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00:01 Greetings. I, Arnold, son of Lim of the district of Aram Dharmasara, here I
00:08 proclaim to you the word of the Lord. I think that must be the most boring chapter to read. I mean, Philly is
00:15 really, thank you. He's like, you was saying you can do it. You can do it. And Peter wanted to give me two chapters,
00:23 you know. Can you imagine that? So, I had a foresight to break this into two parts. Today, we do chapter three. God
00:29 help us all. How you can do a sermon on this chapter is a technical report. I
00:36 mean how do you do you expect the word of God to teach you something but all we learning is the son of so built this and
00:41 the son of so built that. But all word all scripture is useful. Amen. All
00:47 scripture is for us to build ourselves up. In two weeks time we'll do chapter
00:53 4. So I think this is quite an interesting chapter. But before I do that, uh I think we need to do a
00:59 multimeter poll. Shall we go to the mantimeter poll first?
01:06 All right. I love this mantimeter thing, man, because I get to ask all the hard
01:11 questions. All right, so you go to mntimeter and you use the code 838539.
01:18 Now, like I mentioned, if you don't know how to do this, for all the older generation who don't have this in your
01:25 apps, just type in menty meter, please. We we find that a lot of people don't do
01:31 it because they they're not comfortable. If you don't know how to do it, put your hand up. Someone will come to you. But we would really like everyone to get
01:38 involved. Go to mentimeter. You'll find a there's a bar there with a quote and
01:43 just go to the code 838539 and the first question was this this
01:50 year the church vision statement was building gospel centered communities
01:55 do you think we have succeeded and the numbers are quite telling isn't it so
02:02 there we are come on if you have not done it put your hand up it' be great to get everyone involved right let's see
02:10 whether The numbers are shifting. Okay, we are sort of more or less stabilized there. Let's uh let's go. We got 84
02:18 people, 87 people responding. Come on, guys. That's that's barely there's
02:23 barely one/ird of y'all. That's there's easily 300 plus people here, right? All right. The numbers going up. Okay. All
02:29 right. That's it. Come on. Let let's spend a little bit of time. Let's try to get this done. All right.
02:43 Okay, I think we can come back uh we can come back to this afterwards. Right, John? We can sort of come back. Right, let's go to next question. Do you
02:50 believe in the vision statement? Aha. Do you believe in it?
03:00 Those
03:06 who have finished it, you can always go to the next question. And the next question, you don't have to wait for me. Uh just just keep on going. All right.
03:14 Next question. Did you contribute to making the vision statement a reality?
03:30 I noticed something about FBC. Everybody like to be very safe one, you know.
03:35 No, nobody, we never get extreme bad or extreme good. Everybody always go in the
03:41 middle. It's a, you know,
03:46 and here's the last one. Do you believe we are united or divided church? Now that's critical.
03:52 That's critical.
04:01 I think I think the poll is very telling. The poll is very telling and and I want to say this in love because
04:07 the question is this uh if the church does a a vision and there's no buy in,
04:15 why bother? Then the question is who's at fault? Is it because the leadership didn't push
04:21 it? because you know uh congregation didn't buy into it. Next year they want
04:26 to do another vision statement. My my question is why do it if the numbers
04:32 if there's no real majority buy in? That that's my question to you. All right. Now take that in mind because that is
04:38 absolutely critical to this sermon. All right. Let's let's take this off and we go back to the sermon. We've been
04:45 studying Neahmiah son of Hakalia. Today Anna son of Lim. Want to give you
04:52 another Neahmiah. He is not son of Hagalia. He is son of Lee. This is
04:58 Neahmiah son of Lee. Yes. I know unlike me my name Arnos is
05:05 in my IC because my father loved to play golf. He named me Arnold. The son never ended up playing golf you know. So but
05:12 he gave himself that name because when he became to know the lord he took to
05:18 the book of Neahhemiah and in fact he's very famous for building walls okay and
05:24 if you go to website you have Neahhemiah walls but what is more interesting is the the
05:31 way the website takes itself look at what he says here we build integrity we
05:37 aspire to take the lead and the practice integrity and the construction construction industry by going the extra
05:42 mile in providing cost effective solutions professionally with integrity and humility. Where do you think that's
05:48 coming from? That's a statement of faith. You know, that's a statement of
05:54 faith. And Neahhemiah not just gets involved in his work which he applies
06:00 kingdom principles. He's very involved in a ministry and he started something known as the incubator
06:08 which is basically teaching basically young Christians to do startups and two
06:13 weeks from now we will get Dr. Lim Kahu to come up here and he will share with us on what is business as missions.
