The Year of Responsibility

Introduction

There was a preacher that was tired on a Saturday night, he was unprepared and he just didn’t feel like preaching…so he said to himself, “I’m burnt out, I just need a day off to go golfing.” He calls his executive pastor and says, “I’m not feeling well, I’ve got a cough and I can’t speak great. I need you to preach in the morning.”

The ministry of Nehemiah centered around rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. After many wars and many judgements from God, the city of Jerusalem was left defenseless because the wall was filled with gaps and it was filled with weaknesses. So. what Nehemiah does, is he petitions the King to return to Jerusalem and build the wall. This was something that God placed in his heart and something that God blessed.

When this wall was restored, it showed the Jewish people that God was still faithful to His people and that God was going to keep HIs promise.

Any time the Bible uses the word righteousness, it is talking about the condition of the heart.

In the book of Matthew 15, Jesus is teaching His disciples about the heart of the Pharisees. The Pharisees saw that His disciples ate in a way that was not approved by their law. And so, Jesus tells them plainly that it is the heart that God is concerned with, not the laws and the rules.

What Jesus was trying to convey is that God does not seek outward appearances, but that God looks at the heart of a person to determine their obedience.

Not only does Jesus tell us that God is looking at the heart of a person, He goes on to tell them that the condition of our heart can be measured by the things that we say.

Matthew 15:18 NKJV

But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man.

Jesus is teaching them that every sin and every wrong doing begins in the heart. He is also teaching them that how we talk and what we talk about, revel the nature of our heart.

Therefore, if our speech is unrighteous, then it is something that has come from our heart. When we are unkind in our speech, it means that we have an unkind heart. If we are using our words to spread gossip, it means that there is pride and gossip in our heart. If we have an outburst of anger and yell something that we ought not have yelled, then you can be sure that you have anger and frustration in your heart.

What we like to do is make excuses for ourselves and explain away the condition of our heart by justifying our speech.

But, in the church, we have a responsibility to one another, and that responsibility begins in the heart.

Here in the first five verses of Nehemiah 4, there are three hearts that I want you to see…and these hearts are put on display by the words that these three men will speak.

I. The Heart of Sanballat

The Bible says that this man Sanballat was a Horonite. This is a man from the city of Moab.

The Moabite nation was a nation born out of perversion. They were descended from the man named Moab, who is the product of an incestuous relationship where the man named Lot became drunk and was seduced by his daughters. The name Moab literally means “he is of my father.”

In the Bible, this nation did have their good moments, but by and large they were a people that wanted to stop the people of God at any cost.

This man named Sanballat despised the Jewish people and wanted them to fail in their efforts to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

And what Sanballat says here in these first two verses show us exactly that.

Nehemiah 4:1–2 NKJV

But it so happened, when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, that he was furious and very indignant, and mocked the Jews. And he spoke before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they complete it in a day? Will they revive the stones from the heaps of rubbish—stones that are burned?”

The heart of Sanballat represents many things, but what I want to highlight today is that it represents jealousy.

Have you ever been jealous?

In order to answer that honestly…

A. What is jealousy?

Well, there are two way to understand jealousy.

One, there is God’s righteous jealousy. This is displayed in us in some ways…for instance, I am jealous over my children. I don’t want this world to grab hold of them so I hold them near and dear to me. I am jealous for them. God gave them to me and I am going to care for them. this isn’t the kind of jealousy I am talking about.

The jealousy I am talking about is the jealousy that is described here in v.1-2, where Sanballat is described as being furious and indignant .

The type of jealousy I am talking about is defined like so.

Jealousy: Envy; hatred of others; the opposite of love.

B. Where Do Feelings of Jealousy Come From?

The feeling of jealousy comes when we believe that someone else possesses what we believe we ought to possess.

This is why people get jealous if someone gets a promotion over them…if someone owns or has something nicer than they do…or if someone has certain qualities and characteristics that you believe you also have, it’s just that no one notices you have them, and it feels like everyone notices that they have them.

That makes people jealous. When they begin to believe that they ought to possess what someone else rightfully possesses.

In the church, jealousy in our hearts cannot be tolerated.

We must recognize that everything in this place belongs to the Lord. The people, the facilities, the budgets, all the way down to the smallest crumb that feeds the preschool children, it all belongs to the Lord. It’s all His.

Even the position that I have as the pastor of the church was given by the Lord and it can be taken away by the Lord. We are not the possessors of anything in the church, we are simply the stewards of the church.

C. How Can We Overcome Jealousy?

There are two principles that we must adopt in the life of our church to stay free and clear of a jealous heart.

Those are to have the fear of the Lord and then to live with contentment.

Now, you think about it…the most jealous people tend to be the most insecure people. You show me a person that finds value in belittling others and running rough shot over others and I will show you a person that is discontent in their life, with themselves, and with their choices.

Above those things, I’ll show you a person that doesn’t fear the Lord.

To fear the Lord means to live with a reverent respect for what He has given you.

That is, we ought to respect God enough to trust that He will give us what we need to accomplish His purposes. Jealousy comes when we are not trusting God and begin to desire things in our own time and in our own way instead of simply waiting on Him.

