Hope Channel

InVerse, 4th Quarter 2019: Nehemiah: Principles of Biblical Leadership

Sebastien Braxton

Sikhu Daco

Justin Kim

Israel Ramos

01-Discovery of Calling: Prayer and Purpose

Hey everyone, it's Justin from Inverse and we want to let you know we have a whole new series of topics prepared just for you.

We've been following the Sabbath school topics for all 4 quarters every year, but now we're gonna divert a little bit.

We've gotten a lot of feedback from social media about young adults all around the world wanting to study their own topics.

So we're gonna follow the world church but take a little riff on each topic.

So for the next quarter we're gonna look at not Ezra and Nehemiah but only the book of Nehemiah from the perspective of biblical leadership.

How young adults can take over the world for Jesus.

So we're really excited about this change.

We want your feedback and hopefully you're just as excited to study the Bible with us.

We're like pieces of little plastic floating in the Pacific Ocean with nowhere to go.

And with that lack of purpose is a lack of passion for life.

On this episode, we're looking at a new book, the book of Nehemiah chapter 1 on how this character develops purpose in his life.

We got a new logo, a new topic, a new scope, new everything, but same people, stick around.

Coming to you from Silver Spring, Maryland, welcome to Inverse, a Bible-based conversation on life principles, contemporary issues, and thought-provoking perspectives.

Now here's your host, Justin Kim, with Inverse.

Hey friends, we are in the studio again for a new season, a new topic, and we're so excited to be studying the book of Nehemiah, especially in the context of leadership.

And whether you out there are a leader, a political leader, economic leader, maybe you're a student council president, or you're just a regular person, we are all called to different forms of leadership according to the Bible.

So in the studio I have my team, my friends, my gang here and we're gonna look at Nehemiah chapter 1 and we're going to stories about our former gang life and whatever but we need prayer as you see we need prayer right now so Siku can you open us up with the Lord's blessing.

Loving Father we thank you for the privilege that it is to study your Word.

We pray that you would open our minds and our hearts to understand scripture, that the Holy Spirit would be our teacher, and that we would lead the study of the Bible as transformed people.

The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hacaliah, it came to pass in the month of Kislev in the 20th year As I was in Shushan the citadel, Hanani, 1 of my brethren, came with men from Judah.

And I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who had survived the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.

And they said to me, The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are in great distress and reproach.

The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down and its gates are burned with fire.

So it was when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned for many days.

I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven all right, so we're in the beginning of Nehemiah's and smashing Let's help us get into this give us some pre context for the context to get into the text So the book of Nehemiah finds us at the end of the Babylonian captivity, which is the captivity he references in the text.

And this captivity ended because the Persian Empire had conquered the Babylonian Empire.

Somehow Nehemiah, as a Jewish slave and captive, was elevated to this very high position where now he's in Shushan, in the palace.

And from this place, despite the fact that he's living the life of luxury, he comes in contact with some of his old countrymen, and through this contact develops a sort of interest, a curiosity of how are things in terms of the people, how is the city, back home in Jerusalem and he gets a report that's less than favorable and that ultimately compels him into several months of prayer and ultimately of planning and sensing a burden and a calling in a sense that God is really moving on his heart to do something about this problem.

Yeah, and this guy is a Jew at the really white collar upper class position here and he sees his brothers, Hanani, We don't know if there is biological but you know but back from the hometown he's like hey how's how's the old village doing he gets a bad report.

Well first of all that's where he comes from and you know especially back in the day when kings would conquer, other nations would come and conquer, you remember like Daniel and his 3 friends, they would take the very, very best of society and that would elevate them.

And this seems to be kind of what has happened with Nehemiah.

He finds himself in a very good position.

And I don't know if there's an issue of guilt or something that he was blinded to before is now revealed to him.

But he realizes, first of all, his hometown is completely, the walls are broken down.

So there's a visual impact that has happened in his society.

The other thing is that the people there are in reproach, right?

So there's something that has happened to the people, there's something that has happened to a city.

And I think that there's an overwhelming sense of, man, my situation at home is not a good situation.

And it develops a burden within the heart of Nehemiah.

I remember just a couple of years ago, actually, I went back to the place where I was born and I visited and I was So, you know I went back I went back to I went back to California with a friend and I was kind of trying to show them, hey, this is the place where I grew up and kind of give them a tour.

And I remember how things were so drastically different now as an adult than when I was a little child.

And so when I went back, I kind of, I was hit back a little bit like, oh, this is not at all what I remember it like.

And you start kind of thinking more as an adult rather than as a child, and your perspective is very different.

And I feel like Nehemiah- He's kind of growing up here.

I mean, he's living it up in the palace, and then he gets a reality check back from his past.

He's used to life in a certain way, not realizing that, you know, things back at home, they have not evolved like you have evolved.