06:22 Since we're mission months, we're going to look at business as missions as how uh you look at missions from the other
06:29 side, the the side of sustaining a a mission. But my question to you is which
06:36 is his ministry? Is his ministry in his work because he's
06:42 very obviously applies biblical principles to it or is his ministry in
06:47 the incubator which is the core of Nehemiah? So today
06:56 we want to look at one area which I I'm quite passionate about. My wife told me one thing. Please uh no don't always do
07:03 family life. She's quite right. There's a place for it. But there's another area which we we rarely speak about which I I
07:11 feel passionate we do about and you know what is it? It's something that affects a lot of you and you spend the most your time is your job.
07:18 Today we're going to talk about marketplace and God willing that should be a ministry we should really look at in the
07:24 church. God willing after family life settled five years from now I'll get into this and we're going to do this in
07:30 two weeks. this week week after with George Verbber we go back to marketplace and we'll look at how you and I behave
07:37 in our jobs. Now let me qualify myself. I I'm not a big shot. I I'm an architect
07:42 been running my own practice for 20 years. I got nine staff. So probably not like a big shot like all you guys, but I
07:47 understand a little bit about an Smi, how to run your finances, how to do HR,
07:53 how how to lobby for business. So where is scripture in all of that? Where is
07:59 the call of God in all of that? So today we look at the marketplace. We look at
08:06 all of you in your jobs. Tomorrow we go back to jobs on Monday to Friday. Where
08:12 is the Lord? Let's come before God in prayer. Lord, humble me. Uh you know uh
08:18 Lord, I bear my soul. My struggle is not um nervousness before a crowd. My
08:24 struggle is arrogance. My struggle is before a crowd I I get electrified and I depend on human
08:31 talent. I ask right now that I disappear, you shine, your word goes
08:37 forth and that even in this chapter with full of technical descriptions of a war,
08:43 there is biblical truths that will point us to Jesus Christ. And we say this in
08:49 Jesus' name. Amen. Let me just give you a bit of history. This is Jerusalem
08:55 during its heydays. This is the peak, the zenith of the kingdom of God where
09:03 the queen of Sheba will come and kings will come and Jerusalem held his head up
09:08 high. This is the kingdom of God. Or at least that's how the Jews see it. A
09:16 divided kingdom follows, wars follow, and after captivity, this is Jerusalem.
09:23 at a time 70 years after the exiles have come back. And now Neahhemiah, we've
09:30 been reading, begins the difficult task of taking all this rubble and to build a
09:36 wall. And he builds it in a record 52 days. If you read the book of Estra, it
09:42 took them 20 years to build a temple. He builds this in 52 days. So it's an interesting thing. There are three
09:48 points on a pick. work and kingdom mindsets, work and leadership and work
09:54 and identity. And what we're going to do today, we are going to do a bit of recap
09:60 at chapter one, chapter two before we go to tree. And then the first thing we're going to start back at work is simply
10:06 this. For all of us, when you go to work, the question is how do you define purpose and success?
10:14 That's the key thing we got to look at. You see purpose has has is not enough if
10:20 you don't succeed in it. So you you all of you are quite a lot of you are quite senior when we all started off work
10:26 right we were all excited we're going to do this we had dreams that was your purpose you define a purpose then along
10:34 the way life hits you hits you really hard and some succeed some don't so
10:39 purpose and success are very defined together and this is what the world
10:45 teaches you and what is the key word you see here the word You
10:52 you decide you are king of your life in your jobs. You are captain of your
10:58 destiny. Take control of your job and get what you want. That's what the world
11:03 teaches you. In in in psychology, they call this selfactualization. They means after you have made money,
11:10 you climb up the corporate ladder. You're not happy. You don't want to find purpose. you do CSR and by the time you
11:17 the very very very few that get right up there make tons of money and become very successful they want to have legacy or
11:25 like one developer friend told me I shared it before is not legacy
11:30 you know it's your your own business you want to have a foundation yah you want to have a school yah you want to have a
11:36 prize yo so long your name is there this is the epitome of self-centeredness
11:43 is the epitome of I am God of my life so that when I die you remember my name
11:52 that's the world let's look at how Nehemiah looked at purpose and how he
11:59 look at success and first look at the definition of purpose it comes from the
12:04 beginning chapter when he opened his ears and he heard the situation of those
12:10 who went back the wall of Jerusalem is broken down the gates have been burned with fire. People who live there are in
12:18 trouble and disgrace. His starting point for purpose wasn't a selfactualization
12:24 that I'm going to be famous for doing this. I'm going to be well known for doing this. I'm going to be a great
12:31 architect. I'm going to be a great lawyer. I'm going to be great software engineer. I'm going to I'm going to be the next Dan Zugerberg and flip
12:38 something in my 30s and make tons of money. His purpose was in the needs of
12:45 people. Number two, his purpose was grounded in the will of God because he
12:52 remembers the covenant God. And the covenant God is the exiles will return
12:58 back. And so we got to that great chapter which Sam did such an amazing sermon. And here is success. Give your
13:08 servant success. And his success and his purpose is
13:14 grounded in the will of God. And the world teaches you grounded in self
13:21 for us is in the will of God. And he gives up a high paying six figure job
13:28 with perks with a Mercedes cars, red slips, shares in the company, annual
13:34 leave, everything. Retire at the age of 40. He gives it all of that up to become a
13:43 lio a contractor to build a wall in 52 days. That's
13:51 purpose for you. Let me u two weeks time kui will come to you. He ran top
13:58 management HP. He went into the startup 1,000 people to do disc drives. He's one of the top
14:05 trainers in the country. some time ago he said you know what I'm
14:11 going to start a Bible school gave it all up started a Bible school
14:17 teach Christians now about marketplace two weeks time come and listen to him I
14:23 believe the daughter Esther worships with us if Esther is here raise your hand for your father if you're not then too shy it's okay but what he says is
14:32 right your business or your work should be more than the bottom line can it have
14:37 an eternal eternal value. It should have it should be part of God's salvation
14:43 history plan. It should have kingdom values found in the gospel. And that's
14:48 why we're going to look at it today. Now, let me give you a simple reason why you
14:54 should do that. As smart as you are, you can't figure out everything. You know how much Hong
15:01 Kong Disneyland lost because of the riots in Hong Kong?
