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Nehemiah #8: "Visions Thrive in Unity" Nehemiah 5

by Clancy Nixon

November 26, 2006

Church of the Holy Spirit

Ashburn, Virginia

www.HolySpiritAnglican.org

You know what it is like. You are driving down the road, and you feel your car

pulling to one side. If you let your hand off the wheel for a second, your car can veer to

the left or right. That is a telltale sign that your front end is out of alignment. Alignment,

I'm told, is a catchall word describing a combination of different relative positions of

wheel and tire. When various adjustments the camber, caster and toe - are out of

alignment then the parts that were engineered to work together begin to work at cross

purposes. If not corrected, alignment problems can cause other problems, even major

problems. Two things can cause wheel alignment problems: normal wear and tear, and a

major jolt. Andy Stanley reminded me in his book Visioneering that alignment problems

are not limited to cars we have similar problems in human relationships on teams as it

relates to vision. I borrow liberally from his book in this sermon. These same two causes

normal wear and jolts can also cause alignment problems in any team's smooth

functioning, whether that team is your family, your workplace, your group of friends, or

your church. Alignment is like unity.

Over time, people get distracted and bored. They lose their passion for the team

and its vision. They develop their own new agendas. Life intervenes, and can cause

people to pull right or left of center over time. For example, you may be married to

someone who has agreed in theory to a certain environment in the home. Yet in practice,

he appears to work toward something entirely different something that centers on him

rather than what is good for the family as a whole. A crisis can also cause alignment

problems, and do so immediately. For example, if one child in a family develops a series

of health problems, then the other children can easily be neglected. When the other kids

try to regain the attention they once enjoyed, conflict can ensue. Without a conscious

decision on mom and dad's part, the family's vision can shift from raising godly kids to

"fix Sally." Sometimes, a husband and wife will disagree on what the new situation

requires, and they can begin to work at cross purposes. They are out of alignment.

Listen to Andy Stanley: "Visions thrive in an environment of unity; they die in an

environment of division. No matter what kind of organization you are in- family,

business, school or church - when personal goals and agendas conflict with an agreed-

upon corporate vision, corporate vision suffers. Conflicting agendas within an

organization eventually pull people's attention away from the vision, the common goal,

and onto smaller, more personal concerns. If these conflicts go unresolved, they can

bring progress to a grinding halt. And they make for a miserable working or living

environment. Visions thrive in an environment of unity; they die in an environment of

division." (Visioneering, p.168)

If I have learned anything in my ordained ministry, it is that problems must be

confronted courageously and quickly. Every problem you ignore will go underground,

grow deeper roots, and bear bitter fruits. When it resurfaces later, that problem will

involve more people, and be more urgent. If I become aware that someone has a

relational problem with me, I make it a top priority to resolve it quickly. Unfortunately,

all too often I am unaware until much later that any problem exists. I understand Jesus to

teach that when we are in relational conflict, we have two choices: we are either to

forbear the offence and forgive, moving on; or we are to go to the person, and seek

forgiveness and reconciliation. The sooner the better! The rub comes when we try to

forbear, but we find that bitterness grows anyway. If you find yourself in that place with

anyone - having attempted to forbear but you're still bitter -maybe it is time to confront

and seek reconciliation. The front end of your car will never work itself back into

alignment. Most often, people don't either. Visions thrive in unity; they die in division.

Nehemiah knew he could not ignore the problems faced by the workers on the

wall. He had not come all the way form Persia to fix the economy, but to build the wall.

Yet he was wise enough to know that these two problems were linked. The work of

rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem surfaced various strains that were already present

among the people. Last week, Stephen Becker preached on Nehemiah chapter 4 on

dealing with opposition with those who oppose the work from outside the community,

enemies like Sanballat. Chapter 5 deals with threats that come when the enemy of our

souls brings attacks from within the community itself. Please open your Bibles to

Nehemiah chapter 5, page 475 in your blue pew Bibles.

Chapter 5 begins with a work stoppage and gripe session. This is an example of a

legitimate stoppage to God's work. In verse 2, we see that many large families had run

out of food. There were several causes of this: first, they had to neglect their fields in

order to build the wall, so many lost their regular income. Second, there was a famine in

the land, so food prices doubtless were very high. Third, King Artaxerxes' high taxes

still had to be paid, or they would surely be considered seditious traitors. Fourth, many of

the rich did not give their grain to the hungry in the midst of famine, but instead, forced

the poor to borrow from them at 12% so they could horribly exploit them in their need.

Some of the poor dealt with the food shortage by mortgaging their farms to buy food for

their families. This worked for a short while, but when they missed a payment, their

fields were repossessed, leaving them with no income producing property. Others had

already lost any fields, so they used family members for collateral. When a man failed to

make a payment, his wife and children could be sold as slaves! A terrifying possibility

choosing between starvation and slavery.

All this was bad enough; but it gets worse.

