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This Sunday, guest speaker, Mr. Bernard Lim, founder of the N5 Stewardship Movement, preaches from Nehemiah chapter 5, revealing the relationship of money and the heart. May God be honored in all our ways, including our finances.

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This morning's reading is taken from Nehemiah chapter 5, verse 1 to 19. Nehemiah chapter 5, verse 1. Now there arose a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish brothers. For they were those who said, With our sons and our daughters, we are many. So let us get grain that we may eat and keep alive. There were also those who say, We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards, and our houses to get grain because of the famine. And there were those who said, We have borrowed money for king's taxes on our fields and our vineyards. Now, our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our children as and are as their children. Yet we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and some of our daughters have already been enslaved. But it is not in our power to help it, for other men have our fields and our vineyards. Verse 6. I was very angry when I heard the outcry and these words. I took my counsel with myself, and I brought charges against some nobles and the officers. I said to them, You are exacting interest, it's from his brother, and I have a great assembly against them, and say to them, We, as far as we are able, have brought back our Jewish brothers who have been sold to the nations, but you even serve our brothers that they may be sold to us. They were silent and could not find a word to say. So I say, The things that you are doing is not good. Ought you not to walk in the field of our God to prevent the thorns of the nations our enemies? Verse 10. Moreover, I and my brothers and my servants are lending them money and grain. Let us abandon this exacting of interest. Return to them this very day their fields, their vineyards, their olive orchards, and their houses, and the percentage of money. Grain, wine, and oil that you have been exacting from them. Verse 12. Then they say, We will restore these and require nothing from them. We will do as you say. And I called the priests and make them swear to do as they have promised. I also shook up the fold of my garment and said, So may God shake up every man from this house, from his house and from his labor, who does not keep this promise. So may he be shaken, cut up and empty. And all the assembly said, Amen, and praise the Lord, and the people did as they have promised. Verse 14. Moreover, from the time that I was appointed to be the governor in the land of Judah, from the twelfth year of the thirty second year of Octosaxus, the king. Twelve years, neither I nor my brothers ate the fruit allowance of the governor. The former governors who were before you lay heavy burdens on the people, and took from them for their deli ration forty shakers of silver. Even their servants lorded it over the people, but I did not do so because of the fear of God. I also persevere in the work of this war, that we may acquire no land, and all my servants were gathered there out for the work. Moreover, there were at my table hundred and fifty men, Jews and officials, besides those who came to us from the nations that were around us. Now, what was prepared at my expense for each day was one ox and six choice of sheep and bird, and every ten days all kinds of wine in abundance. Yet for all this I did not demand the food allowance of the governor, because the service was too heavy on this people. Remember for my good O my God, for all I have done for these people. This is the reading of the word. Thanks be to God.

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You'll see the title this morning on the book of Nehemiah chapter 5, as Nehemiah, a Redeemer of Faith, Family, and Finance. And what I hope to do for you this morning is to unpack the book of Nehemiah chapter 5 into three parts. And the three perspectives I'm gonna share with you essentially is number one, what was the issue in the book of Nehemiah chapter 5? Number two, why it exists, and number three, how do we respond as a church to what went on around the walls of Jerusalem? So let's explore the first point. What was the issue? I want to begin with a personal story, which is uh a modern-day expression of Nehemiah chapter 5. In uh 2020, three things actually happened to me and my wife, and I will share it. The first thing that happened to us was that we were involved in a six-month project that was organized by the late brother Joseph Chen. Uh, there were 40 of us in total, it was quite an amazing project, and we were assigned to seek out and to give money to migrant breadwinners, predominantly Malaysians, because he felt hard that somehow the Malaysians got overlooked in the whole pandemic. Many of them were out on the streets and abandoned by their employers here in Singapore, unfortunately. That's not a very good thing. And we were literally gathering funds and trying to find out who these people were and giving them about six months' worth of income just to help them get along. And so after the whole project of six months, I was asking the Lord, so what am I supposed to do next? And what followed was a meeting, a breakfast with another Anglican. So this story is full of Anglicans, and I'm among Anglicans this