GETTING FOCUS* - "Laying the Foundation"

‘if we see what God sees, we’ll do what God says’

Today we're going to look at "Laying the Foundation" for the new year - what better way than to look at a summary of Nehemiah's life and look at eight characteristics of the man himself.

The first study we did as we started through this book, I said that the foundation of leadership is character nor charisma. You don't have to be a charismatic, bubbly, over energetic person to be a leader. What you do have to have is character. I want to pull out from the life of Nehemiah what I see as the eight characteristics of great leaders.
these are things we want to build into our lives in order to be effective.

1. COMPASSION

Nehemiah really cared about people. You don't get four verses into the book of Nehemiah and you're confronted with his compassion. Nehemiah 1:4 "When I heard these things [that the walls of Jerusalem were broken down and the gates had been burned by fire] I sat down and I wept and for some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the Lord."

Nehemiah had it made. He was cupbearer to the king of Persia. He was like the Prime Minister, a high ranking assistant. He had a very cushy job. He had everything he could ever want. Jerusalem is a million miles away as far as he's concerned. It's a foreign country; he's never seen it. He cares about the problems in Jerusalem and he gets concerned. He didn't have to be concerned. He was living on Easy Street. Why get upset? Everything was easy for him. But Nehemiah cared. He was a man of compassion and he saw that the people were having a tough time because their walls were torn down. Their city was in
destruction.
Isn't it true, when things are going good for you it's easy to forget that most of the people in the world are hurting? I become oblivious to the fact that most of the people in the world are in pain -- physical, emotional, relational. They're having difficult times. Particularly living in the ‘Burbs’.
Nehemiah was a man of compassion. Love is the foundation of Christ-centered life. Examples:
Nehemiah 5. Nehemiah's reaction to injustice. The poor had given four complains: food shortages, our homes are over mortgaged, interest rates are high and taxes are high, we have to sell our children into slavery just to pay our bills. Nehemiah heard about how these fat cats were ripping off the poor while they were rebuilding the wall. His reaction 5:6 "When I heard their outcry to these charges I was very angry."
Can anger ever be a loving reaction? You bet. Sometimes if you're not angry you're not loving. We need to be angry at sin. We need to be angry when people are hurt by other people. There is a righteous indignation there. Nehemiah got angry. That's evidence of his compassion for people.
Nehemiah was a man of compassion.

The law of leadership is that People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. As a leader the bottom line is love. Do you love people? Do you care about people? Leadership without love will just become manipulation.

2. CONTEMPLATION

Great leaders instinctively know that they need to balance the time that they spend with people, leading them, with time alone with God. They need a time of contemplation. The effectiveness of our leadership - to lead in life - is determined by our private life. The two go together. Nehemiah was a man of prayer.
Nine times in this very short book, Nehemiah prays. He is a man of prayer. He is a man of contemplation. Every decision he had to make, every crisis he had to face, every criticism he received he prayed about it. In chapter one is one of the great prayers of the Bible. I encourage you to study it. 1:5 "Then I said, `O God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those that love him and obey his commands, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel.'" He prayed day and night.

Another example was Nehemiah 2 -- the midnight ride. Remember when he went to Jerusalem. It says he sat in his room for about three days and when no one was looking, he got on his horse, kind of like Paul Revere, and road around the city, checked it all out and saw that it had been defeated and destroyed. What was he doing all during that time? He was contemplating, praying, surveying, talking to the Lord. He was going over, in his mind, what was going on.

Great leaders know that they have to spend time alone because of the time they spend in public all the time. 5:6 "When I heard the outcry of the poor and these charges, I was very angry. I pondered them in my mind [underline this] Then I accused the nobles and the officials." He said, I put my mind in gear before I started activating my mouth. I am a man of contemplation. He kept his cool. He waits for perspective: "God, what do You want me to say?"

Do you ever speak without thinking? One of the laws of leadership that we have to learn is that we get ourselves in trouble when we speak before we think. Great leaders contemplate. He said I pondered what I was going to say.

Nehemiah is a man of compassion; he cares about people.
He's a man of contemplation; he spends time in prayer and in thought.

3. CHEERFULNESS

He's a positive guy, upbeat, optimistic. He has a positive attitude. Do you like to follow a grouch? No. Would you rather follow somebody with a positive attitude? Nehemiah was evidently a very cheerful, positive person.
Nehemiah 2;1 "In the month of Nisan, the twentieth year of Artaxeres, when the wine was brought forth, I took the wine and gave it to the king I had not been sad in his presence before." Nehemiah has been serving this guy all of his life and this is the first time he went in with a frown, a down attitude. He had always been cheerful, upbeat. He didn't go in and lay his problems on the king.
Leaders are to be encouragers, not discourages. The job of leadership is to give people a lift not to let them down. This is why cheerfulness is an important characteristic. If you want to be a leader, then you're going to have to work on this. Some of you by nature are not naturally cheerful. Some people get up in the morning and say, "Good morning, Lord!" Others getup and say, "Good Lord! It's morning!" Some of you are just not naturally cheerful. But you can work on it. You can develop it. I would encourage you, if you want to be a leader, practice smiling. (Maxwell smile story)
How do you be a cheerful leader when you work with the kind of people you work with? How do you be a cheerful when you're tired and worn out?

Nehemiah 8 is the secret of Nehemiah's strength. He says it in a simple phrase. "This day is sacred to the Lord. Do not grieve for the joy of the Lord is your strength." That's how Nehemiah was cheerful in spite of all the opposition he had. Joy is different from happiness. Happiness depends on happenings. Joy is internal. It is not based on circumstances. You can have joy in the midst of tragedy. You can have joy when you're absolutely fatigued. "The joy of the Lord is my strength."

Nehemiah is compassionate, he's contemplative, he's cheerful.

4. CONCENTRATION

Nehemiah always focused on his goal. He has the ability to maintain his focus in the middle of a project. He doesn't worry about other things and distractions. There are examples in chapters 2 and 3. In chapter 2, Nehemiah anticipates the problems he's going to have. He knows he'll need timber so he asks for timber. He know he'll need protection on his trip to Jerusalem, so he asks in advance for a royal passport. He'll need a place to live so he asked for it in advance. He had obviously thought it out in advance. He was concentrating on what he needed to have.
One of the key differences between leading and following is that leaders are always thinking of the future, further out ahead of everybody else. They're trying to see the problems in advance, anticipate them, and have a solution there by the time you get there. That's a mark of leadership.

Chapter 3, He organizes the work. He's very focused.

I think the best example of how Nehemiah concentrated is how he handled distractions from the opposition. Chapter 6:2 & 3 "Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message, `Come let us meet together on the plain of Ono.' But they were scheming to harm me. So I sent messengers to them with this reply. `I am carrying on a great project and I cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?' Four times they sent me the same message and each time I gave them the same answer." He knows these guys are trying to distract him. He's trying to build a wall and the opposition says, Why don't you come down here and have a peace party? Four times they say, come down to Ono and we'll talk. He says, no, I'm not going to be distracted. I'm concentrating on what I need to do. This is a mark of leadership: the ability to focus on what needs to be done and not be distracted. He wouldn't allow anything to delay its completion.

The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. That is the principle of concentration. That's a mark of leadership. Paul said, "this one thing I do"... not "these forty things I dabble in." Light when it is focused has tremendous power; it becomes a laser. But light diffused has now power at all. The more focused your life is -- the more concentrated your life is ‑- the more effective it is. That's a characteristic of great leaders -- concentration, the ability to focus.

5. CREATIVITY

The fifth characteristic of great leaders, as we look at Nehemiah's life is Creativity. Nehemiah was a very creative person. The way he approached his problems is fascinating to me. Creativity, people think, is something you're born with -- a predisposition. But Creativity is something that can be developed; it's a skill. It's simply a way of thinking.
This is something I am continually developing in every area of my life - in my marriage, developing creativity, you know what my wife appreciates that! Every yr. I take care of the plans for our anniv. - I take care of everything. Each yr. I ponder, think about another creative way to express to my wife how much our anniv. means to me. I have to work at it!
All of us this upcoming year are going to face new challenges and new challenges require new solutions; a lot of times the same old ways just don't work.

Examples of Nehemiah being a creative problem solver.

Chapter 4. The situation: Those who opposed the rebuilding of the wall from outside said, "We're going to come and attack you while you're trying to build the wall." v. 13 "Therefore I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall's exposed places posting them by families with their swords and their spears and bows." He divided them by families and put them by their own house to build their portion of the wall closest to their own house. v. 14-18 "The Lord is great and awesome. Fight for your brother and wives and sons and daughters... From that day on half of the men did the work while the other half were equipped with spears and shields and bows and armors." He has a creative work shift.

He's taking a creative response to the situation. They are all out working on the wall and the enemy says, We're going to come while you're working on the wall and not prepared for battle and kill you all. Nehemiah says: Step one, everybody works by their own house and with your own family. That motivates you to do your best job because if you're building the wall by your own house it will be stronger than if you're building the wall by somebody else's house. You're going to really reinforce the wall by your own house. That's the principle of ownership and delegation.
Also, working as a family unit they will support each other. It's also more efficient -- if you're right by your house you don't have to walk all the way across the city to eat lunch.
He was being creative. Half of the crowd built the wall while the other half stood guard with swords and spears. Then they'd shift. These are creative solutions to the difficult problem he faced. If life gives you a lemon, you make lemonade.

6. COURAGE

When you think of all that Nehemiah went through he was a very courageous person. Would you do what he did? Leave a well paying, safe, secure job at the peak of your career and ministry in your own country to go to a country you've never been to and build something you've never been trained to build? Nehemiah was not a contractor. As far as we know he'd never lifted a hammer or put a brick in place in his life. He was a cupbearer -- the wine taster for the king -- a butler. So here's this butler saying I'm going to go to a foreign country and supervise a construction project of building a wall around a city. He had no preparation for that. That took courage. He said, I'm going to do what God called me to do.

We have three examples of courage in Nehemiah. Nehemiah 2:2 "I'd never been sad in the king's presence before. So when the king asked me `Why do your face look so sad and you're not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart.' I was very much afraid but [circle this] I said to the king `May the king live forever! Why should not my face look sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruins and the gates have been destroyed by fire.' The king says, `What is it you want?' Then I prayed to the God of heaven and answered the king, `If it pleases the king and your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city of Judah where my fathers are buried so I can rebuild it.'

