that, what goes on there is, you know, it's in
fact, let's read it was 23 to 28 because it's it's pretty
amazing. You know, we, we saw Paul get
pretty firm this morning out of the book of Acts.
Nehemiah gets firm here with these men in those days.
I also saw verse 23, Jews who had married women of Ashdod,
Emon and Moan, half their children spoke the language of
Ashdod, could not speak the language of Judah, but spoke
according to the language of one or the other people.
So I contended with them and cursed them, struck some of them
and pulled them out, pulled out their hair and made them swear
by God, saying, you shall not give your daughters as wives to
their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons or
yourselves. Man, if Nehemiah did that today
and it happened in a church, the Internet would blow up, wouldn't
it? Can you believe what happened to
this pastor and this church and so on?
Did not Solomon? He gives reasons.
Verse 26, King of Israel, sin by these things.
Yeah, among many nations, there is no king like him.
In other words, if it even happened to Solomon, how do you
guys think you're not going to be exempt from the consequence
of it? Who was beloved of his God, and
God made him king over all Israel.
Nevertheless, Pagan women caused even him to sin.
Should we then hear of your doing all this great evil
transgressing against our God by marrying Pagan women?
Verse 28, one of the sons of Joy, the son of Elijah of the
high priest was a son in law of Sam Ballot.
There's that other fellow, the horonite.
Therefore I drove him from me. And so the guys who had caused
so much problem early on in Nehemiah have now just settled
in. Amazing.
Now for us as Christians, we need and we ought to know the
God given call for our lives, what it is that is to be our
focus, our priority, what we're to be busy about.
And why do we need to know that? Because if you want to hear at
the end of your days, well done, my good and faithful servant,
you want to know what am I supposed to have been faithful
about and busy about and focused on and what does well look like?
Nehemiah's goal wasn't about popularity or comfort.
It was obedience to God's call. And you, you know our goal as
followers, Our Calling as followers of Jesus Christ is
this and it's up on the screen 2 scriptures that should be
cemented in our minds for us to focus on as followers of Jesus.
Love God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength.
Love your neighbour as yourself. It's called the Golden Rule,
isn't it? And hand in hand, without the
Great Commission, go therefore we have that written on the
surfboard as you exit this building to remind you of the
priority of of what we're to be busy and to be focused on and
Our Calling. Go therefore, make disciples of
all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all
that I have commanded. That's what Jesus said.
So that's the finish line, that's the the target, the goal.
That's what we're aiming for. That's what we're to be focused
on. Nehemiah had a calling.
Nehemiah had a goal. You and I, we have a calling, we
have a goal, we have a focus. Now most of us, I think we find
ourselves in Nehemiah. We start strong on this.
Like the people of Jerusalem, we sign the covenant.
We rebuild some walls, you know, marriages or, you know,
integrity or in our witnesses. And then life happens. 12 years
passed by, 15 years passed by, 19 years passed by.
We look up and we wonder, man, how have I drifted?
How have I gone away from this call, this focus, this priority,
you know, and the details and the specifics of our call that
we have in the Golden Rule and the Great Commission.
They differ for each and every one of us, but that's where it
stands. And Nehemiah here, I think his
example should grip us and rest our attention because Nehemiah,
he's probably in his 60s at this point in time, in age, and yet
he still burns with the same goal and focus on that call that
God had placed upon him all the way back in Nehemiah chapter 1.
And because of that conviction, because of that purpose, that
understanding of the God given direction for his life, what
does he do? In the chapter we've read of it,
he contends with people, he challenges them, he calls them
out, he warns them, he cleanses them.
It's a priority. He sees the danger and the
potential damage and already the damage that is happening in
their midst. So the question for you and I
tonight is this, do you, do I know the God given call, the God
given goal for your life? As we've been studying through
Nehemiah, what has God been calling you to do, to change, to
stop, to live out, to trust him in?