morning. And the second Anglican that I met was Brother Timothy Wong, who is actually the son of Canon James Wong. And he being uh in DBS, he passed me a report done by his team at DBS, and it was called Same Storm, Different Boat. And it was actually a survey about the impact of the pandemic on the mass market in Singapore. About 1.2 million people were surveyed, I mean, through their big data. And so the the report that Tim gave me also showed the situation of the lower income group, the hardest hit in Singapore during the pandemic. And I was deeply troubled, and I asked myself, what was the situation like in the church? Now, this is 1.2 million database. Chances are many of us are actually in that database. And I was asking myself, what was the situation in the church, and how was the church responding to its people, its own brothers and sisters, and to larger society. And the third thing that happened was I was actually at the same time going through a series of four books done by my Bible school online, where we studied the book of Ezra, Nehemiah, Hagar, and Zechariah. And I got stuck in the book of Nehemiah. Specifically Nehemiah chapter 5. The rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem came to a standstill, not because of enemies on the outside, and neither was it because of enemies on the inside, people like Sambalat, Tobiah, and Gersham. So it was not an external issue per se, it was not an internal issue per se, it was the oppression and the conflict of economic class that was the show stopper. Money was not flowing. In fact, there was oppression, as we would have heard during the reading just now. And I saw the uncanny parallels between the situation in Nehemiah chapter 5 and the situation during the pandemic. But what finally moved me to action was a Zoom call with a very well-respected uh sister in the city who shared that literally some small churches were shutting down and ministries were closing during the pandemic. And she also lamented this and shared with me a story that she went for an appointment, a lunch appointment with a high-level Christian executive lady. And during the lunch appointment, she nudged this lady to share the situation, hoping that she would be able to give some offering. And the lady said, I will pray about it. Does it sound familiar? I will pray about it. We never say I will pray through it, we always say I'll pray about it. Immediately after the lunch, they went to the shopping center, and the same lady walked into a clothing shop and blew about a thousand dollars on a dress. And when she came out, she asked the lady, Did you pray about that one? So then the Lord challenged me to do something about the situation in the body of Christ, and that sparked a whole entire journey of faith to spearhead the Nehemiah 5 stewardship movement in July 2021. With no speakers, no audience, no helpers, no budget. The first N5 conference was held online, and more than a thousand brothers and sisters in Christ came together over two days, and by God's grace, we raised 60,000 for the ministry work. I wish there was more, but that was what we raised. By God's grace, this year we are celebrating our fifth anniversary, and over the past two years, the focus has been on Christian financial planners and uh discipling them in biblical financial stewardship principles and planning, and to have a Nehemiah type of heart. And I'm glad to say that uh two of your congregation members, Vanessa Chiu and Daniel Chong, have completed that program. I share this journey and story of Nehemiah V because it mirrors what is happening in society today. In particular, starting from the church. Now, this is because the church is actually a microcosm of larger society and whatever happens in the church ultimately will ref be reflected in larger society. So if the church is truly living out her call, society will be transformed. Would you agree? If the church were to be living out her call to be salt and light, society will be transformed. Society will never be the same again. So when we see all the things that are happening in society, we have to ask ourselves, why is society the way it is today? And to find out that answer, we have to look back at ourselves. Whether we are like the world or we are transforming the world by first transforming ourselves. So let's take a look at Nehemiah chapter 5 again and look at the parallels, the uncanny parallels between what happened in Nehemiah 5 versus what's happening today. And so when we take a look at Jerusalem, Jerusalem is actually a type of the church today. It is a picture of the church today. So when Jesus said, I want you to be my witnesses in first in Jerusalem and then into Judea, Samaria, into the uttermost parts of the earth, he was actually asking us first to look at the condition at our own church, which is in this case like Jerusalem, a type of the church, a community of believers. And then number two, we see that the broken walls actually represent the brokenness in society, the brokenness that we face in our lives, because all of us have different types of brokenness. We bring all kinds of experiences, the trauma that we have in our lives into our families, and then there's brokenness in the family, and then from there there's brokenness at work at work, and then there's brokenness in society. So we see that actually broken walls represent brokenness in our lives, brokenness in societies. The next parallel are the