- Amen, well, it's great to be here with you guys
in your new building.
It's my first time up here in the new building,
so it's great to see how well you guys are adjusting to this.
I'm very excited for this building,
excited for everything that Faithful Word has ahead of it.
Of course, I've been kind of seeing things online
and stuff like that.
I know the theme for this last year was our best year,
but I love that it's always our best year yet,
as if it's not like, hey, we peaked this year.
It's all downhill from here.
But I know that Faithful Word
has lots of great things ahead of it.
It's great to see that map out front
with the, I'm sure the Phoenix City map
is somewhere around here in all of its orange glory,
but it's great to see a world map out there
and all the work you guys are doing.
I notice there's a lot of pins in the Caribbean right now.
So, but that's great, no judgment here.
I'm glad you guys are reaching that area
and all the great work that you're doing.
And of course, I'm very appreciative of Pastor Anderson
and him giving me this opportunity to come up here
and preach for you guys.
And also just to kind of remind everybody
that I haven't like silently quit the new IFB
or anything like that.
I know my online presence is like non-existent right now,
but our streaming device blew up.
I got nuked from YouTube and I'm just real busy,
but we have plans to take care of all that stuff.
We'll be back online and my 12 listeners
will be more than happy for that.
But anyway, so our Southern new IFB forces remain strong
here in Arizona.
We've got, I just got the group text this morning.
We had 43 in church, which is kind of a high for us.
It's above our average.
Figures, you know, I'm not there.
Everyone decides to show up.
So I know maybe that's the case this morning.
I don't know, but here, but our church up in Boise
with brother David Akers is holding strong.
And of course, over in St. Louis, we have a church there
with brother Eric Ilgenfritz,
and he's doing a great job out there for us too.
So we're doing things, we're working,
but everything's going good
just to kind of let everybody know in one shot here,
we're doing good.
I don't know really what else to say about the churches
and then they're doing good.
God's blessing, we're holding steady.
We might have a new name,
but we're still faithful to the word
and we're still preaching it.
So let me get into the sermon this morning.
I think I plugged everything I was supposed to plug,
but I wanna preach a sermon this morning
entitled "Tough Love", "Tough Love".
And of course, if you're familiar
with the book of 1 Corinthians,
you know that this is a book
that this isn't the kind of letter you would get
and you know, around this time of year,
we're all getting Christmas cards and letters
and updates from friends and family.
And there's always, you know, it's always a nice report
and we'll hang it on the fridge,
we'll put it on the table or whatever.
And they'll say, "Oh, that's nice."
A little tear to the eye, smile on the face.
This isn't that kind of letter, right?
This is a letter.
It's just basically just one long scathing rebuke
of everything that's going wrong in this church.
And Paul is writing to correct all these things.
And you know, he's not necessarily being nice about it,
right, he's basically just kind of saying it as it is,
just kind of calling sin out.
Of course, in First Corinthians chapter number four,
he's already dealt with in the previous chapters,
all the contention, along them, all the divisions,
people are seeing, you know, I'm a Paul,
I'm a Paulist, I'm a Cephas.
And he's dealing with all these different issues
that are going on in this church,
but he's doing it with tough love.
He's doing it in a way that, you know,
gets to the point, gets to the root of the problem.
And that's really something, you know,
as a pastor that you have to be willing to do.
You know, one of the most important lessons I was taught
by Pastor Anderson before I became a pastor,
was you have to have this word in your vocabulary
called no, right?
And this is just, anyone that's leaning, even parents,
you know, that's good advice for you too.
You know, if you're leaning and you're overseeing people,
you're gonna have to sometimes go to people and say,
hey, you can't do that, you shouldn't do that.
This is what you ought to be doing.
And you have to correct people.
And part of that a lot of times is telling people no,
telling people what they don't want to hear.
And that's really what you see in 1 Corinthians,
where he's just dealing throughout the whole book
with all manner of sin.
And he's kind of easing into it here,
I think in chapter four.
Of course, he's dealt with a few issues,
but we all know chapter five is like the really big chapter
where we have people that are one particular person, right?
The guy isn't named, but everyone in the Corinthian church
is like, oh, that's so-and-so, right?
So he's really hitting the nail on the head here
in this book, getting really specific
and really dealing with very specific sins
with very specific individuals.
And not because he's mean, not because he's just malicious,
not just because he hates people,
he just likes to hurt people's feelings,
but because that's the job of a leader.
That's the job of the pastor.
Sometimes the pastor has to get up and deal with issues,
get specific and has to tell people negative things.
That's just a big part of the job.
And he's again, like I said,
he's kind of easing into it here in this chapter,
but he starts out kind of reminding them,
hey, you guys are puffed up.
You know, you guys are living kind of high on the hog
up there and what we see is going on in this church
is that they're kind of blinded by their own success.
They've kind of been blinded by their own pride
to the sin that the horrible wicked sin of fornication
and other things that are just right in their church.
And he goes, let's just pick it up here.
He says in verse 6, he says,
"And these things, brethren, have I in a figure
transferred to myself into apollos for your sakes,
that ye might not to learn and to think of men above that,
which is written, that no one of you be puffed up
for one against another.
For who maketh thee to differ from another?
And what hast thou that thou didst not receive?
Now, if thou didst not receive it, why dost thou glory,
as if thou hadst not received it?"
He's saying, don't get too puffed up.
All the good things that you've been given,
everything that you've received,
it's all by the grace of God.
It's not because you're just these special, unique people
that's better than other people.
In fact, he's gonna take them down a notch
throughout the rest of the book
and remind them that they're not any better
than anybody else,
that it's really all about the grace of God anyway.
But he goes on and says in verse eight,
"Now you are full, you are rich,
you have reigned as kings without us.
I would to God that you did reign,
that we also might reign with you."
He's saying, you guys are acting like
the race has already run, that Christ is already here.
You're reigning like kings.
And he kind of says, I wish you did reign as kings,
that we might reign with you.
Hey, there is gonna be a day when we are without sin.
We have the new man.
There's not gonna be any schisms in the body.
We're all gonna be united in Christ.
But that's not until Jesus comes.
Until then, you know, churches are gonna have issues.
Churches are gonna have difficulties.
There's gonna be battles.
There's gonna be fights.
And it's the pastor's job as the overseer of the flock
to get up and protect against the wolves
and to root out the leaven of sin within the body.
That hasn't come yet.
That's kind of what Paul's saying here.
You know, you guys are reigning as kings
as if it's all over.
And I wish that was the case, but it's not.
And he goes on and says in verse nine,
"For I think that God has set forth us,
the apostles last as it were appointed to death,
for we are made a spectacle under the world
and to angels and to men."
You know, and that's a very relatable verse as well.
Of course, you know, Pastor Anderson and other pastors
who have a lot of influence out there in the line,
a lot of, you know, they're kind of out there.
You know, and a lot, it's not all fun and games.
It's not, you know, the feedback isn't always positive,
right, to put it lightly.
You know, they're kind of made a spectacle under the world.
You know, they're kind of putting themselves out there.
Paul's kind of in a similar situation.
You know, he's known abroad.
You know, people know about him.
He has a great impact for the cause of Christ.
But you know, not everyone receives men like that,
receives people like that in a positive way.
He goes on and says in verse 10,
"We are fools for Christ, but ye are wise in Christ.
"We are weak, but ye are strong.
"Ye are honorable, but we are despised."
He's saying, this isn't adding up.
You know, you guys are acting like it's all over.
You guys are puffed up.
You know, we're the ones that are going through this battle
and this fight, and you're acting like
everything's just A-okay.
And he's saying, what in fact,
you guys have got major problems in your church.
That's what he's telling these Corinthians.
