I've titled my sermon this morning, The Importance of Leadership and Sacrifice. Before I get into my sermon, I just want to mention a few things about the nature of the last few days for me personally, and I won't go into the details, but as we all know, it's been a difficult journey for us as a congregation for many individuals and things like that and the stuff that went on and so on. I was really contemplating, do I want to preach out of Nehemiah and all of what's happened and so on.
You know, we cannot control a lot of it and it's been difficult and, and so on. How do we navigate and process this? Maybe I should preach on that. And so those are some of my thoughts as I was contemplating, as I was meditating and in prayer and thinking what would be helpful on a service and a service like today to bring togetherness to common focus and a common goal and so on. What's the best thing to say and what should we do?
And as I was thinking about this and I was reading the chapter and it seemed to just fit. It's a totally different dynamic, different context there. But there's a there's a parallel there. I thought there is validity to preaching this sermon. And so this morning we're continuing our sermon series in Nehemiah. As I mentioned, all of us know by now, perhaps that our church has undergone some serious situations that we didn't see coming.
And so this this last week that really weighed on my mind. What do I preach? And after much thinking and praying and considering this, I just decided we're going to continue with the book of Nehemiah. Nehemiah Chapter 11 is a description of how the city of Jerusalem was to some was to an extent depopulated, had been depopulated after the destruction that had lasted for
over 100 years. But then God sends Nehemiah to the city of Jerusalem. That's nothing more really than a heap of rubble, the walls broken down. And then we find in the Neo, in the passage of Nehemiah, how Nehemiah reconstructs the walls. Some houses were reconstructed as well, but that didn't fix the problem. There was still something missing. The people, the people were still missing. And today's passage goes into how that was rectified or how
that changed. So I want us to to turn our Bibles to Nehemiah Chapter 11. This morning, Nehemiah Chapter 11. And we'll read verse one through verse 4. Nehemiah Chapter 11, one through verse 4. Now the leaders of the people dwelt at Jerusalem. The rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of OK. The rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of 10 to dwelt in Jerusalem. The Holy City and 9/10 were to dwell in other cities.
And the people blessed all the men who willingly offered themselves to dwell at Jerusalem. These are the heads of the province who dwelt in Jerusalem. But in the city of cities of Judah. Everyone dwelt in his own possession in their cities. Israelites, Priests, Levites, Nethanim, descendants of Solomon's servants, and also also in Jerusalem dwelt some of the children of Judah and of the children of Benjamin.
A bit of backdrop here. When Nehemiah was working as serving king, the king of Babylon, he had received permission from the king to go to Palestine, to the city of Jerusalem and to rebuild its walls. He finished the project in record short time through a lot of opposition and resistance internally and out, but he stuck to his task. He finished the job. That was the job he came to do, but there was much more that needed to still be done. The city need restoration in
many more ways than just that. The work had been done outwardly, but now the inside of the city had to be also restored. And that meant people. We have read in previous chapters how they organized. They had celebrations, they organized times of rejoicing and repenting. They committed themselves to the keeping of the law of Moses and to live in obedience to God. But again, something was still missing. The people were not living in the city.
One might wonder, well, why would anyone want to live in a city that still was inside to a large extent just a heap of rubble. The houses were broken down or in bad Rouge pair in bad shape have been destroyed. And not just that. Besides all of the disarray and this and the the rubble and the broken down shacks and shambles, what it might have looked like, we can only imagine. It had a bad reputation. Jerusalem had a bad reputation.
You see, the bad in life is remembered long after it's gone. People have memories, and not all of them are pleasant living in Jerusalem. Why that city? No, if it had been a great place to be, it would have been packed. It would have been crowded. Real estate would have been high. But it wasn't. Nobody really cared. It was an empty place, not attractive. The wall was built, sure, and some houses. When a When a place has a bad reputation, it does not die
easy. It had been called the Holy City, and Nehemiah refers to it as the Holy City, but it hadn't been holy for over 100 years. And he had rebuilt the wall. The leadership were living there. Jerusalem had been the problem had been the root of so much sin, so much pain. And after a long time of captivity for the people of of the Jews, the Israelites, they finally had been able to go back and they settled the towns and the villages and whatnot and lived in an agricultural life.
But now it's time now to go where it all happened. God had pronounced judgement on that city. Yes, he had had been destroyed, been in the disrepair for many generations, but now it's time to change it. Niemah had done a part of it, made at least made it secure physically from attack and rebuilt the wall to a security was there, but not attractive. Nobody wants to live there.
