This Sunday

Trouble From Within

Trouble From Within

Robby Pollard, Lead Pastor

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40 friends a part of our Starting Point lunch last Sunday.

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Nehemiah 1:3

³…The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.”

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When you step out in obedience, the enemy steps up the opposition.

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Nehemiah 2:10

¹⁰But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant heard this, it displeased them greatly that someone had come to seek the welfare of the people of Israel.

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Nehemiah 2:19

¹⁹But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they jeered at us and despised us and said, “What is this thing that you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?”

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Nehemiah 4:1

¹Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews.

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Nehemiah 4:8

⁸And they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it.

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Nehemiah 4:15

¹⁵…we all returned to the wall, each to his work.

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Nehemiah 4:16

¹⁶…worked on construction…

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Nehemiah 4:17

¹⁷…building on the wall…

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Nehemiah 4:21

²¹…labored at the work…

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Nehemiah 4:17

¹⁷…each labored on the work with one hand and held his weapon with the other.

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Nehemiah 5:1-5

¹Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers. ²For there were those who said, “With our sons and our daughters, we are many. So let us get grain, that we may eat and keep alive.” ³There were also those who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain because of the famine.” ⁴And there were those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tax on our fields and our vineyards. ⁵Now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children are as their children. Yet we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but it is not in our power to help it, for other men have our fields and our vineyards.”

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Nehemiah 5:1

¹Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers.

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Nehemiah 3:5

⁵And next to them the Tekoites repaired, but their nobles would not stoop to serve their Lord.

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Nehemiah 5:2

²For there were those who said, “With our sons and our daughters, we are many. So let us get grain, that we may eat and keep alive.”

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Nehemiah 5:3

³There were also those who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain because of the famine.”

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Nehemiah 5:4

⁴And there were those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tax on our fields and our vineyards.

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Nehemiah 5:5

⁵Now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children are as their children. Yet we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but it is not in our power to help it, for other men have our fields and our vineyards.”

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The wall was being built, but the community was breaking down.

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We value people over programs.

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Exodus 22:25

²⁵“If you lend money to any of my people with you who is poor, you shall not be like a moneylender to him, and you shall not exact interest from him.

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Deuteronomy 23:19-20

¹⁹“You shall not charge interest on loans to your brother, interest on money, interest on food, interest on anything that is lent for interest. ²⁰You may charge a foreigner interest, but you may not charge your brother interest, that the LORD your God may bless you in all that you undertake in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.

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Leviticus 25:39-40

³⁹“If your brother becomes poor beside you and sells himself to you, you shall not make him serve as a slave: ⁴⁰he shall be with you as a hired worker and as a sojourner. He shall serve with you until the year of the jubilee.

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Nehemiah 5:6-7

⁶I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these words. ⁷I took counsel with myself, and I brought charges against the nobles and the officials. I said to them, “You are exacting interest, each from his brother.” And I held a great assembly against them

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Nehemiah 5:8

⁸and said to them, “We, as far as we are able, have bought back our Jewish brothers who have been sold to the nations, but you even sell your brothers that they may be sold to us!” They were silent and could not find a word to say.

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God’s truth doesn’t shift with culture.

God’s truth should shape our lives.

God’s truth silences.

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Nehemiah 5:9

⁹So I said, “The thing that you are doing is not good. Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God to prevent the taunts of the nations our enemies?

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Proverbs 1:7

⁷The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.

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Nehemiah 5:9

⁹So I said, “The thing that you are doing is not good. Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God to prevent the taunts of the nations our enemies?

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Nehemiah 2:17

¹⁷Then I said to them, “You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision.”

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Nehemiah 5:10

¹⁰Moreover, I and my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain. Let us abandon this exacting of interest.

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Nehemiah 5:11

¹¹Return to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive orchards, and their houses, and the percentage of money, grain, wine, and oil that you have been exacting from them.”

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Nehemiah 5:12

¹²Then they said, “We will restore these and require nothing from them. We will do as you say.” And I called the priests and made them swear to do as they had promised.

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Nehemiah 5:13

¹³I also shook out the fold of my garment and said, “So may God shake out every man from his house and from his labor who does not keep this promise. So may he be shaken out and emptied.” And all the assembly said “Amen” and praised the LORD. And the people did as they had promised.

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Model for change:

Identify the problem.

Confess the sin.

Correct it immediately.

Establish accountability.

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Nehemiah 5:14-19

¹⁴Moreover, from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year to the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes the king, twelve years, neither I nor my brothers ate the food allowance of the governor. ¹⁵The former governors who were before me laid heavy burdens on the people and took from them for their daily ration forty shekels of silver. Even their servants lorded it over the people. But I did not do so, because of the fear of God. ¹⁶I also persevered in the work on this wall, and we acquired no land, and all my servants were gathered there for the work. ¹⁷Moreover, there were at my table 150 men, Jews and officials, besides those who came to us from the nations that were around us. ¹⁸Now what was prepared at my expense for each day was one ox and six choice sheep and birds, and every ten days all kinds of wine in abundance. Yet for all this I did not demand the food allowance of the governor, because the service was too heavy on this people. ¹⁹Remember for my good, O my God, all that I have done for this people.

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Philippians 2:3-11

³Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. ⁴Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. ⁵Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, ⁶who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. ⁸And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ⁹Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, ¹⁰so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

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