There's been plenty, I think that as we've gone through
chapter by chapter, I know in my notes I've written down copious
things. Man, God help me change in that.
God guide me and Holy Spirit, empower me to trust you and to
honour you in this way. So maybe as Nehemiah has ended
for us this week, take some time to put pen to paper to write
that down. Your God given call in one
sentence. Lord, what would you have me do
in my marriage, in my work, in my family, in my neighbourhood,
in my church? How am I to fulfil the Golden
Rule? How am I to fulfil the Great
Commission? How am I to be busy about and
focused on the call that you have upon my life?
Maybe take that sentence, put it in a prominent place, put it on
the dashboard in your car, put it on your desk at work, have it
pop up on your phone to constantly remind you.
This is what God has called me to do, to focus on, to be
reminded of it. Because the point we can see and
learn from with Nehemiah here is if you don't know the goal, if
you don't know the call, then all of these things will come
and you'll just go, well, what's the point?
I give up, I surrender and you'll never know if you've
finished. Well, there's a big difference
between an athletic event where you're running a 1500 metres and
running just a a random jog around the stadium.
Could you imagine an athlete in the Olympics when everybody else
is running the 1500 metres? He's just doing laps in the
middle and just then meanders on up into the stadium, exhausted,
spent, fatigued. Wow, how did I go mate?
You weren't even running in the race.
What are you talking about? Oh, but I'm tired and I spent my
thing. And yeah, but it's not what
you're called to do. And so you and I, we need to
know the God given call for our lives because then now the
second point is the guarding and the calling that we have been
given, it has to have some uncompromising integrity
attached to it. And Nehemiah does this and we've
seen this all through it. He doesn't wring his hands now
and seeing all of this stuff going on and then pray vaguely.
He he acts very courageously and with integrity all the way
through it. Verse 8:00 and 9:00 We, we
considered it already. He personally evicts Tobiah.
And Can you imagine the crowd gathered and the iPhones out
filming it, you know, putting that up on everybody's Instagram
feed and all of that stuff that, you know, social media again,
would be blowing up. Oh, he's thrown out the chairs
now. Oh, the T VS gone out the window
and all of that stuff, you know, as people would have narrated if
you put it into modern situation, This is quite an
event, you know, And verse 25 and verse 30 and all of the acts
that he does, this is the same man who 12 years earlier had LED
with wisdom and with prayer. Now he's older, but his
integrity has not softened. Why?
Because what we've seen all the way through Nehemiah is that he
lived his life above reproach. There's no one who could hang
anything on Nehemiah. Nehemiah, who do you think you
are that you're thrown out to buy us stuff?
Who are you to tell us what to do?
There was no one who was able to do that because there was no
indication of compromise in Nehemiah's life.
He held on to the calling that God had for him, and he lived
his life above reproach, with integrity.
Remember how earlier in the book, back in Chapter 6, when
the enemies tried to lure him out and get him distracted from
the tasks that he was through compromise.
And he, he immediately spotted it as a means, as a mechanism
that they were going to try and hang suspicions on his character
and smear him in that way. And now here in Chapter 13, he
can confront the compromise in their lives because his own life
is not compromised. Now, as an aside, I, I'm
cognizant of this fact that there's some of you probably
sitting here and you've forgotten everything else that
I've said because you hung up on Nehemiah's anger that we're
seeing in the passage and go, oh, that's a bit like, wow.
And as I've said and kind of hinted at, if, if a pastor were
to do that in the church today, wow.
I want us to see the heart behind His anger and I want you
to see and understand that there is a place for that emotion of
anger in our lives as Christians.
Question for you, does God get angry?
Bible tells us that God is slow to anger.
Question for you, Did Jesus get angry?
He did. He overturned the tables in the
temple and man, that was an event.
So we read that and he said my house should be called a House
of prayer. There's something called
righteous anger. We see it through the Scriptures
and that's that's usually the difference because most of the
time, in fact, 9 times out of 10, when I get angry, it's a
selfish anger. And my family could tell you
that. But there is something called a
righteous anger, a righteous indignation.