So how did they go about not just having a rebuilt city, but a city that meant something, that stood for something? Well, they decided to live there. And so the leaders, they led by example. It says in verse 1, the leaders of the people dwelt at Jerusalem, the seat of power. It had been the seat of power. Consequently, it had also been the seat of trouble too have been destroyed. You know, often times in life you go back to where the problems began to fix them.
It's important to note that leaders were living in Jerusalem, not a reputable place had not been restored yet. Yes, the wall was, but not the not the not the houses. But they lived by example. These leaders not just say you guys go live there. No, they first lived there. True leadership does not just tell people to do something. True leadership is about doing it themselves and being the model. True leaders lead by lifestyle. Jesus accused the religious leaders of his time, the
Pharisees and their structure. And he says you guys put heavy loads on men's shoulders that you're not willing to lift with a finger. But these guys in Nehemiah say no, we'll live there. It was not risk free. Sure, the wall had been built, the houses had been restored, and while some houses have been restored, but it was still a place of a lot of rubble. The other thing was the enemies of the Jews had their eyes on it.
You know, it's interesting how people in society normally choose carefully where they're going to put down roots, right? Not at some place where it's all just kind of a rundown place where, oh, I ain't moving that part of town. It's not good neighborhood. I won't move there. So and so lives there or such and such live there, the crime, whatever. But let's think for a second. How does God make bad neighborhoods good?
How does God make bad neighborhoods good when he places good people into bad neighborhoods, when groups of good people move to the place where nobody wants to be? In this story, the leaders lived in Jerusalem, and if it was going to be populated, they couldn't do it. They started. They led by example. For Jerusalem to again become a good place, good people had to move in. Who wants to be the good people?
When people make personal comfort and convenience and security their priority, that's not a good sign of walking with Jesus. So how does a community become a better community when people become good? How do people become good when good people become their neighbors? This principle holds true so many areas of life, whether it's at work and the home and the church in many places. I'm not here saying there's
never time to move. There is, but we need to evaluate, am I moving because of the glory of God or because, you know, it's too uncomfortable, it's too inconvenient. I don't like it. Sure, the wall was built. That part was nice, but still empty of people in broken houses for the most part. The city needed people to clear the rubble, rebuild, start businesses, a daunting task. As I was thinking about this, I was thinking to myself, you
know, imagine a scene in heaven. Imagine this just an imaginary thing, God in heaven having a conversation with his angels and talking with him and saying, you know what? I really would like that particular town down there to become a good place where all my people would worship me and they would say, but God, there's no good people living there.
No one fears you. God says, I know I'm going to arrange it so my good people will move into that town, start living out their lives for me as a witness in that town. And I want you angels to go and touch some good people to make that difficult town a place where they'll move to and they'll worship me there too. And you say, yes, God, but that's a hard sell. Most people on earth don't want that. Imagine a conversation like that. But isn't that the truth though?
And practicality? We who are Christians, we say we love Jesus, we're with him, but then refuse to go where he sends us. And I'm not saying we're not children of God here, but how dedicated, how obedient are we? How serious we are is evident with what we do. Are we serious with our physical bodies? Where we go when God calls a person to sacrifice to make a change, he doesn't say, well, by the way, I'd like you as a part time follower, part time commitment as a volunteer
follower. He wants us sold out. Jesus taught us, lay down your life, take up your cross and follow me. John 15 verse 12, it says this is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. All right, Lord, send me some good people. I will. No, His greater love has no one than this, than he laid down his life for his friends. OK, I'll give you a few days, maybe a few bucks. He's his life. It's a very deep and powerful
concept. These of course does not explain the exact nuts and bolts of all that he means, but that's for us to flesh out and to to contemplate. And how does he want me to serve whatever it is we have to serve 100%. The love for others always comes out, whether it's there or not. If we it's seen, if it's not there, what we do, it's seen. If it's there and what we do, how available am I? These leaders, the nation of of Israel, the Jews, the leaders in Jerusalem, they lived in the
city and they lived by example. But a community is not made of just a group of leaders. It's a body that makes a community. Some do one kind of work, some do another kind of work and everyone has a purpose and says in verse one Part B says the rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of 10 to dwell in Jerusalem, the holy city and 9 tents were to dwell in other cities. I find this little verse incredibly fascinating because I would like there to be there and ask them.
So what's with this was a lots, man? I mean, I don't volunteer. I ain't either. Well, let's cast lots. He has to go. I don't know if they did that or not, but they say they cast lots to bring one out of 10 to dwell in Jerusalem. Just don't start that here, right? What an interesting way to go about getting people to move to Jerusalem. I wonder how open we would be in our day to that kind of a decision making to send out missionaries or to send people to live in another town.
