You've tuned into a mega church. We are people hungry to
encounter God through worship and His Word being witnesses to
the world around us. We pray this teaching blesses
you. We have been studying the book
of Nehemiah. We are coming to chapter 5 now.
This chapter looks very irrelevant to New Zealanders.
Why it's why is it, which sounds like irrelevant because
financially we are all OK. Most of us have jobs and those
who don't have jobs, we have got the government giving some dole.
And you know that kind of a system is there.
But in the third world countries, developing countries,
in the Israel, in all other nations, the government doesn't
give any money when you don't have money.
No, that's very that's how it operates.
And in those places charity has a place.
In those places helping somebody financially has a place.
And what I our our our experience with the lending
money, giving money to those who are in need has not been very
great. Only we have one successful
story and all other stories are flops.
In one case we gave somebody who is connected to Seemas family
was has borrowed money and they were not able to pay back.
So we were visiting at the time. So I said how much is the money?
He said only ₹10,000 it's just not much ₹10,000 is like how
much $200 now. So I said take the money, pay
back the loan. So he went and paid back the
loan and he got back his land. He started farming in Gujarat
and he became self-sufficient and he had enough money.
One day he came back and said here is the 10,000 you gave us,
thank you very much, I'm out of my debt.
Good, good, very good. We said we don't want that money
back due to somebody who needs that money to set them free from
their debt. So he found a guy, gave him the
10,000 and helped him to come out of the debt.
And that man, when he came out of the debt, he gave the money
to someone else. And the whole Christian
community in the village was debt free in few years just
because of one act of help. So that is something that's very
debilitating. It just like a having a grip on
somebody. It affects every part of your
life. And what we see here is the
repercussions or consequences of the debt that is on the people
in Jerusalem who are building the chair with the walls of
Jerusalem and how it was affecting.
And they're all crying out. They're all crying out for
relief from different aspects and different causes of getting
into trouble. One of the things I want to
share is if we are believers, one of the noble principles we
can adopt into our life is not to borrow, not to overspend on
your credit card. It is very difficult thing I'm
saying, but that's how it should be.
Except for buying a house, you don't borrow money from the
bank. This is, I'm not putting a 11th
commandment. I'm just telling out of my
experience. When we got married, when I went
back to our place of place of work, I thought there should be
definitely some money in my bank.
So I went there. Those days you didn't have this
credit card and those things so you had to physically go to the
bank, draw the money. So I filled out the form to draw
the money and gave. They said there's no money here.
So that is how we have started me and Seema and I never told
her that there's no money in the bank.
Even she payment news for her now.
But every month as you are getting the money, there's an we
had a cupboard where you used to put the money and you used to
spend from there and any leftover money is still sitting
there. We don't go to bank, put it
there and draw and you know nothing.
There was a time when he needed to buy a fridge good big money
and we didn't have to go to the bank.
It was there enough accumulated and I tell you those people who
can manage finances well and one of the partners is there either
wife or husband. It's a great blessing.
You don't have to grumble about it.
I can trust Seema with a $100,000 and I will not lose my
sleep isn't a blessing. Can I, can I hear hear a Amen?
So that is something I'm telling you, that's how you manage your
debt is first don't borrow is a rule #1 sometimes you may have
to borrow. Then you have to sit down and
see whether it is really practical to borrow and whether
you can pay back. So many times people in the
fellowship want to borrow money. S Once a student got a job, a
very high paying job, and he didn't want to take the job, he
wanted some money. S He can go and do some
research. I said why do you want to waste
your opportunity? Take that job and in the
fellowship everybody wanting to give money and we had some
common fund. They said can we give from this
common fund? I said that's not your father's
money to give you together who want to give you come together
and put money and give him not from this thing.
So why am I putting this principle is these days we are
not having churches doing charity in the sense of trying
to pull somebody out. But there are some churches
where they have got money to give to somebody who has got a
business idea. They go to the church and they
say hey, I got this business idea.
So they got elders who sit down, evaluate, go through the plan
and see if it is best thing to do for them.
And they give the money and he does the business and pays back
the money with a little more than what he has borrowed.
So that fund keeps growing. And in that church, this is, I'm
talking about a group called Exclusive Brother and who are
very much into business and nobody there lacks money.
Everybody has a business, most of them.
And I don't know whether we can bring that kind of model into
church in general. It's very difficult.
I know it's difficult, but this is just thing what is a fact?