15:07 Posting as of yesterday is 270 million. As smart as you are, you cannot predict
15:13 the riots in Hong Kong. You cannot predict SARS. You cannot predict Brexit.
15:20 You cannot predict many things. So Kuwi in simple common sense is you got to
15:27 have a longer stretch. You got to invest in kingdom reality. I'm going to give
15:32 you a few examples of people do it. First thing what uh Neahmiah Lee son of
15:38 Lee did was he declared the kingdom of God in a line which is full of corruption.
15:45 And this is what he said. He got he has been featured many times. We conduct our business with integrity because we want
15:51 to glorify God in and through business. It's a value we hold dear right from the beginning. is the cost of carrying the
15:57 cross. Because we do not believe in giving bribes, we have to work harder to ensure what we deliver has quality and
16:03 it's on time. When the clients want a cost effective supply, they will come to us. I am an architect. I will tell you
16:10 this much. I swim with sharks. Do not tell me I don't understand corruption.
16:16 Two weeks time we would deal with this is the air I breathe. My wife would know. I had clients who wanted me to
16:23 sign documents, bring a gun, you know, they bring a gun into the meeting room and put it there. Basically tell you,
16:29 Lein Manga, do not anyone tell me I don't understand the pressure of corruption.
16:36 So for someone to make a stand like that, there is a price to pay. There is a price. Here's another example. This is
16:42 one of America's most well-known fast food joints, Chica Phil.
16:48 And he is a southern baptist you know and look at he said three values who will be your master who will be your
16:55 mate what will your mission and you if you go into the ethos of the company is completely built on scripture and again
17:01 there's a price to pay you know which community has launched a war against him
17:07 the LGBT community he opened a lot in England you know and
17:13 the tenant is now trying to revoke it because of his stand on sames sex
17:18 marriage. So here's the price we pay for all of us
17:24 in business and in work to carry the cross. There is a price. But our God is
17:31 faithful. And he calls us this morning to define success and define purpose in
17:40 the gospel. And it's not easy. I had subcons come and tell me firefighting
17:46 contractors and you you you can't move without bribing and and I I I try to
17:51 show grace. I get it. I get it. So one one friend of mine he dare not even go
17:56 to church. You know he say he sit outside the wife will go to church because he's been every day giving money. I get it.
18:04 Don't tell me I don't understand. People who do land deals in this country, they'll jam you the last minute and then
18:10 the bank rates kick in, the loan kicks in or you're bleeding every day unless you pay out. I get it and we need to
18:19 talk about it. So here's the other thing we got to understand and here's the big picture we go to before we go to chapter
18:25 3. To understand purpose and success, you have to define work. And that's
18:31 found in Romans 12:1. Work is worship is my hands and my legs and my talent.
18:40 Whatever I eat, whatever I do, as Paul says, I do it all to glorify you. Work
18:46 is worship. The problem with you ask is that we have compartmentalized the two.
18:52 Work is work, church is church. So people don't talk of what they do at
18:58 work. They don't come and tell you I struggle with this.
19:04 Church is where I do my ministry. Now, there's a very big danger in this and you can flip two sides. One
19:11 because you don't talk about your work. It's okay. Whether you're dealing you're
19:17 cheating your tax, whether you're dealing corrupt practices, whether you're you're squeezing your your
19:22 vendors, whether you're really treating your staff badly, it's okay because I'm
19:28 a ministry leader. That's called salvation by works. That's a guilt conscience. I had another
19:35 friend of mine who was so successful and one day he said you know we all going to go to India to make some money and he
19:41 dragged me along with me and he told me the Lord wants me in India. I said the Lord doesn't want you in India. The Lord wants you to clean up your business.