families around the walls of Jerusalem represent Christians like you and me. They represent your pastors, marketplace ministers, workers of reconciliation, restoration, and redemption. So it's like us. It's the person sitting next to you. And these are the people who are constantly working around the walls of Jerusalem to make sure that the brokenness are fixed. The nobles, the rulers, and the officials represent the affluent and the influential, and what the banks will call them high net worth. The important people, the people who are given the best seats in the house. And I hope it doesn't happen in this church because I've seen it happen in some churches. The best seats in the house. So they are the nobles, the rulers, and the officials. And finally, what is actually not really mentioned in Nehemiah chapter 5 is Babylon, which is actually a type of the world. Now, to uh understand what actually happened around the walls of Jerusalem and why there was this oppression, we must be able to first understand where the children of Israel all came back from. And the context is that they were actually stuck in Babylon for 70 years. As it was prophesied that they will be in Babylon for 70 years, and it was by the prophet Daniel. Now you just think about it. If you were stuck in Babylon for 70 years, what will you become? You will actually start to adopt the culture of Babylon, right? You will actually adopt the thinking of Babylon, you will adopt the lifestyle of Babylon. So these people were stuck for 70 years. Nehemiah himself was stuck in Babylon and he wasn't even born in Jerusalem. He was actually born in Babylon. And so Nehemiah grew up in an environment that was like the world. So Babylon is a type and picture of the world. Now, today we are all in the system of Babylon. So the Lord reminds us that even though we are in Babylon, Babylon should not be in us. We will see here that in Jeremiah 29, verse 7, Jeremiah the prophet actually told the children of Israel and commanded them actually to be blessing the city. Because in blessing of the city, what will happen is that it says here in Jeremiah 29, and you seek the peace or the shalom of the city where you have uh that I have caused you to be carried away in captivity and pray to the Lord for in its peace or shalom you will find your peace. Some version says, seek the welfare of the city in which you have been placed in, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. Now we are all in Babylon. What the Lord has called us to do is to bless the city that the Lord has placed us in. And we are all in Singapore. And so what are we supposed to do as children of God? As in the Bible, is the children of Israel. We are supposed to bless the city, we are supposed to look after the welfare of the city, but in its welfare, we will find our welfare, right? But some got carried away, obviously. In blessing the city, they also adopted the thinking of the city, which is Babylonian thinking. And the Lord will then remind us in John 17, verse 5, uh 17, verse 15 and 16, my prayer is that you uh that it's not that you take them out of this world, but that you will protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. So the children once again, so the children of Babylon actually, after 70 years of being indoctrinated with Babylonian thinking, and if we are not careful, we can be indoctrinated with the thinking of the world. This same group of people, even though they left Babylon, about 50,000 of them, Babylon did not leave them. So sometimes we think that just by quitting our job and getting out of the so-called rat race, that we will get out of the Babylonian system. But let me just kind of tell us that actually sometimes that's not really true, because you can leave the rat race, but the rat race mentality has not left you. You can leave Egypt, but Egypt has not left you. You can leave Babylon, but Babylon has not left you and I. The deep-seated Babylonian influence resulted in three expressions within the walls by the time they returned to build it. Let's take a look at the three expressions. The first expression was it was socially divisive. What happened in the walls of Jerusalem is that the mentality of the people within the walls of Jerusalem was socially divisive. They actually had a class system there. There was the nobles, the rulers, and the officials, and then there was everybody else. You will see this in our society today that we are all, in some sense, whether we say it or not, there is a class system. There are people who are the affluent, there are people who are the high net worth social and economic status in Singapore. We call it SES. There are the premier schools, they are the neighborhood schools. Are you all familiar with this? We are all in a certain class system, whether we are prepared to admit it or not. The truth of the matter is that this class system, socially divisive thinking, is not of God. It is the thinking of Babylon that has become so much a part of our life that we don't see the person in front of us as our brother and sister, we see this person as our competitor. We see this person of a different color and we say it's of a different race. In the kingdom of God, there is no race. Every one of us is the same. Can you please turn to your neighbor and say you're my brother or you're my sister? Can you all do that? You're my brother and you're my sister. In the kingdom of God, we are colorblind. I'm not