I'm telling you a fact now. Let's get into the scriptures
now and see how Nehemiah faced these problems #1 Nehemiah had
faced external problems before. What are the external problems
that coming from outside? He had external problem from Sun
Ballot. He had an external problem from
Tobiah. He had external problem from
Gheshem the Arab. He had so many problems asked or
people have asked different kinds of problems he had.
He successfully withstood all the opposition and encouraged
people, gave them vision, gave them inspiration so they could
build the walls. And they reach half the height
in less than 5 weeks, less than 5 weeks, and finish the walls in
52 days, 52 working days. That's awesome accomplishment
that Nehemiah has done. But now the work is not yet
fully completed. Half the walls have come.
Now internal problems are coming, external is over.
Now its turn for internal problems.
What is the internal problem #1 is that there's no grain to eat.
These. Many of the people who are
working on the walls, they are supposed to be working to get
their money because they are doing the building of the walls.
Now there's no money in the hands.
They ran out in one month, 4 weeks.
They somehow managed to work without wages and now they
cannot build anymore because there's no more wages.
They said please give us grain so that our families can eat and
live. Is it a rightful expectation,
yes or no? Yes, because they are building
the walls, they cannot go to work.
Sometimes when people are busy in the ministry and they cannot
be making money, then it is a responsibility of the community
to support them. The church, it's just one of the
things and so that's because of that.
Secondly, this is some of these problems have been built up
historically. Its not something new that just
happened in one month. No, some of them will have been
building up. What is building up here?
Verse 3, Verse 3, it says others were saying we are mortgaging
our fields, our vineyards and our homes to get grain during
the famine. They are using the word famine.
Was it before they started building or is it after they
started building? So the commentators have a lot
of problem in solving the problem.
But let's go with the idea that because they were not able to
work there, they don't have grain.
So they are calling it as a famine.
There's no money basically. So they are crying out for that.
Still others were saying we have had to borrow money to pay the
king, kings tax on of fields and vineyards.
King was imposing tax and now they had to pay the tax to pay
the tax. They don't have the income so
they are borrowing money to pay tax.
Now Nehemiah will be in a great fix now why?
Because he is the governor, he can say, OK, don't worry, don't
pay taxes anymore, I'll refund the tax you already paid.
And if he does that, he will be opposing the king.
So he cannot do it and he cannot say, OK, OK, I will take the
money next year. You pay.
He cannot say that. He has to collect the money and
give to the king. That's how the kings make their
own money. So that was another problem.
So what they did was they mortgage their vineyards, their
homes, and sometimes even this let their children become slaves
to somebody so they can borrow money and pay the tax.
That was another problem that was coming up.
And the next thing that you see here is in verse 4, verse four,
we deal dealt with sorry they were King's tax and poverty
because they were engaged in the work of God rebuilding the
walls. So when we do ministry,
sometimes we may have financial needs and then that has to be
dealt properly in the sense who is asking you to do the ministry
and why you are doing the ministry.
There are all different questions need to be answered
before we can give a reasonable answer to such a situation if it
arises now. So, we need to be careful about
how we do what we do. And among the believers also, so
many times we have lent money. It never came back.
One couple, we, they were, they were trying to find room in a
place in New Zealand and they were having immigration issues.
And we said, OK, they need some money, so let's give them some
money. We gave some money and it didn't
work out. They were leaving the country,
going back to India. And then what they said is we
have the money you gave us, but we are not giving it back to
you. It was very cruel to hear those
words and they just left the country.
It doesn't have the country. And one guy I tried to help, I
gave money and it was a decent money I gave.
I said you can start a business with this money.
It's something like ₹60,000 I gave.
And after one month, I asked what's happening with the money
I already spent 24,000 on previously, the loans I bought
in the water, we borrowed the groceries and things like that.
I had to pay back the money otherwise the guy was not giving
me the money for new groceries again.
So I paid back the thing and I paid again for the fresh
groceries. I said how much is left?
Put that, go put it in my bank today.
Because people see, the one thing that I know this is, I'm
not talking judgmentally, but I'm talking out of my
experience. Number one, don't borrow.
That's just rule #1 #2 we must have means to pay back or to
come out of it. If we think we cannot come out
of it, better not to go for it. That's all I know.
Because after we got married, as I told you, we didn't have any
bank balance. People are expecting us to give
them a party. So what we did, you know,
instead of borrowing from outside money, borrowing and I
said, let's cook some food and give them.