19:49 He actually sent me a book and underline it no one want one book on prophecy. He says brother Anna I've seen the signs
19:55 signs are the Lord asked me to invest money India. The Lord asks you to invest in cleaning up your business and make
20:02 less money. You see, we that's why we find very successful people all have the same
20:07 thing. I give money to the church. They're trying to buy out God. You know, you can buy out a small company, you
20:13 cannot buy God out. Here's the opposite extreme. You're doing nowhere in your
20:18 work. I was brought up in a church that told me ambition was a sin. I'm telling you so-called gospel centered reformed
20:26 churches can really teach you subtle heresies. Money is the love of love of money.
20:31 Spend time in the church. And I was I was like that for many years. And I then afterward reality kicks in.
20:38 You have to pay bills. You have to pay for children's education.
20:43 You have to pay your loan. You're not in America where there's social security, you know. And after a while, the church
20:51 became my character. The church became my identity. The church became my idol.
20:58 Both are unbiblical. Here's a simple thing we see in Nehemiah which is his
21:04 ministry is both. Why? Because if he wasn't the king's cup bearer, he would
21:12 not have been the builder of the wall. That's God's providence. Do you know what is the single most important
21:19 quality to be a cup bearer to the king? which is I think today they'll tell you
21:24 in business especially if you're a right-hand man to the top guy the one quality you cannot buy with money you
21:30 can be very creative you can be technical you can be a very good manager
21:35 is called trust and he is an exile so you try imagine
21:42 you have a Persian king you have a minority group he rises to be number two
21:48 because the king trust him and because the king trusts him, God in
21:54 the providence brought him to the point in his history to says now you will build a wall.
22:01 So God set this in motion years before. If Neahmiah wasn't trustworthy, he
22:07 wouldn't have raised up in the ranks and you know Jewish history to be the barrel of the of your colonial master is
22:14 betrayal, you know. And then he gets to the point where he hears something and
22:20 he builds the wall. Both are ministry. Here is what work is telling me. My
22:26 church ministry impacts my career decision
22:31 because I get godly values when I'm in Bible study when I'm serving. That
22:36 affects how I do my work. And my career growth completes my spiritual journey.
22:41 Number one, it finances things. I can now finance missions. I now have a
22:48 platform in my work five days a week to show kingdom values. It complicit both
22:54 are interconnected. So let me just give you five points how
23:00 in your everyday job you can develop this very simple and tomorrow you go to
23:06 work you can develop this and remember we are all in our father's business
23:12 kingdom building. Number one, how do you view your career advancement? Nehemiah never bothered. He just got up
23:19 to the top. And when he got to the top, God told him, "Give it up."
23:26 So here's all you CEOs, all you people who make a turnover of 5 million above and make tons of money.
23:33 Fantastic. When you get to a point and God whispers to you, "Give it up." Can you do that?
23:40 Number two, how do you view financial gain? We read last week uh chapter five he
23:48 didn't take money from the governor's pay he gave up his perk because people were suffering
23:54 one person I really respect for this he won't tell you is the man sitting in the
23:59 back standing in the back in a short shirt who happens to be urologist I think his name is Dr. Peter earn
24:06 I will say this in love for him you see how Peter handles money
24:12 he won't tell you his net worth I know I know his net worth
24:18 the way he lives nowhere close to his net worth you are you you know where all his money went
24:26 the church you owe me a Peter there why you never
24:31 ask number two How do you view what you do as glorifying God? I'm an architect.
24:37 You're a lawyer. You're a software engineer. You're a teacher. How are you glorifying God? How are you excelling in
24:45 what you're doing? Because God is a God who does good work in creation. When he
24:50 finish it, what did he say? It was good.
24:55 So, we show up to work and do a crappy job. You're not glorifying God.
25:05 9 to5 do I hate my job. You're not glorifying God.
25:10 Joseph was in jail. He glorified God. You could be a street cleaner. You
25:16 glorify God. Number two, what do you struggle to change?
25:23 And here's where it it all comes out. You know, for example, some people tell me I'm very arrogant. You know why?
25:29 Because I don't know. I run my own business. I don't know what's it like to listen to people. I only know how to
25:34 tell people. So my family ministry mandling goring me. Problem with you is you are too used to telling people what
25:41 to do. You come to us in the committee meeting. You also just tell us what to do. You never listen.
25:49 Some of family life teaching people how to hear. We all have our sinful area. That's why people say this fellow
25:55 Christian. Wow. the way he treat this. I knew I knew someone else, you know, who is very involved in Christian ministry.