colorblind, I hope you're not, but in the kingdom of God, we are colorblind. So the first thing that was apparent within the walls of Jerusalem in Nehemiah chapter 5 is that there was social division, class system like we are seeing today in our society. The second thing that was apparent was that those who had the resources, or many of them who were in position to help, were what we call practically indifferent or apathetic, or they were disengaged. In Singapore's language, we call it BBC, basically bo chap. We don't care. Our neighbor's problem is not our problem. We would rather have this division and say, you know what, as long as it doesn't bother me, it is not my problem. If it doesn't hurt my pocket, it's not my problem. And that was the second thing that was apparent, one of the three expressions of what happened in the walls of Jerusalem and the Babylonian thinking that got to the people. The third thing was it that it was radically oppressive. And this is the part that I want to spend a little bit more time in. It was radically oppressive. Because the people who had the resources were using it to control other people. They had the resources, and instead of helping, they were using it to control other people, manipulate, oppress them, even though they had the resources. And brothers and sisters, I hope that we are not in this situation. Where we see a brother and sister in need, we see a ministry in need, we see a need in the house of the Lord, and we choose to be practically indifferent. We choose to hold back resources because it is not our problem. And so the first reflection I would like to leave with you today is this one. The condition of the church within will be reflected in the condition of society outside. Let me say that again. The condition of the church within, within this wall, will ultimately be reflected in the condition of society outside. How we behave, how we treat each other, how we use resources, how we see each other. Whether we are indifferent or we are totally engaged, ultimately we will see society becoming just like what it is like in the church. Why? Because the church is the microcosm of society. If something is wrong out there, we choose to leave it alone and say, mm-quan no si. Not my problem. But what is the call of the church? To be the salt and light, to make a difference, to transform ourselves, to allow ourselves to transform so that we can transform society. Amen. Do I hear an amen? So that's the first reflection. Let me move on to the second uh thought, but before I do that, if you read the book of Nehemiah, chapter 5, the first thing that might be apparent to you that the walls of Jerusalem could not be rebuilt or it came to a standstill because it was a money problem. We'll just say it's a money problem. And the money problem can actually be simply solved by Nehemiah's method of saying, give the people a good scolding, get them to sompah, sompah means promise, huh? Collect the money so that the work can continue, right? It sounds like a very simple solution. But the problem was far more deep-seated than that. And why do I say that? Because here's the spoiler alert. When the children of Israel committed to bring their tithes and offerings, and they did, they brought their tithes and offerings to the storehouse through to Nehemiah chapter 10 and 12. You will find that by the time you get to the end of the book of Nehemiah, what happened? All hell broke loose again. The people who were supposed to receive the tithe ended up misusing the funds, and everything else went wrong, and Nehemiah had to go back in to make sure that all the monkey business stopped. So there is something far deeper than just what we call a money problem. Let's take a look at what it could be. Why did this situation actually exist? Now I alluded to the idea that the children of Israel had spent 70 years in captivity in Babylon and they internalized the philosophies, worldviews, and attitudes, which was expressed three ways, right? It became socially divisive. There were social classes, which still happens today. We call it social economic status SES. So we have in the banking circles where I come from, because I train people in the financial services industry, we call them high net worth. And we call the rest of them mass market. I don't know where you believe you fit, it doesn't really matter, okay, in the eyes of God, it doesn't matter where you fit. But in the eyes of the world, there are all these classes. There's blue-collar worker, there's white-collar worker. Now the press is saying maybe the blue-collar workers have to work as white-collar. You see the division? And then you have premier schools, elite schools, neighborhood schools, and even the term philanthropy or benefactor and beneficiaries. I got the money, you got the need, you better pray, I will be the one to give it to you. You better pray that I will give it to you. This is how the world thinks. And let me just share with you something interesting. I had lunch uh the other day with a sister and she was in the philanthropic circles, and she told me this. Even the world is now trying to avoid the term benefactor and beneficiaries. The division between the people who are going to receive funds and the people who are gonna give them funds. The world is now using the word partnership, not benefactor and beneficiaries, no division. So, in some ways, the world is making that progress to take away the division