Do you know what church members fight over?

It all boils down to three criteria.

Who’s going to do it?

How are they going to do it?

And who is going to get the credit?

Look there again at v. 2 and see what Sanballat was saying.

First, he attacks the Who.

He says, “What are these feeble Jews doing?” He wasn’t happy that they were accomplishing something that he thought they were unable to accomplish.

Second, he attacks the How.

Four times he asks a question that begins with Will they?

He is questioning the how and belittling their process. Instead of seeing the possibility, the only thing that the jealous heart of Sanballat can see are the obstacles.

Now, God is the One who placed this rebuilding project into the heart of Nehemiah. Sanaballat was jealous, he didn’t fear the Lord, therefore, he was critical over everything that they wanted to accomplish.

Jealousy is defined as hatred of others…it enters into our hearts when we believe we ought to possess what God has given someone else…and for the Christian to overcome jealousy, they must be content with the life and the calling that God has assigned them.

When you begin to desire something that another rightfully has, then you are jealous. When your speech is critical and you begin to attack the who and the how, then you are a jealous person.

The only way to resolve that is to understand that we are not possessors of anything, but we are simply stewards of what God has given us.

Not only do we see the heart of Sanballat and his jealousy on full display…we also see the heart of the man named Tobiah.

II. The Heart of Tobiah

Sanballat was a Horonite…and the Bible says that Tobiah was an Ammonite.

Just like the Moabites, the Ammonites were a people born from the other daughter of Lot in the same manner, an incestuous relationship.

They were a people that constantly opposed the people of God and it’s no different in this story.

Nehemiah 4:3 NKJV

Now Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, “Whatever they build, if even a fox goes up on it, he will break down their stone wall.”

What I want to show you in the life of Tobiah is that he had the heart of an instigator.

Do you know what an instigator does?

In the church and in life, the instigator encourages others to tear someone down or to cause trouble.

Therefore, if you want to find the instigator you can always find them standing next to the jealous accuser.

Look there again in v. 3. It says that Tobiah was “beside him”. That is, he was standing there beside Sanballat adding fuel to the fire.

People that are like Tobiah are people that thrive in conflict.

However, instead of being like Tobiah…

A. We are to be Peacemakers

What we have in our church is a responsibility to be a people that seek to make peace in every situation. We cannot be instigators, and we cannot stand beside the jealous accusers.

Jesus says this in Matthew 5:9

Matthew 5:9 NKJV

Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God.

Now, peace is not the same thing as appeasement. Peace is not the absence of war, to have peace means to have a right relationship.

That is, we don’t have to agree. But I’ll tell you what else we don’t have to do. We don’t have to stand idly by an let the jealous accusers have their way. We don’t have to stand idly by and allow someone to tear another member of our church down.

Do we get aggravated? Sure…does that mean that we cannot have a right relationship? It doesn’t.

B. How Can We Be a Peacemaker?

That’s an important question.

In order to be a peacemaker, we have to have peace.

Now, what is peace? Again, peace is to have a right relationship. And when we think about that statement we automatically think of all the people that we don’t have peace with. But what I am trying to tell you is that you cannot have peace with all of those people around you until you have peace within yourself.

Let’s focus in on this.

First, the Bible term justification means to have a right relationship with God.

That is, we were at one time enemies of God, we didn’t have peace with God, but through the sacrifice of Jesus and the sacrifice that He made on the cross, we can accept Him, obtain forgiveness from God, and therefore be at peace with God, and no longer be enemies of God.

So, in order to have peace within ourselves, we must first have the peace of God in our heart and in our life.

On the day that we confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and enter into a right relationship with Him, we are given peace in the heavenly places. Unfortunately, that peace that we now have in the Heavenly places doesn’t always seem to transfer into our hearts.

So, if we want peace with others, the first thing that we need to have is peace with God. Then, the second thing that we need to have is peace with ourselves.

You think about it.

How can a man be at war within himself and yet have peace with the people around him? He can’t. Why?

Because we believe that others think about us what we think about ourselves.

If a person thinks that they inferior, that have what is called an “inferiority complex”.

When someone feels inferior in their life, they usually react in one of two ways. Either they withdraw and they lack confidence. They want to seclude themselves because they believe that others are running them down when it’s just not so…

then there are those who feel inferior and it comes spilling out in overcompensation and arrogance.

Now, here’s the root cause of all inferiority. The root cause of inferiority is comparison.

C. The Danger of Comparison

There is a great danger found when we begin to compare ourselves to one another in the church. I’ve been in situations where good things were happening, and here come the comparison crew. Here come the instigators. They’re on their way to start tearing down the walls that are being built!

They cannot just be happy for someone else because they have a deep seated resentment over something in their life. Maybe they had a tough childhood where they were told they’ll never be enough. Maybe they grew up in a circumstance that made them feel like they weren’t as good as others (Their clothes weren’t as nice, their family didn’t have as much money…etc.).

And, instead of being happy for others, they started to compare. And when they started to compare, they began to feel inferior. And when they began to feel inferior, they generated resentment in their life. And now all they do is instigate and stand beside the other jealous people in order to tear someone down.