So we made some biryani and people came to the house and ate
and went that's, that's it. So that is how you need to be
let. Don't live for others, live for
yourself. What will they think about me?
This is one of the main things, problems that will make people
borrow more and more and more. What will others think about me?
Don't live for others, live for yourself.
I don't care what others think. I don't want to borrow and have
a debt on my hand. Anything I speak, I'm speaking
from my personal experience and somebody else may disagree.
That's fine, no problem, no problem.
OK And then what does borrowing do to the family children?
They sense what happens in a family.
Can they sense when the parents talk.
We are having problem with the money.
We can't buy shoes now because we can't buy the skateboard
because we can't take you to so once a place because they sense
OK, its not right. So they also are growing with a
mindset how to fight this poverty, how to find fight this
insufficiency of money in the family.
So they grapple with this and sometimes the children volunteer
to go and do some work so that they can compensate and help the
family. It is different ways children
react. And somebody may say I don't
care, I don't want to be like this.
I am going to steal something from the shop because I want my
need met. Now these are all different
things can happen. So that's is the reason why when
we raise the children, we don't let them know about the
finances, don't discuss it before the children.
This is another principle. Again, it's open to discussion.
You can accept it, reject it. That's not a problem.
But the way we have done it is. That's how we have done it.
OK, And then you have all these internal problems.
Now, do you think the work on the wall will go on with all
these people grumbling for money, wanting food and there's
no grain, and then you got the time.
We have to pay the tax because you have to borrow money is
going to pull the peoples morale down.
They will not have that enthusiasm.
Let's go and build the wall. Its very difficult when we are
working and wanting the church to go from strength to strength.
We expect or rather many other people are doing something
sacrificially for the church to go forward.
We appreciate it, definitely we appreciate it and that is what
happens in any church. People will sacrificially do the
ministry because its not comfortable, its not convenient,
but they go out of their way to do the ministry, give their
time, give their resources and give their knowledge and
different ways they contribute and that is how the church is
built. That's how the church is built.
And one of the ways we have personally done for many years
is we have served the Lord not for money anytime for several
decades. We put money from a pocket, we
travel, we go preach the world, we come back, we pray for people
come back. So much so that that mindset of
serving God is something that's very important.
Very important. It is their first.
It begins with the mind, then it results in action.
Do you do we love God enough to go through inconvenience?
That's how it is sometimes. You know, there was a case once
we had to, somebody came and said, oh, I want to buy a
bicycle for my son. 16 gears on it.
How much is it about $5000 in that's equal to in Indian
rupees. It will be lot more thought
about it. I mean 2 or 3000, I think $3000.
So we thought about it and then we'll say OK, let's give the
money. We gave the money and after some
weeks we had to buy a bicycle for our own son Joseph.
What we did, we did not go and buy the same kind of a thing,
but we went to a second hand shop and bought a bicycle for
$120.00, which was fixed. So why?
Why do I have to bare my heart before you?
There is a way to serve God. There's a way to love God.
It is at the expense of your own comfort.
You saw God and so the fellow fellow man and I tell you
there's joy in serving God. I'm not saying all that I've OK
take away your children's food and give to somebody.
I'm not saying that, but there are certain things you can do in
a way that will you lose your personal comfort.
But bless somebody, there's great joy and the Lord will
reward you. Just like the widow's mite.
She put only two copper coins, but the Lord looked at it and
blessed it Cool. So after the solving these
things, when he heard all the internal problems, Nehemiah
became very angry. Everybody say very angry Sun
Ballad Tobiah, Geshem the Arab. They were angry for what reason?
Because the walls are being built, because Nehemiah was
concerned for rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, they got
angry. And now you have Nehemiah
getting angry for a different reason.
And the rightful reason when he saw people suffering, he became
very angry. So what was happening is these
people have mortgage fields, they borrowed the money, paid
the tax but now they don't have field where they can go and work
and produce. If you don't have the land, you
don't have access to your land, how are you going to plough it
and sow it and reap it? Its not going to happen.
So they the debt is going to make them from having something
to having nothing to it will drive you into the pit of
poverty forever. To rescue this situation, God
has set a simple system in Israel called Year of Jubilee,
the 50th year, when people mortgage their lands and they
lose it for years. And when it comes to the year of
Jubilee, the land has to be restored to the original owner.
So that is not forever lost. But they were not following it.
They were not following it. So that's the problem.