between the people who have and the people who need. And yet, sometimes in the church, we still create that division. The second thing was that I talked about practically indifferent, basically bochap. And today, what does it look like? It looks like life flat. Y'all heard of life flat? Okay, it's a mentality that says I don't have to work, I'll just lie flat and do nothing, okay? I don't care about the world. And then radical oppression. Now, this is the part that I want to spend a little bit more time on because radical oppression financially is the spirit of mammon at work. Radical financial oppression, when you use money to control people and oppress people, it is what we call the spirit of mammon at work. What does it look like today? It looks like underpaying the poor handyman who comes to fix the house. You ask for a code, the guy tells you $100. By the time he shows up in your house, you get him to do a thousand and one things. You all heard of that before? I actually have a friend who's a handyman, a very dear brother who's a handyman, and he says that there are handymen who literally, when they get into their van, after they finish a work in a GCB, they will be cursing the GCB. This is a fact, okay? So that's what it looks like. It looks like overworking the domestic helper and holding them ransom because they have an o tongue to pay. It looks like deciding who is the one who makes more money is the one who will make all the decisions at home. And so we find that some families are topsy turvy. If the wife makes more money, she has the biggest say at home. If the husband makes more money, he has the biggest say at home. This is not of God. But it is mammon at work. It looks like expecting the church to do a thousand and one things for us when we don't even give a single dollar. That's mammon at work. So, to better understand why this condition actually came into place, we have to go back into the garden where man fell into the ultimate deception. So let's take a look at Genesis chapter 3, verse 5, where it says here in Genesis 3 verse 5, for God knows that in that day you will eat of it, and your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. The deception or the offer by the serpent to the woman was that if you eat of this fruit, you will be like God, knowing good and evil. What is the meaning of this? We all desire to be our own gods. We want to be able to control everything that we have, everyone that we meet. We have an innate desire to want to control things. And so this spirit of control, which will later on manifest in the spirit of Mammon, comes in the form of the tower at Babylon, Genesis 11, 4. And they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top is in the heaven, and let us make a name for ourselves, so that we will not be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth. So, whatever we see that was part of the fall, a desire to be like God, knowing good and evil, being manifested into an entire city, which, by the way, the Tower of Babel, was actually Babylon. You will see that what happened in the heart of one person through the fall of man now becomes a whole entire city where it says we all want to be gods, we want to control everything, we don't need God, and it is that very, very insidious deception that we have today, our situation. But we see in Matthew chapter 6, verse 34, the Lord then reminds us no one can serve two masters, for he will either hate one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. So, what was the real issue within the walls of Jerusalem? The real issue is the issue of the heart. When the Lord tells us you cannot serve two masters, you either love one or hate the other. Let me just give you a definition of what the spirit of Mammon is. And I hope this will help all of us because it took me some time as I've been studying the word of God and I'm asking myself, why did the Lord use the word mammon when he quote unquote compared himself and talked about loyalties? Because the spirit of mammon or mammon is a powerful spiritual stronghold that fuels the spirit of Babylon or the Babylonian spirit, which is to have hierarchy, which is to have division, which is to have control, and insidiously deceives us into believing that number one, we can be like gods when in reality we may become slaves. Number two, we can get only what God can give, which is acceptance, security, and significance. So the spirit of mammon deceives us into thinking essentially these two things. We can be like gods. We can decide when we want to do whatever we want to do, we can decide what the money that we earn is for, and most of the time we will spend it actually on ourselves and maybe our loved ones, and that's about it. And maybe we tip a little bit to some social enterprise or something, we tip a little bit here and there, but essentially we have full control over the money that comes to us. That is actually the spirit of mammon at work. We want to be like God, we want to be gods unto ourselves. And the second thing is that we can get from mammon or we can get from money this idea of acceptance, security, and significance. Let me shock you with something, huh? The whole concept of financial independence is actually not of God. Sorry, yeah? I'm a financial planner by trading, I'm saying that. The whole concept of financial independence sometimes is to be living a life free of the worry of money, right? Because you got enough. But