Well, my name is Kyle, and I'm pinch hitting for Nathan this morning.
Nathan and his family, as Wes mentioned earlier, they're on vacation.
They're suffering for Jesus on the beach, and so y'all be in prayer for him as he's suffering this week, I'm sure.
I'm humbled to be here with you, though, to share God's Word.
So if you have your copy of God's Word, I invite you to turn with me to Nehemiah 5.
Nehemiah 5.
And as you're turning there, I want to hopefully catch you up on where we are in Nehemiah.
In case you haven't been here with us, we've been walking through the book of Nehemiah.
And Nehemiah is a book that really centers around the story of a great city, the city of Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is a city that's really fallen into disrepair, and the people who live there have essentially fallen into disrepair as well.
So God burdened a man named Nehemiah, who was the cupbearer to the king, the king of Persia,
to rebuild this city and to restore the hearts of its people back to God.
Essentially the theme of Nehemiah in a nutshell.
In the earlier chapters of Nehemiah, Nehemiah was opposed by outsiders.
He has seen a lot of opposition to this mission that he's on, to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem.
And so in that opposition, he's struggled through it.
He's overcome a lot of opposition.
And up until we get to chapter 5, most of the opposition is coming from outside of the city.
People who don't want the people of God influencing the city of Jerusalem.
And we get to chapter 5 and we begin to see some opposition coming from within.
Opposition coming from within the city of Jerusalem.
Anybody ever experience that?
The people that you thought should be the closest to you?
The people that you think are the believers in your inner circles?
And all of a sudden you experience opposition from that?
Sometimes we do.
Sometimes we experience opposition from within.
And Nehemiah finds himself in a place where he's having to deal with some things.
I wish we could go through the whole chapter, chapter 5.
I wish I could focus on the whole chapter.
We'd literally be here for a couple hours.
So you can thank me later for not doing an entire chapter of chapter 5 of Nehemiah.
But in the beginning of chapter 5, we see the rich people are essentially taking advantage of the poor.
They're committing a sin that's known as usury.
I have to explain this a little bit because usury today is defined a little bit different than usury was defined back then.
Today, usury is defined as charging excessive interest on loaned money.
It doesn't happen a lot today because in our country we have checks and balances that prevent things like that from happening.
But back then, usury was defined as any interest charged to your fellow countrymen.
And so Jews were not allowed to charge interest on borrowed money to their fellow Jews.
It was illegal in God's law.
And so that's what's going on here.
They're basically the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer.
They're charging money to their own countrymen.
And tragically as well, Nehemiah finds himself, the great leader, falling and succumbing to the same sin.
And he himself had to repent publicly and really followed it up.
He's an incredible leader.
He realizes his sin.
He repents publicly of that sin.
And then he goes on to repay all the people, all the money that he owes back to them.
And that's essentially what we're picking up in Nehemiah chapter 5.
We want to start in verse 14.
And Nehemiah says this,
Moreover, from this day, I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah from the 20th year to the 32nd year of King Artaxerxes.
That's the ruler in the day.
For a full 12 years, Nehemiah was undertaking this urban rebuilding project.
For 12 years, neither I nor my kinsmen have eaten of the governor's food allowance.
So the first principle that we're really seeing in this passage is that we must understand that first we've got to understand our mission.
What is our mission?
And Nehemiah's mission was to rebuild a wall.
He moved into Jerusalem.
And his little bit more than that, we're going to get into that in a minute.
But Nehemiah's mission is essentially to come into Jerusalem and to rebuild the wall, to reconstruct the city.
It's in disrepair.
But what is our mission today?
Matthew 28.
To go and make disciples of all nations.
Baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
It's Acts 1.8.
You'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.
You'll be my witnesses in Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
That is the mission that's given to us.
It's not the great suggestion.
It's the great commission.
God has called all believers to this.
It's not just pastors and people who are in vocational ministry.
We're missionaries.
It's all believers are called to this commission.
