Foundations 28

We are continuing on in Nehemiah today. We will start with chapter 5 verse 1 and to start with I will go to verse 13. Now there was a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers. 2For there were those who said, "We, our sons and our daughters are many; therefore let us get grain that we may eat and live." 3There were others who said, "We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our houses that we might get grain because of the famine." 4Also there were those who said, "We have borrowed money for the king's tax on our fields and our vineyards. 5"Now our flesh is like the flesh of our brothers, our children like their children Yet behold, we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters are forced into bondage already, and we are helpless because our fields and vineyards belong to others." 6Then I was very angry when I had heard their outcry and these words. 7I consulted with myself and contended with the nobles and the rulers and said to them, "You are exacting usury (interest on loans), each from his brother!" Therefore, I held a great assembly against them. 8I said to them, "We according to our ability have redeemed our Jewish brothers who were sold to the nations; now would you even sell your brothers that they may be sold to us?" Then they were silent and could not find a word to say. 9Again I said, "The thing which you are doing is not good; should you not walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the nations, our enemies? 10"And likewise I, my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain. Please, let us leave off this usury. 11"Please, give back to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves and their houses, also the one hundredth of a percent interest on the money and of the grain, the new wine and the oil that you are exacting from them." 12Then they said, "We will give it back and will require nothing from them; we will do exactly as you say " So I called the priests and took an oath from them that they would do according to this promise. 13I also shook out the front of my garment and said, "Thus may God shake out every man from his house and from his possessions who does not fulfill this promise; even thus may he be shaken out and emptied " And all the assembly said, "Amen!" And they praised the LORD. Then the people did according to this promise. This is a passage that is so alien to the way we live. How many of you would rejoice to be paying one 100th of a percent of interest on your loans? You see we don’t have a clue how much bondage we are in, in our culture, because it has happened slowly over time. If Nehemiah were to show up in our time he would not see a free nation. He would probably laugh when he heard someone say America was the land of the free. He would more than likely see a nation of slaves that work all day long to pay their taxes and the interest on their debt. We are blinded to our own plight because we are still allowed to be comfortable. Our captivity is a luxurious captivity and so we don’t bother trying to get out of it. But the truth is it is still captivity. I know that we are not a congregation that is able to lend money to one another. We are not collecting interest off of each other and so it may seem like this passage doesn’t apply to us. On the other hand, I think it is time we learned to think christianly and biblically with regard to economics. In exodus 22:25 and following we read: "If you lend money to My people, to the poor among you, you are not to act as a creditor to him; you shall not charge him interest. 26"If you ever take your neighbor's cloak as a pledge, you are to return it to him before the sun sets, 27for that is his only covering; it is his cloak for his body. What else shall he sleep in? And it shall come about that when he cries out to Me, I will hear him, for I am gracious. Look also at Leviticus chapter 25 starting with verse 35: 'Now in case a countryman of yours becomes poor and his means with regard to you falter, then you are to sustain him, like a stranger or a sojourner that he may live with you. 36'Do not take usurious interest from him, but revere your God, that your countryman may live with you. 37'You shall not give him your silver at interest, nor your food for gain. I want you to notice that no where in these passage does it say you should just give money to the poor. The exodus passage says lend and both passages say without interest or without making a gain on what you lend. God does not expect us to create a segment of the population that exists on handouts but at the same time he expects us to be generous to those in need. Notice also that he doesn’t command them to be generous to other nations. He doesn’t command them to give aid to the poor of the philistines, or the Egyptians. In fact, Deuteronomy 23: 19-20 says this: "You shall not charge interest to your countrymen: interest on money, food, or anything that may be loaned at interest. 20"You MAY charge interest to a foreigner, but to your countrymen you shall not charge interest, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land which you are about to enter to possess. I want you to understand that interest is a way of taking dominon over the earth. It is a way of discipling the nations. Proverbs tells us that the borrower is servant to the lender. The covenant promise for obedience is that we will be the lenders and not the borrowers, the head and not the tail. I’m afraid we have forgotten all of these things in the church today. I’m here to remind you that these things are the path of life. If we want to begin to live life to its fullest then we had better begin to think christianly and act Biblically with regard to money, the poor, and the unbeliever. I was raised through my early 20’s to believe that God had a special place in his heart for the poor regardless of whether or not they were believers; that our call was to help the poor everywhere in the name of Jesus. I want you to understand that such ideology is one of the biggest lies the church has swallowed hook line and sinker. God has a heart for the repentant. The unrepentant deserve nothing but his wrath. Poverty doesn’t make God like you. Repentance does. Humbleness before God is the key to being favored by God. Poverty is a part of the curse; the