Go

Contact Us

  • Phone: (509) 747-3007
  • Email:
  • Meeting Address:
    115 E. Pacific Ave., Spokane, WA 99202
  • Office/Mailing Address:
  • 608 W. 2nd Ave, #101. Spokane, WA 99201

Service Times

  • Sunday: 10am
  • Infant through 8th grade Sunday School classes available
  • FREE Parking!

Sermons

FILTER BY:

Back To List

Apr 26, 2015

Grabbing Life by the Throat

Grabbing Life by the Throat

Passage: Nehemiah 12:44-13:31

Preacher: John Repsold

Series: Rebuilding the City

Keywords: , commerce, compromise, finances, marriage, prayer, priorities, renewal, revival, righteous anger, status quo, worship, family fidelity

Summary:

This passage looks at the perils presenting God's people in spiritual drift that so easily comes on the heals of spiritual victory. Here Nehemiah tackles at least four specific compromises the Israelites made as he was called back to Babylon in the kings service. It also highlights the importance of strong conviction and leadership in keeping the people of God from drifting off of spiritual priorities.

Detail:

Grabbing Life by the Throat

Nehemiah 13

April 26, 2015

 

Music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKYFQawL52I

Who wrote that music?  The great Ludwig Von Beethoven, no?  This man, who struggled with hearing problems for most of his life and eventually went completely deaf, was playing the violin by age 5. By 13 he was a concert organist.  In his twenties he was studying under people like Haydn and Mozart.  During his life of a short 57 years, he wrote 9 symphonies,

32 piano sonatas, 1 opera, 5 piano concertos, 15 string quartets, and dozens of choral works, songs, works for pianos, cellos, violins, woodwinds, you name it. 

            In the middle years of his life, his hearing problems began to haunt him but he kept it a secret from virtually everyone.  By the time he reached his fifties, he was stone deaf.  On one occasion, Beethoven was overheard shouting at the top of his voice as he slammed both fists on the keyboard, “I will take life by the throat!”  His biographers feel that it was because of his great determination in the midst of great difficulty that he was so productive.  He was a man who truly took life by the throat! 

We’ve come to the end of our study in the book of Nehemiah today.  And in this chapter, more than any other, we see a man with the same tenacious determination to “take life by the throat.”  He’s not about to give in to the seemingly relentless attacks of detractors.  He’s not about to fade into retirement because the work is too hard.  He is a force for godliness to be contended with until the last days of his life. 

That’s the kind of leadership the church of Jesus Christ needs more of in today’s world. I’m not talking about abusive or controlling leadership.  But I am talking about leaders who are not namby-pamby, mealy-mouthed, sit-in-the-back leaders when the challenges of the times call for conviction.  In a culture like ours that has totally lost its moral compass, God’s people definitely need leaders with spiritual clarity and moral conviction.  Nehemiah was just such a leader. 

We left the unfolding saga of Nehemiah last week in chapters 11 and 12, chapters with name after name of urban heroes who were deeply committed to transforming their city of Jerusalem into a place of life and health.  What we didn’t have time to look at was the national celebration in chapter 12 that dedicated to the Lord the new protective walls and the people who had come to live within those walls.  It was a dedication that included two massive choirs that marched in opposite directions, all the way around the city walls, and met at the Temple for an amazing concert of praise and generous offering of sacrifices.  

Listen to the words of Nehemiah as he describes that event at the end of chapter 12.

44 On that day men were appointed over the storerooms, the contributions, the firstfruits, and the tithes, to gather into them the portions required by the Law for the priests and for the Levites according to the fields of the towns, for Judah rejoiced over the priests and the Levites who ministered. 45 And they performed the service of their God and the service of purification, as did the singers and the gatekeepers, according to the command of David and his son Solomon.46 For long ago in the days of David and Asaph there were directors of the singers, and there were songs [leaders] of praise and thanksgiving to God. 47 And all Israel in the days of Zerubbabel and in the days of Nehemiah gave the daily portions for the singers and the gatekeepers; and they set apart that which was for the Levites; and the Levites set apart that which was for the sons of Aaron.

            Nehemiah is drawing a line between what the people of God were doing that day and what they had done in the glory days of King David and King Solomon.  He’s holding up the worship experience of his day and comparing it to the worship experience of David’s heart and Solomon’s temple.  Everyone was doing their part from priests to people.  Worship of God with the people of God was a high and holy priority.