We're all commissioned to do the great commission.
Which is to make disciples of all nations.
That is our mission.
So first, we've got to understand the mission that God has called us to.
Secondly, we must accept the fact that there are times when our personal interests are misaligned with the mission.
There are times when the needs of the mission call for us to give up some of our personal interests and our personal desires.
And we'll find ourselves as believers in situations where we have to serve the needs of the mission at our own personal expense.
What that means is, for example, you're a person who is one to get married or maybe you are married in this room this morning.
And there's times when the needs or desires of your spouse will have to supersede your own needs and desires.
And we, being loving spouses, we sacrifice sometimes our own desires because it's what we're called to do.
We're called to love our spouses in Scripture.
To put it in the words of my seminary president, Dr. Danny Akin, he's a real funny guy at times.
And he says, man, if you haven't figured it out already, I'll let you in on a little secret that I learned a long time ago.
Women, they give you two options.
You can either be right or you can be happy.
He said, I just assume be happy.
You parents in the room, you can relate to this as well.
How many of you who are parents in this room, but whether you have little ones now or whether you used to have little ones,
would have rather have been sleeping at night than being up awake with your children as they're crying,
or better yet, if your children are throwing up and you're having to clean up the mess.
There's often times when that happens.
I remember my dad sitting in the back row right now.
I remember a time when my dad literally caught it in his hands.
And he had to carry it to the toilet and clean himself up afterwards.
It's what we do as parents.
We sometimes sacrifice our own needs or wants or desires to see that our children are raised in a godly manner.
It's the same way in our calling as Christians, particularly as it relates to our commission to make disciples.
It means that there are times when we make sacrifices.
You might have to give up watching your favorite TV show one week in order to have a family over for dinner.
Maybe neighbors that you're wanting to minister to that you have over for dinner.
It might mean that you give up your cable or satellite service altogether so that you have the extra money to be able to help a family put food on their table.
A family who's struggling to put food on their table.
You see, this is what's going on in this text.
Nehemiah is working in a situation where as a governor, he has the legal right to tax the people as much as he wanted to.
And he could have made himself a very wealthy person.
He could have been very affluent.
He could have had all the nice things that the world could offer him in that day.
But what he determines to do is not to impose an additional tax burden upon the people.
And he takes it a step further.
He forgoes his salary.
For 12 years, he essentially works for free.
He doesn't take anything out of the governor's food allowance.
How many of you would be willing to do that?
Your boss comes up to you and says,
You know, the times are kind of lean right now and we're not going to be able to afford to pay for 12 years.
So if you'd just work for free for 12 years, that'd be really great.
And by the way, we're going to make you pay for your desk as well.
We don't have enough money to buy you a desk.
And we're going to have to pay for your laptop.
And you're probably going to be traveling a lot for your job.
So you're going to have to pay for your own car and your own gas mileage.
We don't have money to pay for that stuff.
Oh, and by the way, you might die in your job.
How many of you are going to take that offer?
There's no hands, right?
No, you're going to say, I think I'm going to find a better job.
Something that's not going to cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars and possibly my life.
But Nehemiah is willing to set aside his own interest for the sake of the calling on his life.
Furthermore, he tells us in verse 15,
The former governors who were before me laid heavy burdens on the people
and took from them bread and wine besides 40 shekels of silver.
What I hope we're beginning to see as we travel through this book is that Nehemiah is kind of a different guy.
He's not the typical leader.
And he's really not the typical person to begin with.
He is set apart for the glory of God.
He has set himself apart.
He doesn't do things the way that previous leaders have done them.
He says,
Just because former governors lay these tax burdens upon the people doesn't mean that I should.
Nehemiah goes against the grain of the culture,
and he went to great lengths to be unusual.
But why?
We see it as we continue reading on.
It says,
Even their servants domineered the people,
but I did not do so because of the fear of God.
So we're beginning to see the whole picture here.