In those days when a person came into the presence of the king to make a request, if the request was denied it meant automatic execution of the person. The king, rejecting your request, meant that the king was rejecting you. And if the king rejected you then you had no use in the kingdom and you were immediately executed. No wonder Nehemiah is scared to death. He's depressed over Jerusalem being destroyed and the king says "What's up? You've been happy all the time you've been serving me now you're sad." Nehemiah said, "I was afraid but I said..." Courage is when only you and God know you're afraid. Courage is not the absence of fear; courage is moving ahead in spite of your fear. Nehemiah said, "I was afraid" and he knew he was taking his life into his hands and it was risky to ask the king's permission to leave his service and go to a foreign country to rebuild the wall of a nation that had been an enemy. He also asked for timber and bricks for the wall and the horses to carry him there and a house to live in.

Another example: 4:14 when the enemy came and said they were going to attack "I looked things over and stood up and said to the nobles and officials and the rest of them, `Don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord is great and awesome. Fight [circle this] for your brothers, your sons, your daughters and wives." Nehemiah had never led an army in his life. He'd never fought in a battle. But he had courage to do what God had told him to do.
5:7-13 when he confronted the political corruption is another example.
What is courage? Courage is really another word for faith. Being willing to risk, being willing to step out on faith. That's what Nehemiah did. If you want to walk on water you've got to get out of the boat. You've got to take a risk. You've got to take a step out in faith.
To be people who live by FAITH!
"Ife we see what God sees, we'll do what God says"

7. CLEAR CONSCIOUS

Nehemiah was a man of integrity. He handled success very well. Most of us handle failure better than we handle success. Nehemiah knew how to handle success. He was a man of integrity.
One of my favorite passages is in chapter 5:14-19, "In the past the earlier governors, those preceding me, placed a heavy burden on the people, they took 40 shekels of silver from them in addition to food and wine [heavy taxation of the people] and their assistants also lorded it over the people. But out of reverence for God I didn't act like that. I devoted myself to the work of the wall..." Nehemiah had been made the governor of this area by Artaxerses, the king of Persia and the most powerful man at this time. That made Nehemiah the most powerful man in all of Judea. For 12 years Nehemiah could do anything he wanted to do. If he had wanted to he could have been like modern day dictators and amassed a personal fortune. Nehemiah says for 12 years I was the most powerful man in the country. I reported to nobody. I was accountable to nobody. In all of that time, when I could have ripped off my own people, I refused to accept a salary, to tax the people, I personally worked on the wall myself, supervising it. I refused to buy land for profit. I paid my servants to do public work and I personally fed 150 people everyday from my own welfare.

He's saying, For 12 years I was ruler, the leader of this country, there was nobody I was accountable to. Yet in that time, I didn't take any money and I didn't make any money. Do you know many politicians who can say that? This is a man of integrity. This is one of my favorite passages. He says I did not benefit myself from the leadership position I was in. I did not take advantage of the people who were under me. I was a man with a clear conscious.
When you become a success three things go with that: power, prestige, and privilege. The temptation is to abuse all three of those. Nehemiah didn't do it. The key is in v. 15, the last part, "But out of reverence for God I didn't act like that." The other guys did in the past, but Nehemiah didn't act like that. He was a leader with a clear conscious.

8. CONVICTION

Great leaders have strongly held beliefs. An opinion is something you'd argue about; a conviction is something you'd die for. Nehemiah was a man of conviction. He believed very strongly that God had called him to this job and nothing could stop him. Eight different times the opposition tried to keep the wall from being built:

They made fun of him. They laughed, "Those guys over there will never get the wall built." When you're a Christian, one of the first ways people will try to get you to deny your conviction is to make fun of you. If that doesn't work they'll try the second way...

Discouragement. The enemy came and tried to frustrate their plans. Discouragement usually comes at the half way point -- half way done with the project, half way up the mountain.

They tried to make them afraid. We're coming to attack you. We're going to kill you all. That didn't work. Nehemiah had half of the people stand guard.

Discord. They started spreading gossip all among the people. They gossiped about the wall, the leadership, everything. They tried to spread rumors to split up the work of God.

Division. They got a few people to form a little clique, a committee: "We think it ought to be done this way..." Another group: "We think it ought to be done that way..." They tried to cause division to split up the project God was working on. Internal conflict. Up to that time it had all been external.

Distractions. The enemy tried to get the leadership into a peace conference. We may not get them stopped but at least we'll get them slowed down.

Danger. The last attempt was assassination attempts. "We're going to send a hit squad and knock this guy off."

In all of these ways the opposition tried to use to stop the project, Nehemiah kept on doing the will of God. He would not give up. He was persistent. He endured. He was diligent, determined. Why? Because he had conviction. He had the conviction "God called me to do this. God told me to do this and I'm going to do this regardless of what comes against us. Nehemiah was a man of conviction and nothing could get him to quit.
All of us are going to face opposition this year, similar even to what Nehemiah faced -
God is urging us to move forward - don't quit!
He is in it with us!
‘if we see what God sees, we’ll do what God says’

What did Nehemiah base his conviction on? Four things:

1. He had a compelling purpose. In chapter 6 he said, "God has called me to do this great project and I'm not going to come down and talk with you."

2. He had a clear perspective. He had asked God for wisdom.

3. He had a continual prayer. He could see the overview, what God was doing.

4. He had a courageous persistence. He kept on keeping on. I think a good theme verse for Nehemiah would be Galatians 6:9 "Let us not become weary in doing good. For at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."


These eight characteristics we see in Nehemiah's life, I want us to take a little time for self evaluation. Four questions:

1. Which of these character qualities are strongest in your life? Compassion, contemplation, cheerfulness, concentration, creative, courageous, clear conscious, conviction.

2. Which of these character qualities is weakest?

3. Which of these character qualities would you like to develop the most? It's hard to work on something if you haven't clearly identified it.

4. What could you do this week to practice demonstrating this quality? Is there a project you could think of this week, or a situation that you might best demonstrate the quality you want to work on. Force yourself to make an application.

I'm praying that this year will be the year of character development at FOCUS*, that we'll be more like Jesus Christ in character. There are other things out there that are going to pass away, but character is the long haul. Character is what you're going to have in eternity.

Prayer:

Father, this has been an exciting study as we've looked at the life of Nehemiah. He's taught us a lot about leadership, lessons we can apply as leaders in our church, in our home, at work. We're all called to be leaders at different times. May we understand that leadership foundation is character not charisma, not education, not talent but character. Would You this year work on the qualities in our lives? I pray for each person as they've written down the one that they're weakest or the one that they want to work on the most, that You would give them opportunities to develop this, to be more the person You want them to be. Help us all to be leaders for Jesus' sake. We pray this in His name. Amen.

The Nativity Story - "Letting GOD into your box"

“ After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him."... When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.”
Matthew 2:1-2;9-12

The Christmas story as we know it has been tidied up a bit, cleaned up because the true story is shocking and surreal. It’s about a King born in an over-crowded stable with all this manure and smells and intensified when we understand that it’s God doing all this. God’s born as the little baby, if that isn’t surprising enough then the condition in which He’s born in - is absolutely shocking. It's a cultural trend to make it nice, to sweeten it up - the Magi have become a part of the whole tidying up - let's take a closer look - MAGI in the original Greek is Magos which means magician or sorcerer. The Magi were astrologers! They looked to the sky and made predictions. The shocking part about the Magi is that God doesn't like astrology - all through the Bible He warns us not to practice astrology, get involved in an occult, or the spirit world you’re playing with fire there.

"`Do not practice divination or sorcery.” Leviticus 19:26

“Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD,..Deuteronomy 18:10-12

Even though God despises astrology, here we find in this story, and this the shocking part, the Magi are the ones God calls across the desert, these astrologers, professional spell casters using an astrological sign to do it!
Even more shocking the Magi probably used for some of their info. a prophecy given in Numbers 24:17 speaking of a 'star rising out of Jacob' - that prophecy itself was given by a pagan soothsayer by the name of Balaam. So...
here we have pagan astrologers, using a pagan prophecy,
following a pagan symbol going across the desert to find the new born King.
All the while the religious leaders are sitting right on top of the King and they don't even know it!
It turns upside down our thoughts of Christmas, and that's the point!
Our God is a shocking God - because of His unlimited, insurmountable-love for all mankind - God gets out of His box
Have you heard the saying, “Did you get in their box?”
explain
God in this story gives us another example of how He gets in the box w/ us - He comes to our level, operates on our mindset
God gets out of His box and dives into ours!

In the case of the Magi, God gets in their box with them
He gets down to their level, He speaks their language, God will go to any level, any depths to find someone who is hungry and searching for truth and draw them forward -
So... as much as God doesn’t like astrology, He uses astrology to pull these Magi across the desert to find the Christ child b/c this is the language these folks speak.
The Magi are looking to the heavens for the truth so God says, "You're looking for a star, I'll give you a star to show you the Christ!" - He gets in the box w/us
Some may mistake this for God condoning astrology,
absolutely not!
If you’re looking at this story thru the eyes of love you’ll see
It's a case of God _loving_ the astrologers more than He hates their astrology
He gets in the box w/ us, He talks our lang. He gets down to our level - b/c He loves us so much

Now here’s something I want you to see... it costs God something to do this - it’s not like this is a painless thing God can do, it cost Him something to do this. And until we understand the cost, we’ll never appreciate the love behind it.

Let me use this illustration: Cathleen and I invited to Richmond club for CD release party
here’s the point I wanna make - I’m a sinner just like you are - I’m on a journey to become Christlike - I don’t know exactly where I am in this process, but I know that my sin sensitivity buzzers are still somewhat jaded - i don’t feel the full impact or see the full ugliness of it and destructiveness of sin - yet in that environment of the club I was just knotted up and grieved and sickened - then later, maybe next day, a thought came to me,
“If you, the sinner that you are, felt like that - what do you think God feels about the sin of the world.
God is pure holy - God would exper. the most minor sin as grievously as we would exper. the most heinous sin.
How does God feel about this - it costs God something to get into our box, b/c our box is full of sin.
We need to realize that we are all sinners yet God is willing to get into your box
As much as God is revolted by sin, there's one emotion
that is greater - that is __His love for sinners__
B/c of that He is willing to put up w/ the grime, the slime, the
putrid revulsion He has toward sin and He gets into our box.
This is what the Christmas story is all about His willingness to be born in the stable, His willingness to use astrology is an
example of this - the greatest example of this is the cross of
calvary - the physical pain as horrifying as that was I believe was inconsequential to the pain He felt of taking on the sin of the world. No wonder he cries, “Father why have you forsaken me?” What Cathleen and I exper. at the club was nothing, absolutely nothing to what God experiences...