It's the same fire that we see in Jesus when he overturned the
tables in the temple in John 2. Nehemiah here was angry.
Why? Because the House of God was
being defiled. God's people were drifting from
God's commands and God's ways. And the witness to the nation,
where once they were hearing music and sounds and songs of
praise, are now coming in and going what's on the market today
on the Sabbath day and the temple.
Oh, that. Isn't that Tobiah's house?
No longer was there this recognition of Jerusalem being a
certified sanctified holy city where God was worshipped and
honoured? Paul tells us in one Corinthians
11 verse 31. He says, Speaking of the
judgement that he was giving out when we member studied through
Corinthians, he says, but if we judged ourselves rightly, we
would not be judged. In other words, what Paul had to
do and what Nehemiah did there is because in Nehemiah's day and
because in Paul when he was addressing the issues in
Corinth, because the people weren't rightly judging
themselves, holding themselves accountable to God's Word,
somebody from the outside had to come in and bring in judgement
and set the course of right again.
And that's what Nehemiah does here.
He comes in and he sets the course again.
He had to come along and do the judging for them and notice that
in that there's something beautiful, I think in in this
here. He does it all honest.
Honestly, he could have taken bribes off them, looked the
other way like many other leaders do and did.
But Nehemiah always lived with integrity.
Tobiah in the Temple. Nehemiah says that's not
happening on my watch Out you go, buddy.
Tithes being diverted, right? Let's restore that.
The Sabbath being profaned. Nehemiah says the gates are
shut. There's no commerce happening in
the in the in the Sabbath. We're going to worship God and
honour him. And there needs to be times in
our lives where we see things in us that make us angry,
righteously angry areas of sin and compromise that are bringing
destruction, that are breaking our fellowship with God.
For example, how many of us are tolerating little Tobias in our
lives? Our our life is no, you're not
that you are the temple of the Holy Spirit.
How many little Tobias have a place of prominence in our
lives, a secret habit, a shady business deal going on, a
relationship that pulls us from God, and we let it go and we let
it develop and we let it become prominent, and it pervades and
encompasses all of us. Bless you.
Nehemiah's example convicts us in that way, doesn't it?
Because we know when we see the cost of compromise and we know
it in our lives and, and here you know what the, the, the
damage the, the potential is, is that unless Nehemiah intervenes
as he does, the people have got a one generation away from total
assimilation with all of the nations around them.
If they continued in the way that they were, but for
Nehemiah's intervention, there would be a whole group of
children growing up who did not even speak the language, who
knew nothing about God. And they would just merge with
and blend with all of the nations around them and the
people of God would cease to exist.
That's what's at stake. So Nehemiah deals harshly with
it in your life, ask are there any areas of compromise that
need a harsh dealing with that need a Nehemiah to come on and
pull out by the hair and grab by the beard and curse and throw
out furniture off. That's preventing me from loving
God with my heart, soul, mind and strength.
That's preventing me from being busy about the Great Commission
of going out into all of the nations and preaching and
teaching the good news of Jesus Christ and of all the commands
that He has revealed in His Word that are important.
Maybe for you it's in an area of your finances.
Maybe it's your entertainment. Maybe it's your dating life,
maybe it's your work. You could look at the categories
that we have here all throughout Nehemiah and particularly in
Nehemiah 13 as a good port of call.
Are you stealing from God if you look at your money?
Can you stand before God and say I'm being a wise steward of what
you've provided? Or should I be?
Or should you be angry about not being a blessing to others or
the Sabbath taking an opportunity to rest in God, of
going to church as we are tonight?
Of reading your word, of praying, of enjoying your life
with God? Or are you just working yourself
all the time and truth is, you'll break if you don't take a
break in Sabbath? How about if you're single?
If you're, if you're dating, if you're looking for someone, are
you looking for someone who loves the Lord, who serves the
Lord, who honours him? Are you acting with integrity in
that? If you're married, how?