"Even under this present hour," verse 11,
"we both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffeted
"and have no certain dwelling place,
"and labor working with our own hands,
"being reviled, we bless, being persecuted, we suffer it.
"Being famed, we entreat,
"we are made of the filth of this world
"and are the oscouring of all things unto this day."
Doesn't the pastorate sound great?
I know Paul's not a pastor, but he's a leader.
He's an evangelist.
I mean, you read some of the things he's going through
and you think who in the world
would sign up for a job like that?
Who, you know, what kind of masochist would say,
"Yeah, hey, you know, I wanna be, you know,
"the oscouring of the world.
"I wanna be made the filth of the world,
"even, you know, for my entire ministry, right?
"I want people to defame me.
"I want to go through all these struggles."
I'll tell you the type of people
that wanna go through that
is the people that love other people.
The type of people that wanna put up
with this kind of negative feedback
from the unsaved and bitter and envious Christians.
I'll tell you who the type of people
that put up with that stuff are.
They're people that care about lost souls,
that care about God's people,
that care about the word of God,
that care about the Lord Jesus Christ.
Why in the world would anybody put up with this stuff?
I'll tell you why, 'cause of the love of God, that's why.
So when your pastor gets up and preaches a hard sermon
or goes through battles or deals with issues,
has to exercise some tough love.
Understand it's not because he's mean, right?
That's often the criticism of a lot of people who,
and it's often coming from people
who are in a failing position,
is just trying to attack the man of God, personally,
to say, "Well, I know I can't give you a rebuttal
for what you're saying from the word of God.
I can't deny what you're saying is true,
but you know what, you're mean."
And this is such a lame excuse, it's such a lame attack,
and it's ironic, really, when you think about it,
when people like Pastor Anderson and others,
even myself, who have been labeled,
well, they're just a bunch of mean preachers.
It's like, excuse me, where were we malicious
and cruel to people?
'Cause I think people might not even understand
what the word mean even means, right?
They don't even know what that word means anymore.
They just think mean is anytime you do anything,
I don't like your mean, right?
Well, that's not the meaning of the word.
Mean has several different meanings,
but the context we're using it in,
it means you're actually being a malicious person.
You're being vindictive.
You're being cruel.
You're going out of your way
to actually harm or injure somebody.
Now that's not what a pastor is doing
when he gets up and preaches hard sermons
and deals with issues and has to get up
and do the job of pastor.
He's not being mean.
Actually on the contrary, he's being loving.
It's the person that will tell you,
hey, you need to fix this.
You need to get this right.
Who's not afraid to preach the entirety
of the word of God and ruffle some feathers.
That's the person that loves you.
And that's something we could apply to all you children too.
All you kids that think your parents are mean,
they're not mean, they love you.
The parent that corrects you and guides you
and disciplines you,
that's the parent that actually loves you.
The parent who just kind of throws you to the wolves,
the parent who just kind of lets you figure out on your own,
just kind of lets you do whatever you want,
doesn't have any rules,
and lets you suffer the consequences
that you wouldn't have had to have suffered
if they had done their job.
They might love you,
they might have some kind of affection for you,
but you know what,
that's not a very loving thing to do, is it?
You know, the person that loves you
is the person that's actually gonna correct you
and straighten you out.
And that's what a pastor does.
That's a big part of the job as a pastor.
I mean, here's a whole book in the epistles
where it's just basically him just straightening them out
on every single issue and getting really specific here.
He says here in verse 14,
"I write not these things to shame you,
but as my beloved sons I warn you."
Right? He's saying, "Look, you're my beloved sons.
You're my children. You're beloved to me.
I care about you. That's why I'm warning you."
I'm saying, "Hey, you've got problems.
You've got to deal with this. You've got to get this thing fixed.
You don't want to have the wrath of God come down upon you.
You don't want to be judged. You don't want to have to suffer unnecessarily.
I'm warning you guys."
And he's saying, "I'm warning you as my beloved sons."
He says in verse 15, "For though you have 10,000 instructors in Christ,
yet you have not many fathers, for in Christ Jesus,
I have begotten you through the gospel."
So I love how he just kind of reminds them,
"Hey, I'm the one that got you saved, buddy.
I'm the one that preached you the gospel.
I know it's all through Christ, obviously."
He's like, "But I'm the one that took the time to actually preach the gospel to you.
You're my son in the faith. You're my children.
And I have begotten you through the gospel."
And you don't have many fathers like that in this world.
You know, we can have a lot of people that we look up to.
We can receive a lot of instruction online.
I'm needing, uncommonly, a large amount of water.
So you guys have got me a little nervous this morning,
just being honest, but he's saying, you know,
you know, there's a lot of people out there
you can receive instruction from and good teaching, right?
But let me just remind you that it's the pastor
that is seeing you day in, day out, you know,
week in, week out, month after month, year after year,
that actually knows you, knows your family,
knows their names, knows birthdays,
is there for the births and the funerals
and the weddings, the person's actually living life with you
that, you know, loves you the most.
And that's not to discredit people,
you know, other pastors that maybe you enjoy online
and things like that, I think that's great.
But, you know, how can they know you, right?
Well, I left a comment, you know,
that doesn't really tell them a whole lot about,
you know, it's the pastor that looks you in the eye
every service, the pastor that's gonna be there,
you know, for the hospital visits,
the pastors that's gonna be there for all of life's events,
that's the pastor that actually is gonna be more
of a father unto you.
You know, that's why it's so important
that we appreciate and cherish our pastors this morning
and not take them for granted and not treat them
as a lot of other people treat them and just say,
well, they're mean-spirited, they're angry,
they're just, you know, bad people in some way.
They're not, they're actually the people that love you.
And he says, "Wherefore I beseech you, be followers of me."
He's like, "Just get it right."
You know, no one likes being told that we're wrong,
but you know what the great thing about being told
to be wrong is now you have an opportunity to get it right.
We all like it when we get it right, don't we?
We all like it when, you know,
we can answer the question on the test.
We all like, "Oh, I know that one," right?
We, you know, here's an opportunity,
Corinthians, he's saying, to get right.
You know, follow me, let's straighten this thing out.
Let's talk about it first.
Let's address it and fix it.
Notice he says here in verse 17,
"For this cause I have sent unto you, Timotheus."
You know, that's Timothy.
"Who is my beloved son elsewhere?"
He refers to him as my son in the faith.
Timothy, my son in the faith.
Timothy, Timotheus, same guy.
Where he's saying, "I have sent unto you Timotheus,
who is my beloved son and faithful in the Lord."
So get, you know, understand your,
notice he says, first of all, in verse 14,
he calls them beloved sons, right?
And then he's calling Timothy a beloved son.
So it's not that, you know, he's playing favorites here.
He loves the Corinthian people.
He calls them his beloved sons,
just as he calls Timothy his beloved son.
You say, well, this epistle doesn't seem very loving.
You know, if they're so beloved, you know,
well, I'll tell you what the problem is.
The problem is with the people.
It's not with the pastor.
It's not with what he's teaching and preaching here.
It's not a problem with his attitude
or how he goes about preaching it
or bringing it to their attention.
You know, the problem is with the people.
Timothy, he says there is, I've said to you,
Timothy, who is my beloved son and faithful in the Lord.
You know, if these people had been faithful in the Lord,
this letter might not have been written
or it would have had a different tone
or it would have been about different things, right?
So when we find ourselves on the receiving end
of correction, what we have to understand
is the problem is us and not the person correcting us.
And you know, it's the cheap way out,
it's the easy way out to just say,
well, you know what, they're me.
You know, 'cause they didn't put it just so.
They didn't say it the way I prefer to be corrected.
