http://brushforkbanner.blogspot.com/
Leadership is a tricky thing, isn’t it? Leadership is one of those things that is hard to define and quantify. Sometimes good leadership isn’t recognized when it is present, but it sure is easy to see when it’s not there. One thing about leadership—we all want it. The problem is, we want it to come from somewhere else. We look to someone else to provide leadership in areas that maybe the Lord has called us to lead. Here’s the problem with that. When we look for that kind of leadership, we open ourselves up to what I call “parade leaders.” Parade leaders are the ones who like to be out in front for the show. James McGregor Burns talked about “parade leaders” when he wrote, “Many acts heralded or bemoaned as instances of leadership—acts of oratory, manipulation, sheer self-advancement, brute coercion—are not such. Much of what commonly passes as leadership—conspicuous position-taking without followers or follow-through, posturing on various public stages, manipulation without general purpose, authoritarianism—is no more leadership than the behavior of small boys marching in front of a parade, who continue to strut along Main Street after the procession has turned down a side street toward the fairgrounds.” But the sad thing is, we like parade leaders. We like leaders who are self-promoting. We like leaders who will puff themselves up in front of the parade and coerce and manipulate people. And why is that? Because when we’re around those kinds of leaders, it’s all on them. It’s all on them and we don’t have to do the leading that God has called us to do. It’s a whole lot easier to follow somebody else’s parade than step out in leadership for the burden that God has called us to do. But that’s not what we’re called to do. That might be the way things work in the corporate world—but that’s not how the church is supposed to work. Because God’s design for leadership doesn’t involve parade leaders. God’s design for leadership starts with His mission. Then He burdens leaders amongst His people with different tasks that will help to accomplish that mission. Then He sends prophets and preachers to teach and exhort and encourage the church and the leaders in the church in accomplishing that mission. God burdened Zerubbabel and Jeshua with rebuilding the temple. When they started to slack off, He sent the prophets Haggai and Zechariah to preach to them and remind them of their mission. Then later on, God did the same thing with Nehemiah. He burdened Nehemiah to rebuild the wall. Then we’ll see later on in chapter 8 that Ezra was there to preach to them and remind them of their mission. The point is that God’s design for leadership begins and ends with His mission. His mission—not somebody’s personal parade. The Lord is laying burdens on hearts in this church. Some are stepping out in leadership to accomplish those burdens. We have no parade leaders here and if we want to do God’s work in God’s way, we won’t have any parade leaders. We will only have real, committed leaders. Leaders who are burdened by God. Leaders who are committed to the mission of the Great Commission. Leaders who are not distracted by discouragement or opposition. Leaders who are fully committed. But we speak of commitment a lot without really understanding what it means. In this passage, Nehemiah gives us a wonderful example of what a committed leader looks like. When we look at the verses before us, we can see that there are four commitments of a godly leader.
The first commitment of a godly leader is a commitment of time. We live in an impatient world, don’t we? Everything has to be done in a hurry. We even get impatient waiting for microwave popcorn to get done. And a part of our impatience is that we want everything finished and complete, but we don’t want the process that goes along with it. We don’t want to have to put up with all the things that it takes to build something, we just want to enjoy the finished product. That’s why you see such tremendous turnover in the world around us. Years ago, a young man would start working for a company and then stay with that company till he retired. Not today. People change jobs all the time. But not only do people change jobs, companies change management all the time. A company will bring in a CEO for a few months or maybe a year. And then he’s gone and they bring in a new one. You see the same thing in the church. The last time I checked the statistics, the average length of time pastors stay with churches is less than 2 years. Why is that? I think it’s all tied to our demand for instant gratification. We want it all and we want it now. Nehemiah made a commitment of time to the burden God had given him. If he was in it for instant gratification, he would have been gone the first time opposition came against him. But he wasn’t. Verse 14 tells us that he was there for 12 years. This can get kind of confusing if you don’t understand how he was writing this. Remember that Ezra and Nehemiah were originally written as two parts to the same book. And as one book, they were probably both written by Ezra. What we know of as the book of Nehemiah is written in the first person because Ezra (most likely) compiled it mostly from Nehemiah’s personal diary. If we understand that, then the timing mentioned in this passage makes sense. Because where we are in the chronology doesn’t match up with the 12 year timeframe he talks about in verse 14. In our chronology, we’re only about a year into this 12 year period. In other words, the things that have happened up through verse 13 happened within the first year or so of Nehemiah’s governorship. Years later, as Ezra was compiling the book, Nehemiah went back and recounted this event in retrospect. Early on, Nehemiah led the people to rebuild the wall. And during that time, he faced some tremendous opposition and discouragement. But he had committed to stick with it. He was in it for the long haul. It would have been easy to give up when the going got tough. It would have been even easier to quit when the wall got finished. But he didn’t. Nehemiah was a committed leader. And as a committed leader, he committed his time to see the burden God had given him completed. Not just the building of the wall, but the leading of the people after it was completed. When the Lord gives you a burden, see it through. Commit your time to seeing it through for the long-haul. The best kind of gratification isn’t instant. The best kind is as a result of faithfulness and commitment. A committed leader makes a commitment of time. He also makes a commitment of sacrifice.