There are communities, face communities that literally do this today in our time. I'm not kidding, but imagine being one of them. I don't know if Jews still do this to this day, but stories I've read years ago when they would want to start a synagogue in another city, they picked 11 couples, 11 households. OK, you 11 people, you have to move to such and such city, buy houses, get jobs. And one, one was a rabbi, 1 didn't have to have a day job.
His job was to minister to the congregation and reach out. That was his job. But the rest of them, they had to feed the rabbi and that's how the whole thing would go. A great idea, great, great system as long as people can volunteer to do it or or want to do it. But here they didn't have much choice. They cast lots and just hope it hit. Doesn't hit me right. Imagine moving you. You're moving to a community because you're chosen by a lot
to do that. Getting to know your neighbors and you would talk to them and say, So what made you move to Leamington? My church picked me. Really. That's commitment. Almost feels like it's a roll of the dice, right? Well, not quite like that. What it took from these people before they cast laws, they had to have an attitude that worked in that kind of a system. Usually that's where the issue is. The inside these people could not be self focused or self minded.
For this to work, it has to be a mindset that says it's not about me, it's about something far greater than me. In other words, these people had to be willing to sacrifice. These people willingly sacrificed. It does not say the people gave money. They might have. It does not say they gave supplies for the city. They might have. They gave themselves as the lot fell on them. And reasonably, there would have been numerous reasons why it would not be wise to move to Jerusalem.
For one, they had their places. They didn't need to leave. They had their jobs, they had their farms, their houses, their agriculture, their flocks and their herds. They did not need to move to Jerusalem. Which one of us here today, don't raise your hands, would be willing to sell their houses, to quit their jobs, to pack up everything, move to a different town, find a job, buy a house,
start over. Just because I want to be a missionary or I want to be a, in this case, repopulate the city. The people that they earned their living differently than we do today. They were basically farmers and so on. For the most part, that was the main thing. For them to leave all this behind was asking for a huge sacrifice on their part. And for those who moved, it was significant in other ways. What about friends? What about my social connections? You get it.
And on top of that, remember, Jerusalem ain't popular. Nobody wants to live there. It's not like they're asking you to move to Hawaii or to Cancun or someplace they're asking you to move to, or telling you to move to a place that nobody really wants to be part of. And true, the the wall had been built, but still, this city had enemy eyes fixated on it. Had for years, and now more than ever it was the seat of power
and leadership. And it's always the seat of power and leadership that gets attacked first. Somehow, it seems to me I would not want to live in a place where that was marked on an enemy map somewhere in some enemy war room bunker. Yeah, if we ever attack, we'll attack that. I wouldn't want to live there. Jerusalem had been in the past a place of where there's a lot of
trouble. Enemy kingdoms had targeted Jerusalem, broken down the city, the walls, the temple, and destroyed it. And after Christ, it did happen again. Nehemiah does not say that everybody was eager, oh, let's move to Jerusalem. He doesn't tell us that. But the system they used to decide was a very interesting one, decided to who would move by a lot. They used the tithe principle in
doing this. For instance, they said we'll cast lots and count off every 10, one of every 10, one of every ten families would have to relocate. What would happen to us if it happened to us today? Granted, they were not asked to give up their lives. That was not it just their livelihood or their way of life, so to speak. As I said before, there's some churches even today when they want to elect a new leader, they pray, they have a meeting, they come before the Lord.
Lord, we need a new leader, another leader. What do you want from us? And they pray some more. They have a number of meetings. Then they say it's time for a, for an election, time for a vote for nomination. And they come up with one or two names and then they cast a lot.
The person who's it is it? I remember one of our conference churches in fact talked to one of their leaders one time and they said in their church, he said when we vote in a minister, they we don't ask are you willing to serve? We have prayed, we've discerned. We believe God has called you to serve. This person doesn't think of oh, now I can get to say no yet no, OK, If the congregation has has discerned and prayed and voted, then I'm it. It's not about self. I had a friend 43 years ago.
He and I got baptized together in the same day back in 1982. We were friends. We've lost contact over the years, met briefly here and there, but I remember him getting married, raising a family and having a small business. Was very involved in the church he was part of, very active in ministry and one day they decided they wanted to do. Send somebody out and he got
picked. I don't know how they picked him, but I was kind of surprised, actually really surprised this man did it. Gave up his business, packed up his wife and children and off he went into a foreign country. Just like that. The body had sensed the need, that prayed, discerned he was it self supporting self, self-employed man with small business.
Gave it all up went on a trip that's not unbiblical to do that actually it's actually biblical Acts chapter 13 verse one says now in the church there was an Antioch. There were certain that was an Antioch. There were certain prophets and teachers.