We're beginning to see the whole picture that Nehemiah isn't just being different for the sake of being different.
He's not being different just so the people would like him.
He's being different because he is set apart for the glory of God.
He is a man who loves God.
He's a man who understands the mission.
He's a man who wants to fulfill that mission no matter what the cost.
And what we learn and glean from Nehemiah is that if we're going to fulfill this mission that God has set before us,
and if we're going to live a life that's set apart,
it's going to come at some personal cost to us sometimes.
For some of us, it might cost a job.
I have a friend who used to work for a big insurance company.
I won't name the company.
I don't want to talk bad about a company by any means.
But he was an underwriter for an insurance company.
His boss came up to him one day and he said,
you know, Adam, we're going to send you on a business trip.
And we're going to send you with your female co-worker, just the two of them.
He's a married man.
He made a commitment not to travel alone with another woman that's not his wife.
So he explains to his boss, I appreciate the opportunity, but I'm not going to be able to do that.
I'll be happy to pay for my own rental car.
I'll be happy to pay for my own hotel room.
I'll be happy to pay whatever expenses I have to pay in order to not do that.
So his boss goes to the human resources representatives for the company and they say,
look, you can't make him based off of religious reasons.
So the boss is like, okay, well, fine.
I'll go back to our employee.
And so he goes back to my friend and he says,
look, I can't make you go on this business trip,
but what I'm going to tell you is that you're not going to make it very far in this company
if you're not willing to take these types of business trips.
And he said, fine, I understand.
See, my friend was willing to be set apart for the glory of God.
He was willing, if it cost him his job, he was willing to go,
to move to a different position, to move to a different job in order to be set apart, to be different.
And I submit to you that Nehemiah is somebody who is being different in this case.
Maybe your job has been the excuse for you.
Maybe you've been so busy in your job
and that's the excuse for the reason why you haven't been sharing the gospel with people.
Maybe you've delayed your mission, the Great Commission,
and your job has been your excuse.
It might be that God's calling you to free up some time in your life
in order to fulfill the Great Commission.
It might be that God's calling you to use some of your own personal finances
to go toward a foreign mission trip to share the gospel with unreached people groups.
Or maybe you're a business owner.
God's calling you to take your business in a new direction
to give a percentage of those funds
in order to help fund mission groups that would be serving both here and abroad.
There's a great example of a company that does this on a regular basis.
It's Chick-fil-A.
And if you decided you wanted to go get a Chick-fil-A after church today,
if you wanted to go get a big, juicy Chick-fil-A chicken sandwich,
you know that we all...
Or maybe you're like a...
Maybe you like the Cool Wraps.
I don't know what your preference is.
But, man, everything that they serve is just so good.
It doesn't just taste good.
We all just crave Chick-fil-A sometimes.
And it seems like we always crave Chick-fil-A the most on Sundays, right?
Because why?
You can't go to Chick-fil-A.
If you go to Chick-fil-A today, you're going to be very disappointed
because they're closed.
But why are they closed?
Because the leadership at Chick-fil-A believes it's important
for their employees to be able to attend a corporate worship service
if they so choose.
Chick-fil-A also gives a lot of money
away to things like their wind-shaped camps
and make an impact on Georgia's children
and children all over the place.
They go to their camps.
But would Chick-fil-A make more money
if they were open seven days a week as opposed to six?
Of course they would.
In fact, Sundays are some of the biggest revenue-making days
for the fast food industry.
But they close their doors
because they understand
sometimes the mission that's before us
will cost us.
You say, well, I don't own a business
and I don't really have a lot of money to give away.
That's okay.
I know exactly where you are.
I completely understand.
In fact, the Apostle Paul also understood
when he wrote in Philippians 4,
where he says,
I know what it's like to be in need.
I know what it's like to have plenty.
I've learned the secret of being content
in any and every situation,
whether well-fed or hungry.
So Paul had learned what it was to be content,
whether he had a lot of food,
whether he had a lot of things,
or whether he had very, very little.