What we are trying to see in chapter 5 is the great principle
of a man who is committed to honor God, a man who is
committed to serve the community.
A man is committed to do the work of God, but he had boldness
to confront the people. Bold.
Everybody say boldness. Boldness to confront the people
and bring change in the community so that the everybody
will be blessed. Everybody will be blessed.
So what he did when he became angry, by the way, what was
happening because the children were, the children were slow
sold into slavery. The people who lent money would
come and take away their daughters.
So that's what they're crying out.
Our daughters are being enslaved.
And what a pity it is, it is just heart running situation
when you lose your children, your daughter being taken away,
somebody because you borrowed some money is not right, is not
right. So Neymar became very angry.
Was 6. When I heard their outcry and
these charges, I was very angry. Now, this is NIV, but if you
look into ESV or King James, it may say there was a great
outcry, There was a great outcry.
And because of the great outcry, he became very angry.
And then what did he do? I pondered them in my mind.
What does it say here?
I pondered them in my mind. OK, I think it is King James.
It says I consulted with myself. Some translators say I consulted
with my own mind. It is it is just like there
there has to be this leaders have must have an ability to
absorb. They should have like a great
shock observers, you know, they must have the shock absorbing
ability. So he hurts, he has all this cry
and then he goes into the house and things with himself in
himself. You know, when David was being,
the followers wanted to stone him to death because the enemies
came and took their wives and cattle and everything.
What did David do? He strengthened himself in the
Lord. So there has to be a internal
resource for the leader where he can retreat and look at God and
look at the problem from Gods perspective.
And he did that. He did that.
He consulted with his own mind. Does it mean everybody should
not talk to anybody else about their problem?
It doesn't mean that. But as a leader he had no one
where he can go, and he knew where to go.
He withdrew into himself and shut with himself with the Lord.
And he prayed over the matter. And then comes the boldness to
confront nobles. Are we together?
Can I hear? Amen.
Now what he did was something similar to when you read this
incept to agent. There is a verse that is
parallel in the New Testament and there it says when the Lord
says in a parable, if a man wants to build a tower, what
will he do? He will have to sit down and
calculate and make sure that he has enough means to complete the
work he begins. If you want to build a house and
you have no resources, then you are going to be having a house
that is half complete. So you need to sit down and
calculate. That's the same word that is
used for Nehemiah concerning his own mind.
If you are going to fight against another army, you're
going to resist another army. You have to sit down and
calculate. Can you fight the 10,000 that's
coming against you with the 1000 that you have?
So that kind of a sitting down and calculating is what Nehemiah
did. Can I oppose this day nobles?
Can I talk to the officials? Can I confront them?
Will they change? What will happen if I do it?
Will the people support me or will they stone me?
What is going to happen? That's where you retreat back
into your own mind, where you have no one else but God and
talk to God when you have a problem.
Who do you talk to 1st? Talk to God.
And that's what Nehemiah did. So he did this.
I was very angry. I pointed them into my mind and
then accused the nobles and officials.
That word accused is not a good word, is it?
He accused them. And how did he accused them?
Publicly, Not privately. Didn't call one-on-one.
OK, you come. I want to talk to you.
You come. I want to talk to you.
No, no, no. He called for a great assembly,
for a great outcry, for a great problem.
He called a great assembly. He said let's all gather
together. And then he confronted the
nobles and officials. What you are doing is not right.
And he had, he had support of all the common people who are
suffering from being exploited by the rich.
They were in support of him, so he instead of doing privately,
he confronted them publicly. And it requires a lot of guts.
You need to have a heart of a lion to do that.
And that is what a leader is made of.
A leader is made of a strong heart like a lion.
So he told them. What did he say to them?
You are extracting usury from your own countrymen.
What is usury? It just basically collecting
interest on the money you lend is user.
But sometimes the usury. The word usury has a connotation
of exorbitant interest. When I was growing up in my in
India, I used to hear about 1% per month.
That is 12% per annum was considered a very legitimate
interest. Legitimate interest.
To borrow money you want $100, you pay only $1.00 a month.
That is $12.00 in a year. But as I was growing up, it went
up to 1.5, then it became 2%, then it became 3%.
And now even today they think 3% per month is a very reasonable
interest rate. A lot of people borrow it and
get into a debt trap because if it is 3% is 3636% in a year and
that becomes in three years time.
If you borrow 100 you are owing 200.
Even after though you have paid interest, the still the
principal still remains and you still have a debt.