26:01 He will squeeze all the vendors, you know, squeeze, you know, got bone, you know, I say,
26:08 "Hello, brother." He's trying to make a living, but he gets off on it. Oh, very good. Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze. But he cannot see that that is
26:16 not glorifying God. Why? Because he's so active in his ministry. And last, how do you treat others? How
26:23 do you treat the Nepali guard in the front? How do you treat the peon? How do you treat them as God's creation? These
26:30 are simple basic things. And of course when you get better you you be like a certain D in our office here who runs
26:37 alpha in a company cannot mention his or her name but you know these are things and it comes on simple things which you
26:44 do small little things my company in the last 3 years went into financial difficulty I mean we thank God we're not
26:51 in a red get by I look my PN every year still make small little profit and one
26:57 day I sat on my staff 3 years ago I said the good days are gone no more company trips trips to Korea bonus in the many
27:04 many months they're gone. I said I can pay you a little bit to make uh the the the every year the you
27:12 know the the just a little bit to just get by because of of of the economy but
27:17 that's it. I'll pay one month bonus. And all the staff said okay. Then I asked my staff I want to do something I
27:24 never done all these years. Can I pray for you? And they all not for sale. They say okay and I pray
27:29 and I finish praying. They all clap. But I I I thank God for that. the little
27:35 little things you do. Then sometime last year I begin to realize my company we we are just over bloated. I could I could
27:43 cut you know but I think of people and I see if I cut the guy he's got no money to feed his kids. So I tell God can I
27:50 keep them I make less but I keep them and I and I keep my wife knows I keep
27:56 and then God honors it and one of my guys my one most expensive sty come tells me boss I'm migrating. I say hallelujah God. Thank you. Really? You
28:05 you you honor God. God honors you. I say hallelujah. Because you you don't
28:11 understand. Staff expenses are very high. Every month you ask why you you you sweat. Hey, please get collection
28:18 law. Look at it. Then you got to break FDs. Little thing. And little things people tell. I I got one client who
28:25 corrupted. So one day he sat down with me know because he was paying off somebody. I will say this in Cantonese.
28:32 He says then he paused in front of the whole
28:38 meeting. In English he said everybody wants
28:43 money. Pause. Then he looked at me only you don't want money. I saw that as a compliment.
28:49 I saw the compliment that Lord my hands are clean. And these are little things
28:55 we do to show ourselves to the world. Now this is the key thing. We're not going to go into bit into chapter three.
29:02 Leadership. Let me give you a few things about leadership. First, he's a leader.
29:08 Has to have a vision. Where did his vision come from? Number one, he listened to the people. Number two, he
29:15 waited upon the Lord. Number three, he shared the vision. We find this. Now here's the key thing and this is why the
29:22 menty meter score is so telling the question is not about sharing the vision or having a vision. The question is
29:30 empowering the vision. That is the key issue. You see once we go to uh end of
29:38 chapter two is let us start building is
29:43 no longer Nehemiah building it is the people
29:48 building. So here's something maybe I struggle with. Maybe the reason why the mntimeter score is so poor is because we
29:56 have not empowered you. So the vision becomes the vision of the elders, not the vision of the church.
30:02 That's something for us to look at. Number one. Number two, you need discernment with integrity. Jesus say
30:09 this, "Behold, I'm sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves to be wise as serpents, as innocent as those." And
30:16 one thing we really really lack as Christians is discernment. Let me tell you where his discernment
30:22 is. Okay. Chapter two. We ready? I'm going to read it again. Verse 11. I went
30:27 to Jerusalem. Okay. I set out during the night. Hey, why he like to go at night?
30:32 Romantic. Then he said, I had not told anyone what my God had put in my heart. Then verse
30:39 13, by night I went out through the valley gate.
30:45 And then verse 19 again, uh verse 15, the official did not know where I had gone or what I was doing. What you hear
30:53 is this word. No one knew I went by night. That's discernment. Why did he do
30:59 that? Why didn't he make an announcement? I'm going to build the wall, have a groundbreaking ceremony,
31:05 declaring the Jerusalem Times because there was opposition.
31:11 He was smart enough before he get buyin from the stakeholders, he kept it very
31:17 quiet. He did an audit. He did a recon. That's one. Number two, we saw chapter
31:22 five, uh, Yian brought us through the thing. He brought us about how the the the the nobles were cheating people. And
31:30 look what he says in verse 12. We will give it back. We will not demand anything more from them. We will do as
31:35 you say. What does Nemiah do? Then I summoned the priest and made the noble officials take an oath to do what they
31:42 had promised. You know why he do that? Don't trust rich people. Make sure they
31:47 sign. That's what he's saying. And then he threatens them with a legal uh uh
31:53 clause. If you break it, you know, I shook out the force my robe and said, "In this way, may God shake out his hope
31:60 and possession every man who does not keep the promise." This is a man who understands discernment. Here's the
32:07 third one. This one is really missing. Creative leadership,
32:13 godly creative leadership. Why do we do that? Because we are in the image of a God that creates. God is a creator and
32:20 he was good. And so creative leadership is lacking especially now especially in
32:25 this economy and and the way the world is changing with AI and data analytics.