So.. He dives into our mess! He dives into our box - He speaks our language, because there's something God loves more than He hates our sin and that is US!
A prudish God would never do this, an uptight religious ditty would never think of such thing, but the true God revealed in Jesus Christ out of outlandish passion, and unwavering love
dives head 1st in the worst the world has to offer

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21

Why? so that we might become the righteousness of God through Him.
We can’t even begin to imagine what that might cost but He was willing to do it, this is what the Christmas story is all about that on the cross of calvary he absorbs it all He absorbs it all, the HORROR that He must have been going through at that time,
but He was willing why?
B/c the love, the joy that was set b4 Him was greater than the Horror He experienced
There’s one thing that is greater than God’s revulsion for sin and that is His love for you so He wants in on your mess, He wants in on your mess. No matter what the mess may be, you gotta know this, you can’t out mess God
No matter of our past, no matter how low we've gone, there's no depth that you can sink to that He won't go - He wants in on your mess!
Let Him in on your mess, let Him be born into the dirty stable
Let Him in on the mess of your family
Let Him in on the mess of your confusion
Let Him in on the mess of your depression
Let Him in on the mess of your despair
Let Him in on the mess of your addiction
Let Him in on the mess of your fear
Let Him in on the mess of your doubt
Let Him in on the mess of your screwed-upness
Let Him be born there
Let Him into your box!

Then you begin to see the Holy Spirit working in your life and He begins cleaning up little by little
it’s the 1st step letting God in
Let God into YOUR box – once we do that our first impulse
is to _worship__

We see His love and the value He places on us and we want to ascribe worth back to God.
The 1st thing these Magi do when they see the King is they
ascribe worth to Him. The make sacrifices which expresses the worth this new born King has to them.
I’m not even sure they knew exactly what they were doing
Theology wise anyway. But there’s something inside that says,
“This child is very important” so they ascribe worth back to Him by making the sacrifices of the treasures they had.
Remember these Magi worked for the Royal Court of Persia, that’s how they got all their money and treasure performing these pagan practices - the King would want some help on a decision or direction to go w/ something so he calls in these Magi and says, “what are the stars saying, what’s in the wind?”
So their treasure comes from pagan practices - so do you think God was thinking, “OH NO you can’t give those pagans gifts to a holy God” Absolutely NOT!
B/c God looks at the heart of the person, He sees the hunger there. He is not condoning the way they got the money, but the fact is right here, right now they have a heart to worship and it’s the heart that turns what may be otherwise sinful into something
holy - that’s the grace of God
Listen when you offer something up to God, how you got where you are isn’t the issue, it’s where you are right now, what otherwise may be tainted, dirty, and ungodly becomes something preciously holy in the eyes of God
It’s the heart that makes something worthwhile
I can’t even count how many times people have told me they have nothing to give to God, that their past is a mess and they should try to clean it up or get their act together before they move towards God - and I tell them you already are.
It’s the heart that matters - that’s what God is looking for - don’t worry about the mess, just let Him in - let Him in on your mess and offer worth back to God - that’s all He’s looking for

1st impulse offer worth back to God
Our second impulse is to become Christlike to others.
to enter into the box of others - it's the law of love, we are called to live a life of love. The apostle Paul told us to put on LOVE
above all else. (see file 'known by love' April 3rd, 2005)

But what often prevents this from happening is we can’t suspend our ethical judgement, we have opinions about a lot things.
So we see a person in need and we say, “Oh I wonder what he did to deserve that? It’s their own fault for being poor, it’s their own fault for being homeless. This is the land of equal opport.
right... so if somebody doesn’t have a middle income class it must be their own doing and if they just worked hard like i worked then they would have... and how convenient this thinking is b/c now we don’t ever have to be inconvenienced w/ compassion - we set ourselves at bay w/ this sense of moral superiority.
Just one of the amazing things about min. of Christ -
Jesus Christ dealt with the low-life dregs of society. (the prostitutes, tax-collectors, lepers) He never once asked them how they got into such a position.
Ohh Mary Magdalene how did you get all those demons in you?
He never goes there - His disciples go there and He rebukes them - who sinned that this man was born blind? this tendency in us wants to blame somebody so we can feel a little more righteous and be excused from being inconvenienced.
Jesus answered them, “neither this man or his parents, but let God be glorified.”
He’s teaching us how to bring Glory to God that is to love one another - that’s how.
Jesus says, However he got blind, what matters now is that we bring healing to him - however she got possessed, what matters now is that we bring deliverance to her - however he got sick, what matters now is that we pray for healing
You need comfort, we’ll bring Kingdom comfort
You need peace, we’ll bring Kingdom peace
You need healing, we’ll bring Kingdom healing
You need fellowship, we’ll bring Kingdom fellowship

He just gave, He just LOVED them!
God wants us to move out of the comfort and connivence of our box and get into the box of others to display LOVE!

Most of the time that’s not real easy, but that is how we share God’s love w/ others - we invest in those who do not Him.
Which means you will have to get into someone’s box that a little more grimier than yours, it’s dirtier than yours.
We think we’ve cleaned up so good, but in reality our box would be just as filthy if not filthier if God wasn’t in it w/ us - so how much more then for those who don’t know - how much more should we get into their box and share the love of Christ.
God gets _into our box_ and moves us to get _into the box of others_
book: not religion but love - story: bresben Aus. med. doc. John Hughes workin clinic for poor.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: `Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." Mark 12:30-31
Digging Deeper:
1.What examples can you find in the Bible of God,
“Getting out of His box” and “Into our box”?

2.In what ways do you worship God?
3.Do you ever find it difficult to 'get out of your box'
to reach others?

4.Read Luke 6:27-36. Who are your enemies? Do you think that means literal enemies, or others outside of our box?

Resource:
Christianity Outside the Box
By: Crea A. Copeland

The Nativity Story - "When you Follow a Star and Find a Stable"

On Christmas morning how hard is it to get the kids out of bed?
How about a week later after 2 weeks on vaca. trying to get them out of bed for school? It’s all about expectations.

Our expectations control our conduct. Our lives are filled with great expectations. What happens when our expectations and reality collide? Frustration and Disappointment.

When we have these high expect., when we have planned out the way we want something to happen, the path we want to lay out and all of a sudden reality crashes the party - we become frustrated, disappointed.

here’s some examples: pics

Matthew 2:1-12

What happens when you follow a Star and find a Stable?
These wise men have been following this star for hundreds of miles... thru rough and rugged terrain, cold nights, and danger, expecting to find something grand and glorious and they end up in a barn in the backyard of Bethlehem - they expect to find a Palace and Prince in priceless robes with precious jewels, but instead find a teen-age mother holding a baby in the aroma of barnyard animals. Not exactly what you expected.

Can you imagine their disappointment? We know they were expecting a mansion or palace b/c they stopped at King Herod’s place to find out about this child that was to be born.

Isn’t it true that all of us have followed a star that looked so promising, only to find at the end you were in a stable.
-H.S. yearbook senior yr. - how many people were expected to be rising stars only to disappoint others and themselves
-How many College students grad. w/ honors, ready to go out and get that great job only to find the job they wanted wasn’t waiting for them.
-How about the young couple committing their lives to each other at the alter - everyone thought their relationship was so promising, everything going for them... yet in a few years their marriage can be found on Divorce court w/ J. Wapner./Judy

What do you do when you follow a Star and find a Stable?

From the actions and attitudes of the Wise men in the Christmas story we see 3 truths that wise men thr/out history have lived by whenever they followed a star and didn’t get what they were expected

1. Wise men look for God when they find a stable.

Wise men of all ages, when handed a difficult situation, didn’t panic but 1st looked to God. They’d say... “God is somewhere in this stable; I’ll keep searching and hold steady until I find Him.

Rom. 8:28
“We know that in all things God works for good with those who love him, those whom he has called according to his purpose.”
“We know” - confidently looking for God to work it out
“In all things” - that’s both palace exper. and stable exper.
“God works for the good” - He has your best interest, regardless

Remember the wise man Joseph? He had a couple of stable experiences and found God right in the middle of them...
...sold into slavery
...lied to by his brothers
...forced off to a foreign country
...Innocently sentenced to prison
...his character slandered
...separated from his loving father for years
but in the end, after God had exalted him to be an influential man in Egypt, he told his brothers...


“You plotted evil against me, but God turned it into good, in
order to preserve the lives of many people who are alive today because of what happened.” Gen, 50:20

Joseph found God in the stable.

Job was another wise man who was sitting on an ash heap, after
...losing his fortune
...losing his entire family - except his cheerful wife
...persecuted by his so-called friends
...lost his reputation

“Then Job scraped his skin with a piece of broken pottery as he sat among the ashes. His wife said to him, "Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die." But Job replied, "You talk like a godless woman. Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?" So in all this, Job said nothing wrong.” Job 2:8-10

Job followed a star and found a stable, but in that stable found God
We could find example after example of men and women in scripture who followed a star and found a stable... David, Moses, Ruth, just about every O.T. prophet, Apostle Paul, Peter,
and on....
One of the ways we can tell if we are growing and maturing as Christ-followers is the ability to see God in the barnyards of life (when things aren’t going as you planned) as well as the good times.

2. Wise men offer to God their very best.
v.11 - “On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.”

Our tendency is to hold back, isn’t it? When the difficult times come it’s easy to withhold our best. Save it for something better.
When things don’t live up to our expectations - whenever we feel it could be better or there could be more or this situation or scenario just doesn’t live up to all the hype that we thought was promised, our tendency is to hold back, to not give our best.

When a marriage isn’t what it should be instead of giving it our best shot, some may begin to hold back, withdraw

The kids are really making life difficult w/ their behavior,
instead of continuing on and giving our best, some may throw up their hands and say, “I’ve done all I can, why try any more.”

The stable experiences of life will test our resolve to do things w/ excellence.
Did the wise men hold back the treasures and gifts they brought? They could have looked at each other and said, “We brought these expensive, valuable gifts for a King, not a commoner’s baby... we expected a palace, not a barn. This isn’t what we expected maybe we shouldn’t give all the treasure...
"Hey Mo just give ‘em the Myrrh and let’s get out of here."
Could there have been the mindset of, “This is certainly not what we thought, we won’t get much recognition in this barn as we would in the palace.”
Ahhh.. but the wise men gave their best!
The difference between the average and the great are 3 little words, “and then some...”
Great people forgive others... and then some
help others....ats - love others...ats - give to the poor...ats -
encourage others...ats
They always go the extra mile

3. Wise men change their direction after experiencing a stable
v.12 - “And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.”

The ? is not will you experience a stable, the ? is when will you experience it & how are you going to respond?

What will happen in you b/c of it, & how will it change your life?
All of us follow stars and find stables... but the difference between winners and whiners is what you do as a result of the stable experience. It can make you bitter or better - which one?

