Act Justly

Lego Example

(Explain what Colten will be doing for us this morning)

Nehemiah 5 Is where we are today

Imagine with me for just a moment

Nehemiah is called

Nehemiah leaves a great job and position to go restore a city

Nehemiah had it made

He lived in the palace of the King

He ate the King’s food

He was greatly respected

The Lord calls him. Nehemiah’s heart is broken

He risk his life to go help his people the Jews

He arrives

He surveys the walls

He gets organized

He has a plan

Work Begins

The rebuilding of the wall progresses rapidly

They have great success

Things are moving quickly

Opposition from the outside happens

Sanballet and Tobiah start mocking the rebuilding of the wall

Their response is to defend and build

So they do they have a sword in one hand and they are rebuilding with the other hand

They have survived all this.

After all this, they are now experiencing a famine

Does this Sound familiar?

I feel the pain of the Jews here leading up to Nehemiah 5

Before this past September, March of 2020 was the last time we ran our buses on a Wednesday night.

Remind you that today we are in 2022 and we are only 2 years into this. To me it feels like March of 2020 was like 5 years ago.

March, April and May we were trying to figure out do we meet in person or not.

Do we touch gas pumps or not

Can the virus travel on boxes?

Do we open or close businesses

It progressed from there...

Do we mask or not mask?

Throw in a presidential election

Do we vax or not vax?

Is prophecy being fulfilled and what the meaning of everything is?

Afganistan

Haiti

Tornados

News media

I am sure I left some out but you get the point.

We have all worked through each of this and survived.

At times if felt like we had a sword in one hand and building with the other.

We were building and defending.

We survived all this and then things like the city water system having to be shut down for two days happens.

I feel you Nehemiah. Watch what happens next.

Insult to Injury

Nehemiah 5:1–5 HCSB

1 There was a widespread outcry from the people and their wives against their Jewish countrymen. 2 Some were saying, “We, our sons, and our daughters are numerous. Let us get grain so that we can eat and live.” 3 Others were saying, “We are mortgaging our fields, vineyards, and homes to get grain during the famine.” 4 Still others were saying, “We have borrowed money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards. 5 We and our children are just like our countrymen and their children, yet we are subjecting our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters are already enslaved, but we are powerless because our fields and vineyards belong to others.”

Group 1: Don’t have food or land

Let us get grain so that we can eat and live

Group 2: Has lands but they are mortgaging their land, vineyards and homes to get food.

v3

Group 3: Has land but is borrowing money to pay taxes on fields

v4

Group 4: They have sold their children into slavery

Jewish boys and girls have to choose between starvation or slavery.

Who was doing all this?

Jews are harming Jews

Attacks are from within

Nehemiah’s response

Nehemiah 5:6–7 HCSB

6 I became extremely angry when I heard their outcry and these complaints. 7 After seriously considering the matter, I accused the nobles and officials, saying to them, “Each of you is charging his countrymen interest.” So I called a large assembly against them

I became angry

I would say that a men we are pretty good at this one.

That is it does not take a lot to make us angry. We can get angry quick.

I have had guys get really angry with me because I didn’t give them enough praise. I have had people angry with me over a dish disappearing from the kitchen, I have had people angry at me for trying to help them (summer)

Nehemiah 5:7 (ESV)

7 I took counsel with myself, and I brought charges against the nobles and the officials. I said to them, “You are exacting interest, each from his brother.” And I held a great assembly against them

Be Determined Chapter Five: Stop! Thief! (Nehemiah 5)

“I consulted with myself” means literally “My heart consulted within me.” A friend of mine calls this “putting my heads together.” Actually, Nehemiah put his heart and his head together as he pondered the problem and sought God’s direction. He got control of his feelings and his thoughts so that he could give constructive leadership to the people.

Proverbs 16:32 NKJV

32 He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, And he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.

We are good at getting angry but this is the skill that I want us as Christ followers to develop

That is to consult within myself. That is drawing your head and heart together as you ponder the problem and seek God for direction.

Men our society needs more than ever Christ followers who will practice this skill. Let me tell you that this is not your first response. The first response is to react in the flesh, but through the Spirit you can react in the spirit.

That is to consult within yourself. Then respond.

No doubt our kids are a whole lot smarter than we were when we were kids. My kids have so much information in their heads. They know so much because of technology. They are smart. They know who plays what character and all the interesting details about the movie. They don’t know they get on the internet and ask. They are smarter.