But I guarantee you,
there's a place in Paul's life
where he was not content.
And Paul was never content
with where he was with the spread of the gospel.
He always knew there was more towns to visit,
that there were more people to share the gospel with,
and there was more strangers to meet
to make an impact on them with the gospel.
That's one thing that Paul completely understood.
And you see, it doesn't matter
where we stand financially.
It doesn't matter where we stand spiritually.
With 4.5 billion people in the world today
that are without Jesus.
I want you to just let that soak into your mind
and into your heart right now.
4.5 billion people in this world without Jesus.
1.4 billion of those people
have no access to the gospel.
We can't really fathom that in our culture.
You see, we live in a culture
where the Bible is translated,
I don't know how many times,
but probably at least 50 times
in our own language.
There's people who don't even have access
to the scripture
that we have access to each and every day.
They don't even have access to it
in their own language.
1.4 billion people.
Zero access to the gospel.
Believers.
There is much more to be done.
Too few of us in our culture
are sacrificing for the mission.
This mission is going to cost us something.
What Nehemiah here is saying
is that God has placed this desire in my heart.
It doesn't matter how much the cost.
It doesn't matter how much it is.
It's all worth it
to be able to see people's lives
and people's hearts changed.
Verse 16.
I also applied myself to the work on this wall.
We did not buy any land
and all my servants were gathered there for the work.
There's a couple things going on here.
First of all, he mentions land.
Specifically, he mentions not buying any land.
Let me tell you how this would work.
Let's say you have a place
that's very depressed economically.
A city like Jerusalem.
And the people there are suffering
because of the economy.
But on top of that,
simultaneously, what's going on
is that there is a famine.
There's shortage on money.
There's shortage on food.
And what Nehemiah could have done
is he could have moved into town.
He could have raised the taxes.
And then he could have thereby
decreased the land value.
And he could have bought up all of their land
at pennies on the dollar.
Just a fraction of the cost.
Thereby being a burden on the people.
What Nehemiah is saying,
he says, no,
while that might be legal,
that's not something that I'm interested in doing.
That's not something that God would want me to do.
The second part of this verse.
All my servants were gathered there for the work.
Nehemiah is saying,
not only have I been an example financially,
but I'm also being an example in my work,
in my obedience in my work.
So what Nehemiah is really indicating to us here
is that a leader must be willing to persevere,
to give their lives to the cause,
and be willing to pay the price for the mission.
Then he gives us another leadership insight,
beginning in verse 17.
And I love this.
I hope that you can track with me through this
because this is so intriguing to me.
It says,
Moreover, there are at my table
150 Jews and officials,
besides those who came to us
from the nations that were around us.
Wait a minute.
How many people was he inviting over for dinner?
150?
And they sat where?
At my table?
I don't know about you,
but that has got to be some really gargantuan table
for 150 people.
Maybe they were just really small people.
You never really know.
It says,
Now what was prepared?
At whose expense?
At my expense?
Nehemiah's personal expense.
Can you imagine a dinner party every night
for 150 people?
Can you imagine the cost of that?
It says,
Now that that which was prepared for each day
was one ox,
six choice sheep.
Also birds were prepared for me.
And once in ten days,
all sorts of wine were furnished in abundance.
Prepared each day.
And these were lavish meals.
And Nehemiah's paying for it all.
And he says,
Yet for all of this,
I did not demand the governor's food allowance
because the servitude was heavy on his people.
You say,
Well, great.
That's awesome.
You know,
Nehemiah,
he had a bunch of people over to his house
around what must have been a huge table.
And he was doing these big dinner parties.
What does that mean for us in our culture today?
I want you to track with me here
because mealtime in Scripture,
I know this is going to sound silly at first,
but meals are incredibly important in Scripture.
I want you to think back with me to Genesis.
The story begins where there's a Trinitarian God,
a God that exists in three persons,
the Father,
the Son,
and the Holy Spirit.