What stable experience have you recently encountered while following a star?
...divorce
...broken friendship
...a rebellious child
...a ruined career
...financial mess
...physical or emotional problems
...a lost loved one

God wants you to know He’s in it with you.
The question for us is, how are we going to respond?

example of Cathleen’s broken friendship


One of the main reasons why Christ became one of us.... being born in Bethlehem and dying on a cross 33yrs. later was to give us the power to overcome every stable experience.


So what do you do when you follow a star and find a stable
You look for the Prince of Peace in the stable
You give God your best while in the stable
You allow the stable experience to change the direction of your life

Jesus is our Prince of Peace and He can take care of all the
disturbances of your life.


for audio go to: www.myspace.com/focusmessages

The Nativity Story - "From Ordinary to Extraordinary"

What’s the difference between ordinary and extraordinary? Ordinary is just the norm, regular, customary. But extraordinary is going beyond the norm - beyond the customary. I even saw it defined a ‘exceptional to a very marked extent’. I like that definition. Not just exceptional, but exceptional to a very marked extent. I think most people crave the idea of living an extraordinary life. Most of us want to do or be a part of something exceptional. Sadly, even though most of us crave the extraordinary, I think few of us would actually claim that are lives are in fact extraordinary. But I think we all can. After all what defines extraordinary? What do you think of when you think living an extraordinary life?

Do you think of extraordinary riches? Extraordinary looks? Extraordinary intelligence? What about extraordinary skills athletically or musically?
These are all examples of things that we typically perceive as extraordinary but what would be biblical examples of living an extraordinary life? Let’s look at a few:
1. Noah - built a boat in the middle of a desert
2. Moses - heard the voice of God in a blazing bush
3. Abraham - fathered a child at the age of 100 with a wife who had been completely barren her whole life
4. Joseph - lived a life of royalty after being sold into slavery
5. Esther - saved an entire nation from destruction by exposing an evil man
6. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stood with God in a furnace that was so hot it killed the men that led them to it and they didn’t even get singed
7. The wise men - followed a star in the sky and found a savior
8. The shepherds - witnessed an angelic choir in the sky
9. Mary - gave birth to a baby after never having physical relations with a man

These are truly examples of extraordinary living. You may say to yourself, ‘Yeah but none of that will ever happen to me.’ I disagree. These people didn’t lead themselves to extraordinary circumstances. God did the leading. But you know what they did? They responded in the circumstance in a way that made the circumstance extraordinary. What would’ve happened had these individuals responded differently to their circumstances?
What if Noah had let his fear of rejection and ridicule stop him from doing what he knew he was suppose to do? If we are to believe the Bible, which we are, it would have been the end of mankind.
What is Esther had remained silent? Most, if not all, of the Jewish people would have been annihilated.
What if Moses had not listened to the voice in the bush? The Israelites wouldn’t have been freed from slavery, the parting of the red sea would have never happened, Moses would’ve never gone to Mt. Sanai to receive the 10 commandments. The history of mankind and the history of our faith would be dramatically altered.
What made these people so different? Was it their upbringing? No. Moses was a spoiled little rich boy, Esther was an orphan raised by her uncle. Was it their education? No. The shepherds weren’t highly educated. They certainly weren’t the philosophers of their day. What set these people up to live out extraordinary experiences comes down to just one word..................faith. Their faith is the reason you’ve even heard of them. Their faith impacted Biblical history. Their faith impacted the world as we know it. Just their faith.

Heb. 11:1 tells us that....
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

Let’s examine the experience of Mary.

Mary had to live by faith, ........or walk away. By no other means could she comprehend what was happening to her. By no other means could she stand strong in the face of so much condemnation.

Video ‘I have broken no vow’
http://www.nativityresources.com/video.html?sid=456E1F007FE0E17F

Explain culture, vow, consequences

Video ‘Honor’
http://www.nativityresources.com/video.html?sid=456E1F007FE0E17F

Only by faith could Mary withstand the pressure she was under without denial, or running away. There had to have been opportunity after opportunity to deny, lie or run from what was happening in order to escape ridicule or even death but Mary didn’t succumb to any of these things. Her faith was enough. She trusted that the God who brought her into this circumstance would walk through it with her. Her faith changed the world. Get that. Don’t let those words just roll around your mind and dissolve into nothingness. Hear them. Let me say it again. Her faith changed the world. You literally wouldn’t be here - in this building - today if it didn’t. Because the only reason we are here today is to live out our churches key scripture (Heb. 12:2) to FOCUS on Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith.

I am here today by faith
expand

What is God calling you to? Our lives are marked by ‘faith moments’. The moments where your are challenged to stand up for what you believe in. The moments when you want one thing but you know that you know God wants something else. The moments when doing what’s right is the really hard thing to do. The moments when you choose to see others, not as the world sees them, but instead the way God sees them. The moments where God says stay - and you stay, or he says go - and you go. Or when you say ‘but Lord, I don’t want to love them’ and he says, ‘Love them anyway.’

Sunday school teacher -
Quit work - bad on paper

Video - Indiana Jones taking step of faith in, "The Last Crusade"

The book of our lives are filled with ‘faith stories’. How does your book read? Let Jesus be for you today exactly what his word says ‘ the author and perfecter of your faith.’ Your job isn’t to worry about circumstances in your life - that is the ordinary response, everybody can do that! Your job is to respond in an extraordinary way - with faith. Every Biblical example we looked at today resulted in extraordinary life change for the individuals in the examples and for the coming generations because they responded with faith.
What is going on in your life in regards to work, school, family, relationships, finances, ministry? All God wants from you is faith. Faith that He really is here. Faith that He really does know what’s going on. Faith that He really does have a purpose and a plan for you and for every circumstance.

Pray.

Heb. 11:6 tells us ‘without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.’

LEADING IN LIFE - Looking for Leaders

Today, we’re talking about Looking for Leaders. - From 2 different angles: One is what Nehemiah was looking for, the angle is a bit more personal - it's what God is loooking for in us as we Lead in Life.
When we left Nehemiah, he had just finished building the wall. He accomplished in 52 days what other people could not accomplish in 80 years.
In Nehemiah 6:15 it says "So the wall was completed on the 25th of Elul." When I read that I have two emotions: one that I want to breathe a sigh of relief for the guy and say, "Congratulations Nehemiah, you made it! You finished! You did what you came to do! Relax! Take it easy now!" Another emotion causes the question, "Now what are you going to do? You did the project of a lifetime in only 52 days and your book is only half over. You've accomplished it by chapter 6 -- now what are you going to do?" The task is not finished.
What would you do? Sit back, relax, enjoy your victory, coast along?
How we handle achievement tells us a lot about ourselves, our character, our value system.
When we finish a project, when we've reached our goal, when we've accomplished the task you set out to do, one of the most dangerous times in life is when you've completed a goal, when you've accomplished what you've set out to do and you don't have another goal to follow it. Then you're in real trouble. Success tends to ruin a lot of people. We become unsatisfied, complacent, let down our guard, get comfortable. As a result we loose all the momentum we had built up for this big, big project. I've seen this happen in many different forms. - Alvin Church (Living Stones)- The moment the building is erected, the people breathe a sigh of relief "We've arrived! We're in the promised land!" Pastor went into a deep depression
“Now what?”

We loose our progress. You can loose what you've gained if you don't watch out! We could all probably name somebody who achieved some tremendous success early in life. You'd think they would for the rest of their life, have one achievement after another. Many people sit back, become complacent, settle down, and never go any further. Sometimes, if you don't watch out, you could loose what you've already gained.

We're going to look at a very important lesson in Nehemiah on How he Maintained Success. Nehemiah is a very wise person. We're going to see how he ensured what he accomplished would last.
Chapter 7 is the dividing line in this book. There are two phases in Nehemiah's life. Number one the construction phase. Number two is the consolidation phase. Chapter 1-6 is the construction of the wall. Chapters 7-13 is the consolidation of the city. These are two very distinct phases. Nehemiah has to shift hats, shift his focus, change his roll. What you do in construction is different that what you do in consolidation. He has to use a different set of leadership skills.

Unless a leader develops these skills the organization is never going to grow beyond a one man or woman.

HOW DID NEH MAINTAIN WHAT HE ALREADY GAINED?
*Recruit and Raise

1. You recruit leadership. You enlist, train, delegate, get other people involved.
2. You raise them up. lead by example. create opp. empower.

The Bible says that all scripture is profitable. What does this chapter want to teach us?
1. RECRUIT OTHERS - get others involved

v. 1 "After the wall had been rebuilt and I had set the doors
in place, the gatekeepers and singers and Levites were appointed."

The first thing Nehemiah does after they finish the wall and put up the gates, is he appoints leaders. There are three different kinds of leaders he appoints here.

Gatekeepers -- these were guards, watchmen, the police of the city. Later on in the chapter it tell us that there were 138
appointed. They were to protect and keep the peace.

Singers -- these were worship leaders. Worship was important to Israel.

Levites -- these were assistants to the priests. (help teach the Word)

v. 2 "I put in charge of Jerusalem my brother Hanani, along with Hananiah, the commander of the citadel, because he was a man of integrity and feared God more than most men do."

Nehemiah makes his brother, Hanani, a civil leader, in charge of Jerusalem. Today, we'd call this guy the mayor. Then he makes Hananiah, the commander of the citadel, which is a military leader. This guy is like the chief of police. So he's appointed gatekeepers, singers, Levites, a mayor and a chief of police and Nehemiah himself was the governor of the province. Nehemiah is demonstrating one of the important tasks of leadership as any organization grows and that is the task of delegation. He's getting other people involved. This is getting beyond his control so he's giving up responsibility, spreading it around. Nehemiah had never read a management book, never been to a seminar with Peter Drucker or John Maxwell, he'd never read ‘In Search of Excellence’ but he knew these management principles. You need to spread the leadership around.

The point here is that he knew no organization can ever
stabilize if it's built on one person. A church, business, family
cannot stabilize if it's going to be built on one person. It takes a team - Teamwork makes the Dreamwork
At the very beginning Nehemiah did it all. He didn't have a committee, he didn't ask any opinions, he didn't have any other leadership. He did the whole thing. He had his hands on everything.

