Nehemiah 05: Live What We Preach

What does it truly mean to live out the values we preach? In this episode of the Bible Breakdown Podcast, Pastor Brandon takes us through the compelling narrative of Nehemiah Chapter 5, shedding light on the stark contrast between the Israelites' words and their actions. Discover how Nehemiah’s courageous confrontation with the nobles and officials over unethical practices like interest-charging and slavery serves as a timeless lesson on integrity and justice. Through his own selfless example, Nehemiah exemplifies the essence of leadership by working alongside his people and refraining from personal gain, inspiring a collective commitment to change.

As we journey together in “Strength Through Challenges,” we offer a heartfelt prayer, thanking God for the trials that shape us into better individuals. We reflect on how these challenges guide us towards righteousness and encourage us to view moments of faltering integrity as opportunities for growth. Drawing strength from Nehemiah 8:10, we remind ourselves that the joy of the Lord is our strength, and conclude with an uplifting message of love and support. Join us in fostering a sense of community and mutual encouragement on our spiritual journey.

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The More You Dig. The More You Find.

Chapters

• 0:00 Living What We Preach
• 8:39 Strength Through Challenges

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:24

Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, pastor Brandon, today, nehemiah, chapter 5, and today's title is Live what we Preach. We've got to live what we preach, and I don't know if you see this, but there's this pattern that's just building on top of each other. At first it was take responsibility, then afterward it was cast a vision expect hard work, expect opposition, but then also we got to watch ourself. You know this old phrase used to be you got to check yourself before you wreck yourself, and that is making sure our integrity is matching our works. We got to live what we preach. We're going to see how Nehemiah just backhands a bunch of people today because they're not doing that, and then he even checks his own self in the process as well. So, before we get into that, as always, if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share and subscribe to YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you're leaving us a five-star review. It really does help. Also, if you're not currently subscribed to YouTube channel, I want you to go ahead and subscribe. We are now on the road to 2,000 subscribers and I would love for you to be part of it, and so make sure you're going and subscribing. And, as always, we gather around at the Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook, and the more we dig, the more we find, so, if you have your Bibles, I want to open up with me to Nehemiah 5. One of the things that Nehemiah is having to deal with is he's having to realize, as he's gotten into the situation of building this wall, that to realize, as he's gotten into the situation of building this wall, that it's not just about the wall that needs to be fixed, but it's also the people are not being treated properly by other Israelis, by other people that should be treating one another well. So they're talking about how they want to honor God and how they want to build this wall, but their integrity is not matching their words, and so he challenges them to say hey, now listen, we got to make sure we're doing the right thing for the right reason, and that doesn't just include this vision, but all of life, because it all goes together and I think that's a wonderful challenge for all of us. So let's read God's word and let's see what it would say to us today. You ready?

Speaker 1: 2:25

Nehemiah, chapter five, 1, says this about this time some of the men and their wives raised a cry of protest against their fellow Jews. They were saying we have such large families, but we need more food to survive. Others said we have mortgaged our fields, our vineyards and homes to get food during the famine. Others said we have had to borrow money on our fields and vineyards to pay our taxes. We belong to the same family of those who are wealthy and our children are just like theirs. Yet we must sell our children into slavery just to get enough money to live. We have already sold some of our daughters and we are helpless to do anything about it, for our fields and vineyards are already mortgaged to others.

Speaker 1: 3:08

When I heard their complaints, I was very angry. After thinking it over, I spoke out against these nobles and officials and I told them you are hurting your own relatives by charging interest when they borrow money. Then I called a public meeting to deal with this problem. At the meeting I said to them we are doing all we can to redeem our Jewish relatives who have had to sell themselves to pagan foreigners, but you are selling them back into slavery again. How often must we redeem them? They had nothing to say in their defense and then I pressed them further. What you are doing is not right. You should not walk. You should, should you not walk in the fear of our God, in order to avoid being mocked by enemy nations? I myself, as well as my brothers and my workers, have been lending the people money and grain, but now let us stop this business of charging interest. You must restore their fields, vineyards, olive groves and homes to them this very day and repay the interest that you charged. They replied we will give back everything and demand nothing more from these people. We will do as you say. Then I called the priest and made the nobles and officials swear to do what they had promised. I shook out the folds of my robes and said If you fail to keep your promise, may God shake you like this from your homes and from your property. The whole assembly responded Amen. It's almost like Whoa buddy, whoa, amen, amen. And they praised the Lord. And the people did as they had promised. Amen, you know. And they praised the Lord and the people did as they had promised.