How is your marriage? Anything in your marriage that
you should be angry about that needs changing?
How about your kids and your parenting?
Should you be angry going? I haven't been present as much
as I need to be. I haven't been loving as much as
I ought to have. I haven't been serving and
honouring in the way that I ought to be.
I haven't been as generous or I need to forgive.
I haven't been available. Then maybe tonight some decisive
steps need to be taken, some Nehemiah action.
Confess it, cut it off, make it right.
And the point of all of that is, is guarding the goal that God
has given, the call that God has placed and being protective of
that with integrity. And what you'll be amazed with
if that becomes a priority and a focus, just as with Nehemiah,
God honours that. And here's our last point.
Because in all of this action, Nehemiah, the fear of man could
have taken over him. What will people say?
What will people think? What will they do and how will
they react? And will there be a riot in the
streets? Will people just up and leave
and exit Jerusalem? And will there be a mutiny on my
hands? All of those questions running
through my mind. And so Nehemiah gives the
results to God and keeps praying.
Remember Me. Remember Me four times in this
chapter he prays the same simple prayer, Remember Me, O God.
Verse 14, verse 22, verse 29, verse 31, Ernest, he doesn't
pray. Lord fix them.
He says, Lord, Remember Me, Remember what I've done for your
house, for your people, and show me mercy.
Oh God, Remember Me with favour. And he leaves and trusts the
results to God. Think of what we've learned
about Nehemiah and that we've seen over the journey through
this book. He's done everything that he
can, and he's done everything that he can here in this chapter
to try and fix what he's arrived on the scene to discover.
Like I said, he's thrown furniture out, he's pulled hair,
he's shut gates, and now he entrusts the outcome to the
Lord. That is the mark of someone who
knows how to finish well, trusting God, resting in God to
take care of the results. Nehemiah, he's, he's given so
much. He's effectively, if we were to
put it into modern day terms, given millions of dollars of his
own money throughout the years. Here he's given 12 years of his
life way back in Nehemiah chapter 1 and two, he risked his
own life by coming before King Artaxerxes with the request that
he had to go to Jerusalem in the 1st place.
He could have been beheaded with such a request.
He's been open for character assassination all through
committing his hand to the work and and the task before him.
There's been literal assassination around the corner.
You name it, Nehemiah has faced it.
And still the people drift. Talk about giving so much for
people and they just take it for granted.
And you would think he would be well within his rights to be
bitter about that, to dust his hands off them.
He could have gone well, I'll build a monument to myself at
least that'll remind everybody of who I am and what I've done.
And there's a statue of Nehemiah, you know.
Instead he simply says, God, I give it to you.
Remember Me, Remember Me. And he in that was living for
the day when he would hear Well done, my good and faithful
servant. So here's the big idea again out
of Nehemiah 13. Nehemiah 13 tells us that
finishing well means knowing the call, knowing the goal, guarding
that with integrity, leaving the results, trusting that to God
whilst praying God, Remember Me, Remember Me.
But I want to give us, as we finish this book, some other
lessons by way of reminder that Nehemiah has taught us to just
galvanised that in our knowledge as we wrap up this chapter in
our series on nehemiah #1. It's never too late to do what's
right. You know, even though God's
people had messed up again and again royally through this book,
it did not disqualify them from service or ruin their
relationship with God. And many times we can think that
we can feel that I was having a conversation with somebody this
morning along those lines. You know, no matter what you
have done, if you repent, God is able to renew and rebuild and
watch what God does in rebuilding your life of
dedication unto Him and service. There's a second lesson that we
learn and that is don't play around with sin.
Nehemiah always through this book and certainly in this
chapter, dealt with sin decisively and abruptly.
I think many times we underestimate our sinfulness and
overestimate our goodness. Don't flirt with sin, don't get
cosy with compromise, Be vigilant.