32:31 This is the key thing and we tend to think this is secular. This is not gospel centered. I beg to defer and you
32:38 see before I built this this will be the kind of things they say we don't have the right people. We are lay people we
32:44 don't have a developer. We don't have the tools. The the the the wall is too big. We don't know where it
32:50 is. How can remember? During that time those days are no surveyor. You know, you cannot survey, give a plan, do a 3D
32:57 modeling. How to remember? So now we're going to go to chapter three. Number one. This is the wall. He starts
33:05 anticlockwise with the sheep gate. 52 days. He ends up at what we known as the
33:11 tower of the 100. The question is why? Why did he start with the sheep gate? So
33:18 let's go for the first thing. And this is called creative leadership. He started the work by getting buy in. You
33:24 see Elijah the high priest, his fellow priest went to work and rebuilt the sheep gate. Nebi could have started
33:30 anywhere else. He purposely started one with the sheep gate, two with the high priest. Why? Two reasons. One, the high
33:39 priest is the descendant of Yeshua who is the high priest of Zerubbabel. During
33:45 those days, you're the high priest. You are number one. You know if the high priest would build, the
33:52 people will build. That's called discernment. Also number
33:58 two, why the sheep gate? Because the sheep gate is nearest to the temple. All the pilgrims went through the ship gate.
34:06 So the first thing he did is in anything you're doing, you start off smart. He
34:11 started off smart by getting key stakeholders in and he got it by the priest. Number two, he matched the right
34:18 people with the right task. And there's a key on the in in the whole text. And please, this is very gospel centered.
34:24 Bear with me. Number one, he had the priestly communities buy in. We get it because the chief priest got it. The
34:31 Levites went in, the temple servants. So he's got now a manpower group. That's one, the priestly community. Second, he
34:38 had a business community in the business community. He had goldmith, perfume
34:44 makers and merchants. Now have you noticed is very selective because during those days if you're in a
34:52 trade you're in a guild. A guild is like Hainanese association. We take care of
34:57 of you're not sukinang. We don't care about you. You know it's like it's like
35:03 Chinese guilds. So if you are in a guild we provide you tools. Do you know what was the most biggest guilt is the
35:10 baker's guilt. They are not included. The porter's guilt is not included. Why?
35:16 Because they are not upper income. People like this got money. No drive
35:22 Mercedes one. It's true. You really historically you got ghost me. Hello.
35:27 Where got no money? A perfume maker does embarmment. He charge very expensive one. So my say hello you make so much
35:35 money you better go and build a wall. Number two, the ghostmith and the perfume makers knew the city. The bakers
35:43 sat there and people come and buy bread from you. Is a vendor business, you know. A ghost is a is a targeted
35:50 business. I go to this house. I go there. They knew the city.
35:55 Second group he took were the families. And look what the families the sons and the sons and the sons and the sons.
36:01 Notice in red built opposite his house. They angle the entrance of the house
36:08 opposite his house opposite living quarters. This is what we call scalability.
36:14 Hey, you build a wall. I don't know how to build, but you used to stay there, right? Yeah, I stay there. You know the wall in front of your house, right?
36:20 Yeah, I know. Can you build? I think I can. That's what he's saying. He is telling
36:27 people because no survey. Can you remember the wall in front of your house? I can remember. You go and build there. bring your Ali Acho, your maid,
36:34 your Filipino maid, your your brother, sister and go and build. Okay, I build for you. This is his major workforce,
36:41 you know. Secondly, he had a men in the surrounding towns, Jericho and Tequa,
36:46 but the nobles are they don't want to do it, which means not everybody agrees. Now, Teoa is a place which is in a plane
36:54 open to attack from Sbalad. He basically goes and tells them you go and stay in the company there, they're
36:59 going to whack you. You know, you want you come and build for us. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. And they bring in the numbers.
37:06 This is called critical mass. The town comes, you know, a family builds is five
37:12 people. A town comes is 300 people. And Jericho understands walls. You can
37:18 imagine him going there. Jericho did we not shake down your walls? Now we call you to rebuild the walls. And here's the
37:25 other group. He brought in the rulers of surrounding areas. Why? He understands political
37:31 connection. You have no political con connection. You don't have numbers. So
37:37 what I'm trying to tell you is here is a man who is creative. And creativity is
37:44 something which I think Christians lack. You are we are to be creative in this
37:49 country where things are against you. Creativity is an is is a is a character
37:55 of God. So we never say this is secular is biblical. Let me give you two other
38:02 points in this tenacity. We will take that in the week after next because a
38:08 real measure of leader is when opposition comes. And chapter 4 was so fantastic. I'm going to do a sermon by
38:14 itself. When people intimidate you, when people cut off your funding, when people charge you with wrong things, when
38:20 people put you into a lawsuit and you have to go to high court to file your defense. That's when your real metal
38:29 comes out when you don't shake and break under pressure. But here's the last and
38:34 key quality he has. Because a lot of this you can say, "Hey, what's so gospel centered about this is this is servant
38:43 leadership." You see, in the end,
38:48 he doesn't see himself better than the others. He sees himself as a servant.