Speaker 1: 4:51

And for the entire 12 years I was governor of Judah, from the 20th year to the 32nd year of the reign of King Artaxerxes, neither I nor my officials drew on our official food allowance. The former governor, in contrast, had laid heavy burdens on the people, demanding a daily ration of food and wine besides 40 pieces of silver. Even their assistants took advantage of the people, but because I feared God, I did not act in that way. I also devoted myself to working on the wall and I refused to acquire any land. I required all my servants to spend time working on the wall, that blessed wall. I asked for nothing, even though I regularly fed 150 Jewish officials at my table, besides all the visitors from other lands. The provisions I paid for each day included one ox, six choice sheep or goats and a large number of poultry. I ate a lot of chicken fingers back in the day right, and every 10 days we needed a large supply of all kinds of wine, and that's why they were so happy. The joy of the Lord. No, no, no, no. All right, moving on. Yet I refused to claim the governor's food allowance because the people already carried a heavy burden. And then he prays remember, oh my God, all that I have done for these people and bless me for it. Wow.

Speaker 1: 6:04

So what's going on here is when they came back to the nation, they didn't have anything, and so they started having to borrow money from all the surrounding nations. Well, they're getting out of debt from the surrounding nations, but now they're getting in debt to their friends and their relatives because their friends and their relatives are treating them just like the surrounding nations did, but yet they're talking about how they want to honor God. And so what Nehemiah is not saying, and what we're not learning from this, is that you can't ever charge interest for something. That's not what it's saying. It's saying that they were gouging the people. They were saying they wanted to honor God. They were saying they wanted to come together, but yet they weren't living like they wanted to come together. They weren't living what they preached. And what Nehemiah is challenging them to do, and he's even challenging himself, as he's saying now wait a minute, we got a big idea that we're gonna build a wall, we're gonna become a nation again and we're gonna serve together.

Speaker 1: 6:54

But it's one thing to say it. It's another thing to actually live it and to make sure our integrity meets what we're saying. What a wonderful challenge for all of us. You know, it's one thing to have a vision, you know whatever that is and say I'm going to, I'm going to do that vision. But if we're not careful, the longer it takes, the more resources it takes, the more patience it requires, the more people have to get involved and we can get impatient, we can get maybe sometimes overly excited and if we're not careful we'll start wanting to cut corners and we think that the ends justify the means and we'll start to kind of let our integrity slip a little bit and be a little dishonest over here and do that over there and maybe nobody will notice.

Speaker 1: 7:36

But we have to be so very careful to live what we preach. What I love about this is that when Nehemiah called it out, they repented hey, we'll fix it. And so there's sometimes when our integrity starts to slip. It's not because we're bad, it's because we don't know. That's when we have to read God's word every day is. God's word will help reorganize our mind with a biblical worldview, so we know what is right and we know what is wrong. There may be things that we're not doing now that we can do. That's wrong with it. There may be things that we are doing that we don't need to do, and that's why it's so important to let God's word challenge us every day. These people were challenged. What you're doing is wrong. They may have very much not even noticed. They were just doing what everybody else did, only to realize there's a better way. And so we allow God's word to challenge us because we take responsibility, we cast a personal vision, we expect to work hard, we expect opposition and then we live what we preach so that our integrity matches our words.

Speaker 1: 8:39

Let's pray together. God, thank you so much that we are on this long journey with you and Lord, I'm thankful for your challenges. I'm thankful for how you you put a magnifying glass up to us, because you don't want us to live broken lives. You want us to be a blessing to those around us. And so there are times when you say, hey, that's not right. Take a left instead of a right, stop instead of move forward. And, lord, even in now maybe for some of us who are listening or watching this you're revealing to us a place where our integrity is slipping, where we're not being above reproach. I pray that we won't look at this as a place of shame, but we'll look at it as an opportunity to take a next step. Be with us today. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. And what God's word says in Nehemiah 8, verse 10,. Don't be dejected or sad. Don't give up, for the joy of the Lord is your strength. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Nehemiah chapter six.