NEHEMIAH: TIME TO REBUILD: SELFISHNESS
February 9, 2025

NEHEMIAH: TIME TO REBUILD: SELFISHNESS
Message Date: 2/9/25
Speaker: Pastor Renee Hidalgo

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NEHEMIAH 5: SELFISHNESS

There is no place for selfishness among God’s people.

Nehemiah 5:1-5
5 Now the men and their wives raised a great

against their fellow Jews. 2 Some were saying, “We and our sons and daughters are numerous; in order for us to eat and stay alive, we must get grain.” 3 Others were saying, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our homes to get grain during the .” 4 Still others were saying, “We have had to borrow money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards. 5 Although we are of the same flesh and blood as our fellow Jews and though our children are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to . Some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but we are , because our fields and our vineyards belong to others.”

Who were they mortgaging their properties to? Who were they selling their kids to?

Nehemiah 5:6-7
6 When I heard their outcry and these charges, I was very angry. 7 I pondered them in my mind and then accused the

and . I told them, “You are exacting usury from your own countrymen!”

Exacting Usury: charging interest on loans that is unfair or excessive

“Usury laws are state laws that limit the amount of interest that lenders can charge on loans. The purpose of these laws is to protect consumers from being charged excessive interest rates.”

Usury Laws:
• In the United States, each state has its own laws that limit interest rates.
• Usury laws define the maximum interest rate that can be charged on a loan.
• Usury laws often apply to consumer loans, but not always to credit cards.
• Usury rates are often associated with predatory lending practices.

Leviticus 25:35-38
“If any of your fellow Israelites become poor and are unable to support themselves among you,

them as you would a foreigner and stranger, so they can continue to live among you. Do not take interest or any profit from them, but fear your God, so that they may continue to live among you. You must not lend them money at or sell them food at a . I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.”

Deuteronomy 23:19
Do not charge a fellow Israelite

, whether on money or food or anything else that may earn interest.

Exodus 22:25
“If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not treat it like a business deal; charge

interest.”

Selfish: lacking consideration for others; concerned chiefly with one’s own personal profit or pleasure.

Nehemiah 5:7-8
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

people, only for them to be sold back to us!” They kept quiet, because they could find nothing to say.

Nehemiah 5:9-11
9 So I continued, “What you are doing is not right. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our Gentile enemies? 10 I and my brothers and my men are also lending the people money and grain. But let the exacting of usury stop! 11 Give back to them

their fields, vineyards, olive groves and houses, and also the interest you are charging them—one percent of the money, grain, new wine and olive oil.”

There is place for among God’s people.

“We will give it back,” they said. “And we will not demand anything more from them. We will do as you say.”

Picture of Selflessness

Nehemiah 5:14-18
14 Moreover, from the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, until his thirty-second year—twelve years—neither I nor my brothers ate the food

to the governor. 15 But the earlier governors—those preceding me—placed a heavy burden on the people and took forty shekels of silver from them in addition to food and wine. Their assistants also lorded it over the people. But out of for God I did not act like that. 16 Instead, I devoted myself to the work on this wall. All my men were assembled there for the work; we did not acquire any land.

17 Furthermore, a hundred and fifty Jews and officials ate at my table, as well as those who came to us from the surrounding nations. 18 Each day one ox, six choice sheep and some poultry were prepared for me, and every ten days an abundant supply of wine of all kinds. In spite of all this, I

demanded the food allotted to the governor, because the were heavy on these people.

Nobles/Officials: Chose Selfishness
Nehemiah: Chose Selflessness

Philippians 2:3-8
3 Do nothing out of

ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

5 In your relationships with one another, have the same

as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own ;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!

The question is NOT: Are you selfish? But: How can I be less selfish today?

When we are selfish, we look just like the world. When we are selfless, we look more like Jesus.

How can I be less selfish today?

Would you read the Bible Plan, Bricklayers 5, with us?

https://bible.com/p/72331893/57304717a768d4351289e00ee896838f