This God creates the world
and everything that's in it.
And in that world,
He creates man
in His own image
and His own likeness.
And there's one thing,
before sin enters the world,
there's one thing that God says isn't good.
And that's that man should not be alone.
It's not good for man to be alone.
So what we see from the very beginning
that God is a relational God
and that He's created us to be relational people.
And from the very beginning,
we begin to see that.
But what happens is something tragic happens.
Adam and Eve partake of fruit,
which they were forbidden to eat.
They partake of a meal outside of God's will.
sin enters into the world.
And God made a promise to us in Genesis 3.15
that Jesus Christ,
the second member of that Trinity,
would enter into human history.
Even as early as Genesis 3,
we had that prophecy.
And then you zoom forward,
Jesus comes.
Jesus being a pretty important guy, right?
He is God.
He's pretty important.
He,
over and over and over and over again,
throughout His life,
throughout His ministry,
He takes time to sit down
and to eat with people.
He has dinner with them.
In fact,
His ministry even begins
at a wedding feast.
The wedding at Canaan,
where He turns water into wine.
That's where His ministry begins,
is at a meal.
Then,
Jesus,
over and over again,
spends a good portion of His life
at the dinner table
eating with sinners like Zacchaeus.
And it,
man,
it lit the Pharisees on fire.
These religious leaders of the day,
they hated the fact that He ate with sinners.
And they would whisper among themselves,
Can He believe that He's eating with sinners?
Surely,
if He was God,
He would know those people were sinners.
But Jesus found it incredibly important
to spend time with sinners,
to eat with sinners.
He sits down and has a drink beside
a well in Samaria with an outcast,
a woman who is an outcast.
He also made time to eat with His friends
like Mary, Martha, Lazarus.
Then,
as the cross was approaching,
as His death was imminent,
He has the most famous meal
in all of human history,
where He sits down with His twelve disciples.
We call it the Last Supper.
And this meal is the reason why
each and every week,
we participate in the Lord's Supper.
This idea that the bread
symbolizes Jesus' body that was broken.
And the juice that we drink,
it symbolizes His blood.
And we partake of this meal
in order to remember the sacrifice
that Jesus made for us on the cross.
The sacrifice that would reconcile us back to God,
but not only reconcile us back to God,
but to reconcile all of us
back to one another.
And that's why we do it each and every week.
That's why we participate in the Lord's Supper
each and every week.
We partake of the elements
so that we can remember
the sacrifice that Jesus paid for us
on the cross.
Then you get to the very end of Scripture.
Just a few chapters
from the very end of Revelation.
It's Revelation 19.
We see another meal.
And man,
this meal is going to be incredible.
It's a meal in which
all people,
everyone who's ever
accepted Jesus
as their Lord and Savior,
we're all gathered together.
Every tribe,
tongue,
nation,
language,
everybody is gathered all together
and we're celebrating
the second coming of the Lamb.
The second coming of Christ.
And let me tell you something.
In this meal,
there's going to be
stuff there
that you've literally
never seen before.
It's going to be like
nothing you've ever seen before.
It's going to be amazing.
It's going to be a celebration.
It's going to continue
through eternity.
And so we see that
sin enters into the world
with a meal.
And yet God concludes
this story
as we head into eternity
with a meal.
And all throughout Scripture
we see how important meals are.
And the reason why
this is important
is because
what Nehemiah is trying to do
is he's seeking
to transform a city.
And he determines
that one of the most
effective ways to do this
is through demonstrating
hospitality toward people.
Showing them how much
he cares about them.
And he's chosen to do that
through inviting people over
into his home
and into his life.
And I submit to you
that it's going to take
us as a church family
as believers
it's going to take us
turning strangers
into friends
to impact
North Georgia
for the glory of God.
I'll give you
one example
of one of the many ways
that this can really work
in your lives.