You know, when you're wrong, you really don't have that,
you know, you really don't get to exercise your preferences
and how someone goes about correcting you.
You kind of just have to take it.
He goes on and says,
he says, "Timothias, my beloved son,"
verse 17, "and faithful Lord,
who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways,
which are in Christ,
as I teach everywhere in every church."
I'm not, he's not saying,
look, I'm holding you guys some double standard here.
This is the standard for all Christians.
You know, this is the rules that I preach everywhere.
These are the things that we need to observe
at every church.
So you got, the problem again,
is falling squarely on the Corinthian people.
And you know, Timothy is referred to as a faithful,
faithful Lord, he's a faithful minister.
And if we remember,
what was Timothy told to do by Paul
in the epistles to Timothy?
To reprove, to rebuke and to exhort
with all long suffering and doctrine.
That again is the job of the pastor.
Look, there's not really always a nice way
to reprove and rebuke people.
There's not, you know,
a lot of times it is coming from a place of anger
because it does make people angry when you're doing wrong.
You know, you kids are like,
"Oh, my parents are so mad at me."
Yeah, 'cause you made them mad,
'cause you upset them,
'cause what you did was wrong, right?
So we shouldn't have this attitude of,
well, if they were just nicer about it, no.
The job of the pastor is to reprove,
to rebuke and exhort.
You know, there's a lot of negative involved.
But, you know, and that's not to try,
you know, say that in a condescending way.
But the fact is, is that, you know,
when you get a bunch of sinners together,
you're gonna have problems.
You know, you get two sinners together in marriage,
you're gonna have marriage problems.
You start adding some little sinners to the equation,
you're gonna have little problems,
they're gonna get bigger, right?
You get a bunch of people together,
even if they're saved, and love God,
and love the Bible, and love soul-winning,
like this church and other churches do,
you know, you get a bunch of sinners together,
you're gonna have problems.
So, you know, some other sinner's gonna have to get up
and actually straighten everybody out,
that's just the way it works.
Now notice here in verse 18, he says,
"Now some are puffed up,
"as though I would not come unto you."
He's like, "Some of you guys are thinking
"that you're gonna get away with this.
"You think you're just gonna keep doing what you're doing,
"and that I'm not gonna show up and clean house."
He says, "But I will come to you shortly,
"if the Lord will, and you will know not the speech of them
"which are puffed up, but the power."
He said, "I will know the speech of them
"which are puffed up, and not the speech, but the power."
We'll see how bold you are
when you're looking Paul in the eyes.
We'll see how tough you're gonna talk
when the man of God actually shows up
and starts dealing with things.
So, and this isn't a veiled threat here.
Paul is the type of guy that would follow through
with what he would say.
Now he says here in verse 20,
"For the King of God is not in word, but in power.
What will ye?
Shall I come unto you with a rod?"
Right, and it's not like a walking staff.
He's talking about, "Should I show up?"
And basically, you know, the expression in my house is,
I probably shouldn't say it, but cracks and cracks.
You know, that's a little bit of a joke, right?
We're gonna deal with some people, you know,
with the rod, right, with the spanking discipline, right?
Which is biblical, by the way.
That's a whole 'nother sermon right there.
You know, that's another one
a lot of people have problems with today.
Oh, that sounds mean.
Yeah, well, it's biblical.
But anyway, I don't wanna get on that rabbit trail.
But he's saying, "Look, I'm gonna show up with a rod."
And I don't know if he's literally gonna show up
with a rod and start whacking people, probably not.
But you know, it's kind of a figure of speech.
He's saying, "We're gonna see how tough you really are.
"I'm gonna show up and I'm gonna exercise church discipline
"if you guys don't take care of it."
'Cause he says, "Shall I come at you with a rod or in love?"
So the choice is theirs.
You know, the choice is on them,
how Paul's gonna show up.
He's like, "Hey, you can either take the correction
"I'm giving you right now
"and deal with these problems that you have
"and then I can show up and we'll be good."
He says, "But if you don't wanna do that,
"if you wanna just continue down
"the sinful path that you're on,
"then the next time I show up, when I'm there,
"we'll deal with it then and we'll know the power
"and not the speech of them that are puffed up."
He said, "Would you want me to come
"with a rod in love and in the spirit of meekness?"
And look, I'm sure that's Paul's preference.
You know, pastors don't get a kick out of dealing
with situations, it's not like that.
Oh, you know, they spring out of bed in the morning
and say, I hope I have church problems.
I hope I can go be mean to people.
You know, I hope I get to go up and tell people
hard truths that are going to, you know,
uncomfortable truths that are gonna make them
uncomfortable and, you know, maybe hurt their feelings.
You know, it would be great if churches never had problems.
You know, but that's just not reality.
But he's saying, look, I can't show up
in the spirit of love and of meekness.
You know, it's not Paul's intent to go out
and have to, you know, deal tough love.
But sometimes that's what's needed.
And what's interesting about this
is that Paul is saying, you know, he's absent, right?
He's away.
This has nothing to do with your pastor being away on a trip,
by the way.
So anyway, you know, this just kind of came to me.
But it reminds me of another story
that I want to look at here in Nehemiah chapter 13.
So we're done in 1 Corinthians.
If you want to go over Nehemiah 13,
Paul is somebody who's gone from the Corinthian Church.
And then he's saying, hey, when I come back,
what am I going to find?
And this is one of the--
Nehemiah 13 has recently become one
of my more favorite chapters in the Old Testament.
Because I don't know, maybe it has something
to do with pastoring now.
But this is a gnarly chapter in the Word of God.
And it's just-- you read what Nehemiah does in the story,
and you think, man, the lengths that he had to go to
to straighten people out.
I mean, he literally gets physical with people
and starts making physical threats at other people
in this book.
And I'm not saying that I aspired to that one day
or anything like that.
Far from it, OK?
There's some big boys in my church, too.
So I don't want to deal with it.
But it's just interesting that you
see kind of a parallel with Paul.
Paul's saying, hey, am I going to have to show up
pulling Nehemiah?
Am I going to have to show up and crack some skulls
and deal with issues?
Or can I show up in the spirit of meekness and kindness
and love and just kind of have a nice visit with you guys?
So if you remember in Nehemiah, they built the wall.
They've had all these different battles
with all these different enemies of God.
And then the last part of the chapter here,
he kind of gives a synopsis here of some things that
had happened during the building and things like that
when he had gone away to Artaxerxes.
It says, let's just pick it up in verse one.
"On that day, they read in the book of Moses
in the audience of the people, and therein was found written
that the Ammonite and the Moabite
should not come into the congregation of God forever."
This is a clear commandment of God
that the descendants of Lot were to not be allowed
in the congregation of God forever.
They were banned from the house of God.
"Because they met not the children of Israel
with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them,
then he should curse them.
Howbeit our God turned the curse into a blessing."
And you know, this is a great teaching right here
on the fact that even when we have enemies,
God can work it to our good, right?
It goes on and says, "Now it came to pass
that when they had heard the law,
they separated Israel from the mixed multitude.
And before this, Elias shiv, the priest,
having the oversight of the chamber of the house of our God
was allied unto Tobiah."
Now Tobiah's the Ammonite.
Tobiah is the servant of Sanballat.
So he's actually somebody that if you go back and read,
we won't take the time to do it.
But if you go to Nehemiah chapter 2 10,
this is that same guy.
This is that same Tobiah.
And that's why it says he was allied unto him, right?
You don't ally with your own troops.
You don't ally with people that are on your side, right?
When we have, you know, allied troops,
it's foreign troops that were both in the same, you know,
we had the same mission, the same objective.
And he's saying that Elias shiv, the priest, right?