The second commitment of a godly leader is a commitment of sacrifice. That’s another thing we don’t like to hear, isn’t it? It’s not just that we want it now. We want it all and we want it now. Personal sacrifice isn’t really in our vocabulary. One of the reasons we’re in such a financial mess right now is because of our impatience. We don’t want to wait and save for things. But that’s just part of it. Because we not only don’t want to save for things, we want things we don’t need. We want things we don’t need and will not sacrifice those wants and desires for anything. If I want something, I have every right to go and get it. As a matter of fact, I am entitled to it. And you can bet that I’m going to have everything I’m entitled to. Does a godly leader have that kind of attitude? The world’s model of leadership does. I’ve earned that respect, I demand to have it. I’ve earned that parking spot, nobody’s going to take it from me. You will pay me according to my education and experience. I’ve been here for 20 years, you will do what I say. I’ve earned the right to be heard. I’ve earned the right to certain things. What had Nehemiah earned? Look at the things that automatically came with his position in verse 15. King Artaxerxes had appointed him to the position of governor. He was governor of Judah just like Sanballat was governor of Samaria and Tobiah was governor of Amon. And with that position, came certain benefits. He was entitled to large sums of money and food and wine. Not just for him, but for all of his helpers as well. This was well in excess of regular pay. It was royal treatment. And that royal treatment was to be taken from the people in taxes. Do you remember from last week what kind of financial condition the people were in? They were so poor at times that they had to sell their children off into slavery. But at the same time, Nehemiah had every right to tax them for his personal luxury. But he didn’t. He gave up that right. As a leader, he sacrificed his own personal gain for the good of the mission. In other words, he didn’t demand to have everything that was owed him. He sacrificed his own personal resources for the sake of the mission. Verse 17 details some of the financial sacrifice he made. He was a governor. And as governor, one of his roles was to be a diplomat. So he was continually entertaining the influential leaders and rulers in the community. He was also meeting with the leaders from other nations around them. Those kinds of meetings required a lot of food. And he paid for that food out of his own pocket. Was that expensive? Was that a tremendous financial sacrifice? Are we, as leaders, required to make that kind of tremendous financial sacrifice? Maybe. We are definitely called to sacrifice. When we are leading the way God calls us to lead, we can never be fully compensated for it. So we need not try to be. Does godly leadership require us to sacrifice some of our resources? Yes. Does it require us to sacrifice some of our time? Yes. Does it require us to not keep tabs on everything we’re owed? Yes. Sometimes it even requires us to sacrifice personal advancement. Verse 16 says, “neither bought we any land.” There are many times that people take on leadership roles in order to use them as a stepping stone. They attach their name to a certain task, not for the sake of that task, but for what that recognition can get them. Sometimes that can happen in the church, but it happens a lot in denominational positions. People take on a leadership role in the association or state in order to “move up” in the ranks. There is no place for that with godly leadership. As a matter of fact, many times, godly leadership requires the opposite. Are you willing to sacrifice something that might benefit you, in order that God’s mission might be accomplished? Whether that’s money or things or benefits or comfort or position. Those things don’t always have to be sacrificed to accomplish the mission. But if that’s what God requires of you as a leader, are you willing to make the sacrifice? A godly leader makes a commitment of time and a commitment of sacrifice. He also makes a commitment of compassion.