A friend of mine lost his house because he borrowed so much.
One day the people came and said we are coming and taking over
your house. You go and find another house.
So what can debt do is something very horrible, very horrible.
People are sick in the family, no money to pay for treatment.
And when you're when you want to celebrate a birthday, there's no
money to buy a cake. That is the kind of thing I'm
talking about. Debt is a big enemy and we
should resist it at all costs in our life and having a grip on
our lives and we should train our children to not spend when
they don't have is very simple. I rather I would tell so many
times we are told our children, is it necessary, the need to
buy. Sometimes you know, you postpone
it by three days. That urge to buy goes.
So many times we buy because there's something inside pushing
you to go and buy, go and buy, go and buy.
It gives you identity, it gives you power, even ability to spend
money gives you power. It empowers you that when you go
and spend money on the spot, it empowers you.
That's the reason the, the, whatever happens in your brain,
that feeling that you get makes you spend again and again.
So we need to be careful. Cool exerting usually from your
own countrymen. So I have some pictures here.
What is the system that we have that the Lord has put because he
knew that people are going to borrow money.
He knew that people are going to get into debt.
So He has certain things in place.
Let's look at Exodus 2225. Exodus 2225, If you lend money
to one of my people among you who is poor, you must not act as
a creditor to him. You are not to charge him
interest. So this is a basically no
interest to be charged if you lend money to your own
countrymen. But the Jewish people didn't
follow this law. They transgressed the law.
And when you transgress the law, what happens?
You become guilty before God and the curse comes upon the nation
because people, everybody disobeying the law of God.
Are we together? In some cases, one man, Sin is
visited on everybody, like Aiken in the Old Testament.
Aiken, he loved a little garment and a piece of gold and little
bar of silver. And if you stole it and hid
under the tent. But the guilt came on all of
Israel because they lost to the enemy and they could not be
standing the battle. And many were killed on the day
at the battle of AI or I whatever you call it.
So one man, sin comes upon a nation.
If everybody in the nation is sinning, how great is the guilt
before God take anything. Abortions take any kind of a
drugs and alcohol and all these kind of things, they add up
together, adultery, fornication, whole nation becomes guilty
before God. A curse comes upon the nation
because of disobedience to the loss of God.
And here Nehemiah is trying to fight big problem single
handedly, trying to mobilize people, the common people
against the nobles. So he called for a large meeting
to deal with them and said as far as possible we have bought
back our Jewish brothers who were sold.
Now here he has a lot of moral courage.
Moral courage comes from practical individual experience.
So what he did was before even they started talking about what
he generally did was to help the people.
So if there is a Jewish man who says, oh, I have borrowed money
from this foreigner and now he's coming and oppressing me, and he
would say, OK, I'll pay your debt and release you.
So he did. Some of his associates, his
brothers, his relatives who are following Nehemiah in his
leadership were also practicing it.
They gave money and set the people free.
So when you do personally something, you have a right to
talk about it. And Nehemiah did that.
He had a right to talk about it because he practiced charity
love towards his own countrymen who had borrowed from
foreigners. So he paid the money and set
them free. Good.
And then what happened? They have even the Jewish people
who are lending money to Jewish people for interest.
Who is going to set free them? So he's saying you're selling
your brothers to me. You're selling your brothers to
us, which is not right. So what did he, what he said was
stop taking interest rule #1 you have to obey God.
You have to have fear of God. You must have fear of God.
If you have fear of God, stop taking interest from your own
countrymen. This is rule number 12.
If you're already taking money, return it back.
Return it back. I tell you, those are very hard
words. And once we had to use it like
that between two people, one man took more money from another man
in a business deal. So we had to call both of them.
I said what you're doing is not right.
First to reduce your charges for this business and then secondly,
whatever you have taken extra hard to give back.
So he paid back 10,000 or something extra money he had
taken, he paid back. So we should be having the moral
courage to talk and that comes only from your life, not just
like that. You can you can't just walk into
somebody and say, hey, I want you to pay back the money or
taken. He won't listen to you.
You need to have a life that supports your words.
And Nehemiah had that kind of a ability to talk into the nobles
and officials telling them to pay back what they have taken
and what was the rate of interest.
It was 100th part of the money, grain, new wine and oil, hundred
part that's 1%. OK, you've been charging for
them 10 years since 10 years you're taken 1%.
Now pay back the 10% you're taken from them and pay back
everything, restore the field, restore everything.