It is true that they are smarter but they lack emotional development. That is they struggle to look people in the eye and have a face to face conversation with them.

The children of today need the men and women of the church today to use communication to develop our children emotionally and spiritually.

We must consult within ourselves and then speak up. We have to teach, train and disciple our children. We must use words. If you are not good at this then let me challenge to to get better. You have to practice to get better. Try it!

Nehemiah 5:8–9 HCSB

8 and said, “We have done our best to buy back our Jewish countrymen who were sold to foreigners, but now you sell your own countrymen, and we have to buy them back.” They remained silent and could not say a word. 9 Then I said, “What you are doing isn’t right. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God and not invite the reproach of our foreign enemies?

To Act Justly, Love Mercy and Walk Humbly our enemies or those who don’t believe see this and will not reproach us.

We have experienced very little theft or vandalism in my time of pastoring Bridge of Faith.

I believe we have gained respect from the community as a whole for the way we have cared and brought just for the children.

Be Determined Chapter Five: Stop! Thief! (Nehemiah 5)

If we truly fear the Lord, then we will want to honor Him before those who don’t believe in Him.

1 Corinthians 6:1 HCSB

1 If any of you has a legal dispute against another, do you dare go to court before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?

Be Determined Chapter Five: Stop! Thief! (Nehemiah 5)

Far better to lose money than lose the privilege of your witness to the lost. You can always earn more money, but how do you restore a damaged testimony?

What does it mean to walk in the fear of the Lord?

Loving respect of a child toward a parent

Means to seek to Glorify the Lord in everything we do

Means listening to his word, honoring it and obeying it

Be Determined Chapter Five: Stop! Thief! (Nehemiah 5)

“The remarkable thing about fearing God,” wrote Oswald Chambers, “is that when you fear God, you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God, you fear everything else.”

Be Determined (Chapter Five: Stop! Thief! (Nehemiah 5))

To walk in the fear of God, of course, means to walk by faith, trusting God to deal with your enemies and one day balance the accounts.

Proverbs 19:23 HCSB

23 The fear of the Lord leads to life; one will sleep at night without danger.

I will never forget one of the nights my life was most in danger.

We had an after school program and I went to pick up some girls to bring them to the after school program. On the way back to church, one of the girls shared with me that she could not take it anymore.

I said what do you mean? She said my dad just beat my step sister with a belt 14 times and I can’t take this no more.

I knew the system in Taney county and knew the struggles. She said whatever you do don’t hotline it because that won’t do anything.

I made phone call to sheriffs office and I called friends who were in the system and I got the same response every time.

You need to hotline this.

So I did and they said don’t bus the girls home. Keep them at church we have an investigator on the way.

They showed up mom and dad showed up because the girls were on the phone.

I was upstairs and the parents were downstairs and the sheriff was there.

While we were waiting the youngest girl said you are a hero because you save people

The interviewer interviewed one girl and said there was no evidence and to send them home.

All 5 girls came downstairs and dad said get in the car girls. They stood behind me. He said get in the car and they did not move. He said girls I said get in the car. he was in a big car and mom was in a Mustang. All the girls went and squeezed in the mustang.

That night I was broke. I stood on the front steps of the church porch and I said to the investigator and the sheriff that I never call you guys because you won’t do anything for me and tonight I called you and you missed it.

The dad wanted to kill me that night.

Obedience to the Lord and Justice for the girls was my first thought. I knew there would be repercussion.

The girls eventually got to come back to church(maybe tell this story)

They were taken into state custody about a year later when one of the girls set their dad up and he almost killed his girlfriend and one of the girls they took them into care.

One of the girls eventually came to live with us and we read her case paper work. They had been hotlined 17 times before being removed from the home.

There has never been a better time than now for the church and men of the church and seek Justice for children and people.

Nehemiah 5:10–11 HCSB

10 Even I, as well as my brothers and my servants, have been lending them money and grain. Please, let us stop charging this interest. 11 Return their fields, vineyards, olive groves, and houses to them immediately, along with the percentage of the money, grain, new wine, and olive oil that you have been assessing them.”

In his book Generation Z Unfiltered Tim Elmore describes somethings that has taken place in today’s generation of children.

At one point he describes what it is like for kids of today.

He says parents at one time were community parents

Community parents is were each parent works and fights for the good of each kid in the community. That is all parents are working together to raise the kids of the community.

If a kid is behind in education or sports, then the community works to catch the kids up.

The community seeks justice for all kids of the community.