The guy having the oversight of the chamber
of the house of our God.
So the guy is literally an overseer of the house of God.
He's overseeing, you know, the Levitical priesthood,
he's overseeing the worship of God.
He's responsible for it.
And he's allied onto a literal enemy
of the work that they were trying to accomplish.
He's literally, you know, rubbing elbows with this guy.
They've got some kind of a deal worked out.
And it wasn't just that they had some, you know,
they were just allied together.
But look at verse five, how bad things have gotten.
He said, and he prepared for him a great chamber
where afore time they laid the meat offerings
and the frankincense and they laid the offerings
and the frankincense and the vessels and the tithes of corn
and the new wine and the oil,
which was commanded to be given to the Levites
and the singers and the porters
and the offerings of the priests.
So this was, you know, a chamber that is in,
you know, the temple, right?
This is something that, you know,
this room had a very specific purpose
and a very important one.
The tithes, the offerings,
these were things that were to be given to the Levites
and they cleared that out
and they brought in a literal enemy
to basically have a house there.
That's, you know, his household stuff
gets thrown out later.
He's hanging out now.
So it'd be kind of like, you know,
Pastor Anderson comes back from his trip
and Brother Chris has, you know, cleared out his office,
you know, and he's got, you know, some enemy,
that he invited, you know.
Of course, that would never happen.
I understand, right?
That would be the farthest thing
from ever actually happening,
and just trying to, like, bring it home for you.
I mean, think about that, you know.
I would imagine if that happened, you know,
Pastor Anders would be pretty upset.
If he's just like, hey, you know,
all these riffraff that were out in the parking lot,
I just got a soft spot for 'em, you know,
I put 'em up in there, I've been giving 'em water and food,
you know, and just taking care of 'em,
you know, cleaning 'em up, they've been using the shower,
you know, and just, I mean, Pastor Anders would be livid,
and rightly so, okay, obviously.
So that's kinda what's going on, you know.
He comes back, Nehemiah comes back,
and the guy that he set in charge while he was gone,
the guy who was kinda overseeing,
has literally invited the enemy of God
into not just the city, not just within the walls,
didn't give him a little house somewhere,
he brought him into the house of God,
and cleared out the portions that belong onto the Levites,
the tithes and the offerings and all that,
and said, oh, get rid of this stuff,
put this guy in there.
I mean, let that sink in.
'Cause we're about to read how Nehemiah reacts.
And people, if you skip that part of the story,
you might say, what's going on here?
Who is this guy?
He's mean, right?
But he's acting, yes, from a place of anger,
but it's righteous indignation.
'Cause he cares more about the service of God,
the people of God, than he does making sure
everybody gets treated just the way they want, okay?
So he goes on here and he says,
but in all this time, I was not at Jerusalem.
He's saying, hey, I wasn't there.
For on the two and 30th year of Artaxerxes,
king of Babylon, came I unto the king.
And after certain days obtained I leave of the kings.
He said, I was gone while this was happening.
You know, I thought I had put it in trustworthy hands.
I thought I had put it in somebody that I could trust
to make sure things were done.
But I come back and I find the enemy of God
in the house of God.
And he says in verse seven, and I came to Jerusalem
and understood the evil that Elias did for Tobiah
in preparing him a chamber in the courts
of the house of God.
And it grieved me sore, therefore I cast forth
all the household stuff of Tobiah and of the chamber.
And look, this is how a leader should deal with evil.
Immediately, swiftly, and with great finality, right?
This is how you deal with sin.
This is how you deal with bad things taking place.
You can't just, you know, he didn't give Tobiah
30 days notice.
You know, he didn't put a little orange thing on the door
and say, you have 90 days to vacate.
You know, you are being evicted.
He just walks in and says,
what in the world's going on here?
And just takes all of his stuff and just, you know,
throws it out wherever you threw it
and just gets rid of it and runs the guy right out.
That's strong leadership.
And you know, and he blames blame on, you know,
the guy that's responsible for it.
You know, the evil that Elias ship did
'cause he permitted it to happen.
That's tough love.
Well, I don't appreciate being called evil, Nehemiah.
Well, quit doing evil then.
Quit doing that, which is wrong.
Quit bringing the enemies in the house of God.
You know, there's a lot of this going around today,
you know, spiritually speaking,
in a lot of Baptist churches.
You know, there's a lot of Baptist pastors
and they're just letting all kinds of evil
come right into the congregation.
You know, their churches are full
of all kinds of drunkenness and fornication.
I mean, it's like 1 Corinthians in a lot of these churches.
They're like, you know, let's not even get going
about all the false doctrine, all the Zionism
and all the, you know, dispensationalism and all the,
you know, they don't want to take a hard stand
on, you know, repenting your sins, heresy.
They don't want to preach the gospel, clear and true.
They, you know, people have mixed ideas
about what it means, how to get saved, all kinds of things.
And not even to mention, you know, the sodomites,
not even to mention the fact that they're rolling out
the red carpet, you know, and just inviting sodomites
right into the house of God.
And, you know, there was a time not too long ago,
there were Baptists promoting the idea of,
hey, let's put them in children's ministries.
I mean, how, and it's like, and then someone gets up
and says, hey, that's evil.
Oh, that's so mean.
No, that's the right response.
That is the correct response.
Well, you know, did you have to be so angry?
Yes, it's infuriating.
You know, and you can't blame somebody
for getting angry and for getting mad
just because they love God.
They care about the things of God.
And when they say great evil taking place,
they see the enemies being vited into the house of God,
that it makes them angry.
And if, you know, they act out, you know, in that anger.
And that's exactly what Nehemiah does in the story.
Boy, does he start to act with a little bit of anger here.
Then verse nine, then I commanded,
and cleanse the chambers, and thither brought I again
the vessels of the house of God,
and the meat offering, and the frankincense.
And I perceived that the portions of the Levites
had not been given them, for the Levites and the singers
that did the work were fled every one to his field.
And notice how, you know, he gets to,
he explains why this is.
Why is it that the Levites, you know,
everybody that's the singers, supporters, so forth,
you know, why is it that they're out working, right?
Why are they out there having to, you know,
abandon their God-ordained responsibilities
to go and work, right, a full-time job?
He's saying, well, it's because
the house of God is forsaken, right?
He says in verse 11, "Then contended I with the rulers
"and said, why is the house of God forsaken?"
Why, where are the tithes?
Why aren't people bringing the tithes and the offerings
so the Levites could do their God-ordained business?
You know, and this is kind of a sensitive topic for people
when you start to talk about church attendance, right?
'Cause people who aren't in church,
and look, I know it's Sunday morning,
I'm kind of preaching the choir here,
but a lot of times there's people
that are not as faithful to church as they should be.
And look, I haven't heard a lot of face-ripping sermons
on where just a pastor gets up,
just burns down the house on church attendance,
but really you don't have to.
Even if you just put that as gently and as mild as you can,
people are just like, "Oh, he's talking about me."
You know, they're watching online and they're going,
you know, "Oh, I should have been there, I guess."
Or they're getting convicted.
But is that the pastor's fault?
That people are wishy-washy on their church attendance?
You know, one of the most pivotal moments
in my Christian life was early on when I said,
"I will be in church three days a week.
"I'm gonna be at every single service,
"unless I'm just sick or have some just
"weird scheduling conflict that's very rare.
"I'm gonna be in the house of God."
There's never gonna be a time
where I wake up in the morning and say,
"Do I feel like going?"
'Cause I'll be perfectly honest,
there's been plenty of mornings,
oh, you might be shocked to hear this,
where I didn't feel like going to church.
They've been more frequent recently for some reason.
I'm just kidding.
That's a joke, okay?