APP:  Which is why when God chooses to move among his people in revival fire and we choose to respond in heart-moved worship, we shouldn’t be ashamed to make a few comparisons between the great things God has done in the past and the things He is doing today.  At those times, God’s people will feel compelled to come together in exuberant praise and dynamic sacrifice.

ILL:  Derek’s father’s comments to me last week after the message about the spiritual revival that is taking place today in parts of Alaska—whole native villages are coming to Christ, worship is happening from morning to night, people are being delivered from addictions and healed, families are being reconciled.  This is the very kind of “rebuilding” that should cause the people of God to hold some massive praise gatherings that stand out in history. 

APP:  National Day of Prayer, a week from Thursday, May 7, Life Center, 6:30-8:30.  There will be worship lead by some amazing local worship leaders from African-American churches to Anglo churches.  If you love praising God and touching His presence in prayer, you will not want to miss this!  Dynamic encounters with God are not made by listening to stories of former glory.  They are made by engaging in present opportunities for worship…be that today right here among 70 other people or in 10 days along with 1,000 other Christ-followers from around the city.

But even amazing worship experiences with tens of thousands of other people are no substitute for steady, daily, faithful walking with God.  The strength of a life or a church or a nation is not sustained by sitting in the bleachers of stadiums.  It is built by the hundreds and thousands of small, daily decisions that turn spiritual priorities into personal character.  

This is precisely the problem that was faced by the people of God in this last chapter of Nehemiah.  Nehemiah was apparently called back to Babylon on official government business for an extended period of time. And while the cat was away, the mice definitely started to play.  Chapter 13 will call out no less than four specific compromises the people of God made in the relatively short time Nehemiah was away on assignment in Babylon.  We’ll look at those four in just a moment. 

But as important as those four are, the real take-away from this whole sad slippage of spiritual vitality is how quickly people wandered away from their core commitments.  In probably a few month’s time, the vows the people had made to follow God’s heart by following his commands had been blown away by new business opportunities, new romances and old family dysfunction. 

Vss. 4-9 reveal the first compromise made by the people of God away from spiritual integrity:  the compromise of PRIORITIES. 

4 Now before this, Eliashib the priest, who was appointed over the chambers of the house of our God, and who was related to Tobiah, 5 prepared for Tobiah a large chamber where they had previously put the grain offering, the frankincense, the vessels, and the tithes of grain, wine, and oil, which were given by commandment to the Levites, singers, and gatekeepers, and the contributions for the priests. 6 While this was taking place, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I went to the king. And after some time I asked leave of the king 7 and came to Jerusalem, and I then discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah, preparing for him a chamber in the courts of the house of God. 8 And I was very angry, and I threw all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the chamber.9 Then I gave orders, and they cleansed the chambers, and I brought back there the vessels of the house of God, with the grain offering and the frankincense.

            At the core, this compromise was really a choice of PEOPLE over GOD.  Oh, it didn’t really look like it on the surface.  In fact, it was taking place in the Temple itself, where all the supposed spiritual action was happening.  But it was really a blatant disregard of spiritual priorities.  Here’s how it came down.

            Eliashib was the priest at the time.  One of his priestly responsibilities was to see that the rooms in the temple were used for the proper purposes.  Since much of the offerings that came in for the maintenance of  the Temple were seasonal, most of those offerings had to be stored in the temple and apportioned out to the Temple workers throughout the year.  If there was no storage space for what the people offered to God, there would be no way to keep the Temple professionals (priests, Levites, singers, etc.) fed and cared for.  Temple worship would suffer and the whole nation would pay the price. 

            But Eliashib saw things a little differently.  His relative, the infamous Tobiah whom we saw in the opening chapters was hell-bent on holding Nehemiah back from rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, had apparently convinced Eliashib the priest that he needed a private residence in the temple.  And it wasn’t just a little studio apartment.  The text says it was a “large chamber” (vss. 5, 7, 8).  In fact, it was apparently several “chambers”, plural (vs. 9). 

APP:  What is it about family that is so difficult to just say “NO” sometimes?  To any outsider, this was a no-brainer. 