The Medo-Persian Empire, my understanding is that there was an edict or some command where the Jews could go back and to restore and rebuild Jerusalem and he technically should have been 1 of those people so maybe there's guilt on that level or we don't know it's not mentioned in the text right and kind of can't look into it and in he's assuming that these guys would have built Jerusalem by now but they haven't see verse 4 I mean there's there's there's a lot of reactions going in there can you what's going on there at verse 4 I mean it's a very visceral reaction that he has.

It's his mourning, it's a very emotive and you know at 1 level you could be like what's the big deal?

You know the wall is broken down, its gates are burned with fire, But walls and gates represent the security of the people, the safety that they can look to.

So it's not just the physical reality points to, I guess, the state that the people are in and the fact that the walls are broken down and the gates are burned with fire and there has been no restoration that has happened.

And it makes me think about, like, in our lives, there are situations where walls are broken down and gates are burned with fire, you know, and it leads to, like, a lack of security, a lack of feeling of safety.

And Nehemiah looks at his fellow brethren, and it troubles him that they are going through this situation.

So I guess I'm thinking, like, personally applying, you know, Nehemiah's thing, like, do I look at people and see their pain, see their lack of security, see their situation that is less than ideal so to speak, and does it affect me viscerally, not just, oh, you know, that sucks, you know, but he's like, something needs to happen about this.

Yeah, there's an emotional reaction, there's a physical reaction, he's sitting down, there's a spiritual reaction, he's fasting and praying.

And I want to ask you guys this, what does the wall represent?

Okay, the wall is in the news a lot and we're refraining from the temptation to make these analogies about the wall.

And if you don't know anything about the wall, God bless you guys out there.

But many people know about this darn wall.

This is not that wall that the Bible is talking about.

But what is this wall in Nehemiah's life?

Clearly, it's not to be taken literally, Sebastian.

Correct, and I think for Nehemiah, what he's looking at is the wall represents not just the degradation of his people but it also is attached to their religion and also to the spiritual calling that God had upon them as a people.

This was supposed to be the city set upon a hill that someone is you know our 8 men are going to take the skirt of him that is a Jew and say, take me with you, teach me of the ways of the Lord.

And Nehemiah is thinking, how are we going to fulfill God's purpose with broken down walls and broken down people?

And in immediately, in essence, those walls ultimately represent what it means to him to be a Jew and what he was supposed to represent in the world.

And so his high position in Persia is nice for you, but if it's not going to help further your ultimate central identity and your purpose as a Jew, then Nehemiah is recognizing there's a lot being lost here.

I love the points that you bring out that it's not only the project itself that's broken down, but the people themselves are also broken.

And you see that pan out through the entire book of Nehemiah but there's a dual objective.

It's also a testament to God because God had said, I'm going to work through my people.

You're going to be the theater upon which the grace of God is manifested to the whole world.

On you Israel I'm gonna place everything is gonna revolve around the country.

So you have this place, this theater that God has established for the world to see how if you follow God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and Israel, that you will be blessed and so forth and so on.

Now you have all these promises which don't coincide with the reality of what is taking place and This is an embarrassment to not only to the people but also to the God of the people Yes, and so now that the crazy thing about this is that Nehemiah is now kind of like disassociated with that.

You know he's actually on the side of the other team who has essentially down the road conquered Israel, right?

It was by Babylon, now you have the the second part of the image of Daniel 2.

Now you have Medo-Persia, so it's like Nehemiah is on the other side of the fence and he's looking into a very embarrassing situation, which is the people of God.

There's so much to break down, man, I just love what you're saying.

How can we apply, how can, how does this apply in the contemporary context for young adults, regular adults, for super old adults and old adults?

Jonathan Walter

Callie Williams

02-In His Presence: Vision and Planning

The richest man of your country comes to you and asks you, what do you want?

Hey, welcome, friends, to this episode of Inverse.

We are in the midst of studying the book of Nehemiah from the perspective of leadership.

If you joined us last week we looked at purpose and passion that developed in chapter 1.

And here I've got my teammates, my friends in the studio, and we're looking at the first half of chapter 2.

So if you haven't already, get out your Bibles and open to Nehemiah chapter 2.

Sebastian, can you pray for us to start this episode?

Father in heaven, we know that opening your Word will have no profit if your Spirit is not with us.

And so we pray for his presence, that he would guide us into all truth, that he would bring things to our remembrance, that would not only bless our lives but our listeners.

And Lord, we also pray that as we have titled this lesson, in his presence, Lord, that we may understand the significance of your presence that should inspire us in the presence of those who are great on this earth and embolden us to inquire for the purposes of God is our prayer in Jesus name amen amen amen Kelly Nehemiah chapter 2 verses 1 through somewhere okay And it came to pass in the month of Nassau in the 20th year of King Artaxerxes When wine was before him that I took the wine and gave it to the king now I had never been sad in his presence before Therefore the king said to me why is your face sad since you are not sick?

