Restoring the Integrity of Leadership
Nehemiah 5:1-19
Rodeo Road Baptist Church
September 28, 2014
Disclaimer: Each sermon in this series on Nehemiah was written with both commentary help and referencing from time to time information from sermons and illustration found on Sermon Central. In most cases I tried to be faithful in giving credit to the author but I acknowledge that I was not consistent in that endeavor. So any similarity to other older posted sermons on this web site are due in part to the quality of their work and the timelessness of the truth they shared originally. There was no intentional intent to use without credit any material in these sermons that were first delivered by other pastors.
Introduction
If your car starts once every three tries, is it reliable? If the postman skipped delivery every Monday and Thursday, is he trustworthy? If you don’t go to work once or twice a month, are you a reliable employee? If your fridge stops working for a day or two every now and then, do you say, “Oh well, it work most of the time.”? If your water heater provides an icy cold shower every now and then, is it dependable? If you skipped a couple of electricity bill payments do you think the Power Company would mind? If you and I live one way on Sunday and another way Monday through Saturday, would you expect to be called a faithful Christian?
Integrity is a concept of consistency of actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations, and morals.
• In ethics, integrity is regarded as the honesty and truthfulness or accuracy of one's actions. Integrity can stand in opposition to hypocrisy, in that judging with the standards of integrity involves regarding internal consistency as a virtue, and suggests that parties holding within themselves apparently conflicting values should account for the discrepancy or alter their beliefs.
• The word integrity evolved from the Latin adjective integer, meaning whole or complete. In this context, integrity is the inner sense of "wholeness" deriving from qualities such as honesty and consistency of character. As such, one may judge that others "have integrity" to the extent that they act according to the values, beliefs and principles they claim to hold.
I. Who are the Leaders that you respect?
Millennials (1980-1996) began graduating from College in 2000 and they are changing our culture. They are also the most scheduled generation having grown up with activities to do all the time and being awarded a trophy for mere participation rather than skill and aptitude. They are the most technology savvy generation that exists today. Affected by almost every negative world tragedy including the Columbine School Shootings, Oklahoma City Bombings, 9/11, Desert Storm and the War in Iraq. Experience is everything to them. (Post-modernism) They comprise about 15.8% of today’s workforce and that number will triple in value in the coming years and Builders and Boomers retire and step aside for this “know what I want” generation. Traditional approached to church are not working. They seek trustworthy relationships and will not give anyone blind loyalty. Are you ready for them? (Explorer 6/30/00)
http://aimysgeneration.blogspot.com/p/gen-ymillenial.html
Moreover, 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.
o The 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.
Nehemiah did not act out of a sense of presumption, privilege or power. – Application: People today do not respond just because we have a title. Beginning in the 60’s a cultural shift has taken place where respect for authority has dramatically changed. Just look at how the office of President has been treated under the last two presidents on the right and the left.
• I also persevered in the work on this wall, and we acquired no land, and all my servants were gathered there for the work.
Nehemiah was a co-worker (servant leader) – Application: Leadership in the 21st century will only be respected by men and women who take a hands on approach and model what they believe through personal involvement. Chick-fil-A requires all franchise owners to be present each day and work at the counter or in food prep. No absentee ownership. That is why you would see Truett Cathy show up at the original restaurant on a regular basis to model his understanding of hands on leadership.
• Moreover, there were at my table 150 men, Jews and officials, besides those who came to us from the nations that were around us.
o Now 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.
Nehemiah was generous with his personal resources and demonstrated giftedness in hospitality – Application: In the Middle East the dinner table was, and I understand still is, the ultimate expression of love and care and true friendship. The churches that practice small home group relationships are the fastest growing churches in America.
• Remember for my good, O my God, all that I have done for this people
Luke 22:24-27 “A dispute also arose among them, as to which of them was to be regarded as the greatest. And he said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. For who is the greater, one who reclines at table or one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at table? But I am among you as the one who serves.”
1 Timothy 3:1-7 “The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober- minded, self- controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.”
II. When does authentic leadership count the most?
Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers.
• For 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.”
No Food – The most basic of live sustaining needs are not being met
• There were also those who said, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain because of the famine.”
Bad Debts – Greed has overtaken basic human compassion during times of crisis
• And there were those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king's tax on our fields and our vineyards. Now 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.”
Excessive Taxes – On top of the personal crisis and the greed form immoral business practices the government has become uncompromising in its taxation powers even to the point of enslaving its own people to a hopeless bondage.
I remember that, George W Bush, was considered by some, a good leader during 9/11 and a poor leader in the Katrina disaster. Crisis always is the baseline experience that leadership is evaluated.
III. How did Nehemiah respond? How did the people respond?
I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these words.
• I 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 and 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!”
o They were silent and could not find a word to say.
• So 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?
Exodus 22:25-27 “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. If ever you take your neighbor's cloak in pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down, for that is his only covering, and it is his cloak for his body; in what else shall he sleep? And if he cries to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate
Moreover, I and my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain.
• Let us abandon this exacting of interest.
• Return 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.”
Leviticus 25:8-10 “You shall count seven weeks of years, seven times seven years, so that the time of the seven weeks of years shall give you forty- nine years. Then you shall sound the loud trumpet on the tenth day of the seventh month. On the Day of Atonement you shall sound the trumpet throughout all your land. And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his clan
Then 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.
• I 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.
Honoring God’s Word is always the best way to live!
Conclusion
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. — Martin Luther King
Team President for the Cleveland Browns and Former Green Bay Packers’ and Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Holmgren looks back at a heartbreaking moment, when he was cut from the New York Jets as backup quarterback to Joe Namath, that directed him to a bigger plan.
"I had committed my life to Jesus Christ when I was 11, but in my pursuit to make a name for myself in football, I left God next to my dust-covered Bible.
But after getting cut from the Jets, I pulled out my Bible and found comfort in a verse I had memorized in Sunday school: ’Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths’ (Proverbs 3:5-6).
"I asked Jesus Christ to take control again. My priorities in life are faith, family, and football--in that order."
[Confidence in a Crisis, Citation: Men of Integrity, Vol. 1, no. 2.]