But you know, I made that decision and said,
"Hey, I'm gonna be there."
You know, and every time the pastor's gotten up
and preached on church attendance,
I've just been like, "No, not me.
"I know he's not preaching to me right now.
"Look, there's been plenty of other sermons
"where it's like, I knew and he knew
"exactly who he was talking about."
(audience laughs)
I've had several pastors do that for me,
but that's why you gotta be there, right?
And look, if you can't even handle
the mild reproof of, hey, be in church.
And look, I'm not saying if you're not here
for all three services that somehow you're in sin,
but if you're not here on just a regular basis,
even once a week, I mean, it's just like,
what's going on in your Christian life?
If you can't get that down, 'cause here's the thing,
that's kind of like a gauge for the rest of your life.
I would like to think that the people who are real spotty
in their church attendance are also zealous,
Bible reading, soul winning Christians,
but in all likelihood, that's not the case.
They're probably backslidden in other ways,
they're probably struggling to do the things
that they ought to be doing in other areas of their life,
because we need to be exhorted and provoked
unto love and good works.
That's why we should not forsake the assembling
of ourselves together.
So this is one of the big problems that Nehemiah is dealing with.
It's like, hey, you guys are forsaking the house of God.
And it leads to other things.
Forsaking the house of God and forsaking church
is going to lead to other problems in your life.
No, no, I got this.
No, you don't.
You say, but I already know what to do.
I already know how to live the Christian life.
I've learned-- I've been in church plenty.
I've learned a lot of things.
I know how to live the Christian life.
Yeah, I'm sure you do know how, but it's
in church being reminded of these things
on a regular basis that keeps us on the straight and narrow.
That's what keeps us doing the things
that we know we ought to do.
So he's dealing with that, and he's saying, look,
you guys are dropping the ball here.
Why is the house of God forsaken?
And I gathered them together and set them in their place.
And he's getting everybody back where they belong.
Then brought all Judah the tithe of the corn and the new wine
and the oil and the treasuries.
So unless Nehemiah had just, you know,
put his finger on the problem, you know,
this wouldn't have happened.
'Cause they bring all the tithes,
they bring all the, the problem gets solved.
But it took a guy to get up and have the boldness
and exercise the tough love that need to be exercised,
saying, here's the problem, let's fix it.
You know, if no one gets up and says what the problem is,
then it's not gonna get fixed.
So he deals with it and then it gets fixed.
And he says in verse 13,
"And I made treasures of the treasuries."
Shelemiah, the priest, Zadok, the scribe,
and the Levites, Piadiah.
And next to them was Hanan, the son of Zachar,
the son of Mataniah.
And they were counted faithful,
and their office was to distribute unto the brethren.
So thankfully there's still people that are faithful,
people that are showing up.
And let's just jump to,
I'm gonna come back to verse 13 a little bit later,
but he says in verse 15,
"And those days saw a Jewish son treading the winepress
on the Sabbath and bringing in sheaves
and leaning asses as also wine, grapes and figs
and manner of burdens which they brought into Jerusalem
on the Sabbath day.
And I testified against them
in the day where they sold victuals."
Now, Nehemiah is writing it,
so he used the word testified, right?
The people that were on the receiving end of his testimony
might've said, used another word than he testified.
He reproved, he rebuked, he exhorted,
he got up and he got in our faces about it.
But he's saying, look, I just testified against them.
I got up and said how it was.
They're dwelt men of Tyre also, verse 16.
(coughs)
Excuse me.
Which brought fish in all manner of wear
and sold on the Sabbath day
under the children of Judah and Jerusalem.
Then I contended with the nobles of Judah
and said to them, what evil thing is this that you do
and profane the Sabbath day?
And I love how he says he contended with them
and then he just says, it's evil what you're doing.
What you're doing is evil.
He didn't get up and be like, you know,
this really isn't God's best for you.
You know, this isn't really how Jesus would want us to walk.
You know, listen to me, beloved,
and try to win them over and smooth it over
and put it so delicately.
He said, what is this evil thing that you're doing?
Right, he's just right to the point.
Oh, he's mean.
No, he's exercising tough love.
He's dealing with problems that are real.
He's dealing with problems that need to be solved,
problems that are going to lead to even bigger problems
and consequences that nobody wants to deal with.
'Cause he goes on and says in verse 18,
"Did not your fathers thus,
"and did not God bring all this evil upon us
"and upon this city,
"yet you bring more wrath upon Israel
"by profaning the Sabbath."
So he's warning them, you're bringing wrath upon us.
That's a pretty evil thing.
You know, if I brought wrath upon you,
wouldn't you say that was a pretty evil thing for me to do?
Of course, but that's what they're doing.
And it's interesting, you know,
it shows us something about human nature,
how quickly people fall into old habits.
How quickly people fall into old sins, right?
'Cause this is the exact same thing,
profaning the Sabbath, that got them exiled out of the land
and carried away captive into Babylon.
And that's why he's saying, did not your fathers thus?
Right, they did what you're doing.
And did not our God bring all this evil upon us?
Remember how we didn't have walls or a temple,
how we were all in bondage.
You remember that?
You know how we got there?
By you doing the exact same thing
that you're doing right now.
By your fathers, excuse me,
doing the same thing that you're doing right now.
And look, it shows us that people have a tendency
to fall into old ways,
to just kind of repeat habitual sins.
And this is why it's so important
for the man of God to get up
and yes, be a broken record sometimes on sins.
A big one, you know, 1 Corinthians 5 is fornication today.
Say man, I'm always hearing the pastor rip on fornication.
I'm always hearing the pastor rip on drunkenness
and smoking pot and watching porn
and ripping on these things.
Why is it?
Because people have a tendency
to do those things repeatedly.
And if you're guilty of some sin this morning
and the pastor's getting up, you know,
or whatever morning and the pastor gets up
and rips on that sin and puts his finger on it,
you know, he's not trying to be mean.
He's trying to get you to get it right,
to cut it out of your life once and for all,
to get it done with and just be done with that stuff
and move on.
You know, and people have a real struggle with that,
don't they people?
And look, once you open certain doors to certain sins,
it's a lot easier to fall back into it.
That's why you need to be in church
so the pastor can remind you,
hey, don't give into that temptation,
crucify the flesh, mortify therefore,
you know, your members, which are upon earth.
You know, if you live in the spirit, walk in the spirit.
You know, he said, you gotta bring the body into subjection.
You gotta get over these sins.
You can't continue those things of what you were,
you were once ashamed.
You know, you need to get those things right.
But people have a tendency to continually fall into sin.
And this is why a pastor's job is to get up
and to reprove and to rebuke and to say negative things.
It's not 'cause he's mean, it's because he loves people.
He's not trying to make them feel uncomfortable,
make them feel bad about themselves,
shame them in some way.
Although, you know, that's kind of a natural consequence.
When you're doing wrong, you're gonna feel ashamed.
He's doing it because he wants you to get it right.
Nehemiah's not like, you guys are such a bunch of losers.
There's no hope for you.
You know, God's done with you.
God's gonna destroy you again.
You know, it's over.
No, he's saying, look, you guys are making major mistakes.
You guys are falling back into old ways.
Let's get it right so that we don't bring
even more wrath upon us and go through
and learn the same lessons again.
Now look at verse 19, and it came to,
'cause this is when it starts to get gnarly, right?
He says, you know, it's been a lot of just talk
right now, right?
Harsh, you know, tough love.
Good talk, but now it's like where he's gonna actually
start laying hands on people.
And it says in verse 19, "And it came to pass
when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark
before the Sabbath, I commanded that the gates
should be shut and charged that they should not be open
until after the Sabbath.