At the beginning of any project an entrepreneur must be involved in everything. You do what is natural and necessary.
Nat - b/c it’s your goal, dream, cause - Nec. b/c not many others
But as it grows he has to release more and more to staff people, lay leadership, etc. It's good to start with but it's not good long term management.
Ever start a project and you did everything?
Our 1st venture in ministry together Cathleen and I did was in Cali. - a family min. was in it’s infant stages, we noticed a need, young couples w/ no children didn’t really fit in anywhere
(tell story)

There is a limit to one person's ability, time, effort, energy, talent, knowledge. You give the ministry away. This is the principle of delegation. It's in everything we do - releasing to others is necessary for the growth of others.
Even with our children: when they're young it's natural and necessary for us to be involved in everything,
but as they get older we must release more and more responsibility to them for THEIR growth.

Nehemiah says, We've built the wall. Now it's time to make sure we don't loose what we've got. Let's spread the leadership around. And he starts spreading out and delegating responsibility.

At FOCUS*, anybody can start a ministry here. If you want to start a ministry, Great!
You're it! You're responsible to get it going.
Everything rises or falls on leadership. So it's very important the type of leaders you choose. The seeds of destruction in any ministry, program, business are always laid when you choose the wrong people for leaders.

What kind of leaders did Nehemiah look for? What do you look for when you look for people to help you out?
Better yet what kind of person are we? Are we the same kind of person that Nehemiah looked for.
What does that look like?

1. Integrity.

That's the first thing we need to lead in life. Notice he says,
"I put in charge of Jerusalem my brother Hanani, along with Hananiah, the commander of the citadel, because he was a man of integrity."
The bottom line in leadership is integrity. If you can't be trusted who's going to follow you? If no body is following you, you ain't the leader. "He who thinketh he is the leader and hath no one following him, is only taking a walk." You've got to have integrity. Leadership is built on trust. If they trust you, you're the leader. If they don't trust you, you're not the leader whether you call yourself one or not. The moment you have to say to people at work, "I am the leader!" Guess what? You're not. It's built on trust. Do people trust you?

2. Godliness
Nehemiah looked for people who take the relationship with God seriously. "... he was a man of integrity and he feared God more than most men do." What does fear mean? To have reverence for God. This guy had a walk with the Lord. When God looks for leaders he looks at their personal life to see what kind of people they are, what their relationship is. (mirror)

3. Faithfulness
Both of these guys, Hanani and Hananiah, had a track record. He knew them both. Hanani was the guy who came all the way back to Persia to tell Nehemiah in the first place that the wall was down. He said, "Please come back and help us." Nehemiah prayed about it and said, "I'm going." Here is a man who had gone on this long journey just to get the whole process going. If he hadn't taken that initial step Nehemiah would never have gone to rebuild the wall. But they were faithful. They had been proven reliable.

1 Timothy 3:10 gives the qualifications of deacons. It says, a leader, a servant, in the church must first be tested in their faithfulness. When you choose somebody and put them in a place of leadership that hasn't been tested, nine times out of ten they're going to bomb out on you. Count on it. Look for people who have a track record and have been proven reliable.
Are you reliable?
Matthew 25:23 says promotion is based on faithfulness. If we're faithful in little things, God gives us bigger things. "Well done, thou good and faithful servant, you were faithful in little things you will be given much more responsibility. Enter into my joy." 2 Timothy 2:2, "And the things you have heard me say entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others." This is Paul talking to Timothy. What you've seen and heard in me, I'm giving it to you. You are to give it to reliable men, faithful men, who will also be qualified to teach others. Pass it on because of their faithfulness. Invest in faithful people.

The point of this is if you want to be a leader, that God chooses people -- leaders -- on the basis of two things: their personal life and their past performance. This is what God and others are looking for in us.

In verse 3 of chapter 7, Nehemiah, after he's selected the leaders, now gives them a clear job description. "I said to them the gates of Jerusalem are not to be opened till the sun is hot [until it's real bright. If you open the gates before daylight some enemy might sneak in.] "While the gatekeepers are still on duty, shut the doors and bar them [before you close down at night] also appoint residents of Jerusalem as guards some at their post and some near their own house."
He's giving very specific instructions. Watch out, guard, be alert, be aware. We've got the wall built, we've got the gates up, but still we have to be on our guard.

The gates to a city were the key to its security. Can you imagine this tragedy: They've worked 52 days around the clock to build this beautiful wall, they've put up giant gates, and then they forget to have somebody watch by them and some enemy sneaks in and captures the town again in spite of all the work they've done. Wouldn't that be sad?

Why is this in the Bible? There's a spiritual principle here. It is a law of leadership: You must guard what you have gained. That's what this is teaching us. You must guard whatever you have gained so you don't lose it. Don't ever assume that because you've made a certain level of achievement in life it's going to be that way forever. You must guard what you have gained. Have you ever worked real hard to loose weight? Only to not guard and watch continually after that and gain back all that which you have lost and maybe at a faster rate and you've wasted all that effort. You've got to guard what you've gained (or lost!). How about in marriage? “We’re married now! I don’t need to date my wife any longer - it’s a done deal” All the subtle little hints given while courting somehow just fly right out the window after “I do”. (story of wife asking husband why don’t you say you love me?)
Just because you've achieved a certain goal is no guarantee you're going to have that same level of achievement next week. You spend years learning a foreign language and because you don't guard what you've gained, you lose it. If you don't use it, you lose it.

Spiritual application: We often make spiritual gains in our life in different areas only to loose those gains in a relatively short period of time because we were neglectful or forgetful. when people find themselves drifting away from God spiritually - it's not a matter of suddenly going from loving the Lord, to hating the Lord. They've went from loving the Lord to just forgetting the Lord, neglecting the Lord -- the Bible and church. It's not a matter of love turning to hate, it's a matter of love turning to neglect. That's why the Bible says in the sower of the seeds that you have to prune and garden and weed.
What does it take to grow weeds? Nothing! They grow automatically. Weeds are a sign of neglect. Spiritual weeds will grow up and chock out your life if you neglect the basics of the Christian life. Guard spiritual gains, guard physical gains, guard relational gains -- all those kinds of things. How many people have made a lot of money and then lost it in a short period of time? They didn't guard what they had gained.
I Peter 1:13 says we are to guard our minds, gird them up, cinch them up, get ready for battle. Many times in scripture, Jesus said, "Watch and pray." We need to watch our personal lives so we don't loose ground to the devil.
God chooses people -- leaders -- on the basis of two things: their personal life and their past performance.

2. RAISE THEM UP - investing in others
v. 4 & 5 "Now the city was large and spacious, but there were few people in it, and the houses had not yet been rebuilt. So my God put it into my heart to assemble the nobles, the officials and the common people for registration by families. This is the information that I found." Then he goes on and lists all the different people there. Nehemiah is starting a repopulation program. He's built the walls around the city. He's put up the gates and then realizes: nobody is living in the city. While the walls were down it was a very unsafe place to live. You could get attacked there very easily. The people are out in the countryside. Now we need to get some people in the city so it is fortified internally and so that God's town will be protected. He says, I'm going to take a census to find out how many there are of us and who we are and then he says we'll take a certain percentage (like 10%) and they'll move back into the city. He's saying we need to reinforce the internal structures. That's the second thing you need to do in consolidation. He's saying, for this city to succeed we've got to have enough people in the right places to be strong. It's kind of an urban renewal program.

Who's idea was this? v. 4&5. God's. He said, God inspired me to count all those people. The New International Version says, "God put it in my heart." A real leader stays in tune with God. It was God who told him to do that. What if he hadn't been in tune with God? He wouldn't have known what to do. But evidently, Nehemiah had a walk close enough with the Lord that he said, "God inspired me to gather the people." He was investing in the lives of others

Nehemiah had the responsibility for a city of about 50,000 people. Why would God put these names in the Bible?
Especially when you consider the fact that this list is listed exactly the same way in Ezra 2.
Ezra gives this list and then Nehemiah gives the list. Why would God list all of these names two times in the Bible? It seems like a waste of space. Why? I think God is driving home the fact that
HE remembers and recognizes every step of faith you take.

I think God wanted to have a little Hall of Fame here.
Thousands of years later we know the names of the people
who rebuilt the wall, who had enough faith to leave Persia and come back to their homeland to try to rebuild the temple. God
remembers and recognizes every step of faith we take. God considered these people important enough to put them in the Bible.
I wonder if my name is going to be on God's honor work role? That's a good question to ask yourself. If God made a list of people who are doing His will, would I make the list? Is there anything in my life that shows that's I've done something on faith? that I'm trying to live for the Lord and do what He wants me to do?
Am I living a life that is affecting and impacting the lives of
others?
When we Lead in Life others see that!
They want it - wouldn’t it be cool if your family members or friends or co-workers, school-mates could say, “you know I’m not real sure about this whole God thing, but I can’t explain you”

We are mirrors, reflecting God’s glory back to Him and His love out to others.
I’m reminded that in life, God is always more generous than me - So I don’t want to under-estimate what God is going to do, I just can’t allow myself do that.
So I’m going to love and care for as many people He leads my way - We are just to Love them til they say WHY?
then we tell them it’s Jesus.

Success is not in results, it’s in obedience.

We lead in life by example and others are impacted!

LEADING IN LIFE - Leading with Action

Today we're looking at Leading with Action. I want to start by first looking at v. 15 which is kind of the punch line. "So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth day of Elul in fifty two days.” We've been studying Nehemiah longer than it took him to build the wall. What is the secret of this? How was he able to build the wall in 52 days?
Don't quit! He kept at it until he finished.

There has been major opposition to the rebuilding of the wall. Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshum tried all different kinds of things. Division, discouragement, discord. They tried mockery, dread. Now they're getting desperate. The wall is almost finished. The only thing left to be done as we start chapter 6 is to hang the doors.
Let's look at how to complete a project in record time. v. 1 "When the word came to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem, the Arab and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left in it though up to that time I had not set the doors and the gates. Sanballat and Geshem sent this message to me. `Come let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono.' But they were scheming to harm me. So I sent my messengers to them with this reply. `I'm carrying out a great project. I can't go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you.' Four times they sent me the same message. Each time I gave them the same answer."

Today in this passage, they tried three more tricks to stop the wall from being built. If we want to Lead in Life we've got to do three things:
1. KEEP WORKING IN SPITE OF DISTRACTIONS.
At first they tried to sidetrack Nehemiah. They said, Nehemiah, let's have a peace conference(pipe-offer.). Let's get together and discuss. They mentioned the plain of Ono, twenty miles north of Jerusalem. What could be wrong with that? But Nehemiah said, I'm carrying on a great project and I can't go down. Why should I stop the work on the wall and go down to you? He's saying, I'm not coming down. He would not be distracted until the wall was finished.
The time for discussion is past. It's time for work. Plus, he knows their past - Have you known people that want to talk more than they want to work? They discuss to stop you from working? That's what's happening here. Many people never
accomplish anything because they get distracted.
More than that, it would delay the project. Distr. R delays - trip
"Why should I stop and come down to you when the work has not been finished?" You don't want to discuss, or debate. You have a hidden agenda and want to delay the thing. You want to keep it from being built. "Leadership Law: The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. The reason why Nehemiah finished it he wouldn't let anything distract him. He kept his eyes on his goal. They came to him four times. He said no each time.