  • “Do we misappropriate Temple resources for pushy relatives?”  NO!
  • “Do we cripple national worship for the sake of nepotism?”  NO!

Yet here was the chief spiritual leader who lacked the basic discernment to first recognize controlling dysfunction in his relative.  And even IF he did recognize it, he lacked the spiritual backbone to stand up to what was probably Tobiah’s constant pushing and boundary-busting.  When he did that, he made a choice to fear or respect a man over God.  When he did that, he compromised the commitment he had made to worship God above all else in life.

APP:  This is really the same challenge we all face day after day. Every person we ever meet, especially those whom we love and live with in family, will pose some of the greatest challenges to maintaining the commitments we’ve made to worship and serve God above all others.  Whether it is the friends we like hanging out with or the man or woman we have loved a lifetime as our spouse, someone will always be testing the worship priorities we have settled on in response to Christ. 

This is why Jesus said in Luke 14:26, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”  In comparison to love for God, our love for anyone else, even the closest and deepest loves of family, are to appear like hatred. Nothing in all the world is to hold greater commitment in us.  As one author has written, “Hatred of all we are under obligation to love, including our own souls, is the condition of fellowship with Jesus, of working together with Him.” [A. Schlatter, Kommentar z. Jakobusbrief, 1932.]

APP:  So WHO is it that is calling you to compromise your worship of God in Christ?  WHO is it who is pressuring you one way or another to put them above your love for Jesus?  We will all have to make tough and continual choices of God before people throughout our lifetimes.  It doesn’t mean we don’t love them as Christ commanded us to.  It means we love God supremely and as our first and constant priority. 

Eliashib’s compromise put nepotism—immediate family—over worship of God.  In the process, he damaged the entire worship experience of the entire nation.  By committing entire rooms in the Temple to Tobiah, he took away the space that was needed to store the tithes and offerings of the people. 

In that singular move, Tobiah revealed where his heart really was.  If the spiritual state of the nation had been paramount to him, he would never have made a decision to put personal comfort before national worship.  When he did just that, he disqualified himself from leadership in the Promised Land yet again. 

That’s why Nehemiah went on a housecleaning rampage.  Vs. 8—“I was very angry, and I threw all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the chamber.”  Nehemiah marched into the Temple, hot as a hornet, and started tossing Tobiah’s stuff out the door.  Can you imagine Tobiah’s face when he came back to his Temple penthouse only to find a pile of furniture sitting in the courtyard, clothes strewn about.  Who knows.  Maybe this was the beginning of garage sales?  :)  But Nehemiah had his priorities straight. 

Just a side note here.  We’re going to see a lot of ANGER in this chapter.  Some of it is pretty vehement.  Some of it will even look like it is over-the-top in terms of our cultural sensibilities. 

Anger itself can be either selfish or righteous.  It can either mirror the anger of God over sin OR the anger of man that is self-serving.  Anger is, in fact, the appropriate response to genuine injustices and wrongs.  Not to be angry in those situations is just as bad as being angry about personal insults. 

While the precise expressions of anger may change from culture to culture, the need for righteous anger does not.  The challenge for every one of us is to develop the self-control, the genuine self-sacrificing love and the patience to know which situations call for a demonstration of anger and which call for restraint. 

#2.  Let’s keep moving.  To this compromise of people over God, Nehemiah now tells us there was a DERELICTION OF DUTY in leadership: 

  • The leaders and people were choosing STATUS-QUO over SPIRITUAL PROGRESS,
  • OLD ROUTINES over REVIVAL and RENEWAL,
  • FINANCIAL COMFORT over SPIRITUAL PASSION. 

Vs. 10ff--I also found out that the portions of the Levites had not been given to them, so that the Levites and the singers, who did the work, had fled each to his field. 11)So I confronted the officials and said, “Why is the house of God forsaken?” And I gathered them together and set them in their stations. 12) Then all Judah brought the tithe of the grain, wine, and oil into the storehouses.

            In those days the people who served in the temple were called Levites.  They drew their living from the temple.  People who sang there were supported by the people who attended. These folks were the paid clergy of their day. 

            But both the clergy and the people were agreed in this compromise.  Apparently the clergy were happy to leave town and go back to farming while the people were happy not to have to set aside a portion of their own crops and commerce in order to support the spiritual leaders.  There was a dereliction of duty on everyone’s part. 