And this is how he dealt with it.
So I continued, what you're doing is not right.
He first gave them a sentence. What you're doing is not right.
And then he said, shouldn't you walk in the fear of a God?
You must have the fear of God. Now this is very simple rule I
want to say here is Christianity will either destroy every
iniquity that abounds in a land or itself will decline and
depart from a people who will not hear his voice to break off
their sins by righteousness. Somebody, Pastor W Richie has
said it. If you either obey Bible and you
receive a blessing over the land or you disobey and the Bible
goes. We came to New Zealand 23 years
ago and when we drove from the airport to a brother in law's
house, the whole Rd. was just empty.
Like I said, what you come from India where you have no room to
walk on the road and you come here the whole Rd. is for
yourself. I said have they laid a road
just for me? Because that happens in India.
If you are a president or a chief minister, when you are on
the road, all traffic is stopped so you can pass and here nobody
stopping anybody. We have all the road to
ourselves. It just shocked me.
I said, oh, we have come to a land where you, you are a VIP,
you can go on the road alone. But it's not so today.
After the 23 years now the roads are all filled up now everywhere
you have cars and a lot of businesses going on and
everything is increasing in New Zealand.
That's good in a sense. But what I'm trying to say here
is that when you are having this kind of treatment, sorry, when
you are obeying God's law, what I was trying to say was the
roads were empty on the, we came on a Sunday.
So afterwards I came to know that on Sundays you don't have
any shopping that you can do. Even this malls were all, not
all the malls were not operating on Sunday when we came.
Now all malls are operating on Sunday.
So this is the degeneration that you see in New Zealand.
There was a time they said on Sunday between the church
timings you will not find anybody elsewhere.
Like there is no rugby, there is no soccer, there is no football,
nothing. Everybody is in the church that
is New Zealand today. You hardly have 1012% in the
church and everybody is at any other every other place.
What am I trying to say when you fear this book?
This book will either keep you in God safe, prospering, quiet,
enjoying peace or you are running after things, leaving
God beside. So that is what is happening.
So we need to pray that the nation will turn to God again,
shall we say together, nation should turn to God again.
That's what is what we need. So you have these people, the
internal problems. Now Nehemiah was very angry, was
six, he pondered, considered himself was 7.
He accused the nobles and officials was 7.
And I said a large assembly against them, masses against the
powers was 7. Then he argued from personal
example was 8. And they had nothing to say.
When all these things were done by Nehemiah, they had nothing to
say. They had to agree with Nehemiah,
yes you are right, yes you are right, yes you are right.
We are the ones who are done wrong.
So they had nothing to say. And then you see in verse 12 he
says you had to give back. They agreed we will give back.
They agreed we will give back for future.
We will not demand anything from them.
OK, what you're taking, you're giving back again tomorrow you
can say, hey, I have cancelled your debt.
I have paid back what you paid back, but from tomorrow you're
going to pay interest again. No.
So the principle is not just for dealing with history, it's for
present, it's for future when you read the word of God obeyed.
It's for dealing with your history, to dealing with your
present, and to deal with your future.
That's the power of the world. When you are committed to honor
God, you are dealing with your history, you're dealing with
your present, you're dealing with your future.
Can I hear a Amen? So the people said we will not
collect from you anymore, not demand from you anymore.
In verse 13, the people did as they promised.
People did as they promised. Now, what he was trying to say
here is when you are doing this, you're bringing reproach to the
nation of Israel. When you are practicing, usually
when you're taking interest from your neighbors, from your
fellowmen, and you're buying, you're taking over their lands,
fields, all you, all your groups, and then you're taking
away the children. You're bringing a curse on
yourself and you are a bad witness to the nations around
who are watching over. Now I wanted to see, is the
church being watched by the world?
Does the world watch the church? Yes, they do watch.
They do watch. Whatever happens in your life,
the world will come and ask you one day.
I'll give an example. A friend of mine applied for
immigration for his wife. He got married.
He applied papers and the wife did not come very quickly.
Another guy who doesn't know much English, but he came to him
one day and he says, hey, you say you're a child of God.
I am not, but I got married. My wife is here in one month and
your wife has not come yet after six months or one year.
Is the world watching? Watching.
Everybody compares your life with their life.
That's very simple. When you say you are a
Christian, everybody is watching.
Everybody is watching. They will compare and contrast
their life with your life. They say, oh, he says he's a
Christian, why does he have problem?