38:54 He sees himself as one of the leaders. And Paul say this, do nothing out of
39:00 selfish ambition or vain conceit. And that's our biggest struggle in work when
39:06 we compartmentalize our lives. Rather than humility, value others above yourself. Not looking to your own
39:13 interests, but each to the interests of others. That's Nehemiah. In your relationship one another, have the same
39:18 minds as Christ Jesus. And there we have the gospel.
39:24 The kingdom of God is the gospel and gospel values should be there in your
39:31 work place in the market and the way you do work in church. Now you may stop
39:37 there and you says you know what I'm not a leader. On one hand it's true because Ephesians
39:44 tells us leadership is a gift. But on the other hand what is the Neahhemiah story is about is about the called out
39:51 people coming back because God keeps his covenant. They're laboring for God and
39:58 God will fight for them. You are the out people. You are ambassadors. You are
40:04 called out to preach the good news. You're called out to be salt and light in the world. You're called out to be a
40:10 testimony. One day Rafi, you know, Pakatan uh uh uh uh this story I got
40:15 from my wife. I can verify from her at a rally which my wife goes to. He was talking about they were say the
40:22 opposition. Then he brought out one of his staff this Rafi that time he was under he was charged you know and he
40:29 brought out about the character of the staff the integrity of staff and how this particular Chinese stuff just was
40:36 so different and and then he said it was because he was a Christian
40:41 that's your testimony that's you being a called out leader and
40:49 we are all leaders let me And with this work and identity, you see wherever you
40:57 like it or not, your work defines you. Especially for men.
41:03 Uh during my uni days, I I I was at I was an architect. Architect very low end in Australia. We were at lower campus.
41:10 New South was on a hill. Architects at GS were all on the low side. Why don't
41:15 laugh? The middle campus were accountants. Upper campus was doctors and lawyers.
41:23 You can tell the packing order. Before I met my wonderful wife, I dated
41:28 a lawyer. I got a better wife, huh? Pleaseh.
41:34 She was on upper campus. You know the word taoy label.
41:40 So, she had to go and tell her friends, "My my I'm going out with a with a with a with an architecture student. No face.
41:48 other people. My boyfriend doctor very slow it comes out your identity
41:57 defines you. There was an article in a paper that day about a ML woman who had a master's
42:02 degrees who married a lowly lorry driver and there was a big article about it. I don't mind marrying a lorry driver but
42:09 in God's economy my identity has very little to do with my type of vocation.
42:16 You could be doing this in Bangladesh. All you millennials who want to find
42:22 yourself, some people in the world have no choice. In in a time of old testament, new testament, you were what
42:27 your father will do. Your father's a farmer, you're a farmer. You don't say, you know what, I I want to I want to feel free. I want to I want to explore
42:34 the world and do no such thing. Your dad was a fisherman. You're a fisherman, Sunny. That's the end of the story.
42:42 So the problem with work ties back with
42:47 the issue of purpose and success. If you are very successful in what you do, it
42:54 will get to your head. You think you're very you're you're something special. That's why I I always say this in love.
43:01 People who are successful come to church carry themselves a certain way. I know that I'm not very successful, but I've
43:07 been accused of being arrogant. So I need to reflect. I I would say that if you are running
43:13 your own business and you're successful, subconsciously you carry yourself a certain way.
43:18 On the other hand, if you're not doing very well and you come to FBC and you find everybody got a lot of money, you're very poor, you're very lowly down
43:25 the level, it's not a matter of the mind, it's a matter of the heart, you
43:30 feel you don't measure up. You see where we're going with this? But if a cupbearer can become a
43:39 construction worker, what do you think God is telling us? God doesn't care. You could be a drain
43:46 sweeper and a drain sweeper will be closer to the kingdom of God
43:53 than a specialist doctor. No offense to all specialist doctors here. Please uh
43:58 very careful this church. But God doesn't care. He wants you and I to
44:05 worship him in work and everything we do. Colossians says, "Whatever you do,
44:10 whatever word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." Slaves,
44:17 obey your earthly mothers and masters, everything, do it not only when your eye is on you and to curry, the favor, but
44:24 with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord. Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart. Christians
44:30 should excel in everything they do. They should be very ambitious for God's sake. Climb up to become a cup bearer. You
44:37 will influence this country for the kingdom as working for the Lord, not for
44:42 human masters. Let me just give you an example of another man who
44:49 understands failure. This is Tansri Chanachai.