Romans 12 verse 9 says hate what is evil, cling to what is good,
and let our definitions of good and evil be derived from God's
Word, not from what the culture around us says.
Not from what our best friend says, not from what we heard,
but from what God's Word says. Thirdly, remember who God is,
that He is great and awesome. Remember that passage that
Nehemiah reminded them about who God was?
That means that He is large and He is in charge.
He is also good all the time, even when bad things happen to
us. He is good and He is gracious.
He doesn't treat us as we deserve, but always grants us
grace and fresh starts for His mercies anew every morning.
Fourthly, cultivate a lifestyle of praise and prayer.
God is desirous of all of us to worship Him with reverence and
with joy, and we've seen that again and again throughout this
book. Move out of your comfort zone.
We saw that last week in particular.
I think many of us, we're way too comfortable with the way
that we're living, and we tend to default to just the path of
least resistance in life, to what is predictable, what is
easy. And God wants us to be available
to him. And when he asks us to do
something that stretches us, let's be ready to move and go.
OK, God, that's uncomfortable. But I'm going to trust you with
the result and the consequence of that.
Don't let difficulties derail you.
Number six. You know, we saw that Nehemiah,
he, he knew the call that God had upon him.
And there were hard times and difficult times that came upon
him and he did not bail out on them.
Check out and go. I didn't sign up for this.
It's, it's all too hard. No, Nehemiah knew what it was
that God had called him to. And those tough times came, yes,
and they'll come for you and I, but instead let them drive you
closer to God. So we certainly see that happen
with Nehemiah 7th. Say yes to God's priorities and
no to the devil's distractions. I believe the promises of God
and act upon them. And lastly, allow God to use you
for whatever reason. And think of all that God has at
His disposal, all that God is able to do in His infinite power
and might with the angelic beings that he has, the
seraphim, the cherubim, and so on.
God takes great pleasure in using you and I, and he loves to
use those who are available to Him.
So you don't have to be a super St or a spiritual giant.
Instead, claim what God has promised and say here I am Lord,
I'm listening, I'm your servant. Help me to do that which you've
called me to do. Love you heart, soul, mind and
strength. Love my neighbour as myself.
Be faithful to the Great Commission.
Go out in whatever ways that you are specific to my life and
share of who you are and let me trust you with the result of
that. In all of this, as we've been
studying, Nehemiah has been focusing on about leaving a
lasting legacy, about finishing well.
But the greatest legacy isn't any of those things.
The greatest legacy that you and I possess and have is Jesus
Christ. Nehemiah, all the way through,
has been pointing to the great rebuilder that is Jesus.
Jesus came to the same city, Jerusalem.
He saw the same compromise in the people of Israel of the day
in the 1st century. He cleansed the temple with
righteous anger, and then he went to the cross to deal with
the root of all our compromise, our sin, And he rose, and he now
lives in us by his Spirit to enable you and I to finish well.
And so today, if you've drifted, if you're wondering how your
story will end, hear the invitation out of Nehemiah come
to Jesus. What you'll see is that Jesus
specialises in fresh starts. Amen.
Lord, thank you for this wonderful book of Nehemiah.
We've been so grateful for the study that you've taken us
through. And thank you for the many
people that throughout the past few weeks have been a part of
this study and the work that you're doing in our lives as a
church, as your people, as individuals, and in our homes,
in our marriages, in our families, in our workplaces.
Specifically, as we've studied tonight, help us to know and to
understand the call, the God given direction and task and
purpose for our lives. We would be devoted and
dedicated to honouring you in that and in your grace and in
your enabling. May we so live to honour you
that we would hear those wonderful words.
Well done, my good and faithful servant.
For any tonight who need a refreshing of your Holy Spirit,
please grant that to them. For any here tonight who need to
know and enjoy your forgiveness and your mercy and grace, pour
it out abundantly. We thank you for your great
love. We thank you for your great
power, and we again present ourselves to you.
And it's in the mighty name of Jesus.
We pray these things, God's people said, Amen.