Barnabas Simeon, who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene Manian who had been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch and Saul as they ministered to the Lord and fasted the Holy Spirit said, now separate to me, Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. Then having fasted and prayed and laid hands on them, they sent them away. I wonder what kind of conversations they may have had.
I don't know, but I'm confident that personal conveniences and comforts were most likely not on the list that were part of the deciding factor. God's Spirit had moved. They had responded and they obeyed. They were in communion with God and says here the Holy Spirit told them to separate to me, dedicate to me, and they did. He had called them. This was God's calling, just as
it was in Nehemiah's time. God was working within the structure of that day and age and now in the church age and God's still working today, there was a clear sense and understanding of what God wanted. It was very clear this was not about Barnabas, not about Saul, but about God's work that God wanted these two men to fulfill. It was about God. A vessel is a container to put something in. See, the contents are what the
vessel is for. The vessel is not for the purpose of benefiting from the contents. The vessel exists for the contents. And you and I, we have the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit doesn't exist because of us. We exist to serve Him. Are we that loyal? Are we that committed? I want to say I trust we are, but we have to examine ourselves. In the early church, did Barnabas and Saul view themselves as being called? We don't know. We don't know if they felt called.
Just because a person doesn't always feel something does not mean that it doesn't exist. On the other hand, Well, I feel the Lord has called me. What's the body say? It's always important to check. In the story of Nehemiah, there was a sense of unity and oneness and all of this. It says Nehemiah Chapter 11, verse 2. And. And the people blessed all the men who willingly offer themselves to dwell at Jerusalem. That's another interesting words. Yeah. Yeah. Good. Good job. You just go.
You go. We'll stay here. You just go. All right, All right, Let's just go. I don't know if they said that or if they did that, but to me, like, thank God, I'm not. I'm not sure. Oh, why I'm so glad it didn't hit me. That's not a good mindset to have, folks. We should be as willing and surrendered as anyone. And we should, we should be still be part of it in a sense. All right, if you're called, I'm behind you, I'm with you. Leaders lead by example.
The people are willing to sacrifice because they see that and they are inspired by that. And then there's the blessing of participation. It can't be easy for everyone to just go up and relocate. We must keep in mind God has even called everybody to do that. But we're all plugged in. The wall was rebuilt, Outside was safe, but inside there would be so much. Then I can just imagine all the work that left to do.
Oh my goodness, how will we ever get those shacks back in to modern standards and how we ever clear up that rubble? How we ever get all this work done? They said they blessed the people that participated in a way. And I want to believe there's much more that was involved in this. Just this little piece here. But thinking to myself, if there was some rundown city somewhere and God was saying, OK, I want you to go and start a mission there.
I want you to go and witness to those people there. Start a church there. I struggle. I what I would do, I don't think I can say from a fleshly point of view. I would have just wanted to. I would have had to do some self crucifying. Fallen down houses, crumbling structures. That's not attractive. And besides bad reputation for the city, maybe there is some rubble. Places in our own lives, in our community, situations that need to be embraced, that need to be dealt with, that need to be
brought to restoration. How do we respond when things are a mess? There seems to be no joy. Do we respond with surrender and compassion, commitment, or just walk away? We need to ask ourselves serious questions. There's an application here. What do we do when we encounter hurting people, broken relationships? Maybe even though they don't want to be with us, this happens. Do we still reach out? God has called each one of us to do something in our sphere of influence.
God does want to use each one of us. It is important that we have a place where we serve and that we bless each other with where and where and where we serve. So what is that God has called you and I to do in this passage of the people who were relocated to Jerusalem, many of them actually named. And this is an important part here. We won't name all the, all the, all the people here. I won't name that.
I can't read the names anyhow. There's so hard to pronounce, but there's a lot of people that were named here because Nehemiah, OK, this person, this person, this person, and so many of those persons. And he describes what they do in verse 10. He mentions the priests. So priests were chosen from the surrounding communities and cities and villages. Priests were chosen. They all had a part in this. There's a long list of names who
are priests. The job of the priests was the temple, the sacrifices, the offerings. They were the religious leaders, the pastors and the deacons and so on. God wanted had restored the outside of the city. Now the inside has to get going. The part of that restoration meant the restoration of worship. They need a priest to do that. They were handpicked too, by lot. They moved in. Imagine having a nice well built, well built home, maybe a nice church in your community.
Now you move to a city that's not that good. Then in verse 15, we find the Levites. They were also from the tribe of Levi. The priests were from the tribe of Levi. But the Levites in general, who were not priests were temple workers. We could say maybe like deacons and so on. They served as well. It says in verse 16, the the heads of the Levites that oversight of the businesses out of the business outside of the House of God, there was work for everybody.