I am not a Christian. I don't have a problem.
So that's how they look at it. But we know that everything was
for good to them, that love God and that the Scripture, we know
the Scripture and we are, we know that there's a blessing for
us even though we suffer at the present time, we have no answer.
We know that our life is safe and secure in the hand of God.
Amen. Cool.
So what happened here is. They said we will give back.
Then I summoned the priests and made the nobles and officials
take an oath to do what they had promised.
Now Nehemiah is a leader. We have to understand.
So you can, you can make a legislation, but implementation
is very difficult. You can say don't do this, don't
do that. You can, you can pass a law, but
who is going to follow? So Nehemiah has made this, made
them pay back the money they have taken and promised not to
do it again and all these things.
But he said he wants to make sure it is implemented.
So he calls priests as a witness and he before the public, he
charged the nobles and officials they should be implementing it.
They had to follow it through. And what he did was he summoned
the priests and made the nobles and officials take an oath to do
what they had promised. I also shook out the folds of my
robe and said, in this way May God shake out of his house and
possessions every man who does not keep this promise.
So may such a man be shaken out and emptied.
Basically what he did was he took his outer robe, and the
robe they had was having folds. Sometimes you want to carry some
small things. You can, you just put it in the
clothes that you're wearing and carry it for a temporary period.
And you see somebody. I mean this is in quite common
in the villages. You know, somebody wants to
borrow, let's say wheat or Millet or something goes to the
neighbor. The lady goes to neighbor, just
can I borrow one liter of Millet?
And do you think she goes with the bag?
No, she take out a saree fold and fold like this and they'll
put one liter of Millet and she folds it and comes home.
So what Nema was doing was he took the fold of his, I mean,
they took the outer government and shook it out in public.
Did Paul do the same thing? What did he do?
He took the outer government, shook it out in the public and
said no dust will stick to my thing.
May God shake you out if you don't do this, this, this and
did Christ himself tell the disciples, When the people of a
village reject the gospel, you go and preach.
They don't accept it. What do you do?
Shake off the dust from your feet.
That dust will be a witness on the day of judgment.
The shaking the dust from your clothes will be witness on the
day of judgment. This is some simply exaggerated
and a true way of saying that God is a witness.
You cannot escape God. You can escape man, but not God.
So that is how he powerfully, forcefully implemented these
things in public and made them do take an oath.
And what does the Scripture say in verse 13?
At this the whole assembly said Amen.
That is all. The people are happy with the
conclusion and they all shouted Amen.
And then and praise the Lord, they also praised the Lord.
And then he and, and the people did as they had promised.
Is there a victory now? Can we shout Amen?
See, from a people who are oppressing to a people who are
setting other people free and enjoying freedom themselves and
praising God. When you obey God, there is joy.
Actually, I'm almost done with
my time, but very quickly you want to finish it.
I'm just trying to push myself a little bit because I want to
finish the chapter now after this verses from 14th verse till
the end of the chapter, nineteenth verse, that's only 5
verses but is such a big portion.
What you see there is Nehemiah inserting probably after all the
things happened when the book is being compiled, Nehemiah must
have said, OK, this is rightful that I should say what I had
done for God. So what he did was basically he
was from 4:44 BC to 432 BC. That's about 12 years of being a
governor. He is, he is eligible to take
some food money because you are an official.
People will come to visit you, they will come to your home.
So you have to give them food. You have to take care of the
visitors. So for all these things, the
king of Persia, the art exists, makes an allowance for them to
collect money from the people. That means you pay tax to the
Persian king and you pay tax to the local governor.
But what did Neymar do was he said I will not take this money
for myself, but instead I will pay from my own pocket?
Am I making sense here? So many times this disconnection
with the money is very important.
Our heart must be disconnected from money.
What am I saying? Can we repeat it?
Heart must be disconnected from money.
Why is it important? Because that will set you free.
That will set you free. So what he did was he didn't
take money from the public usual, which was equal to how
much silver they were collecting there were.
That's about 40 shekels of silver. 40 shekels is like 1 LB
of silver or something per year probably.
It's for a year. It's not monthly.
Must be for a year, not daily. People have no money to give at
all because they're crying out. It must be for a year.
So he says no, no, no, I will not collect money from people
for my own food, for people I entertain at home.
And how many were coming for meal in this house?
150 people every day, not once a month, not once a year they are
having guess how many? 150 people.