pain of which is meant to draw people to repentance. The federal government once again showed its desire to be the God of the American people when in 1964 it began the war on Poverty. What that is, in effect, is a war against the covenant of God. The path of life says that we are to work six days a week if we want to live. We have enabled multiple generations to prosper in covenant breaking by telling them we will pay them not to work. Scripture is clear: If you refuse to work you should not be eating. We have no obligation as believers to give money or to lend money to those who refuse to work. Now at the same time we are called to be generous to those of the household of God and if a brother is in need you are free to lend money at no interest. You are free to give money if you so desire but you do not have to feel guilty about expecting to receive back the money you give to help someone out of a jam. We live in the time when the church loves to practice guilt manipulation and so we can turn on the tv and see pictures of starving babies that pull on our heartstrings and then beg us to help them but we never ask the question why are these children starving? The biblical answer is: Because starvation is one of the curses for covenant breaking. If we go into a nation that is facing the wrath of God because of generations of covenant breaking and we take away the consequences that God has poured out on them are we taking away their motivation to repent? Are we becoming idols to a nation that needs to fall on its face in repentance? These are the kinds of things that we need to be thinking about. I’m not asking you to be hard hearted. I’m asking you to think a little deeper than the pull of pity and guilt manipulation. You do not need to feel guilty for having what you have if you have attained it by working hard. Prosperity is a gift of God. Too much of my life was spent being made to feel guilty for being a white middle class American. I do not need to feel guilt about that. I need to feel guilty about my sin and then repent over it but if it’s not sin: I don’t need to feel guilty about it. I do not need to feel guilty about the condition of covenant breakers. Our call is to first and foremost care for the body of Christ, minister to its needs in a godly manner. Second, our call is to take dominion over the unbeliever by every lawful means at our disposal so that God may use that to draw them to repentance. Once they repent, they are a part of the body of Christ and should be treated like one. You see there should be group benefits for being a part of the body of Christ. We don’t understand that because we have for too long despised the concept of being a body in exchange for being a bunch of lone rangers with everybody doing what is right in their own eyes. If we are ever going to really fulfill the great commission and make disciples of all the nations then we are going to have to begin to think differently about economics and we are going to have to stop letting pity open our wallets and drain our bank accounts. We need to stop thinking only as individuals and start thinking as a body. What if we began to pool some of our money together and began to invest in business so that we could allow brothers and sisters to work six days a week at a decent wage? I don’t know what that might be. I just know that we have skills in this body that aren’t being fully used. I know that we have needs in this body that aren’t being fully met. I know that the territory around us needs to be disciplined and taken under the dominion of the King of Kings. I believe with all my heart that God can stir your hearts to action. I believe that God can speak to you. I believe he probably already has spoken to some of you about a lot of different things but you keep blowing it off as a crazy thought or a wild idea. I want to encourage you to hear the voice of God and be strengthened enough to tell what you hear to someone you trust. I want to encourage you to stop thinking about ideas and then not do anything about them and instead begin to implement steps to bring your ideas to reality. Because DOING what God puts on our heart to DO is how God advances the kingdom. NOT DOING what God puts on our hearts to do paves the road to hell. Look at the rest of chapter 5: Moreover, from the day that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year to the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes, for twelve years, neither I nor my kinsmen have eaten the governor's food allowance. 15But the former governors who were before me laid burdens on the people and took from them bread and wine besides forty shekels of silver; even their servants domineered the people. But I did not do so because of the fear of God. 16I 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. 17Moreover, there were at my table one hundred and fifty Jews and officials, besides those who came to us from the nations that were around us. 18Now that which was prepared for each day was one ox and six choice sheep, also birds were prepared for me; and once in ten days all sorts of wine were furnished in abundance Yet for all this I did not demand the governor's food allowance, because the servitude was heavy on this people. 19Remember me, O my God, for good, according to all that I have done for this people. I want you to look at these verses in the context of what we’ve been talking about. I want you to understand this and some of my conservative business friends would probably scoff at this but I want you to make sure you get this in your head. If God lays a business opportunity before you don’t go into it saying how can I make a huge profit out of this, how can I get rich? Instead we in the body of Christ should be saying how can I enrich my brothers and sisters through this endeavor? If you don’t want to pay taxes on the profit from your business then give the profit to your employees and prosper them. Our call is to build up the body of Christ and take dominion over our communities in the authority of Christ. Look at these passages: God got the king to make Nehemiah governor of the region of Judea but he doesn’t take his salary, he doesn’t even take the food allotment that he has been given instead he uses that to minister to the needs of the people and advance the rebuilding of