44:54 Uh I I knew him personally because I was his architect. In the '9s there was no bigger company
45:02 than Talam and his subsidiaries Europlas and Larot. I I remember going as a young
45:10 architect. They will queue you know there will be a big meeting there will be five six architects there all the
45:16 major players and I was doing pandan inda there. People were queuing to buy houses. Not like now you got a bag. You
45:22 know during those day they buy houses like buying bread you know 2 hours all I was there people were camping out at
45:28 night to buy houses. Then 205 came he lost money. Buki
45:34 Brunong Highland Towers happened. The government put in regulation of hillside. In 205 he
45:43 was 5 billion in debt. I know the senior management they were
45:48 at my wedding. So I know some of them quite well. They all went for a holiday on a cruise and he went to St.
45:54 Petersburg and I tell you I was I was at meeting.
46:01 It's true. He scores you like a dog. He swear you every every swear word you can
46:07 imagine he can lace it together and whack you on. You know I remember I get shot across the table. Hey you
46:13 architect. Huh? I asked you give me yesterday. You give me this kind of bum. Then papa you were really you have
46:21 really felt like peeing in my pants. And I tell you if you have ever a man
46:27 that was broken for the Lord is him. Now he's not perfect.
46:33 People still hate his name. He tells us you know that sometime he go and give talks people line up to spit at him.
46:40 But here's a man who understands failure and success the way the Lord sees it.
46:46 and he gave a sermon in a testimony in SIB a few years ago and he gave eight
46:52 pimp principles and I will tell you one thing in the eyes of the world he's a failure
46:60 in God's economy I think he's succeeding because his identity is not in these
47:06 things I'm also trying to get him to speak in ABC so hopefully we'll learn something
47:11 from him for we are God's handiwork work created in Christ Jesus to do good works
47:18 which God prepared in advance for us to do. The word handiwork here the Greek
47:25 rending is the word pyoma. It comes from the word poem.
47:31 It means you and I whether you're a specialist doctor, a developer, a
47:37 student, a lecturer, drain cleaner, you are God's work of art.
47:46 You are God's masterpiece. You are God's poem.
47:51 Go out there and live like that. That is your God-given identity.
47:57 So let me now end with this last part. There are two identities here. And chapter three talks about the corporate
48:04 identity. I want to ask you what is the most repeated word in chapter 3 except
48:10 the word the son of? Anyone can do it. I give you five bucks
48:16 next five minute. Come on. Anybody? All Bible scholars. Short it out.
48:22 No. No. Close. Is the word next.
48:29 Correct or not? Next to he built this. Next to he built this. Next to he built
48:37 this. Today as you came to the church,
48:44 David son of did the car park attendance.
48:49 Next to him the ashes came out under another David my good friend there. Next
48:55 to him Malcolm son of Australia did some melody
49:03 next to him outside. Woo selling fish
49:09 next to him. Ivy and Kong doing newcomers. Downstairs, Joash doing youth. Next to
49:17 him, Federico doing the Filipino ministry. Upstairs, the Sunday school goes on on a vaci.
49:24 Next to them, Desmond is doing Alpha. Next to them, Yinyu is doing the
49:30 library. Who is next to you?
49:35 Who is next to you? You see Nehemiah built a wall
49:44 with goldmiths, merchants, kong people, all sorts of people.
49:52 Today God is building FBC.
49:57 But our builder is not Neahmiah. Who is our builder? Jesus Christ.
50:05 We are not building a wall. What are we building?
50:11 What are we building? We're building a church.
50:16 So my question is this. If Maya had run a mentter questionnaire,
50:25 would he have gotten the same score? I'm going to leave you with that.
50:32 I want to ask you one question or two. One, you go back to work tomorrow.
50:40 What kingdom values are you going to give to your company?
50:46 Because there is no separation from ministry and church and your work out
50:52 there. Number two, the chapter is telling you everybody built. Even the
50:58 bakers built the bakers provided bread the kong people he wasn't building a
51:05 wall he wasn't rebuilding wall he was rebuilding people you know
51:11 and I ask you where are you in FBC
51:17 and if you cannot tell us who is next to you you are not building the church
51:24 can I just challenge you with that let us pray as I ask the worship team to come up. Lord God, we thank you for
51:31 speaking to us this morning and we ask that we remember you are a God of our work. Our identity is in you. Those of
51:39 us who are successful, keep us humble. Those of us who are down and out, keep
51:45 us joyful. Remind us, oh Lord, of our purpose in
51:51 our work, that is to have a kingdom mindset to be good stewards. and remind us we're all leaders. Teach
51:58 us to work creatively at our work. Teach us to have discernment. Teach us to have visions, oh Lord. And Lord, as we ponder
52:05 why we as a church are not that united,
52:11 why the vision is not bought on, is it something we as elders have
52:16 failed? Is it something the congregation is not committed? Let us search deeply.
52:22 And as Nehemiah built the wall, teach us to rebuild our lives and rebuild this
52:28 church. We say it in Jesus name. Amen. We're going to sing this song, blessed
52:33 assurance. And uh as we sing this song, there will be another a little I'm going to ask you
52:40 to just come before God and especially bring your work back to him.