2. YOU KEEP WORKING IN SPITE OF DEFAMATION.
They tried to slander him, discredit him. v. 5 "Then the fifth time Sanballat sent his aide to me with the same message and in his hand was an unsealed letter which was written. `It's reported among the nations and Geshem says it's true that you and the Jews are plotting to revolt. Therefore you're building the wall. Moreover, according to these reports you're about to become their king and appointed prophets to make this proclamation among you in Jerusalem. There is a king in Judah.' Now this report will get back to the King of Persia. So come, let us confer together. I sent them this reply, `Nothing of what you're saying is happening. You're making it up right out of your head.' They
were trying to frighten us into thinking their hands will get too weak for the work and it won't be completed.'"
They tried to slander Nehemiah. You're just trying to build an empire. We know what you're doing. They were challenging his motives. They said, you're going to try to rebel against the king. They said, You're setting yourself up as king and you're hiring prophets to promote yourself. They sent this letter unsealed. It was like a letter to the editor. They wanted everybody to read it. It's meant to stir up rumors.
Anybody that sets big goals is going to be criticized and slandered by people who set no goals. Failures hate successes. Who is the most falsely accused man in history? Jesus. Jesus said, "Blessed are you when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven."
First they tried to sidetrack Nehemiah and then they tried to slander him.
He denied the accusation and prayed for the strength. v. 9 "They were all trying to frighten us thinking, `Their hands will get too weak for the work and it won't be completed.'" He said, I'm not going to get involved in an argument. What you guys are saying is not true and I'm not coming down. No matter what you say. The wall is not finished. I'm not going to give in to sidetracking and get into a discussion with you. I'm going to keep on going."He discerned their motivations.He denied the accusation.
He prayed. "Now Lord strengthen my hands."
Alot of times opposition comes and we pray, ‘Lord get me out of this” - but Neh. says, “Lord give me strength” -
lead w/ action.
If you're going to be a leader you've got to realize first there's going to be things that distract you -- try to get you off course and there's going to be things that defame you -- people say things against you. You can spend your time fighting criticism or you can keep working on the wall. Nehemiah said, I'm going to keep working on the wall. That's why, in 52 days, they built it. He would not give in to distractions. He would not give in to defamation. He knew their motive was to try to frighten. He would not give in.

3. KEEP WORKING IN SPITE OF DANGER
If you want to be a leader, to lead with action, keep working in spite of danger. First they tried to side track him (come have a conference), then they tried to slander him (what you're doing is just for your own benefit), then they tried to scare him.
v. 10 "On one day I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah who was shut up in his home. He said `Let us meet in the house of God, inside the temple. Close the temple doors because men are coming to you to kill you.' But I said, `Should a man like me run away or should one like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go.' I realized that God had not sent him but that he had prophesied against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. He had been hired to intimidate me that so I would commit a sin in doing this and they would give me a bad name and discredit me. Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, O my God, because of what they have done. Remember also the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who have been trying to intimidate me."
Now they're trying to scare him by danger. Evidently this man, Shemaiah was a friend of Nehemiah's and he was a priest. But evidently the bad guy Sanballat got to him and bought him off. "Go tell your buddy Nehemiah there's an assignation plot on his life. We've put a hit man out on him. The only way he could be safe is to run and hide in the Holy of Holies in the Temple. The bad guys won't follow in there for fear of God."
Nehemiah's response, v. 11, "I said, `Should a man like me run into the temple to save his life? I will not go.'" He would keep on working in spite of danger. Why didn't he give into this?
1. It would make him look like a coward. "Should a man like me run away?" I'm the leader of this thing. I'm building the wall around Jerusalem. If I run and hide in the temple what's that going to do to the morale of the people? Their morale is going to go down. I'm not going to do it! Leaders don't run away. Other people are watching me. Lead n life by example.
2. v. 12 "I realized that God had not sent him" Underline "realized". Nehemiah was a very perceptive person. He realized that this wasn't advise from the Lord. This guy said he was from God, "I know! I have a word to you from the Lord. Run and hide in the Temple." Have you noticed that some people who say they're speaking for God, aren't? Some people say, "this is God's will for your life" and they have no idea at all. They may have a hidden agenda. Here this guy was one, a priest, and also, a friend of Nehemiah's and he's giving him bad advice because he had been bought off by the bad guys. Nehemiah is perceptive. v. 14 "These guys were trying to intimidate me." They're trying to tell me their advice is from God, but it's not from God.

You have to be aware of people saying, "God told me to tell you..." It's not always true. You don't always swallow it.
v. 13 "He had been hired to intimidate me so that I would commit a sin by doing this. Then they would give me a bad name to discredit me."
The real issue here is that for Nehemiah to run and hide in the Temple would compromise his integrity. It was against the law for anybody to go into the Holy of Holies except the priest. Numbers 18:7 says that nobody is to go into the Holy of Holies except the priest and if they do they are to be killed. They are guilty of the death penalty. For Nehemiah to play chicken after hearing of the assignation attempt and go hide in the Temple, he would be sinning out of fear.
Never break one of God's laws out of fear. If the opposition can't scare you into quitting, they are going to try to just get you to sin, to make you ineffective, compromise. Then the whole nation would say, "What's our leader doing sinning by running and hiding in the Temple?" These are the last desperate attempts of the opposition. They are the very things that will happen to all of us as we Lead in Life.

They will try to get you through discord, discouragement, defeat, mockery, distraction, defamation, then through danger.
Because Nehemiah refused to quit, "The wall was built in 52 days." That's amazing.
Archaeologists have unearthed part of Nehemiah's wall. It's about ten feet across and twelve feed deep.
The wall was built around Jerusalem. v. 16 "When all of our enemies heard about this and all the surrounding nations, they were afraid and they lost their confidence because they realized this work had been done with the help of our God." The tables have turned. For six chapters we've been seeing the Jews be discouraged. We've watched them be depressed, afraid. But the moment the wall is built, Jerusalem is a fortified city. Now who's afraid? the enemy. They've lost their confidence.

I want to apply this to your life. Four characteristics of Leading with Action
All of the points I made today have something in common. They are all personal attacks on the leader. All the opposition in the past had been to discourage the workers. First they told them, "We're going to come kill you at night." Previously they tried to stop the project by attacking the people. Now, as a last ditch attempt because the wall is almost finished, they're going directly after the leader.
In football, one of the primary goals of the defense is a sacked quarterback. If you can sack the quarterback, chances are, you'll win the game. Take him out! Everything rises or falls on leadership. No organization, no ministry, no church, no family, no school, no business can go any further than the leadership that's leading it. If everything rises or falls on leadership, then the quickest way for the opposition to halt any project, any family, any business is to neutralize the leadership. They are doing three things here to stop the leadership. The quickest way to stop a movement is to knock off the leader. Jesus talks about when the shepherd is removed, the flock scatters. How true is that today in our families. - Single parents trying to raise their children after a spouse has left them for another or out of just plain selfishness. We see that all around us -
How you handle those attacks, those personal attacks, determines what kind of leader you're going to be.
One of the basic lessons of Nehemiah is that leadership is essential for any project. With the right leadership they were able to accomplish in 52 days what for 80 years people had been saying, "It can't be done!" When you get the right catalyst, things go into action. What kind of person does it take to pull off a major project? What kind of person does it take to accomplish the impossible? How do we lead in life with Action? Four things.
What do you need, as a leader, to succeed in the face of distraction, defamations and danger?

1. A compelling purpose.

This is the very first element of leadership. A cause. A vision.
A dream. An objective. A goal. It's something that pulls you towards that goal. It doesn't just drive you, it draws you. You have to have a compelling purpose.
That's why, when they came back in v. 3, and said "Nehemiah, we want you to leave the wall and come out and have a little party with us. You've been working on the wall too long. Come talk to us, Nehemiah." Nehemiah said, "I am carrying on a great project." Circle "great". Nehemiah was very single minded. That was one of the characteristics why they were able to accomplish the impossible in 52 days. He said I'm going to do this. I'm going to stick with it. I'm going to keep the main thing the main thing. I'm carrying on a great project.

Is there any great project -- an overall compelling purpose -- in your life? What motivates you to get out of bed everyday? Besides making money. What motivates you to live the rest of your life? What motivates you to keep on going? 1 reason Y study Neh. - not here 2 E, B, Take spce, u have a purpose.

Until you have a compelling purpose for your life, you're just existing. Nehemiah said, I have a great project! What are you exchanging your life for? Jesus said, "What will a man give in exchange for his soul?" When you give your time for something, you're giving your life. That's what life is made up of -- your time. We tend to think that the most important thing we can give people is our money. But money can be replaced. But when you give people your time, that's irreplaceable. The mark of a great leader is first of all, to have a compelling purpose -- an over arching goal in life that motivates me to keep going. Paul says, "Love compels me to keep going."

Leadership Law: Great lives are produced by a commitment to a great cause. Great people are just ordinary people who have made a great commitment to a great cause. That cause draws them out of themselves and makes them more than they could be on their own. We need a compelling
purpose for life.
I submit to you, that the most compelling purpose in life, the greatest cause that you can give your life for is the kingdom of God. There's nothing greater that you can invest your life in. That's going to last for eternity. Most of what we invest our life in won't last 20 years much less for a thousand years. I challenge you to say, whether you have 5 years left or 50 years left, you'll invest it in the kingdom of God.

A statement to live by: "A Great Commitment to the Great Commandment and the Great Commission will build a Great person".

Someone came to Jesus and said sum up the Bible. He said, "Love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself. On this lasts all the law and the prophets." Then His last words to the church as he went back to heaven was, "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always - Those two things -- the Great Commandment and the Great Commission -- summarize everything we are to do. When we do those five things -- love God with all our heart (worship), love our neighbor as ourselves (ministry),KBL, go
and make disciples (evangelism), baptize them (fellowship), BVH, and teach them to observe all things (discipleship)LBF -- those are the five purposes of the church. That produces a great church -- a great commitment to the great command and the great commission will build a great church.
Unfortunately a lot of people give in to distractions. They get distracted from their compelling purpose. "If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything."