when our dependence is on this money, we have actually fallen into the trap of thinking that we can get our ultimate security from the money, and that's mammon at work. We should, in fact, be ultimately depending on God. So the second reflection that I'd like to challenge you with this morning is this Mammon will actually expose the condition of the church towards God and towards people. And so, if you were to personalize it, because I thought through this not so long ago when I was preparing the material to actually ultimately train the financial planners, the Lord then asked me, What is money to you? And I gave him all the right answers. I said, Money is uh to be a blessing, you know, our money is uh is a medium of exchange. So I gave him all the the politically, uh biblically correct words. And then suddenly he asked me, Do you want to know what money means to me? What it is? Of course I had to say yes, and he said, Money is a tool I use to expose the condition of your heart towards me. Money is a tool that I use to expose the condition of your heart towards me. Why? Because it will compete for my loyalty, it will compete for my allegiance to God. And if I don't steward it well, I am actually worshipping Mammon without realizing it. So that's the second challenge that I have for you. And so the question here is: was it really, therefore, in Nehemiah chapter 5, really a money issue per se? Can I suggest to all of us this morning that it was really a heart issue? A heart that has become cold, a heart that has decided that it will be like God, knowing good and evil. It was a heart that says, I can get my assurance, my security, my significance, all because I have money and I can control it. It is a heart that says I'm going to use money in some ways without realizing it to control other people. So that is something that I would like to leave as a thought in this second part. And the final part that I would like to talk about is really how then should we respond with what we have heard today. The first part was what was the what was the issue in the walls of Jerusalem? Was it a money issue? Yes, there was oppression. People who were actually in dire straits, instead of being helped, they were being oppressed. Can you imagine that you were in a terrible position and some rich brother or sister in Christ comes to you and lowball to buy something from you? Lowball. My wife is in real estate and she tells you what lowballing is. You see a property, you want to get the best price, you lowball and see whether the guy will crack. But you imagine that happening. You imagine someone doing that to you when you're so desperate, and the person comes to you and says, Brother, sister, I help you. And give you a lowball. Try that for experience. But that was happening in the walls of Jerusalem. They were asked to remortgage their property, they were asked to sell their vineyards, they were asked to actually literally sell their children to become slaves, to become workers for the very people who are within the walls of Jerusalem, their very own. This thing was happening. And therefore, we've got to check our hearts. Have we, without realizing it, been practicing these very same things? So, how should we respond today? We have an excellent example in Nehemiah. So if we want to look at models, we want to look at is there such a person who ever lived apart from Jesus Christ? Let's take a look at Nehemiah. Born in Babylon, born in a city where he had nothing or probably very little to do with where his ancestors came from. So imagine to yourself that you were actually born in Malaysia. And then now you're working in Singapore, and then suddenly something happens back in your hometown, and you actually have already left it for many, many years, but you feel this urge to go back into your city to help, even though you have virtually no relatives, no friends there whatsoever. That was the heart in Nehemiah. Even though he was not born in Jerusalem, he heard stories about it and his heart was just pulled towards Jerusalem. Why? Because this man was a man after God's own heart. He knew what was in the father's heart that that city of Jerusalem, which means so much to God, is a city that I want to make it my business to repair. I will make it my business, even though I might lose my neck by showing a black face to my boss. Because his face was obviously so downtrodden that his boss, the king, said, What's with it? How come your face is so black? Well, the city in which my ancestors were, the walls are all broken down, and I need to go back. And by the way, can you give me resources to rebuild it? Wow, what a man! What a man. In those days, if you ever show a black face, your head is gone. Your head is gone. But he will take that risk. So we see Nehemiah doing the complete opposite of the three things that I shared that happened in the walls of Jerusalem. Number one, he was socially inclusive. I know the word inclusive has become adulterated, but he made sure that there was a level playing field. Everyone was helping everyone else. That was something that Nehemiah was concerned about. He even made sure that foreigners in the land could enjoy the resources that was provided. And he hosted them. Number two, he was practically engaged. He was not just a person who talked the talk, he was not just a person who walked the talk, he was a person who talked the walk. Meaning to say that he walked that life first