There was no church that highlighted this more than the Corinthian church. They were masters of comparison. They were masters at being jealous and instigating problems.

1 Corinthians 3:1–4 NKJV

And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with solid food; for until now you were not able to receive it, and even now you are still not able; for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not carnal?

What’s Paul saying? He’s saying that the people of Corinth are jealous of one another, that they are comparing themselves to one another, that they are trying to find some way to say that they are better than one another, and that makes them carnal. In other words, that makes them like natural people and not like spiritual people.

They are people that are being led by men like Sanballat, and the men like Sanballat are getting their clout because of the people there that are like Tobiah who stand beside them and instigate.

Instead, we must be towards each other and Jesus was towards us. He didn’t compare, He didn’t try to steal glory, He didn’t try to one-up or talk down to others. Instead, Jesus, the King of the Universe came as a tiny babe, lived the life of a servant, and sought to make peace in such a dramatic way that it led to His death on a cross.

Therefore, don’t be an instigator, be a peacemaker. In order to be a peacemaker with others, we must have peace within ourselves. In order to have peace within ourselves, we must be free of all comparison, and live in the freedom that God has given us.

D. How can You Be Free of Comparison?

Understand What God has Done For You

When we really get to understanding what God has done and why He has done it, then we begin to see ourselves as someone who is valuable.

What’s the chief cause of inferiority? It’s feeling of being unvalued. We spend our whole lives trying to prove to others that we are valuable, and God says, “I’ve already proven it by sending my Son to die for you!”

John 3:16 NKJV

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

God has given you His most valuable possession so that He can make you His most valuable possession.

Understand What God says About You

Ephesians 2:10 NKJV

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

God has said in His word that you are His, and that you are created for Him, and that you don’t need to compare yourselves to others because He is making you exactly who you need to be.

It breaks my heart when I hear someone tell me that they feel like they can’t offer God anything, or that they can’t offer the church anything. Why? Because I can tell that they feel some kind of emptiness inside. Sometimes people try to mask that feeling, and they go and take on a bunch of things just to simply prove they can do it…but they’re missing the point.

The point is that God has uniquely designed each and every person for a specific, God honoring duty. He says, “we are His workmanship.” That means that God has crafted us.

And if we would just realize the blessings that God is pouring out over us in the heavenly places, we wouldn’t feel inferior, and we certainly won’t feel superior…instead what we will feel is peace.

To be free of comparison, understand what God has done for you, understand what God has said about you, and finally…

Understand what God Expects of you

If God is our Father, that means that we are His children.

1 John 3:1 NKJV

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!

Think of a little child. There they are…they are toddlers, and now they’re trying to prove they can do it all on their own. They want to do it and they don’t need your help, but then they fall, and they scream, and they’re upset because they couldn’t meet the expectations that they had for themselves.

Do you know what their problem is? They didn’t understand your expectations. We don’t have expectations that a toddler, a teenager, or even a young adult is going to make every wise decision.

And, if we want to get to the truth of things, we compare ourselves to others because we are afraid that if we fail that reflects badly on us.

Can I just put your mind at ease?

It’s impossible to know what you don’t know.

I remember when I was getting close to graduation and my dad would constantly say, “Son, why don’t you go out and apply at the shipyard? The apprenticeship is open and I can even put in a word for you.”

You know what’d I say? “No way dad, I’m not going down there, I’m too good to work at a job like that.”

Do you know what I was feeling, “There’s no way that I can work a job like that, I’m not good enough.”

I didn’t know anything about tools, grinders, welding…nothing. But what I was even more ignorant of was the expectations of that shipyard.

In my mind, they expected me to know everything. In reality, the expected me to know nothing.

In fact, they wanted to teach me, and show me, and guide me into my trade. What’s more, as hard a time as I gave them, there were very few people there that belittled me if I asked a question or didn’t know how to accomplish something.

But, in my immaturity, there were times when I acted like I knew it all and had it all together...and those were my worst moments.

What exactly does God expect of you?

God expects two primary things from you.

To love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength.

That is to speak with Him, to walk with Him, and to read His word.

To love others as yourself.

And, as I’ve already said, you cannot love others if you don’t first love yourself.

No where in there does it say perfection. No where in there does it say riches. No where in there does it say capability…the only thing it says is to love.

There is the jealous heart of Sanballat, there is the instigating and inferior heart of Tobiah…

III. The Heart of Nehemiah

Nehemiah was tasked with a job too great for himself. And when the critics came, when the instigators came…Nehemiah did one thing.

Nehemiah 4:4–5 NKJV

Hear, O our God, for we are despised; turn their reproach on their own heads, and give them as plunder to a land of captivity! Do not cover their iniquity, and do not let their sin be blotted out from before You; for they have provoked You to anger before the builders.

He simply cried out to God!

Now the rest of this chapter is all about Nehemiah working together with his brothers and sisters to accomplish the will of God.

The way that Nehemiah was able to stay focused on God is because he was certain that God has called him, saved him, and loved him.

Are you certain?