Today the shift has went from community parenting to competition parenting

Competition parenting is where every parent is competing on behalf of their child against other parents.

Social media has caused us to make sure we tell the story that our kids are having the best experiences.

It does not matter if they are or are not, but we have to make it look like they are having a better time than the other parents on my feed.

Parents are competing to ensure that their kids have better experiences than all the other kids. They are competing to get them on the best sports teams and competing to give them the best education.

When I read scripture, this should not be the way of a Christ follower.

Isaiah 61:1–3 HCSB

1 The Spirit of the Lord God is on Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners; 2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of our God’s vengeance; to comfort all who mourn, 3 to provide for those who mourn in Zion; to give them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, festive oil instead of mourning, and splendid clothes instead of despair. And they will be called righteous trees, planted by the Lord to glorify Him.

That’s far different from competing to give our children the greatest experience verses everyone else.

Nehemiah 5:12–13 HCSB

12 They responded: “We will return these things and require nothing more from them. We will do as you say.” So I summoned the priests and made everyone take an oath to do this. 13 I also shook the folds of my robe and said, “May God likewise shake from his house and property everyone who doesn’t keep this promise. May he be shaken out and have nothing!” The whole assembly said, “Amen,” and they praised the Lord. Then the people did as they had promised.

They identify the problem and then they change.

It is so important that when the Lord convicts our heart on something that we actually do something about it.

Nehemiah heard about the walls and he put together a plan and did something.

If you are struggling as a parent, a husband, an employee, then seek the Lord and make a change.

My wife the other day drank the rest of my water bottle. She said that always drove you crazy if I drank the rest or threw what little you was saving away.

My response was yes and I recognized how critical I was being of you and I stopped doing that. It is nothing to replace my water bottle or just get a new one. I realized how critical I was of you and I changed.

It would be sad for me that if you came here this weekend and God convicted your heart on sin and you did nothing about it.

Call it out and do things differently.

They change and then have a worship service.

Nehemiah Practices what he Preaches

Nehemiah 5:14–19 HCSB

14 Furthermore, from the day King Artaxerxes appointed me to be their governor in the land of Judah—from the twentieth year until his thirty-second year, 12 years —I and my associates never ate from the food allotted to the governor. 15 The governors who preceded me had heavily burdened the people, taking food and wine from them, as well as a pound of silver. Their subordinates also oppressed the people, but I didn’t do this, because of the fear of God. 16 Instead, I devoted myself to the construction of the wall, and all my subordinates were gathered there for the work. We didn’t buy any land. 17 There were 150 Jews and officials, as well as guests from the surrounding nations at my table. 18 Each day, one ox, six choice sheep, and some fowl were prepared for me. An abundance of all kinds of wine was provided every 10 days. But I didn’t demand the food allotted to the governor, because the burden on the people was so heavy. 19 Remember me favorably, my God, for all that I have done for this people.

I love what Nik Ripken the author of Insanity of God says...

The mission agency was preparing to send him out as a missionary and they asked him Nik when did you first receive your call to missions.

Nik had not grown up in church and so he responded with well I was reading my Bible and I came to Matthew 28:19

Matthew 28:19 HCSB

19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

After I read my Bible I thought that is what I was supposed to do.

They asked him ok we understand but when was you called to missions and he said well I read my Bible and that was it.

It always amazes me when Christ followers start to argue over seeking Justice as a church because when I read scripture, then it is very clear that we as Christ followers are to act justly always.

It does not say to act justly sometimes and in some occasions, but the call for acting justly is always.

Here is the beauty of it. The world is so confused on what Justice looks like right now that when the church lives out justice daily then it looks different and it is attractive to the world.

I have been officiating wrestling this year and let me tell you that everyone wants justice!

I am very passionate about seeking justice on behalf of the poor in our communities. I see this in scripture over and over.

I believe one of the biggest modern day slaveries that I have experienced is social security disability. I have watched as individuals of my community are limited to $700 a month and not allowed to make any more than that.

I have seen what a job can do for these individuals to help and assist them spiritually, mentally, and physically but the government will penalize them for making a little money.

We have sought justice in so many ways for the children of our community.

When we first started our children were known as children of the 561 because of the school system when they would have a discipline problem they would pick up the phone to call someone from the 561 telephone prefix and that was Rockaway Beach areas phone number.

We fought hard on behalf of the kids to change this perception in the school. They eventually split the north and the south schools in elementary and right now our elementary is the one that is the preference of parents!

(Breanna Testimony Video)

Act Justly