Well, this is it. Our last look at the book of Nehemiah, and the man who literally saved a nation because of his courage, his compassion and his steadfastness. Theologians will tell you that Nehemiah was a “CHRIST TYPE”. Meaning that he was a forerunner of the Messiah, He foreshadowed what Christ would do for us. So all the qualities you see in Nehemiah, you see that and more in Christ. As I prayed through how we would end the book, because truthfully it’s bit anti climatic after the wall is rebuilt, God showed me this verse in Nehemiah in chapter 13.
{Nehemiah prayed,} "Remember me for what I have done, my God, and don't wipe out the good things that I have done for your people and the temple and for the worship that is held there." “Nehemiah 13:14 (GW)
What is Nehemiah saying? He is really looking over the past twenty plus years of his life – maybe a bit discouraged, maybe a little bit wishing he had more time. But he recounts all God had done through him. This cupbearer to the king, changed the world. This man who had a pretty cush life, until the day he heard the news of the condition of his people, and life would never be the same again.
My prayer has been and will continue to be - “God, raise up Nehemiah’s for this generation?” Folks, if you’re going to be a Nehemiah for this generation, you need to remember what kinf of man Nehemiah was. If you want to be a leader, these are things you want to build into your life 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 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.
Love is the foundation of Christian leadership. 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."
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 your public leadership is determined by your 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.
#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 says, "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.
How do you be a cheerful leader when you work with the kind of people you work with? How do you be a cheerful leader 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.
#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. You are going to face new challenges and new challenges require new solutions; a lot of times the same old ways just don't work.
One example 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.
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. Courage is a characteristic of great leadership.
#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:
1. Derision. 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...
2. Discouragement. The enemy came and tried to frustrate their plans. There was a lot of rubble and the people started getting discouraged. v. 4 "When the wall was half finished they began to get discouraged." Discouragement usually comes at the half way point -- half way done with the project, half way up the mountain.
3. Dread. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. Defamation. ch. 6. Personal smear campaign against the leader, Nehemiah. Previously they tried to attack the people because they were the weak point. Now that the wall is almost built, the leader is tired. When you're tired, Satan starts trying to attack you. "This guy Nehemiah has just got a big ego. In fact he's building the wall for his own benefit. He's trying to set up his own empire and set himself up as king. We're going to tell the big king in Persia." Nothing could be further from the truth. Nehemiah says, I didn't make a penny off this. God told me to do this." They tried to defame him and they personally attacked him.
8. Danger. The last attempt was assassination attempts. "We're going to send a hit squad and knock this guy off."
In all eight 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 derision, discouragement, dread, discord, division, distraction, defamation and danger." I've seen some churches go through these things. Satan will try anything. Nehemiah was a man of conviction and nothing could get him to quit.
I pray this week of reading through Nehemaih has been a blessing to you. I love you guys. Stay Faithful. Stay the course.
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