and then he had the authority to tell people what to do. He showed the example first before saying, you know, we all should do this and do that. No, he became the example, and then he could now rebuke the nobles, rulers, and officials for the terrible things that they were doing because he was a noble, a ruler, and official. So he walked, he taught the walk. Number three, he was radically generous. So Nehemiah worked on the walls just as everybody else. Some of the nobles, rulers, and officials say, you know, Mkwan Gonsi, this is not my problem, I don't want to get involved and all that kind of stuff. But Nehemiah himself was working on his portion of the wall. Not only that, he was taking out resources out of his own pocket to say, I gotta bang roll this work. This is my problem, this is not my money, I have to bang roll this work because there's so much brokenness around me. I need to do something about it. And Nehemiah would take out of his own own money to bangroll the work. Not only that, he made sure that the foreigners in the city were all taken care of. He will buy all kinds of resources to feed the foreigners. And top of that, he took a pay cut. In essence, he took a pay cut because he said, the previous governor, whatever was an entitlement, all the perks and all those, I don't want them. I don't want the perks. Just give me the basic. I don't want the perks, I don't need them because whatever you guys are paying them is getting all these people into trouble. So I don't want that. I'd rather take a pay card. And on top of that, I'm gonna take resources out and I'm gonna bangroll this thing. Okay, that was the heart in Nehemaya. He was socially inclusive, practically engaged, and radically generous. Now, this is the heart of the Father, as it will be expressed in the evergreen verse, John 3, 16 and 17. For God so loved the world that he gave, he gave, he gave. His only begotten son that whosoever should believe in him or would believe in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. The ultimate act of generosity came out from the heart of the Father Himself who gave us the life that we have today. And so, brothers and sisters, if you ask me, that was Nehemiah, Old Testament. Is there such a person today? Or maybe the better question to ask, is there such a community as an example? And for that, I want to read to you Acts 2, 44 to 47. It gives us a complete contrast to what was happening in the walls of Jerusalem, the financial oppression that was going on in the book of Nehemiah, chapter 5, and we see the complete opposite in Acts chapter 2, verse 44 to 47, and it says, All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Wow, what a contrast! Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts, they broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of the people. What happened next? The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. When did the numbers increase? The numbers increase when there was no more social separation, there was practical engagement, and there was radical generosity. So may I leave you with this final reflection and then two words of encouragement? The third reflection is brothers and sisters, all of us, myself, my wife included, we all need to restore our relationship with God. We need to go back to God, seek his heart, and make his heart our own. Number two, we need to renew our minds. Not only do we need to think about coming out of Babylon, but to allow Babylon to come out of us that we no longer adopt the thinking that separates, the thinking that withholds, the thinking of bochardness. And we need to redeem our call as kingdom stewards. How does it look like? It starts with something as basic as giving back your tithe to the Lord. That's baby step number one. It's super, super basic. And then the offering and whatever that the Lord puts in your heart in terms of a blessing back to the body of Christ and larger society. And so, church, I have in my heart to share with you two verses to encourage you to steward resources that our Lord has entrusted to you joyfully. The first verse is Isaiah 58, verse 12. And maybe we should read this together, okay? Let's read this together on account to 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3. Those from among you shall build always places. You shall raise up the foundations of many generations, and you shall be called the repairer of the bridge and the restorer of the streets to dwell in. That's the first verse I want to encourage you. And I would like to speak this as a word of God to you, into your hearts, into this church. The second verse I want to encourage you with is Isaiah 64, verse 1. And let us read it together. One, two, three. And they shall rebuild the old ruins, they shall raise up the former desolation, they shall repair the ruined cities, desolations of many generations. I truly believe that even this morning, as the Lord has brought me here to share and through the invitation of Pastor Daniel, is to release that back to you. That this church truly can be the salt and the light. This church can be one who begins to see people not in social status and strata, but to see everyone as God would see them. This church will be a church who is not bothered to say this problem is not mine, but to say I own it because the Lord is interested.

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And this church will be radically generous.com. Have a blessed day.