And some of my servants said I at the gates
that there should be no burden brought in
on the Sabbath day."
You know what he did?
He said, no, we're gonna shut the gates.
This isn't happening.
You know, he took it upon himself to just tell them no
and brought it to a stop.
So the merchants and sellers of all kind of wear
lodged without Jerusalem once or twice.
All right, I love that little detail
that they lodged there once or twice.
So the guys that were showing up,
all the merchants that were coming from afar,
you know, from Tyre and all these other places
to sell their wares under the Jews,
they showed up once, one Sabbath,
and then some of them showed up again, right?
So the first ones show up and they're like,
oh, the gates are closed, let's go home, right?
Nevermind.
And they don't come back the next Sabbath, right?
But then there's another group of people
who didn't get the message the first time.
They kind of thought, yeah, he shut the gates this Sabbath,
but maybe he'll compromise by the next Sabbath, right?
So they show up twice.
They have to come two times, do all that traveling, right?
With all their wares to bring it there
to be utterly disappointed two times
before they learn the lesson.
Now, the people that only went once, you know,
they at least had the sense to understand
that Nehemiah wasn't just words, that he meant what he said.
That when he said, hey, we're closing this thing down,
this isn't happening anymore.
They were saying, well, we all, you know, we know Nehemiah,
he means business.
Let's just, you know, go sell our wares somewhere else.
And look, this is why leaders have to, you know,
take tough stands and be strong when you're a leader.
You have to mean what you say.
You have to follow through with it.
You can't just be all talk.
You can't just be somebody who says,
well, I know that's what the Bible says,
but you know, we're not actually gonna do that.
And again, there's a lot of this going around
in Baptist churches where it's like,
hey, so-and-so's living in fornication.
Well, you know, I'm not gonna kick 'em out of church
like the Bible says they should be kicked out.
I know 1 Corinthians 5 says that such a one
should be delivered unto Satan
for the destruction of the flesh,
but I'm not gonna do that 'cause I'm not mean.
No, you actually, you are mean.
You don't love that person.
You know, 'cause that guy in 1 Corinthians 5,
he got it right.
He went out and he stopped committing fornication,
and then later in 2 Corinthians, Paul's saying,
hey, you know, love the guy,
lest he be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.
He's saying, you know, restore such a one.
He's repented, bring him back.
That's the point of church discipline, right?
But this is going around today.
This is in Baptist churches where there's all kinds of divorce and adultery,
and there's all kinds of fornication and drunkenness and all kinds of men are sinned.
And the pastor is too weak and too spineless to get up and deal with it.
Then everyone wants to go, oh, he's so nice.
You know, and the problem is the people.
You know, people want, you know, Mr. Rogers Baptist Church.
That's who I think a lot of Baptists want as their pastor.
They want, you know, want some nice, gentle-spoken, look, I watched Mr. Rogers, is it Mr. Rogers,
right?
Okay.
He got up in his nice little sweater vest and he had some good things to say.
I liked the show.
He brought a little train out and did the puppets and everything, you know, but that's
not church.
That's a children's show that I enjoy.
Okay.
But I don't want, I, you know, I love Mr. Rogers as a child, you know, that's not who
I want as my pastor.
That's not who I want as a leader, but you know what?
There's a lot of people out there.
That's exactly who they want.
Mr. Rogers, all soft spoken and his little cashmere, you know, burgundy sweater vest
or whatever.
I'm not really into wardrobe as you've probably figured out, but you know, he's up there.
You know, Mr. Rogers Baptist Church just saying it all nice and smooth and not going to hurt
any feelings.
I mean, at least Mr. Rogers knew that a boy is always going to be a boy and a girl is
always going to be a girl.
Who saw that clip?
I was like, "Hey man, Mr. Rogers, I mean, he's preaching harder than some of these Baptists."
You know, they won't even touch that with a 10-foot pole.
They won't even go near the whole tranny issue.
They won't go near it.
And you know what?
And my people love to have it so.
Speak unto us smooth things, tell us peace, peace, when there is no peace.
The guy that gets up and actually says it like it is and tells you what the Bible says
and deals with the issues, he's the guy that loves you.
You say, "Yeah, it's kind of tough."
Yeah, it's called tough love.
He's the guy that loves you.
Mr. Rogers does not love you.
Well, I can't speak for Mr. Rogers.
Maybe he doesn't.
But look, these guys knew this guy means business.
He means what he says.
He said, "We're closing the gates."
They showed up once, and they said, "This is Nehemiah."
You know, he means it, right?
Not like some Baptist pastors who want to get up
and say, "I know that's what the Bible says,
and that is what we should do,
but I have this cute, convenient little doctrine
of convenience to let me wiggle out of that
so I don't actually have to bring down the hammer
like I should."
So everyone can think I'm nicer than another pastor.
He goes on here and says in verse 21,
"Then I testified against them and said unto them,
'Why lodge ye about the wall?'"
Right, so the guys that are showing up again,
the twice guys or whatever,
"If you do so again, I will lay my hands on you."
From that time forth came they no more on the Sabbath day.
And the laying hands isn't like,
I'm gonna go out there and be like,
"Hey, how you doing?"
I'll give you a little back rub or,
it's not like laying on of hands,
the presbytery where you're working.
It's like laying on hands,
like I'm gonna come down there
and literally physically beat you.
I'm gonna get my posse together
and we're gonna roll down there
and we're gonna physically remove you
from the property, right?
And look, again, there might even be a time
where that has to happen in this church or another church.
In fact, it has happened.
One of my fondest memories is kicking a tranny
out of a church, you know,
shoulder to shoulder with Pastor Anderson.
You know, what's your favorite memory
of being a member at Faithful Word Baptist Church?
Oh, it's that time, it was like the 10 year anniversary,
when, you know, some tranny showed up
and started going around, it was some dude trying to,
or some chick trying to be a dude,
and going around and telling everybody.
Who was there for that, who remembers that?
One hand, two hands, okay, several hands.
All right, I see those hands, God bless you.
And he, you know, and it kind of gets out there
after the service, this tranny's going around
telling people they're a tranny.
So, I kind of go stand by the tranny,
and I see Pastor Anderson coming, you know,
I'm just going to be back up, and it's just like,
and he didn't go, "Hey, can I talk to you for a second?
Can we step into my office and discuss your lifestyle?"
It was, "Hey, are you telling people
you're a tranny or whatever?
Yeah, get out of here."
He got twice, right, got told to leave twice,
so we're well within our legal bounds,
according to the state of Arizona,
and he'd tell them twice, and then it was just like,
he and I just shoving this tranny out the door.
And, you know, she had brought this little gift bag,
with like this little decorative gift bag,
and after she gets thrown out,
she like sets it on the curb in front of the door,
and I looked at it, and I just kicked it.
Just said it's some teddy bear flew out of it or whatever.
Probably had anthrax in it or something.
Oh, you're so mean.
Oh, I guess we should have just let the enemies of God
come into the house of God and defile it.
I guess we should have just let, you know,
these trannies come into the house of God
and defile the eyeballs of your children.
That's probably what he should have done
in that instance, huh?
'Cause then we would have been nice.
No, you know, sometimes you gotta be mean.
Sometimes you gotta be tough.
Sometimes you gotta do what you say you're gonna do.
You know, I very clearly remember the sermon
in which it was stated by Pastor Renner
that no homo would be permitted in this church ever.
It was said with more emphasis than that.
But you know what?
He backed it up.
It wasn't all talk.
And that's how you gotta be as a leader.
That's how Nehemiah is.
He's not all talk.
He's not just up there saying,
"Hey, if you guys aren't outta here,
"if you come back next week,
"I'm gonna lay my hands on you."