            So what did Nehemiah do?  Did he call a prayer meeting?  A committee meeting?  Did he pass a petition around the nation and hold a new election?  Hardly!  He took action. 

APP:   When we know what God asks of us, the appropriate response to realizing we’re falling down on the job is not to do something that is just a substitute for real action; it is to simply obey.  In the places where we are tempted to compromise our commitment to Christ leaders have the responsibility to call people back to life-giving truth.  And we ALL have the responsibility to make the necessary changes commanded by God. 

            Nowhere will this be more evident than with our regular routines and finances.  How and where we invest our money tells us volumes about where are affections and hearts are.  Jesus told us in Mt. 6:19-21 that the best investments of our resources are in Kingdom ventures—using this life’s money to invest in kingdom work today that changes eternity.  And He clarified the connection between our heart priorities and our money when he said in vs. 21, “ For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  Our hearts follow our investments. 

APP:  So are we really investing what God has asked us to in the places he wants us to?  Because if we get our true investments wrong, we’ll get our heart affections wrong.  Practically speaking, some of us may need to take a long look at what God’s Word teaches about giving and investing.  Where does God’s work on this earth figure into our personal and family budget?  Is it first or 5th or not at all?  Is it the most significant investment we’re making or is it just a tip?

APP:  This is one of the reasons I love having students in our congregation. Many of them are preparing to give their lives and careers to the spread of the Gospel in places all over this world. And when they complete their education here in Spokane, we get to knit our hearts together for the rest of life by supporting them financially and prayerfully.  We get to send them off to some place in this world that needs passionate Gospel-carriers who can help others know Jesus Christ.

            The tragedy is that the average time needed to discover the people who are willing to invest in the Kingdom is now in excess of 24 months!  That should not be.  If God’s people were actually obedient to God’s call to give generously so others can know Christ, that timeframe should drop to 2-4 months!

            Here are the hard stats on what Christians in America are doing with what God is giving us:

  • Annual church embezzlements by top custodians exceed the entire cost of all foreign missions worldwide. (World Evangelization Research Center)
  • The average American Christian gives only 1 penny a day to global missions. (Yohannan, Revolution in World Missions, 142)
  • American Christians spend 95% of offerings on home-based ministry, 4.5% on cross-cultural efforts in 
    already reached people groups, and .5% to reach the unreached. (The Traveling Team)
  • Christians' annual income is $12.3 trillion. $213 billion is given to Christian causes. (1.7% giving rate.  If we gave just 10%, we would be investing 1.23 trillion dollars into Christian ministry.)  
  • $11.4 billion is given to foreign missions (less than 1/1000th of a percent of what God has entrusted to us!)

That’s why I have no problem bringing before you these amazing young people in our church who are passionate about giving their lives in service to Jesus in some far-flung part of the world.  That’s why Sandy and I try to give something to every one of them we know who goes.  What would it look like if every one of us just invested 1% of our annual income in this kind of kingdom expansion worldwide?  Let’s JUST DO IT!

#3.  Speaking of money, Nehemiah next calls out a COMPROMISE of COMMERCE over COVENANT. 

It never ceases to amaze me the power money and materialism exert over our souls.  Money isn’t evil, but the love of it will sidetrack our spiritual passion.  That’s precisely what was happening when Nehemiah returned to Jerusalem. 

Nehemiah 13:15-18-- In those days I saw in Judah people treading winepresses on the Sabbath, and bringing in heaps of grain and loading them on donkeys, and also wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads, which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. And I warned them on the day when they sold food. 16 Tyrians also, who lived in the city, brought in fish and all kinds of goods and sold them on the Sabbath to the people of Judah, in Jerusalem itself! 17 Then I confronted the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this evil thing that you are doing, profaning the Sabbath day? 18 Did not your fathers act in this way, and did not our God bring all this disaster on us and on this city? Now you are bringing more wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.”

Even though the people had agreed in their covenant with God to keep the Sabbath holy (10:31), they quickly fell into doing business on that day, even in Jerusalem (13:15). Some merchants from Tyre, who had no scruples about the Sabbath, were doing a brisk business selling imported fish and merchandise in the city on that day. No doubt the Jews had excuses (they would have called them “reasons”) for violating the Sabbath.