So I became dreadfully afraid and said to the king, may the king live forever, why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my father's tombs lies waste and its gates are burned with fire.

Then the king said to me, what do you request?

So I prayed to the God of heaven, and I said to the king, if it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my father's tombs that I may rebuild it.

Then the king said to me, the queen also sitting beside him, how long will your journey be?

So it pleased the king to send me and I set him a time.

Furthermore, I said to the king, if it pleases the king, let letters be given to me for the governors of the region beyond the river, that they must permit me to pass through till I come to Judah, and a letter to Asaph, the keeper of the king's forest, that he must give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel, which pertains to the temple, for the city wall, and for the house that I will occupy and the king granted them to me according to the good hand of my god upon me then I went to the governors in the region beyond the river and gave them the king's letters Now the king had sent captains of the army and horsemen with me.

That's a long passage, but it's a good narrative.

And hopefully you've been out there listening along to, we don't read the Bible just for it to be read, but there's some power in following along with the actual Bible narrative.

Well, we are now a couple months after the chapter 1 experience.

Nehemiah is interacting with the king and also interacting with his God.

And so we are seeing Nehemiah's reaction from chapter 1 has continued on over these weeks and months and it's just burdening his heart.

And now the king, Artaxerxes, is taking notice that something's going on in Nehemiah's life that is bothering him.

And so he inquires, and Nehemiah shares with him.

Even though he's scared to do it, he does it.

And we see an interesting outcome of Artaxerxes' reaction to that inquiry that Nehemiah gives.

I love when the Bible gives sometimes seemingly useless information.

Chapter 2, verse 1, it says, "...it came to pass in the month of Nisan..." Nisan, not the Japanese car company, but the actual Jewish month.

You compare that to chapter 1, verse 1, "...it came to pass in the month of Nisan, Nisan not the Japanese car company but the actual Jewish month you compare that the chapter 1 verse 1 it came to pass in the month of Kislev or Kislev or however you want to pronounce that depending on your persuasion.

Emails will go to Jonathan at inverse Bible dot anyway, so we'll go to chapter 2 and chapter 1, compare those 2 and in between 4 to 5 months have chest transpired Mm-hmm, And this is not Bible trivia, but this is a real life.

And here he's praying this awesome prayer in chapter 1, and 4 to 5 months, circumstances in his life are changing, and they're changing in a drastic way.

And the crazy question is this, can God change your life in 4 to 5 months?

Or is it something that we pray and then we just assume that, well, it'll happen in about 20 years.

When you think about our current generation with all the devices and technology and wireless this and wireless that, there is literally no patience.

You're saying the other side, that's not fast enough.

I'm thinking that's pretty a fast prayer effort.

Absolutely, 4 to 5 months and give favor in the King.

But nowadays, people are upset that it takes 8 seconds for the signal to go up to the satellite and come back to my phone to download the webpage.

And you're thinking, I'm going to pray up to God, to heaven, and it's going to take 4 to 5 months for God to bring this To pass and in this sense, there is such a greater need for us to accept the patience that we need to have with God simply in response to our belief that He is wiser than us and that God has perfect timing for all things that come to pass.

It is literally a covert lack of faith that I would demonstrate in patience and frustration.

And if I am God, then I'm wiser than you.

I'm in all places and I have a complete control over the events of the universe.

And we see with Nehemiah, these few months, he accepted that burden.

He accepted that pressure that, no, you can't do anything about Jerusalem this week.

You can't do anything about Jerusalem and your people this week.

And it went week to week to week, but he was still waiting on the Lord in prayer mm-hmm Kelly give us an insight on this cup bearer thing like it was he likes just pouring Kool-Aid into the cup all the time what's what's why why is that a big thing so it's a big thing because so the Kings cup bearers mean the 1 who gives him the cup of wine he drinks.

And I mean, as a king, people want to kill you for different reasons.

And so you're a very trusted person to be like, I can give this to you, and you trust me.

And they'd often drink it themselves to make sure it wasn't poison and things like that.

And probably the king's watching him to see if he croaks over and he does, there's an assassination attack.

Which is why he looks at him and he's like, you wanna tag?

That's why he's like, King Leaf forever, I am not planning to kill you, please don't hurt me.

So it is a place of trust, but it is a very, it's not like, oh we're good friends, it's like, I will watch you at all moments of the day so it's it's kind of scary as well and at the end of chapter 1 he says for I was the Kings cupbearer he kind of ends that prayer that way and then it's what what is he saying through that it's kind of He's kind of sensing that through his prayer, an idea is forming.

A plan is kind of coming up, like I'm praying to God and I'm confessing and I'm giving adoration and I'm claiming your promises.