The third commitment of a godly leader is a commitment of compassion. Sometimes people are hard to love, aren’t they? I know I am. Think about great leaders in the Bible. Think about Moses. Moses put his life on the line and stood up to the most powerful man in the world. And he did it to gain freedom for the people he was called to lead. He took all the garbage from Pharaoh and his people and finally they agreed to let them go. So Moses gained their freedom from horrible slavery. They were now free people. No more bondage. No more oppression. They were their own nation with God Himself leading them. So, the people recognize Moses for all he had done for them and hailed him as their wonderful leader, right? Wrong. They complained about the water. They complained about the food. They didn’t listen to him. They openly disobeyed him. As a matter of fact, a couple of the leaders under him tried to usurp his leadership. So what did Moses do in response? Each time, he had compassion on the people he was called to lead. God threatened to destroy them. But Moses had compassion on them and begged God to forgive them. Nehemiah’s issues with the people doesn’t seem as bad as Moses’ were. But the people still had issues. Remember how the nobles were taking advantage of the people. He had people in the camp who were passing gossip and rumors. There were people who were always allowing the outside enemies to gain a foothold. Whether it was by listening to them and passing their destructive words… or, as we’ll see later on, whether it was by actually giving them a room in the temple itself. Like all godly leaders, Nehemiah had people issues to deal with. And when you step out to lead in the burden God is giving you, don’t think you’ll be any different. Human tendency goes in two directions. One direction is to try to eliminate the problem. If you’ve got a problem with somebody, run them off or you run off. Another direction is to pacify the problem. If you’ve got a problem with somebody, then you do anything it takes to meet their demands. A godly leader doesn’t do either one of those things. Because a godly leader has compassion on the people he’s called to lead. Sometimes compassion means confrontation. Sometimes it means meeting their demands. Sometimes it means refusing their demands. Either way, it means understanding where they’re coming from. Verse 18 says that Nehemiah understood that “the bondage was heavy upon this people.” He knew that they were in dire straits financially. He knew that they couldn’t afford to pay the taxes that were required of them. So instead of taking a hard line with them, he took money out of his own pocket to make up for the difference. When you lead people to accomplish the burden the Lord is giving you, have compassion on them. Understand where they’re coming from. Understand their strengths and weaknesses. Understand their limitations and personality quirks. And when you understand those things, have compassion on them rather than demanding things of them that they aren’t capable of doing. Have compassion on them by finding others to fill in the gaps where they are weakest. If you can’t find anybody else, fill in those gaps yourself. That’s what Nehemiah did. That’s godly leadership. A godly leader makes a commitment of time, a commitment of sacrifice and a commitment of compassion. He also makes a commitment of humility.
The fourth commitment of a godly leader is a commitment of humility. Think back to that picture of what I called a “parade leader”. Can’t you just see him? Up in front. All puffed up. Everything about him says, “look at me!” Then when that parade that’s behind him starts to go off in another direction, he’s still proudly strutting around with no one following him. That happens a lot, doesn’t it? A leader takes off in one direction and before he knows it, he’s just taking a walk. Nobody’s following him. How can that happen? How can you be leading people to accomplish the burden that God has given you, and then all of a sudden, you’re standing by yourself? Many times it happens just like that parade. It happens because the one out in front is so concerned about himself that he is no longer paying attention to the parade behind him. If you, as a leader, become so concerned about the things that you want and the things that you need, you will lose your team. I think we all understand that. If you’re self-centered and everything is about you, nobody will follow you. That’s understandable, and I don’t think many of us would fall into that category. But here’s the really dangerous part that’s easy to fall into. What happens if your whole focus becomes on your team? What if everything you do is geared toward making the people you lead happy? What if everything you do is geared toward meeting their needs? It would be like the parade leader marching backwards facing the parade behind him. If they follow him, he’ll lead them right off the road. Nehemiah had complete and total compassion for the people he was leading. But they weren’t his focus. Nehemiah’s focus was on God. He never took his eyes off God. Why does verse 15 say that he refused to take the governor’s benefits? Because of the fear of God. And verse 19 puts a bow around the whole passage. The reason that Nehemiah did everything he did was not for the people. The reason that he led the people the way he did was not for himself. It was not for them either. The reason that he led the people the way he did was so that God would be pleased.
Why are you doing the things you do? Are you doing them so that the people in the parade might look at you and think what a great person you are? Are you doing the things you do for your own gain? Are you doing them to earn some kind of heavenly favor? If you are, that’s not the kind of leader God would have you to be. The Lord has given you a mission. And as your part of accomplishing that mission, He is giving you a burden. It will require you to lead. However small or large the group, you will have to lead. Are you ready to be committed? Will you commit your time? Will you commit to sacrifice? Will you commit to compassion? Will you commit to humility? It’s not easy but that’s what it takes. But when you make that commitment, you’ll be able to say with Nehemiah, “Think upon me, my God, for good, according to all that I have done for this people.”