2. You need a clear perspective.

Nehemiah had incredible discernment, spiritual radar. Every time a trap came up, he sensed it. He could smell it every time. v. 2 they had said come out and talk with us, he said, "They were scheming to harm me." How did he know? He was perceptive. He had discernment. v. 9 when they came and made the accusations of him setting himself up as king and eventually rebel against Artaxerxes, Nehemiah said "They were trying to frighten us." He looked and exposed their motives. v. 12 when the third guy said come hide in the temple, Nehemiah realized that God had not sent him. He has a very acute perception. He had the ability to anticipate a trap. If we're going to be a lead n life, we've got to have perception. Wisdom. How do you get that? James 1:5 "If any man lacks wisdom, ask God." That's what the Bible says. When you spend time in the word of God you begin to take on the mind of Christ and you'll be a more perceptive leader. You don't fall for every thing that comes.

Led by Holy Spirit

You need to have a compelling purpose and a clear perspective.

3. A continual prayer

Nehemiah was a prayer-addict. His first response to everything was pray. No matter what happened, he first prayed. That's the number one thing you do when you're slandered. Instead of taking it out on the person, you talk in out w/ God. Nehemiah did not get defensive and he did not retaliate when they started making all the false accusations. He just said, "It's not true" and went and prayed about it. That's all you need to do. If people are falsely accusing you as a leader, say "it's not true". You don't have to go into a long defense. Say "It's not true" and then go and talk to the Lord.
Luke 18:1 "Jesus told his disciples that they should always pray and not give up." Circle "pray" and "not give up". In your life you're always doing one or the other. You'll either pray or you'll give up. When the heat is on, when the pressure is on, you'll either pray or you'll panic. You need a continual prayer life.

4. A courageous persistence.

One of the great keys to success is the ability to hang in there! Keep on keeping on! Keep on doing what God wants us to do! If you were to study all the messages we've given at FOCUS*
We basically have two themes -- one for unbelievers and one for believers. The theme we have for unbelievers is "God cares about you. You matter to God." We say that in many different ways. We have one basic message for believers and that's "Don't give up!" You have a Purpose! We all get tired in the
battle, weary. God says "Don't give up!" You need a
courageous persistence.
How can you be fearful and courageous at the same time? Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is moving ahead in spite of your fear. If you're not afraid you're not courageous, you may just be dumb! You may not know how serious the matter is. Courage is when you move ahead in spite of your fear. That's what makes a courageous person. Notice v. 11 "Should a man like that run away." He says, "I'm not going to run away. I'm scared, I'm frightened. It's getting near the finish line. All we have to do is hang the doors and I know they probably want to kill me before the thing is finished, but I'm going to move ahead in spite of my fear. I'm not going to run away."
How do you know when you're afraid? You have the insatiable desire to run. Out of the job, out of the marriage, out of the relationship, out of the house -- because I'm afraid I can't handle it. Run! I've learned that it is never God's will for me to run from a difficult situation. If I do, God will just bring another one up later on so he can teach me a lesson. Just go ahead and face it.
Tuff season of life, desert -
Galatians 6:9 "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up."
You need a compelling purpose that is so over arching in your life, that you're not distracted by the trivial. Often good things can keep you from the best. What is it that's taking up your time in life so that you don't have time for the things that are really important in life? What things are important? Loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself. Worship and ministry. If you're too busy to worship, too busy to have a quiet time -- you're too busy. If you're too busy to get involved in a ministry -- you're too busy. These other things aren't going to count years from now. Satan uses a subtle trap to substitute good things. You have limited amount of time. There may be some things you need to cut back so you can make time for ministry, make time for what God wants me to do.
Clear perspective. How's your spiritual sensitivity? Do you know the Word enough to spot a trap when it comes. How about your prayer life? Is it continual? Are you praying or are you giving up? Being led by the Spirit.
Courageous persistence. How persistent are you in doing God's will? Do you just do it when it's convenient? Have you ever made the decision in your life, "I'm going to follow Jesus 100% no matter what else happens, no matter what it costs, no matter what it takes, regardless of what people say about me, sidetracks, danger. I'm going to do the right thing." Those are the marks of the Leading w/ Action. That's how Nehemiah was able to do in 52 days what other people said can't be done for 80 years.

LEADING IN LIFE - Leader's Resolve Conflict

Everything rises or falls on leadership. Nehemiah has been sent by God to lead in rebuilding this wall and the day they begin, opposition begins too.

Review about opposition and how Satan tries to stop a work:

In chapter 2 they first started w/ ridicule and mockery. They tried to laugh them out of doing the work. They made fun of them, ridiculed them, put them down. Nehemiah's response to that was to simply ignore it. When people ridicule you and put you down for what you're doing for the Lord, just ignore it.
The second thing they tried was discouragement. They came and said, You're tired, you're never going to be able to finish, it's hopeless, there's too much rubble. They got them all discouraged. Nehemiah's response to discouragement was simply to reorganize. "Remember the Lord is with us and don't give in to discouragement."
The next tactic that came along was danger. They started threatening their lives. They threatened them and tried to scare them into quitting. Nehemiah's response to that was to resist it. He said we're going to reinforce it: half will build the wall, half will carry swords. Then they would alternate on shifts.
All of that got them nowhere.
Chapter 4 was the opposition from the outside. Chapter 5 is internal opposition. That's much, much worse, the sabotaging from the inside. Satan tries to divide them. He uses money. Isn't that typical? More conflicts are caused by finances than anything else. The majority of divorces are because of financial problems. Satan is going to try to divide them over financial issues.

Question: Does the devil still use division today? Of course he does. Internal problems destroy more churches, homes, business’ than external problems. Satan would rather cause division in w/in than anything else.

Mark 3:25 "If a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand." You ever see a football team defeat itself? A bunch of people with massive egos and, rather than fight the opposing team, they fight each other. Division can happen wherever you have two or more people. We tend to want our own way.

If you don't deal with conflict then it's going to stop the work of the Lord in your life. For us to Lead in Life we've got to learn how to resolve conflict. This chapter is very important. It teaches us conflict management, the skill of dealing with conflict. V. 1-5 gives us the causes of conflict; 6-13 the cure for conflict.

I. THE CAUSE OF CONFLICT
The background of this chapter is the people have been spending all their time working on the wall. They didn't have any time to cultivate their gardens and raise food.
V. 1-2 "Now the men and their wives raised a great outcry against their Jewish brothers. Some were saying, `We and our sons and daughters are numerous. In order for us to eat and stay alive we must get grain.'"
The first complaint was food shortages -- too many mouths to feed.
In the next verse, we find out there was a famine. Resources and goods were in short supply. There were more mouths to feed than they had food. Inflation and high prices. Food shortages.
It's interesting: they are doing the work of God, yet God allowed a famine. Why? Weren't they doing what He'd told them to do? I think that doing God's will does not exempt you from common problems of life. Just because you're doing the right thing doesn't mean your car isn't going to break down or have some major health problem or otherwise. So there was a food shortage in v. 2.

The second thing is that they were over mortgaged in their homes.
v. 3 "We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our homes to get grain during the famine." That's what you call financial bondage.
They were using their equity to feed their families. They were taking their equity out of their homes and mortgaging them deeper and deeper just to put food on the table.

v. 4 "Still others were saying, `We've had to borrow money to pay the king's taxes on our fields and vineyards.'"
High taxes are the third problem. They're having to borrow just to pay taxes. They're in deep debt here.

As a result of that, in v. 5, "Although we are the same flesh and blood as our countrymen, and though our sons are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters have already been enslaved but we are powerless because our fields and vineyards belong to others." Enslaved

They had to have food so first they mortgaged their homes then they started selling off their family to raise money. They are in that much debt! They are forced to place their kids into slave labor to pay debts. Circle "mortgaging" and "borrow" and "enslaved". I think those three words go together. The Bible is relevant! High taxes, high mortgage, high prices, forced to work overtime -- sounds like the business section of today's paper.
But these hard times were not the root problem.

v. 1 "Now the men and their wives raised a great outcry against their Jewish brothers."
(by the way, this sounds like trouble doesn’t it?)
They are complaining about each other.
The rich Jews were exploiting the poor Jews in a time of crisis. They were taking advantage and capitalizing on the misfortunes of the poor people. (ever seen or heard of that happening before?) Those who had money and had food were saying, "If you'll sell me your house I'll give you food. I'll lend you money but it will be at high interest rates. And if you can't pay the loan I'll take your children as collateral." They were exploiting each other. Rather than helping and giving to the poor they're charging high interest and repossessing their homes, taking their children as slaves -- total disregard for the misfortunes of other people, only thinking of themselves "How can I take advantage of this problem?"

This was clearly against God's law. Exodus 2:25 said that Jews could not charge interest to each other. God allowed the Jews to charge interest to other people, but they were not allowed to charge interest to each other. They could loan to each other but they could not charge any interest on it. The Bible also said that the Jew was not to enslave another Jew. If somebody was poor he could come and work for you but you were not to make him your slave. They were clearly violating God's will. The rich were blatantly violating these laws: profiteering, exploiting, capitalizing on the famine. We have a conflict between the haves and the have nots right in the middle of this building program.

Leadership Law: The root cause of internal conflict and discord is always selfishness.
Whether you have conflict in your family, with your boyfriend, in church, in your office, at school -- the bottom line in conflict is always selfishness. Always! James 4:1 "What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but you don't get it." What causes conflict? Selfishness. When my wants conflict with your wants, we've got a problem! We're going to have conflict, division.

The most fulfilling part of leadership is working with people. But the most frustrating part of leadership is working with people. People tend to be selfish, including me. We want our own way. We want to do our own thing. As a result we don't always want to do the thing that's best. They put themselves first and that can be very, very frustrating. We think of ourselves and that causes conflict. It's always selfishness.

II. THE CURE FOR CONFLICT

How does a leader resolve conflict? Nehemiah knew this whole thing could blow up in his face and the wall never get rebuilt. They were exploiting each other. They had Jews fighting against Jews, families fighting against families. v. 1, the men and their wives raised a great outcry against their own people. This is much worse than fighting an enemy out there. An external enemy often rallies the troop, it builds unity. When you're fighting each other, it's dividing you apart.

STEP 1 v. 6 -- "When I heard their outcry and these charges I was very angry." GET ANGRY (excuse me Joe what did say?)
Nehemiah did not ignore the problem, he took it seriously. If you're the leader of any kind of group and the harmony of your people is threatened, you better get angry. It's very, very important. You, as a leader, are to protect the harmony of your home, your group, your bussiness -- wherever.