  • “If I don’t tread my grapes that day, they will rot!”
  • “Everyone else is doing business then. I can’t compete if I close up shop!”
  • “All those imported fish will just rot and go to waste if we don’t buy them! It wouldn’t be right, to waste all that good food.”

While keeping the Sabbath laws are clearly not part of the New Covenant God has made with people today in Christ. But like these religious Jews, it is easy to make up excuses for why we put business and our pursuit of pleasure ahead of worship.

  • “I’d like to spend time alone with God every day, but I’ve got to work long hours. When I get home, I’m exhausted and need some down time in front of the tube to relax.”
  • “I’d like to go to church more often, but Sunday is my only day to sack in, eat a leisurely breakfast, and read the paper.”

Substituting our work life for our spiritual health is always a bad exchange of “goods.” 

I think that sometimes, in our attempt to make all of life “sacred” we make none of life really “set apart” or “sacred.”

  • If we claim that our whole day belongs to God but make no time to be alone with Him in prayer or reading of the Word, then nothing of our day is really sacred.
  • By claiming our whole week belongs to God yet not setting aside any day or part of it for fellowship and worship and service, really none of the week ends up being truly set apart for God. 

Nehemiah’s response to the problem (13:19-22) was to change the routine.  He closed the gates of Jerusalem at sundown on the Sabbath and posted guards on the Sabbath at the gates so no one could bypass the trade embargo during the Sabbath.  Pretty soon and probably about the time the smell of rotten fish started wafting through the crowd of fish sellers stuck outside the city, the Sabbath selling dried up. The people of God started to realize that it was actually better for them in every way to make Saturday special rather than treating it like any other business day. 

APP:  As one of the richest countries in the world we Christians in America have more resources than 89% of our Christian brethren worldwide.  So why do we need to work more to make more to spend more to work more???  How different would our week, our health, our state of mind, our families, our culture look IF we actually decided to embrace 1 day in 7 for physical, emotional, spiritual and relational renewal with God and people?  I dare say at least the compromise of commerce would fade for most of us.

#4.  Grabbing life by the throat means making no compromises about FAMILY FIDELITY.

Nehemiah 13:23ff-- In those days also I saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. 24 And half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not speak the language of Judah, but only the language of each people. 25 And I confronted them and cursed them and beat some of them and pulled out their hair. And I made them take an oath in the name of God, saying, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves. 26 Did not Solomon king of Israel sin on account of such women? Among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was beloved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Nevertheless, foreign women made even him to sin. 27 Shall we then listen to you and do all this great evil and act treacherously against our God by marrying foreign women?”

            Perhaps no decision in life will effect the future fervency of the church more than the decisions we make about marriage.  Here were the people of God choosing to intermarry with the pagan races resident all around them.  The result was their kids were not only losing their Hebrew language ability.  They were losing their spiritual passion, their commitment to Yahweh and their ability to even tell what they were losing. 

APP:  While the Old Testament forbid marriage of God’s people to people of pagan nations and persuasions, it did permit marriage to those who willingly chose to embrace the God of Israel and all the covenant commands that came along with faithfulness to Yahweh.  The examples of Rahab in Jericho and Ruth in the book of Ruth make it clear that this was not a blanket prohibition.  If there was oneness of worship and allegiance, then there could be oneness in marriage. 

            That pattern has not changed.  The New Testament clearly tells us in 2 Corinthians 6:14--Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15) What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? 16) What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God

            If this applies to anything, it certainly applies to the most important and intimate relationship of life, marriage.  If we are to have any hope of the next generation of Christians being passionate about following Christ, we really cannot compromise this one.  And being “equally yoked” is not just answering the question, “Have they received Jesus Christ as their Savior?”  If your spiritual passion is not at roughly the same level, if your core values are not basically the same, if your commitment to God, his Word, the church, to personal and family devotions, to loving and serving people, etc. is not basically the same, you are probably going to spend much if not all of your married life, your child-rearing years and your energies fighting spiritual drag. 

            The same applies to our most influential friendships.  I’m not suggesting that we pull away from non-Christian friends and neighbors.  Quite the contrary.  But when we enter alliances that influence us to bit by bit pull away from Christ and to compromise spiritual priorities in any area of our lives, we’re compromising family fidelity—our spiritual family in Christ if not our nuclear family at home as well. 