We
as a seminary student
I went out to eat
one time
in the city of Raleigh
North Carolina
we went to go eat
just as a fellowship
of believers
we wanted to
kind of go have fun
that night
and to eat together
so we went to this restaurant
and we're having a good time
just had a good conversation
you know how things
normally go
when you go out
to eat with people.
One of my friends
gets up during the middle
of the dinner
that we're having
and goes to the restroom
and on his way back
he notices
that there
is what looks like
a single mom
sitting there
having dinner
with her children.
And so he comes back
to the table
and he says
hey guys
explains to us
I've seen this lady
over here
eating with her children
I think she's a single mom
and I don't know why
but I feel like
we should pay
for her dinner tonight.
And so we
kind of shrugged
our shoulders
who are we
to say
that God's not
really truly speaking
to you
so sure
let's do it.
So we arranged
for our waitress
to go get
her waitress
and to get us
the bill
instead of her
the bill
and we would
make all the arrangements
set it all up
we get the bill
we all chip in
you know
five bucks or so each
there's four or five
of us there
I think it didn't
take too much
for us to pay
for her meal
and we give
the money
to our waitress
and they take
care of everything
and I'd like
to be able
to tell you
that this was
a life changing
thing for this
single mom
I wish I could
tell you that
to be honest
with you
it was kind
of awkward
you know
people don't
normally pay
for other people's
meals
sitting at other
tables
in a restaurant
so this lady
comes up to us
on our way
out the door
and just kind
of says
thanks
and kind
of walks
out the door
we didn't know
what to say
to her
she didn't
really know
what to say
to us
and we went
on about
eating our
meal
and she went
on about
her life
about five
minutes later
our waitress
comes up to
us
and she says
why would
you do
something like
that
and we
just
replied back
to her
well we're
just
we're all
saved by
the grace
of God
by the blood
of Jesus
and we
we just want
to share
the love
of Jesus
with people
and we
thought that
that might
be a simple
way to show
this mom
the love
of Jesus
she was like
okay
she went on
about her
business
serving other
tables and
what not
we went on
about eating
our meal
about five
minutes later
she's making
her rounds
again
she comes
back to
our table
and she
says
can I
just ask
you guys
something
what church
do you go
to
she was
almost in
tears
she was
almost kind
of broken
up at this
point
we all
went to
different
churches
so we
explained
to her
we don't
all go
to the
same
church
we can
recommend
some good
churches
for you
if you're
interested
and she
said
she wanted
to tell
us a story
about how
she was
experienced
brokenness
within the
church
that she
had kind
of been
burned
by church
people before
in the
past
and she
said
you know
I haven't
really since
then had
a desire
to go to
church
but if
there's a
church somewhere
out there
doing what
you guys
are doing
then that's
something I
want to be
a part of
I don't
tell you
that story
to pat
myself on
the back
I don't
tell you
that story
to you
you know
make much
of myself
it wasn't
even my
idea to
do it
it was
my friend's
idea
I tell you
that story
to show you
what a little
hospitality
can do
what a little
trying to
reach out
to somebody
can do
when you
do it
in the
name of
Jesus
and we
had no
idea
when we
decided
that we
were going
to pay
for the
single mom's
dinner
we had
no idea
that would
make an
impact
such a
big impact
on a
waitress
that was
serving us
that night
sometimes it
takes something
very incredibly
simple
in order to
make a huge
impact for
God
Nehemiah as
a leader
understands this
principle
he's having
people over
for dinner
he's interacting
with the
people
he could have
just moved
into Jerusalem
if he wanted
to and not
have paid much
attention to the
people he could
have just rebuilt
the wall and
just moved on
with his
business
but he
doesn't do
that
I hope that
what we're