And all of a sudden it's like, if you could get favor in the side of the king he explains why he's saying what he's saying at the end of his prayer which is grant him mercy in the sight of this man so he's 4 or 5 months he's not praying this 1 prayer and just you know playing video games for the 4 week 4 to 4 months and just waiting for the...

He's actually planning, praying, burdening, is that a lot of...

Brainstorming, yeah, I mean he's going through this.

So this isn't passive, there isn't active.

03-The Hand of God

There are people people and there's project people.

We are in our third episode of this topic on leadership in the book of Nehemiah.

I'm here with my friends here in the studio.

We're going to look at the second half of Nehemiah chapter 2.

Before we read Scripture, Jonathan, can you pray for us?

Father, we just love the Bible, and we're so excited as we're studying the book of Nehemiah to learn about how to be a leader.

And Lord, we just ask that you will speak to our hearts as we go into the word as you always do and as you have promised Give us insight and direct us and may not only we but everyone who's watching and studying with us be blessed as well This we pray in Jesus name.

Amen Amen, so you could let's go to Nehemiah chapter 2 verse 10 through 20.

Okay He says when son ballad the horror night and to buy the Ammonite official heard of it, they were deeply disturbed that a man had come to seek the well-being of the children of Israel.

So I came to Jerusalem and was there 3 days.

Then I arose in the night, and a few men with me.

I told no 1 what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem, nor was there any animal with me except the 1 on which I rode.

And I went out by night through the valley gate to the serpent well and the refuse gate, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem which were broken down and its gates which were burned with fire.

Then I went on to the fountain gate and to the king's pool, but there was no room for an animal under me to pass.

So I went up in the night by the valley and viewed the wall.

Then I came back and entered by the valley gate and so returned.

And the officials did not know where I had gone or what I had done.

I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials or the others who did the work.

Then I said to them, you see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste and its gates are burned with fire.

Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem that we may no longer be a reproach.

And I told them of the hand of my God which had been good upon me, and also of the king's words which that he had spoken to me.

Then they set their hands to this good work.

But when Sanbalat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they laughed at us and despised us and said, What is this thing that you are doing?

So I answered them and said to them, the God of heaven himself will prosper us.

Therefore, we his servants will arise and build, but you have no heritage or right or memorial in Jerusalem.

Israel, what's going on in the second half of chapter 2?

Nehemiah is doing his homework and he writes with great description what he does to prepare for the movement of the people in the building of the wall.

And he goes to great detail to show like he went in there, he discovered what was going on for himself, he's not hearing secondhand what is taking place, he's discovering for himself, and so you have here the pretty much the elements of what true leadership is.

Nehemiah is gonna identify himself with the people, right?

He's gonna work with the people himself, but in order for him to do that, he needs to first of all place himself in a situation where he can identify with the people.

And then after that, after he's identified with the people, he will call the people to do the work.

He will tell them of what God has done for him personally, and then he would also tell him, he would also tell the people what the king has done in order to prepare.

So it will give a spiritual component of practical.

You're going ahead of us, and we're going to get to all those points, and then in many ways, the lesson's over.

But kind of overview of where we've been so far is that Nehemiah has been just a really first-class, really top-class guy in talking to the king.

I mean he's got tacked down, he's got the wisdom thing down, and he's asking all these things, but now he's actually there.

And the question is, why doesn't he tell anyone?

I think he doesn't want to rush anything.

He, as Israel mentioned, he's investigating.

He's making sure he understands the situation because thus far he's only heard the rumors and the descriptions from his brothers.

But I'm like, I'm going to take a look at this, and I want to understand the issues.

Because he can come like, hey, well, I brought all this timber and all this rock and all this stuff that we need that's built.

But he has to see if it's actually going to work.

He goes around, and he wants to have a good comprehensive image of what's going on so that he can also better relate to the people that he's going to be asking to help him build the walls.

This makes me think of conversations with my husband and he's an awesome guy but sometimes it's like you know you're...

I didn't know there would be marital insights from this chapter.

No, I mean you're, or I am expressing something that happened or a situation that took place and before I'm even done explaining the situation, he's got a solution.

And I've heard it's a guy thing, you know.

Don't blame the problems of your husband upon the entire male gender.

But you know, it's having, sometimes when we listen to a problem or a situation or we see a problem, it's easy to rush to a conclusion of what the solution is.

But Nehemiah steps back and says, I need to take it slow and investigate for myself, not even word of mouth what people are saying about the situation, even though he's on the ground.

He needs to determine for himself what are the issues that are involved, what's it going to take to resolve it.

Well, I love the fact that, that what you mentioned is he's getting this first-hand account of the situation for himself.

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InVerse, 4th Quarter 2019: Nehemiah: Principles of Biblical Leadership

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