And what was necessary to feed this 150 people, One ox, six
choice sheep, and some poultry were prepared for me for every
10 days an abundant supply of wine of all kinds.
Food and wine go together in the Old Testament.
And here he is spending money from his own pocket. 1 ox every
day. If you have 10 ox, you are a
rich man, and this man is giving 1 ox every day. 365 oxes in a
year. 6 sheep, multiply by 365, that's more than 2000 sheep.
And how much wealthy this man must be not to take money from
people, but spend money like water.
Nehemiah was rich. Let's say Nehemiah was rich.
When you fear God, when you obey him, God will bless you.
When you fear God and obey him, God will bless you.
We have not just one example of Nehemiah.
Look at Abraham, how rich was he?
He had his own army of 318 men who were born and raised and
trained in his own household and he was able to have an allies
with him and go and defeat 5 kings.
He defeated 5 kings overnight. They travelled and captured
those people, brought back Lot and his family and all his
possessions and all the things they have carried from that.
Different kings. 4 kings they defeated.
He brought back everything and gave it to kings.
Take it your own portions. How liberal Abraham must be to
give back to every king. What is recall from the battle?
Take it. That's yours.
Take it, take it. They said no, we want to give.
You said no, no, no. I don't want anybody to say that
I had taken from you not even a tongue of shoe I will take from
you. But the men who went with me.
You pay their charge their their portion, you can give job.
How rich was he, Daniel How rich and powerful he was Joseph, He
became a Prime Minister in Egypt and he controlled of economy of
Egypt. He introduced a tax loss 20% to
be given to the King. I tell you when you have God in
your life, the impact you make is far greater than what you can
ever do in your all your life. So what do we need?
Have God in your life. Let's say I want to have God in
my life. If you have God in your life, he
will make a head, not a tail. When you have God in your life,
you will be a blessing, not a curse.
When you have God in your life, you have something to give, not
you are looking for somebody to give you.
You have everything you need because you have God in your
life. So I think I should leave it
there for today. And he says, Remember Me with
favor, Oh my God, for all I have done for these people.
This is a prayer He has prayed 7 times in the whole book.
The last time we find in chapter 13, five or five times in
chapter 6, and here you find in chapter 5 and once before.
So this is awesome. This is awesome.
To live like Nehemiah is a great blessing.
To live to live like Nehemiah is a great blessing.
And I tell you, through the power of the Holy Ghost, we can
live like Nehemiah and better. We can live like Nehemiah, and
better shall we bow heads in prayer.
Thank you, Jesus. Sabarasi Maharudu Karasande
Mandana Sarasota Barasaroni hasta saktaroni rabasta ronomo
shandarani manando sastaro hasse Rica sandastaburoni horonomo
samani sandastaro hosa baraka sastarani.
The Lord says you have an insurance to protect your goods,
you have insurance to protect your house, you have insurance
for your life. You become unhealthy and you
don't make money. But God says when you trust in
me, you don't need an insurance. I am your insurance.
Sarabhashanima, Honda sector, Hoba rima Rishandra Marasastoro
Harinama sector, Storo Sundarani riba Rishanima.
Like a river in flood. I will bless you, my children,
says the Lord. When you, when you fear me, obey
my laws, and when you give your time, your money, your resources
for my Kingdom, you will be like a river in spate.
Oh, thank you, Lord. That's a powerful word You're
losing into our lives. So touch our hearts now.
I pray, Holy Ghost, touch our hearts now.
That's our hearts now. That's our harsh now, That's our
harsh now that we may be completely sold out to you, that
we may live like Nehemiah in our own time, impacting the
generation to the glory of your name.
We praise you for your the walls around our property.
You are every protection for us, and you are the Fort in which we
take refuge, and you are our king.
You are like a mountain, like a hill for us, and we worship it.
We praise you, We put a trust in you, and nobody who trusts in
you will be shaken. We give you glory on our own.
Praise for every blessing you are speaking or our lives this
morning, and may your name be glorified later, Kingdom come
later will be done on earth as it is in heaven, to the glory of
your name. We worship you again.
We fall at the feet, worship you.
Father, Son, the Holy Ghost, we worship you.
May your hand come up on your congregation now.
Everybody who comes under the influence of my voice, even
those who listen through the podcast, I pray that your hand
will come upon them and your blessing will come, powerful
blessing to come upon them to the glory of your name.
In Jesus name we have asked and everybody says Amen.
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