the temple. As governor he doesn’t lord it over the people he gets down in the trenches and he works right beside the everyday Joes. He makes his entire staff do the same thing. Bureaucracy is not more important that building the body of Christ. He understands that THE MOST IMPORTANT THING is building the body of Christ to maturity. I understand that there is nothing more important in this world than building you up to maturity. I know how broken we all are. I know the depth of bondage that we are in as persons. I also know that it doesn’t have to stay that way. I believe that God allowed me to be broken throughout the course of my life so that he could begin to put me back together in order that I would be sensitive to the broken; so that I would have a heart that cries for God to intercede and bring healing and deliverance in people’s lives. You see I have spent my life in churches where they didn’t have a clue that the gospel was supposed to take away brokenness. I have lived my whole life in churches that didn’t think they had any hope of getting better unless Jesus came back. I am here to tell you with all that is in me: Those kinds of thoughts are lies of the enemy to keep you in the dirt and to keep you from growing up to be the person that you are meant to be. You need to stop listening to lies and start listening to the promises of God. If you will turn from you own ways and walk on the path of life then God promises to heal your broken heart. He promises in Jeremiah chapter 30 some wonderful things: 'It shall come about on that day,' declares the LORD of hosts, 'that I will break his yoke from off the church’s neck and will tear off their bonds; and strangers will no longer make them their slaves. 9'But they shall serve the LORD their God and Jesus their king, whom I will raise up for them. 10'Fear not, O bride of Christ My servant,' declares the LORD, 'And do not be dismayed, O Church; For behold, I will save you from afar And your offspring from the land of their captivity And The body of Christ will return and will be quiet and at ease, And no one will make him afraid. 11'For I am with you,' declares the LORD, 'to save you; For I will destroy completely all the nations where I have scattered you, Only I will not destroy you completely But I will chasten you justly And will by no means leave you unpunished.' 12"For thus says the LORD, 'Your wound is incurable And your injury is serious. 'There is no one to plead your cause; No healing for your sore, No recovery for you. 14'All your lovers have forgotten you, They do not seek you; For I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy, With the punishment of a cruel one, Because your iniquity is great And your sins are numerous. 15'Why do you cry out over your injury? Your pain is incurable. Because your iniquity is great And your sins are numerous, I have done these things to you. 16'Therefore all who devour you will be devoured; And all your adversaries, every one of them, will go into captivity; And those who plunder you will be for plunder, And all who prey upon you I will give for prey. 17'For I will restore you to health And I will heal you of your wounds,' declares the LORD, 'Because they have called you an outcast, saying: "It is the bride of Christ; no one cares for her."' 18"Thus says the LORD, 'Behold, I will restore the fortunes of the body of Christ And have compassion on his dwelling places; And the city of the New Jerusalem will be rebuilt on its ruin, And the palace will stand on its rightful place. 19'From them will proceed thanksgiving And the voice of those who celebrate; And I will multiply them and they will not be diminished; I will also honor them and they will not be insignificant. 20'Their children also will be as formerly, And their congregation shall be established before Me; And I will punish all their oppressors. 21'Their leader shall be one of them, And their ruler shall come forth from their midst; And I will bring him near and he shall approach Me; For who would dare to risk his life to approach Me?' declares the LORD. 22'You shall be My people, And I will be your God.'" 23Behold, the tempest of the LORD! Wrath has gone forth, A sweeping tempest; It will burst on the head of the wicked. 24The fierce anger of the LORD will not turn back Until He has performed and until He has accomplished the intent of His heart; In the latter days you will understand this. I hope that you are beginning to understand this now. God has called us to stop thinking about our selves. He has called us to lay down our lives so that we can be a part of something much much bigger – the body of Christ. You see the body of Christ is only as strong as its weakest member. That’s why I have been asking you all for the last month to start praying for one of our weaker members. This month I want you to continue to do the same thing I want you to pour out your hearts to God that he would intervene in our congregation and begin to save us from our selves. For too long we have lived our lives as if God couldn’t or wouldn’t get involved in our lives. We have said we’re Christians but the God we serve wasn’t big enough to do anything about our everyday lives. He was barely strong enough to provide Sunday school teachers and a preacher. I here to remind you that God is bigger than that: Much much bigger than that. He is bigger than false Gods. He is the only God and I am asking you to pray until the false Gods in our midst are revealed to be nothing but a joke. I’m asking you to pray until God brings to repentance those who worship pagan Gods. I’m asking you to do one thing and that is beg God to act. Beg God to save us from ourselves in such a way that only he will get the glory and praise. So that his name will be exalted in our city. I’m not asking you to go door to door and evangelize the entire community so we can go on playing church the way we always have. I’m asking you to pray to God that he would save one small part of our body, save them from themselves and what is right in their eyes and save them to the uttermost. There is nothing more important than that. Let’s pray. Oh God, be our God, be our strong tower and mighty fortress. Be the God that your word says you are. Save us from ourselves oh God. Make us your people. In Jesus’ name and authority I pray – AMEN.