Sometimes anger is very appropriate. Sometimes it's the right thing to do. This verse says Nehemiah was very angry. Anger is commanded by God. Ephesians 4:26 "Be ye angry and sin not." It is possible to be angry and not sin. If it wasn't possible then God sins. God got angry. Jesus got angry. You can get angry and not sin. One of the first things you need to do if there is disharmony caused by selfishness, you as a leader, better get angry. Take it seriously! There is the right kind of anger and the wrong kind of anger. Leadership is knowing the difference.

Nehemiah's anger is not a personal reaction. Nobody was hurting him. He is not getting angry and striking back because somebody bruised his ego. That's the wrong kind of anger. He's not striking back in revenge. That's the wrong kind of anger. But what he has is justifiable indignation. He was angry at the selfishness of these rich people. He's deeply disturbed by their exploitation. They could call a halt to the entire project just because of their own selfishness and greed. Nehemiah is thinking "What good is a wall if the people inside the wall are ripping each other off? What good is a wall if we're exploiting each other?"

A leader without some fire in his/her bones is not much of a leader. When you see something that is destroying the harmony in your family, your church, your nation, your business the first thing to do, as a leader, is to get upset. Nothing will upset a leader more than division.
The last thing they needed here was internal strife especially since there was plenty external strife anyway.

STEP 2- REFLECTION: THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK
If you only do step one and don't do step two you're going to get into a lot of trouble. V. 7 "I pondered them in my mind." Living Bible says, "So after thinking about it, I spoke out against these rich government officials." These were the people who were ripping everybody off. The Hebrew word is literally "I consulted with myself". Nehemiah's first reaction was to get angry. But before he did anything else he talked to himself about it. He got alone with God, prayed about it, thought about it to get the perspective right. He planned it out and said, "God, what do You want me to say?" He talked to himself. ‘Leaders make time for Think time’. You don't need to go talk to anybody else. You need to set down and say, "What's really going on here? I'm ticked off. I'm irritated. I'm upset. But what's really happening?" Set aside some time for reflection and to think. Because, when you get angry your first reaction is usually wrong. You ought to get angry. There are some things you ought to get upset about when you see selfishness preventing or harming the work of God. But before you do anything about it you do step two where you think before you speak. (sometime you may be part of problem)

James 1:19-20 "Be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry. For man's anger does not bring about the righteous life God desires." This is the antidote. It's not a contradiction. It's clarifying what Ephesians said, "Be angry and sin not." There is a difference between man's anger and God's anger. Man's anger is when we act in revenge. God's anger is when we act in righteousness. There is no personal vendetta involved: I'm going to get angry because you hurt me, you irritated me, you frustrated me, you disappointed me. That's the wrong kind of anger. You're angry out of your own selfishness. Somebody didn't live up to your expectations.

What he's saying, "Be quick to listen and slow to speak." If you do these first two the third one is automatic. If you're quick to listen and slow to speak you will be slow to anger. And the anger you have will be godly anger after you've thought it through, consulted with yourself. You haven't just spouted off whatever first came to mind. Impulsive anger always gets you in trouble.
Step two is reflection. It's a good antidote or qualifier of step one -- the reaction of getting angry.

STEP THREE -- REBUKE: YOU PRIVATELY CONFRONT THE OFFENDING PARTY
Go directly to the source. You don't deal with somebody else about it, talk with five or six different people to get everybody on your side. You don't say, "I've got a prayer request..." which is often sanctified gossip. You go directly to the person, directly to the source.

If somebody has offended you and you go to somebody else besides them first, you have already sinned. An example: Nehemiah 5:7 "I pondered them in my mind then I accused the nobles and officials. I told them...`He goes to them
directly. Directly to the problem -- the people who were sinning.
Matthew 18:15-17 this is what Jesus said about how to handle conflict, wherever you are: "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you've won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. If he still refuses to listen, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector." How did Jesus tell us to treat pagans and tax collectors? Love them. He just didn't treat them like brothers. That's the difference between acceptance and approval.

Only involve the people to the limit you have to involve others.
A Good saying is, “If they’re not a part of the problem or the solution they don’t need to be involved”
First go see the person. Try to resolve it with your boss or whoever. If that doesn't work, take another person along. If that doesn't work then you involve a larger group and bring the church in on it. But he doesn't say, first go tell the whole church and then the person.
Notice Nehemiah 5:7 "I pondered them in my mind and then accused..." [circle "accused"] Nehemiah is not making a polite social visit here. He's angry and he's not glossing over the fact that these guys were ripping off other people. He's not watering it down. He is confronting them.

How many of you like to confront people? If you like to confront people, you're weird! People who like to confront have a problem! How many of you like to be confronted?

I hate confronting people! It is not fun. I want everybody to like me! So do you! I don't want to be disliked and I don't want to cause hard feelings. But I've learned it is necessary to confront for the good of everybody. I have also learned that if I don't confront the problem it only gets worse. It does not get better. I've also learned that the longer I wait the more courage it takes to confront. I become more and more of a chicken the longer I wait.

Have you ever seen the morale in an office deteriorate because of one jerk who is making everybody miserable and yet is a trouble maker and his poisonous attitudes are being spread throughout the entire office because the manager is a wimp and would not deal with it. He kept putting it off. Maybe that person who is causing everyone's problem happened to be the top producer. So the manager was more interested in profits than he was in people. He didn't care that everybody else was sick of the person, because he was still bringing in all the sales.

Have you ever seen a family fall apart because the parents were afraid to discipline their kids? They were afraid that if they really disciplined them, they would loose them. That's tough love. Privately confront the offending party.

Leadership Law: Leaders must have the courage to confront.
If you're ever going to be a leader, this is a skill you have to develop. You must have the courage to confront. Speak the truth in love. Leadership requires courage. Leadership is not a popularity contest. For the greater good of the family, for the greater good of the business, for the greater good of the church -- I don't care if you don't like me, but the fact is this has to be dealt with." That's what Nehemiah's doing here. He said I'm going to deal with the issue.

Privately confront the offending party.

Do you imagine that Nehemiah was nervous here? This takes guts. He took on the city leaders. He is rebuking the wealthy owners of Jerusalem, the very people he must depend on to fund the rebuilding of the wall. Now who would pay for the wall, all the poor people? Who would pay for the doors, the people who didn't even have enough money for food? No. He goes to the moneybags, the very people who are funding the rebuilding of the wall and finally supporting the rebuilding. It's a real gamble.

The devil is probably saying, Nehemiah if you do this you loose their support, who's going to pay for the wall? You'll never finish the project.

But Nehemiah was committed to doing the right thing regardless. If it meant putting the wall on hold for a few days while they dealt with this sin, so be it! That shows the integrity of Nehemiah.

v. 9 "So I continued, `What you are doing is not right. Shouldn't you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our Gentile enemies?'" He's appealing to their conscious. He's saying what you're doing is a bad testimony. All the unbelievers are laughing. "Those people are supposed to be godly people and they're buying and selling each other into slavery and ripping each other off."

v. 10 "Give back to them immediately... continue to help out, but stop charging interest!” He's saying he's challenging them to make restitution. Do it immediately.

The result was they repented. v. 12 "And they said, `We will give it back,' they said. `And we will not demand anything more from them. We will do as you say.'" Nehemiah must have breathed a sigh of relief at that point. That was quite a gamble to challenge the people -- those wealthy owners.
(confronting usually turns out real good)

STEP FOUR - REINFORCEMENT. Set an example of unselfishness.
We see this on down in v. 14. We're going to cover it in more detail next week from a different angle on the example of leadership. But the foundation of all of Nehemiah's leadership is he led by example. When he asked them to rebuild the wall, he was out on the wall rebuilding it. When he asked them to pray he had already been praying. When he asked them to stay up all night and work night and day to get it built, he stayed up night and day to get it built. When he asked them to help the poor, he'd already been doing it. That's what these next verses say.

v. 14 is a little biographical statement about himself and what happened when he was twelve years as governor. "When I was appointed governor in the land of Judah neither I nor my brothers ate the food allotted to the governor. But the earlier governors, those preceding me, placed a heavy burden on the people and took forty shekels of silver in addition to food and wine. Their assistants also lorded it over the people. But out of reverence for God I didn't act like that. I devoted myself to the work on the wall. All my men were assembled there for the work. We didn't acquire any land. Furthermore, 150 Jews and officials ate at my table as those who came to us from surrounding nations. Each day one ox, six sheep, and some poultry were prepared for me. And ten days an abundant supply of wine of all kinds. In spite of all this I never demanded the food allotment to the governor, because the demands were heavy on these people."

As the appointed governor there was a certain amount of food he could receive from people and he never took it. He realized the people were hard up. He could have exploited the people. His servants could have exploited the people like the servants of the governors in the past but he didn't.
In fact he set the example. He was feeding the poor. He was helping them. He was doing all he could out of his own
personal wealth. He's setting the example.

Nehemiah says, as a leader I have modeled unselfishness. Why does he say that right at the end of all this stuff about conflict? Because the source of all conflict is selfishness. Nehemiah said I haven't exploited the people, taken advantage of their misfortune. He's contrasting his approach to the people with the wealthy rulers and owners' approach, which was to exploit the people. Nehemiah never asked anyone to do what he himself wasn't willing to do or wasn't already doing. He could say with a clear conscious, "Follow my example". That's a mark of leadership.

Paul was a leader like this. 1 Cor. 11:1 Paul said, "Follow my example as I have followed the example of Christ."
You say, "I'd never say that!" Why not? If not, you'd better change whatever you need to change in your life. People follow models. Paul wasn't being arrogant. He was saying, "At least I'm making the attempt. At least I'm making the effort." - What’s holding you back from saying that? You need to start working on the areas where you could say, Follow my example as I follow Christ.

Leadership Law: Leaders only ask others to do what they are already doing.
That was the secret of Nehemiah's boldness. I'm in awe how this guy stood up to these people and challenged them and confronted them. He was a person of integrity. He was already feeding the poor. He had every right to stand up and say, "How come you guys aren't helping the poor instead of hurting them?" If you cannot challenge someone to follow your example, whatever you say to them is going to loose its impact. In challenging our children, I can't say "Do as I say, not as I do". That's ineffective. If I can't say, "Do as I do, " then the impact of me saying "Do as I say" is worthless. Organizations, homes, families, office, wherever... will have fewer conflicts when we
live unselfishly and model that.

The fact is internal differences, wherever you've got a group of people, are inevitable. When two people agree on everything, one of them isn't necessary. There's going to be differences. There's no such thing as a perfect church. There's no perfect family. There's no perfect business, office... There's going to be conflict. But God wants us to minimize them for His glory and especially in the family.
God has called us in every arena of life to be people who are know by love.
That's the mark of a Christian.
Jesus said, "By this shall all men know that you're My disciples, that you love one another."