Running the temple ministries was huge. The inside of the temple, it employed a lot of people. The priests were working. The Levites had a job to look after the temple grounds and take care of all that work. A lot of physical labor was involved. Then we drop down to verse 19. There's the gatekeepers of the city. Cities in those days had walls, as Jerusalem had a new wall. Then at a repaired wall, they had gates, and the gates had to be guarded. City gates are very important places.
They were closed that night and they served like a boundary, like a border. People wanted to get into the city, had to go through the gate, and the gates were guarded. If the gates would not be guarded, the city could be lost to attack. Gates are very important, so the gatekeepers. Nehemiah goes into a quite a bit of detail of who did what and how the community of people were dispersed in the various parts
of the country. You see, there's no such thing as a complete community doesn't exist. Simply by being human, we're always in transition from one phase of life to another, childhood to adulthood, adulthood to middle age, from there to old age and those phases of life. Life is always in process, changing and changing, and people are being added and people are dying and so on. In all of that, there's many different occupations, many moving parts. We all have roles one way or another.
And as we live and as we connect, as we participate in our community, we're called to be somewhere and do something. And Nehemiah's day, the need at the time was to bring security, stability and community and prosperity into the city. And they did that. No doubt it cannot have been easy for some people in their respective roles to fulfill their jobs. Again, the city was not in the desirable state, uninhabited for many decades, generations unpopular, bad reputations in shambles.
Things were going to change and they were going to change by people moving in. And those that received the blessing were those who were moving in and the blessing, the doing the blessing was those the blessing, the sharing the blessing with those who were not part of it. So here in Nehemiah, the people were called up to called to give up their places of residence, the economic, economic standards that follow, the leaders relocate to help populate the city. That began with the leaders.
They were at the forefront of the community. They lived by example before they asked anything of the people. Jerusalem had been a great place at one time where everybody would have wanted to be. Not so much now with the events leading up to Chapter 11, the celebrations, the rededicating of themselves to God. Now was the time to start doing physically what they had committed to do in their hearts. You know, folks, that's often times. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I will. I will. I will serve.
I'll do. I'll do when. Well, we'll see. And it never happens. They were going to put their bodies way. They're said their heart was most likely God will not call you to just give up your job, sell your house, move away. He does call some people, but we should live as if we're ready at a moment's notice. And we sometimes say, oh, I want to do what God wants. Really. Or do we just want God's blessing and what I've decided I
want. God wants us to love Him with all of our heart, our soul, our strength, and our mind. In other words, all that we do is supposed to be focused on God loving Him and our neighbor. When it comes to putting hands and feet to what we say, we believe, often times that's where the break comes. In Nehemiah, God directed the leadership to take ownership and give leadership to the people. The people responded willingly, relocating to move into the city. Does this mean that all would be
good? No. We will find later in the book of Nehemiah things did not work out that well. There were issues that popped up after this. Some of it was very good, some good stuff happened, but there's some other stuff that happened that's not so good. We'll follow that in the next few Sundays. But see, that's life in this world. If we're only going to do it if it's perfect or if it's good, then we're already starting to
focus on the wrong things. God is gracious, merciful and loving and so should we be. I want to bless each one here this morning and anyone who's listening online. God hasn't changed. God is still the same. We must stay the course and ask ourselves what our motives are for the actions that we take. We must ask ourselves if the actions we take, are they for God's glory or for ourselves or
even just self preservation? Maybe, maybe you and I, we need to do some relocating this week with our hearts. Maybe we need to do some relocating with our attitudes. There are people we know are hurting in our community. Are we willing to help? At what cost? May God help us as His people to you and allow Him to use us to bring healing and hope and restoration to the community where there's so much emotional rubble.
And let's pray for one another as we meet, as we visit, trusting that God will use our efforts for his glory. And May God bless his church. Let us pray. Father God, we are so grateful that you do not change. You're the same today. You were back in Nehemiah's day. You're the same today. You were in the days of when your Son Jesus walked this earth, the days of the apostles when they sent, served. You send it, send out
missionaries. We pray this morning for hurting people who are not sure what to do, where to turn next. We pray for healing and restoration. You are the great healer, Lord. You're gracious and merciful. We pray that your spirit will restore the hearts of the hurting and may relationships be restored. We ask, Lord, that as we go into the week and meet with people, may our love shine in our hearts and our homes, in our places of work and wherever else we may rub shoulders.
We thank you, Lord, for your grace and your mercy. In your name we pray. Amen.