Grabbing life… the right life worth living… by the throat is not easy.  It definitely is not encourage by our culture, sometimes even the “church culture.”  But if we want to leave a lasting legacy to the next generation, if we want to “compose music” that will stand the test of time like Bach and Beethoven did, then we will need to be very clear about what to hang onto and what to fight unswervingly for.   

CLOSE: One of the most committed, self-sacrificing groups of people America has ever known was our founding Pilgrims.  With a dedication to worship God and live out the Word of God as they saw fit at a level rarely seen today, this group of several hundred fervent Christ-followers left all that was familiar to come to the wilderness of America.  That decision in 1620 cost almost half of them their lives that first winter.  Yet, as we all know, in subsequent years, they set the standard for gratitude by declaring an annual Day of Thanksgiving to God for his care and kindness.

            Governor William Bradford kept a journal of the events that shaped Plymouth Plantation from its founding to his death.  One of the saddest observations in that journal comes after some ten years of life in Plymouth, Massachusetts.  God had prospered His people.  Their farms, families and livestock were growing.  The untamed wilderness of America beckoned.  And many a first generation Pilgrim was pushing out from Plymouth to establish larger farms and develop greater wealth. 

            Bradford, ever mindful of God’s gracious care of his band of believers and of spiritual trends shaping their life together, comments on the negative effect such movement away from community living was having on their weekly fellowship.  Already, just a mere decade from paying such great sacrifices in order to have freedom of worship, many were abandoning the fellowship of the saints on a weekly basis because of the lure of promised prosperity and land.  These amazing people of amazing faith were, in a decade’s time, exchanging the worship of God for the prospect of prosperity. 

            If people like that, far better men and women than most of us will ever be, so quickly succumbed to the power of prosperity in a day of deprivation, we would be wise to take note of the dangers assailing us today in our materialistic culture.  Today, as always, calls for Christ-followers who will “grab life by the throat” and not let go.  May God help us hold fast to His priorities in order to hold tightly to life that is truly life. 

PRAY

Questions for further study and reflection on Nehemiah 12-13

  1. Read Nehemiah 12:44-47 about God’s instructions about giving to the work of the Temple.  How do you feel about giving to the work of God’s Temple today, the church?  What is your current practice and how did you arrive at it?  Since the New Testament doesn’t continue the command to give 10%, how should we determine what to give to support the ministry of the church?  Consult the following passages and come up with some New Testament principles regarding giving today.  See Luke 6:38; Mt. 6:2-3, 19-21; Acts 2:44-47; 2 Cor. 9:6-15; Gal. 6:6-10; 1 Tim. 6:6-10.
  2. Nehemiah 13:1-3 seems like God is advocating racial prejudice.  Read the back story to this command in Deut. 23:3-4; Gen. 19:30-38; Ex. 12:38; Nu. 11:4-6 & Nu. 22-25.  What is the difference between what God is commanding his people to do and racial prejudice? 
  3. Neh. 13:4-9 talks about how detractors of true worship (Tobiah) had negatively influenced Temple worship.  In what ways do you think the church today is in danger of or is actually detracting from heartfelt worship of God?  What traditions, actions and compromises have we allowed into our worship?
  4. Neh. 13:10-14 addresses the problem of insufficient support of the Levites, those appointed to lead Temple worship of God.  Where do you see insufficient financial support negatively impacting the work of the church today?  What do you think God would have you do about it? 
  5. Neh. 13:15-22 shows how quickly business and money-making can crowd out worship and time with God.  If all of God’s people were to set aside one day a week for worship of God and fellowship with His people, how would you ideally like to spend it?  Why?  What do you think would be the effect on people?
  6. Neh. 13:23-31 records some pretty drastic behavior by Nehemiah. How do we know when to be restrained and gentle and when to be bold and even emotional in confronting someone in sin? (See Mt. 23; Galatians 6:1-5; Jude 22-23.) What distinguishes righteous anger from sinful anger?  (See Mt. 5:22; Eph. 4:26; James 1:19-21.) How can we guard ourselves against justifying sinful anger as being righteous?
  7. How should we discern between godly separation from sin (holiness) and ungodly legalism/law-keeping?  (See 1 Cor. 6:14-18.) What principles can guide us in avoiding both deadening legalism and decaying lawlessness/license?