Series: Building for God - Nehemiah / Date: July 19th, 2015
Topic: Work of God Threatened Internally / Speaker: Pastor Joe Ong
Threats to God’s work will come not only from outside forces but from inside God’s people as well. However, these threats can be dealt with in a loving and biblical manner.
For the ice breaker this week, answer the following question: What age do you consider “old”?
Start the worship time by encouraging people to share praises for what God has done in their life this past week. Sing worship songs from the Sunday services or select your own.
I. Spiritual Objective. At the end of the discussion, members will:
A. Understand and discuss the proper way to voice complaints and give feedback.
B. Discuss the burden of leadership and the importance of submitting to leaders God has placed over us.
II. The Sermon Synopsis:
Nehemiah faced many challenges in his work to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Not only were external enemies seeking to disrupt the work and discourage the people but internal problems began to threaten the work. The fifth chapter of the book of Nehemiah tells the story of how Nehemiah dealt with internal strife. In 5:1-5 the people come before Nehemiah and tell him of how some Jewish nobles and officials were exploiting the people and charging them high interest. The result was that the people had to sell themselves in slavery to these Jewish nobles and officials. When Nehemiah heard how the nobles and officials were exploiting their own people, he was filled with righteous anger. Nehemiah confronted the nobles and officials and showed them the shame of what they were doing to God’s people and challenged them with examples of his own sacrifice for the people’s sake. In response the nobles and officials took an oath before God that they would end these exploitive practices and return what they took from the people.
This passage serves as a good example of how the Biblical leadership process works. The people had a problem and voiced their complaints but did so in a proper way, not behind Nehemiah’s back, but voiced their feedback to him. Nehemiah’s response came from his love of the people and his fear of God. Nehemiah then confronted the nobles and officials. The nobles and officials responded and took an oath before God and returned to the people what they had taken. This serves as an example of how church leadership should work; people should air their feedback directly to leadership in a way that allows for change, and leadership needs to be walking and leading in fear of God. Together, both need to submit to God and to each other in a way that benefits everyone and glorifies God.
The Text:
6 When I heard their outcry and these charges, I was very angry. 7 I pondered them in my mind and then accused the nobles and officials. I told them, "You are charging your own people interest!" So I called together a large meeting to deal with them 8 and said: "As far as possible, we have bought back our fellow Jews who were sold to the Gentiles. Now you are selling your own people, only for them to be sold back to us!" They kept quiet, because they could find nothing to say. (Nehemiah 5:6-8 NIV)
Discussion Questions:
III. To resolve conflicts biblically, people must air complaints to the proper authority.
A. No leadership is perfect including leadership in churches; remember Christians are not perfect but redeemed. Therefore it is okay for complaints to be aired as long as they are done properly. What is the difference between giving feedback versus talking back to leadership? How can we provide feedbacks without being passive aggressive in our comments?
B. It is also important to remember that complaints should be aired for the purpose of building each other up and making peace in the church. One of our highest priorities as a church should be maintaining unity within the church. What is biblical unity? How can we build unity with our feedback and not cause division? What are some topics in Leeward that cause division instead of unity?
IV. To resolve conflicts biblically, leaders must deal with complaints in a biblical manner.
A. When Nehemiah heard the complaints of the people he became righteously angry. What is righteous anger? How does it differ from other forms of anger? Have you ever felt righteously angry about something? What did you do in response? What is the next step after righteous anger?
B. Nehemiah followed the principle of biblical confrontation and approached and the nobles and officials and called them to end the exploitation of the people. What is biblical confrontation? What role does grace play in biblical confrontation? What attitudes should we hold when confronting others? Should it be out of anger or a desire to see people corrected or out of love and caring for the person being confronted?
V. To resolve conflicts biblically, people must be willing to submit to God, His word, and to godly leaders.
A. Nehemiah was a leader who feared God and cared about the hurting people. In fact Nehemiah had given up his rights as the governor and was generous to the struggling people. Why is it important for leaders to work for God’s approval and hold themselves to a higher standard? How can Christian leaders lead by example? Is Christian leadership different from how the world defines leadership?
B. When Nehemiah confronted the nobles and rulers they submitted to the leadership of Nehemiah and obeyed. Is it difficult for you to submit to those in leadership over you? Why or why not? Are you working for God’s approval? Are you being accountable to anyone in your actions? What is the importance of accountability?
Ø Pray and thank God for blessing our church with a leadership that leads with a fear of God and out of concern for our church members. Pray for unity in the church in all things that we do, and ask God to use you to further that unity.
Ø Pray: Continue to pray and ask God for wisdom for our church leadership and the church in general to know how to respond to this gay marriage issue with Christian love and also living by the truth of Bible.
Ø Pray for Our Building Expansion Project (BEP). Continue praying for the Elders and Deacons, the BEP and the Stewardship Campaign Committee as well as our architect, Max Guenther and contractor Gary Cordery as we continue moving forward with our Building Expansion. Pray that God will direct us and provide the financial support we need.
Ø Pray for our Missions Teams: Sacramento, 7/30-8/10. Kathy Uyehara, Mel Tanoue, Catherine Bronnert, Gloria Chapman, Stan & Noah Lau, Zoe Ong, Linda Shores & Liz Siangco. Myanmar, 7/22-8/4. Milton Araki, Chad, Ronni, Shai, Christian & Sam Araki.
Ø Pray for the Tome Family: Please pray for the Funeral services being held for Mabel Tome’s son, James (Jimmy) Tome on Saturday, July 25th @6:30pm. @ Mililani (Mauka) Mortuary. Visitations start at 5:30 pm.
Announcements:
1. PUSH Night of Prayer. This Friday, July 24th at 7:00 pm. God is doing some amazing things through prayer. Please join us to see what He is doing in this evening of worship and Pray Until Something Happens.
2. Concept and Design Centers: Continues this Sunday, July 26 after both services. Join us to see and learn the latest updates for our plan to “Rise Up and Build.” Refreshments are provided as you walk through this amazing display of Leeward Community Church, past, present and future.
3. Special Congregational Meeting: On Sunday, July 26 at 7:00 PM to “amend our previously approved motion from the Building Renovation Meeting held on Sun, Aug. 31, 2014, of Option 3 at a cost of $3.5MM with the approval of the construction of the Rise Up and Build” Building Expansion Project – Option 5 with an expected cost of $5.75MM.”