beginning to
see is that
it was more
about building
a people than
it was about
building a wall
you see the
task on the
surface level
looks like he's
rebuilding the
city of Jerusalem
as physically
what's going on
here in the
process is that
God is using
Nehemiah to
rebuild his
people to
turn the
hearts of the
people of
Jerusalem back
to God
so next time
that you're
near a coffee
shop just go
around introducing
yourself
it might seem
a little awkward
at first
in fact
you might freak
a few people
out
just walking
up to them
and say
hey my name
is so and
so is there
anything that I
can pray about
for you
it would be
fun
it would be
something interesting
it would be
something interesting
later on to
post on your
Facebook status
just try it
but in this
we're sort of
cutting against
the cultural
grain that
hey we're
strangers and
we don't talk
to each other
well yeah
we're strangers
until we break
that ice
until we show
a little hospitality
then we become
friends
and when you
open that door
to friendship
you also
open the door
to be able
to share
Jesus
with the
lost
culture
that we
live in
this passage
concludes in an
interesting way
Nehemiah is
kind of
reflecting on
the series
of sacrifices
that he's
made
for the cause
of the
mission
and the
cause that
God has
called him
to
and he
says in
verse 19
remember
for my
good
oh God
all that
I have
done
for this
people
how many
of you
at first
glance
kind of
read that
as
maybe
Nehemiah
has a
little
hair
of
arrogance
when he's
saying
that
dear
God
please
remember
all the
wonderful
things
that I've
done
amen
right
kind of
seems a
little bit
much
doesn't it
but remember
the words
that were
spoken
out of the
mouth
of Jesus
Christ
nearly
440
years
later
after
this
Jesus
says
in
Matthew
6
you don't
have to
turn
there
just
listen
to
these
words
do
not
store
up
for
yourselves
treasures
on
earth
where
moths
and
vermin
destroy
and
where
thieves
break
in
and
steal
but
store
up
for
yourselves
treasures
in
heaven
where
moths
and
vermin
do
not
destroy
and
where
thieves
do
not
break
in
and
steal
see
Nehemiah
I don't
believe
that
Nehemiah
is trying
to boast
here
what
Nehemiah
is saying
is I've
given
a lot
towards
this
cause
I've
given
up
many
years
of my
life
I've
given
up
a lot
of my
personal
finances
I've
given
up
my
life
for
this
cause
and
I'm
not
likely
to
receive
much
earthly
reward
for
this
I'm
not
likely
to
be
thanked
by
these
people
and
so
God
if
you
would
just
remember
these
things
that
I'm
storing
up
my
treasure
not
here
on
this
earth
but
in
heaven
and
Nehemiah
simple
prayer
here
is
demonstrating
something
that
Nehemiah
understood
that we
sometimes
don't
grasp
in our
culture
in a
day
where
we have
televangelists
on TV
who are
in the
ministry
for their
own
personal
gain
and say
you know
just call
the 1-800
number
on the
bottom
of your
screen
and if
you just
donate
a minimum
of $100
you can
be blessed
by God
and they
hop in
their
helicopter
and fly
home
right
see
say that
tongue
in
cheek
but
this
is
something
that's
really
important
because
I feel
like
this
is
something
we
don't
really
grasp
in
our
theology
we're
not
saved
by
our
works
I want
you
to
hear
me
clearly
this
morning
we're
saved
by
grace
alone
through
faith
alone
in
Christ
alone
there's
nothing
that we
can
do
on
our
own
to
bring
apart
salvation
in
ourselves
Ephesians
2
8
9
and
10
say this
for
by
grace
you've
been
saved
through
faith
not
of
yourselves
it
is
the
gift
of
God
not
as
a
result
of
works
so
that
no
one
may
boast
and
here's
what
Paul
is
saying
here
we
owe
a lot
to
God
we
owe
infinitely
to
God
because
of
our
sin
there's
nothing
that
you
and
I
can
do
to
repay
that
debt
that
we
owe
to
God
there's
absolutely
nothing
if
we're
saved
by
faith
but
then
he
says
for
we
are
his
workmanship
created
in
Christ
Jesus
for
what
for
good
works
see
we may
not
be
saved
by
our
good
works
but
good
works
certainly
play
a
large
part
in
the
life
of
the
believer
you're
saved
by
grace
through
faith
so
it's
not
about
walking
in an
aisle
it's
not
about
!
