Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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Emotion Tone
Anger
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Disgust
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Fear
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Joy
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Sadness
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Language Tone
Analytical
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Confident
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Tentative
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Social Tone
Openness
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Conscientiousness
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Extraversion
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Agreeableness
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Emotional Range
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Tone of specific sentences
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Anger
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Introduction:
Transition to the text: For the first few chapters of Nehemiah, everything was going great.
Then we got to chapter 4 last week and Nehemiah starts to experience his first taste of opposition.
Now that didn’t come to anything.
In chapter 5 something potentially more dangerous comes up and Nehemiah has his greatest challenge yet.
It seems that there are those in Jerusalem who are taking advantage of their brothers and sisters and leading them into poverty.
Why is this so important to address?
Because one of the greatest issues that led to God’s judgement on the people of Israel, sending them into exile, was that they didn’t obey His law.
It wasn’t just accidental sinning from time to time, but outright indifference.
And one of the unique things with regard to God’s law is that written in it to guard against generational poverty.
You couldn’t exact interest.
Every 7 years all debts within the nation were cancelled even if what was borrowed was in the 6th year.
Every 50 years, all people were to return to their ancestral land.
No land could be sold in perpetuity.
Every 50 years, families had a clean slate.
As tells us that if the law is followed, there will be no poor people in the land of Israel.
So when Nehemiah finds out about this blatant disregard for God’s law, he is rightfully concerned.
He is not about to have all that that he worked hard for come crashing down because a few greedy people can’t follow the law.
Remember that this was not about rebuilding a city or even a nation, but it was about restoring a people for God’s own possession.
And today, we learn that....
Big Idea: Restoring God’s people requires that even the poor are restored.
This is important when we see what Nehemiah was doing.
The people of Israel were a people that, through their words and actions, shined the glory of God to the nations.
How would Nehemiah respond to this growing crisis?
How would you respond?
Let’s read...
1. Listen to the plight of the poor.
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Explanation: When people bring a complaint, it’s easy to dismiss it as their problem.
Nehemiah had other issues to deal with like ongoing construction of a half built wall.
But he stops what he is doing and listens.
He could have even passed it on.
But Nehemiah, knowing his scriptures and knowing the consequences of such a blatant sin stops everything to deal with it.
Nothing is more important than people.
The wall can wait.
People take priority.
So what does Nehemiah do?
He listens.
Illustration: But listening is hard sometimes, because we have to put aside our agenda and listen.
Listening is especially important in marrirage.
There was a certain husband who admited that his wife said he has 2 faults, 1. he doesn’t listen but he couldn’t recal what the 2nd one was.
Sometimes the very best things we can do is to listen.
It doesn’t matter if their problem is imaginary or perceived as unimportant in comparison to everything else we have going on.
But when we listen, we restore their dignity.
We restore their sense of belonging and purpose.
So what did Nehemiah learn when he listened?
They didn’t have enough food to eat so they were selling or mortgaging their ancestral homes to buy food.
They are borrowing money to pay the taxes on their fields and when that runs out they are selling their children.
2 things are happening here.
The more wealthy jewish people are making money off of their brothers and sisters’ poverty and allowing the children of poorer jewish people to be sold into slavery.
So the problem is that there is already a distinction between the rich and poor.
This is an issue of unity of the nation.
When one person is poor, the whole people suffer.
And those are your children being sold into slavery.
The nation must be restored and that includes everyone.
Application: Now it is easy to get bogged down with the overwhelming nature of poverty in the world around us.
It is just too much to bare.
And to be honest, this verse doesn’t speak to ending poverty around the world.
But it does speak to how we treat those who are a part of the kingdom of God.
So yes, our primary concern should be to listen to the plight of other Christians and making sure that we are doing our part to alleviate their poverty.
With regard to poverty and the poor in the church, who do you need to listen to?
Who can you give your time to where you just listen without judgement or offering easy fixes.
Can you just listen?
Nehemiah first listened but he didn’t stop there or say....”well…I’ll pray for you.”
He got to work.
Let’s continue reading.
2. Address the problems.
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Explanation: Nehemiah got angry.
Now many of us assume that anger is a sin, but it’s not.
There are times when anger is the only appropriate response to what’s going on.
But let’s be careful lest we are consumed.
vs. 7 goes quick, but there are 2 parts that separated by an unknown length of time.
1.
I took council with myself.... Nehemiah didn’t just run to the offenders.
He took time to breath.
It doesn’t say it here, but based on previous history, he probably prayed.
2.
He went directly to the offenders…we’re sometimes tempted to go to others and gather support for our case.
It turns out that is just gossiping.
Nehemiah went directly to the people and called them out.
2 charges: 1. Exacting interest and selling their brethren as slaves.
Now, here is something that we can’t miss.
vs. 9 shows us that Nehemiah cares for these people as well.
He cares for their souls and wants them to do what God wants them to do.
You don’t destroy one part of the family for the sake of another.
Part of the restoration was restoring the poor as well as the rich.
So what’s Nehemiah’s plan?
Nehemiah is going to lend them money and grain.
They will stop charging interest to their brothers.
Their ancestral homes will be returned to them.
They will restore to them the interest that they took.
Nothing more will be required from them.
This is a beautiful picture of what repentance looks like.
You don’t just say, “I’m sorry.”
You fix what was broken.
But that is exactly what they did.
They repented of their sinned and swore to not let it happen again.
Illustration: I remember one day I went to the refridgerator to get some milk for my cereal.
As I opened the door the milk must have been on the edge of the shelf and it fell the floor.
The cap came out and milk went everywhere.
All over me the floor, the counters, the upstarts closet.
It was everywhere.
So I called amanda and said, we have to sell the house.
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