They're just like, "Empty threat, whatever."
And look, if you're gonna get people to straighten up
and do what they're supposed to do,
you can't be all talk.
You parents cannot be all talk.
You know, "He that spareth his rod, hateeth his child."
That's what the Bible says.
It says to spare not for his crying.
You'll deliver his soul from hell.
Chasing thy son while there is hope.
Chasing him the times.
You know, sometimes your servant
will not be corrected by words.
You know, and that's just true.
You know, sometimes.
You know, my old pastor back in Michigan,
you know, I remember, this was a problem with me,
is that words didn't really work.
Now, that's as far as it ever went.
But you know, he was pretty, he got frustrated
because he was a roofer.
So I would go on roofing jobs with him.
And I remember one roofing job,
and look, that guy should have fired me like eight times.
I'm just being honest, all right?
I had a lot of growing to do.
I had a lot of learning.
It was very early on, okay?
And I'm grateful for all the lessons he taught me
about how to work and everything like that.
But I remember one time,
he just chewed me up one side and down the other.
And I just got mad.
And he came to me, he just like,
were you yelled at a lot as a child?
And I was like, what is that supposed to mean?
And what he was saying is it's like,
it's like you're just inoculated to being chewed out.
And I was yelled at and chewed out a lot as a child.
There was not a lot of corporal punishment in our household.
And it just gets to a point where words aren't enough.
You gotta back it up sometimes.
There's gotta be consequences.
Now, obviously employers can't go lay their hands
on their employees today.
I don't know if it was ever the case.
But the Bible does say a servant will not
be corrected by words.
It almost kind of sounds like they're like,
oh, I don't know, maybe there is such a thing
as corporal punishment for adults in the Bible.
Yes, it's in there.
But you know, you parents, you gotta back up what you say.
You know, what you say.
You know, people, and I don't mean to,
well, I don't even wanna go there, but I will.
I hate embarrassing my kids.
But you know, my kids are very well behaved,
pleasant people to be around.
I love my kids, I'm very proud of my children.
But you know, that wasn't automatic.
That didn't just happen, right?
And there's this expression out there,
everybody loves the fruit,
but they don't like the root, right?
My kid, my wife, she's always telling me
she takes my kids shopping
and people are complimenting her.
Oh, they're so well behaved.
Oh, they're so in line, they're so polite.
They're not darting around the aisles
and getting in front of other people.
They're not, they've never thrown a fit
in the middle of a store.
I want it, I want it, I want it.
Kicking and screaming.
And is that because they just inherited
my serene good nature?
Why is everybody laughing?
No, it's because we exercised physical discipline,
corporal punishment, according to the scripture.
You know what?
And it's born fruit in their lives.
And look, I'm not embarrassing you.
We all need that as children.
Some of us need it as adults,
and we can't get it anymore, right?
But you parents, if you're gonna lean into your house,
you can't just be all talk with your kids.
Sometimes a servant cannot be corrected by words.
And pastors can't just be all talk in the house of God.
They can't just be, oh, if this ever happens,
I'm gonna deal with it.
Sometimes they actually have to deal with it.
And what's great about that is when a pastor does that,
does the job of exercising tough love,
is people get the message.
'Cause they know the guy is not all talk.
'Cause it says there, you know,
I will lay hands on you, verse 21.
From that time forth, they came no more on the Sabbath.
They say, this guy means it.
This guy is not all talk.
And guess what?
The problem was solved.
It was over.
It says in verse 22,
"And I commanded Levi's that they should cleanse themselves
and they should come and keep the gates
and sanctify them."
The Sabbath day, excuse me.
"Remember me, oh my God, concerning this also,
and spare me according to the greatness of thy mercy."
Now, it's kind of getting ahead of myself a little bit here,
but you see the heart of Nehemiah in this chapter, too.
You don't just see his words.
You don't just see his actions.
You don't just see tough love,
but you see where it's coming from in his life.
It's coming from a love of God
and for a love of God's people.
You say, "This does not sound very loving."
I mean, let's read on.
He goes on and says here,
verse 23, "In those days I saw the Jews
that had married wives of Ashdod
and of Ammon and of Moab."
These people that were not permitted in the house of God,
they're marrying them.
Where God had clearly commanded,
'cause that's like verse one of the chapter, right?
We read that.
They're marrying those people.
"And I contended with them and cursed them."
You know, and I don't think that means
that he was swearing at them.
That's not cursing.
He's like breathing out a curse upon them.
Curse you, curse your children.
You brought a curse upon us by breaking and marrying
that people that God has cursed.
That doesn't sound very nice.
Well, you know, that's the Bible.
Let me introduce you to the Lord.
It was God that said the Ammonite and the Moabite
are not permitted forever.
And if they had just obeyed that commandment,
this wouldn't have been necessary.
But look, when people break God's commandments,
they have to be dealt with.
You have to exercise tough love.
And you know what?
It might involve some rather extreme measures sometimes,
at least in this case.
He said, "I curse them and smote certain of them."
You know, what does it mean to smote someone, right?
Past tense of smite, right?
It means he was just like,
walking around and smacking people.
And not only that, he goes on and says,
"And pluck off their hair."
I mean, this is, you know,
I don't know what everyone's lining up
to meet Nehemiah in heaven.
I think I will.
That might be one of the shorter lines, I don't know.
You're like, "Hey, Nehemiah?"
You know?
He's like, "I saw you down there."
(laughs)
"I saw you up there," you know?
But I mean, I guess some of the children with siblings
can relate to this,
the smacking and the pulling of hair maybe,
but this is what he's doing, right?
To these people that had gone so far
as to marry people that God had cursed
and to bring a curse upon them.
Now, I've never done that as a pastor, and I never will.
Just be perfectly honest with you.
If the people at Tucson are listening,
you can all breathe a sigh of relief this morning.
I'm sure your pastor's never gonna do that either, right?
That there's not gonna be hair pulling and smiting.
I don't know.
Maybe one day I'll have to do something like that.
I don't know.
I'm not looking for, I'm not trying to, right?
I'm certainly not interested in it.
They say, "But boy, he's being really mean here.
He's actually literally getting physical with people
where he's pulling their hair and smacking them
and cursing them.
This guy sounds mean."
No, this sounds like a guy who loves God,
loves God's people, and is infuriated
by the fact that some people don't.
You know, it's one thing if people don't want to love God
and just go live their lives.
But it's another thing when they want to come to church
and they don't want to get right
and then they want to become a pain in the neck.
They don't want to get sin.
And then they want to start doing,
they just want to start violating the word of God.
They just want to start breaking all God's commandments
in the house of God.
Don't be surprised if you're told
coming to a church like this,
when it's found out that you're just neck deep
in some wicked sin,
that you're told to not come back
or you'll have hands laid upon you.
You'll be shown the door.
Maybe not in this manner, right?
And look, I mean, that's kind of the,
that's church discipline.
So I don't really fault Nehemiah here
for getting upset at what's taking place
and reacting the way, I didn't read the story and go,
what a mean jerk, 'cause that's not his heart.
I read the story and think, serves him right.
Those people got everything they got coming to him.
I read the story and I think, thank God there's a story
about a man of God who has a spine in his back
and isn't afraid to clean house when it needs to be cleaned
and fight battles and to say no and do what's necessary
to straighten people out.
He goes on and says in verse 26,
"Did not Solomon, king of Israel, sin by these things?
Yet among many nations was no king like him
who was beloved of God and God made him over all Israel.
Nevertheless, even him did outlandish women cause the sin.
Shall we hearken unto you to do all this great evil,
to transgress against our God and marrying strange wives?
Shall we do what?
Shall we hearken unto you?"
Should we do what you're doing?