saying
a
prayer
it's
not
about
getting
a
ticket
into
heaven
I've
heard
that
phrase
more
times
than I
would
ever
hope
to
people
say
I'm
so
glad
my
children
have
their
ticket
into
heaven
these
types
of
phrases
cringe
when I
hear
them
you
don't
get
a
ticket
into
heaven
it's
God
who
works
in
you
and
the
point
when
you
receive
!
salvation
he
works
in
through
this
process
!
sanctification
!
as
you
become
more
holy
as
you
work
out
your
salvation
to
do
good
things
for
the
glory
of
God
calls
us
to
do
that
as
believers
so
you
see
for
the
believer
there's
one
of
two
options
that
are
going
on
here
you
can
store
up
your
treasures
here
on
earth
and
lose
it
for
eternity
we've
created
this
mentality
in
our
culture
that
we
get
all
we
can
we
can
!
all
we
get
and
we
sit
on
the
can
I'm
sorry
but
most
of
that
stuff
in
that
can
is
not
going
to
go
with
you
to
heaven
or
you
can
pour
out
all
of
your
time
your
resources
and
your
money
toward
kingdom
purposes
and
what
you
lose
here
you
gain
abundantly
for
the
glory
of
God
you
gain
it
in
eternity
and
I
believe
that's
exactly
what
Nehemiah
is
teaching
and
for
some
of
you
I
want
you
to
be
encouraged
today
for
some
of
you
there's
somebody
in
here
I
know
that
there
is
who
feels
discouraged
because
you
haven't
maybe
you
haven't
had
the
opportunity
to
make
this
huge
impact
on
lots
and
lots
and
lots
of
people
in
this
world
I
want
you
to
know
that
it's
not
necessarily
you
don't
have
to
necessarily
do
Billy
Graham
size
task
you
don't
necessarily
have
to
be
holding
these
rallies
where
thousands
of
people
come
to
know
the
Lord
in
order
to
be
working
to
our
kingdom
purposes
in
order
to
glorify
God
in
your
life
in
fact
sometimes
it's
the
little
things
that
we
do
in
this
life
that
make
the
biggest
impact
on
the
kingdom
I
don't
believe
that
what
we
did
that
night
when
we
paid
!
that
lady
and
her
children's
meal
I
don't
think
that
was
a
huge
thing
but
it
made
an
impact
on
the
waitress
you
don't
have
to
do
huge
things
to
make
an
impact
I
want
to
share
with
you
this
quote
from
a
guy
named
Blaise
Pascal
really
intelligent
guy
very
brilliant
but it's
really more
of a
prayer
that he
penned
he
said
God
help
me
to
do
the
big
things
as
though
they
are
small
because
I
do
them
in
your
power
you
see
people
like
Billy
Graham
they
can't
do
the
things
that
they
do
on
their
own
they
do
the
big
things
as
though
they
are
small
because
they
do
it
in
God's
power
but the
second
part
of that
prayer
is
even
more
profound
to
me
he
says
Lord
help
me
to
do
the
big
things
as
though
they
were
small
because
I
do
them
in
your
power
and
help
me
to
do
the
small
things
as
though
they
were
big
because
I
do
them
in
your
name
see
the
small
things
can
make
a
big
impact
for
the
glory
of
God
when
we
do
them
in
his
name
so
let's
all
work
together
like
Nehemiah
did
as
he
brought
together
a
people
as
he
rebuilt
not
just
a
wall
he
rebuilt
to
people
and
turn
their
hearts
back
to
God
the
same
task
as
before
us
today
to
turn
the
hearts
of
a
wicked
culture
back
to
God
let's
go
make
an
impact
in
our
cities
and
our
culture
this
week
and
next
week
and
beyond
for
the
glory
of
God
let's
pray
together