Not only were the people suffering this oppression, they were suffering it at the

hands of their fellow countrymen! The rich Jews who had grain to sell were profiting

from this crisis by charging exorbitant interest rates, selling grain at high prices, seizing

lands in a time of famine and even enslaving their countrymen. They acted like the

English during the Irish Potato famine of 1845-50, which not only killed 2 million Irish,

but also resulted in more land concentrated in the hands of the rich. The Jewish nobles

had a different vision than Nehemiah they wanted to line their own pockets, and they

were willing to break the law to do it. In the law of Moses, Jews were forbidden to charge

other Jews interest. They could charge interest to gentiles, but not Jews. Jews were also

forbidden to enslave other Jews Jews were to be treated as servants, not slaves. (Lev.

25:39-42) God never intended His people to profit from the misfortunes of other

believers! When believers are hungry, it is a witness to the gentiles of God's goodness

that God's people are seen to feed them, and take care of their own. We learn in verse 8

that Nehemiah had been buying back these Jewish slaves with his own money

redeeming them from the Gentiles, because they had been sold by the Jewish nobles to

the foreigners. While God redeemed and liberated all the Jews in the Exodus from Egypt

and the exodus from exile in Babylon, the selfish rich Jews were in effect cancelling that

redemption and liberation for their poor brethren by pushing them into slavery. The

vision of the rich was for their own glory. Visions die in division.

By contrast, verse 9, Nehemiah's vision is always for the glory of God. He

considered both the wall project and the redemption of slaves to implicate the same issue:

the testimony to unbelieving gentiles of the goodness of God for his people. The

spectacle of Jews in slavery would bring reproach to the Lord from the nations. Notice in

verse 9 how Nehemiah ties the current crisis of hunger back to the original vision of the

witness to the gentiles? Here is a lesson for today: When you must confront people, it is

important to tie the problem back to the original vision, so that you are not accused of

blowing things out of proportion.

A predictable temptation of Satan is to incite selfishness in God's people. If he

can get us thinking about ourselves and what we want, the devil can win the victory

before we even realize that he is at work. Have you ever noticed that selfish people are

miserable? They want their own way, and they insist that everyone else want their way,

too. This impossible scenario creates frustration and finally misery. God created us to

live for Him and for others, and when we don't, everyone suffers.

Verse 9, Nehemiah publicly rebukes the rich Jewish lenders for not fearing God.

Oswald Chambers said, "If you fear God, you will fear nothing else; whereas if you do

not fear God, you will fear everything else." Nehemiah was motivated by the fear of the

Lord, not the fear of enemies or fear of what the rich would think. Friends, if we walk in

the fear of the Lord, we will walk by faith, trusting God to one day balance all accounts.

When we walk by faith, we will also confront our adversaries and friends, and name

injustice where we see it.

How does this hit home? Let's get real practical. Parents who fear God, who

have a vision to raise children who honor God and family, do not let disobedience or

disrespect slide with their children. You do have to choose your battles; I know from my

own experience that over-correcting can also be a problem. Nehemiah knew that keeping

godly standards is worth going to the mat over. Teenagers who fear God and not men

will act like Nehemiah, and be willing to go against the grain of their secular peer groups,

and speak out for Gods word, and for justice for the poor. Husbands and wives who fear

God will take the time to hammer out and write down their family values and their vision

for their family. Nehemiah reminds me in verse 12 that public promises, like wedding

vows, are an excellent way to help wandering people to obey God. The Jewish lenders

agreed to give back all the slaves, all the lands and all the interest they had charged the

poor Jews, and if not, they agreed that they would be shaken out and emptied like the

folds on Nehemiah's robe as he shook it before them as a witness. It's like the promise

that we make at our weddings: I will be faithful to you until we are parted by death.

Visions thrive in unity.

Imagine what it would be like if we all aligned to God's vision for our families.

What if everyone in your family agreed that they would honor God and each other?

Nothing and no one could come between a family that lived that way. Imagine that

husbands actually lived the Apostle Peter's exhortation to love their wives more than

themselves, putting their needs first. Imagine that wives, for their part, actually respected

their husbands, and their leadership, even when they thought he was wrong? Husbands

need respect even more than they need love. No Jezebel, no Brad Pitt could ever take the

eyes of a couple like that off of each other, or off of the Lord. Families thrive in unity.

What if we really lived our church's vision to be an Acts 2 Community, which

includes giving to each other as needs arise, selling our property if need be to love our

brothers in need? What if everyone was so devoted to the apostles' teaching and to the

fellowship to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers that we all worshiped together

weekly, and we all had friends in a weekly small group? Imagine a church where we

cared enough about each other to tell each other when the other offends us, and where we

seek forgiveness and give it freely. Imagine a church where we all pray on our knees and

together seek his face for a fresh vision for our church and we all agree to align to that

fresh vision. No one could stop that kind of a church. Thant church would be a testimony

to an unbelieving world. That would be a church where the Kingdom of Heaven came to

earth, a church where God was glorified in our day.

Let's be that church together, you and me. Churches thrive in unity. Let's arise

and build.