'Cause this is the problem when people bring sin
into the house of God.
A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
This is the problem when people don't deal with, you know,
evil is that other people start to hearken unto it.
You know, show me the pastor who lets one fornicator
hang out in church, and I'll show you the pastor
who in time is gonna have a church full of fornicators.
Show me the pastor who lets one drunk in the church.
You're gonna have a church full of them.
In fact, there are churches full of them.
You can go down to one of these ecumenical
Calvinistic type churches and go have beer night.
You know, you can go get a tattoo in church.
Crazy.
Should we hearken unto those people?
Or should we hearken unto somebody
who knows what the Bible says,
cares about what the Bible says,
and is willing to say and act accordingly?
He goes on and says in verse 28,
"And one of the sons of Joiada,
"the son of Eliashib, the high priest,
"was son-in-law to Sanballat the Hornite."
So this is another enemy.
So there are all kinds of leagues and marriages
and just intermingling with people
that are literally at one point
were trying to stop this work that they were doing.
"Therefore I chased him from me."
You know, once you see a guy rip out hair
and curse people,
once he starts walking your way,
that's kind of a natural reaction, right?
Just like run.
I love that part of the story.
I chased him from me.
He just starts walking toward, "Ah!"
And just runs him right out.
But look at verse 29, it says, "Remember them, oh God."
Oh my God, because they have defiled the priesthood
and the covenant of the priesthood and of the Levites.
He's saying, "Remember them, they're the problem."
They're the ones that did wickedly.
They're the ones that are violating your commandments.
They're the ones that have brought in the enemies of God.
They're the ones that have married the Moabites,
the Ammonites.
They're the ones, verse 24, I didn't even touch on this,
whose children could not even speak
according to our language.
You know, the pastor gets up
and starts preaching on worldliness,
starts preaching on reading your Bible, getting after you.
You know, that's 'cause he loves you.
You know, and it's a shame today
when God's people don't know God's language.
Oh, they're real good at speaking in the speech of Ashdod.
They know the world's language.
They know all kinds of things about the world.
They could tell you all kinds of things about the world,
but they can't speak
according to the language of God's people.
You know, God's people should know the Bible.
And look, I'm not saying everyone in here
has to have some expert level of the Bible,
but it's like, you should know the Bible.
You should know.
And look, if you're coming to a church like this,
that's gonna happen.
But that, you know, just coming to church isn't enough.
You know, we need to be teaching our kids the Bible.
You know, we got lots of kids today who, you know,
I'm trying not to get real specific
'cause I don't wanna hurt feelings,
but they probably know a lot of things
about a lot of useless information,
but there's certain, you know, beyond Jesus,
they don't really know anything about the Bible.
That should not be the case.
You know, we need to make sure and teach our kids.
And look, I'm glad that my kids know the Bible.
And you know who I'm extremely proud of for that fact,
is my wife.
And I'm bringing it up because, you know,
I'm sorry, but this falls a lot on ladies today, mothers.
And it just practically makes sense.
How can dad instruct as much as a mother
when he's off earning a living?
You know, you ladies, you know, I'm not saying
you have to all turn your houses
into some kind of a Bible college or something like that,
but there should be some Bible time.
You know, I was real proud of my daughter.
We were at Brother Logan's last night.
We played his Bible trivia game.
Well, it was a multiple trivia game, right?
It had some Bible categories, other categories in it.
And we were on the way back to our hotel,
and my daughter's like, "Dad, I knew a lot of those answers."
And that was a proud moment as a father.
You know, my youngest just got saved on Saturday,
riding the car with my wife.
That was a proud moment, you know?
And you know what I thought to myself,
who I have to thank for that?
My wife.
'Cause it was my wife who has faithfully, over the years,
made sure my kids had Bible time,
who, you know, she gets up in the morning,
and as she's making out the chore,
let's just, have you read your Bible?
Did you read your Bible?
Okay, put that tablet down, go read your Bible, right?
And I have, now I have children that know the Bible,
and they're not gonna get up here
and preach and teach the word of God, right?
But they know the Bible for themselves.
Look, our children shouldn't be biblically illiterate.
This is something that he dealt with.
They know all kinds of things,
but they're not a-speakin' Ashdod,
but when it comes to God's language, just,
whoa, whoa, whoa, you know, it's a shame.
And God, you know, it got quiet here,
but you know, I'm not saying,
look, if that's the case, I don't know,
but if it's the case, I'm not trying to be mean, folks.
You know, that's a problem, you need to fix it.
And he says, "Thus I cleanse them from all the strangers
and appointed wards of the priests
and leviates every other business for the wood offering,"
so on and so forth.
So he fixes the problems, right?
He points out every single problem that's going on
and he's not all talk.
Nehemiah shows up and he deals with it.
And you might read this story and think, what a mean guy.
But let's look at verse 14.
"Remember me, oh my God, concerning this,
and wipe not out my good deeds
that I have done for the house of God
and for the offices thereof."
What's motivating Nehemiah to take such extreme measures,
if you want to call it that?
The fact that he loves God's house,
he loves the offices thereof,
he cares about the things of God.
He cares about God's people.
He doesn't want to see them
have wrath come down upon them again.
He doesn't want to see God's house destroyed once more.
He cares about these things.
And look, that's the heart of a pastor
who exercises tough love.
And if you would turn with one last place,
go to Hebrews chapter number 13.
Hebrews chapter 13, we'll close there.
So what's the message this morning
that I want you to take away
is the message of tough love is necessary.
And the person who's willing to exercise tough love
is the person that loves you.
You kids who have parents that maybe are more strict
than the parent down the street, they love you.
You know, my kids come back sometimes
and tell me some of the things that are going on
and some of these, what these other kids are up to,
the things they're saying and doing.
And it's, and even the way they're talking
to some of their grandparents and it's just like,
and they, their reaction is I would never do that.
You know, you want to be one
of these super permissive parents, you know,
you're going to raise a spoiled brat.
True.
Sometimes they come back and say, hey, you know,
I got this friend I ride bikes with
and they told me what they said to their parents.
So I saw how they talked to their parents
and their parents talked to them and like,
that would never happen here.
I'm like, you're right, it wouldn't.
And it never had, and it hasn't been a problem.
You know, and your parents, you think they're so strict,
they're protecting you from a lot of filth and trash
that's out there today.
You know, there's, and the day and age
that we're living in, man, it can happen in a second.
Some kid at the park whips out a phone and it's just like,
and then their minds are defiled.
That's our rule, and look, this is my rule.
You do whatever you want.
But my rule is, you don't look at other kids' phones.
You know, they don't have one.
I said, you don't go looking at other kids' phones.
'Cause I know they got 'em.
'Cause all it takes is, you know, hey, check this out.
And then it's like, now they've got that in their head.
You think I want that?
And look, the perilous times shall come.
That's the world we're living in.
That sounds mean.
He sounds like a mean dad.
No, I actually care about my kids.
I actually love my children.
I actually want to protect their minds from filth.
Oh man, where was I even going?
Hebrews chapter 13, verse 17.
You know, this is the heart of those
that exercise tough love.
They care for you, they love you,
they care about the things of God,
and they're not trying to be mean.
Look at verse 17.
It says, obey them that have the rule over you
and submit yourselves for they get, you know,
it really strokes their ego, really lifts them up,
really makes them feel important.
Is that why you should do it?
No, for they watch for your souls.
And think about that, they watch for your souls.
But that's what a pastor's doing.
That's what a pastor, that's his heart,
exercises tough love, you know, and you kids,
that's your parents' heart, hopefully.
They're watching for your souls.
You know, they're more concerned
what kind of a person you're gonna turn out to be
than they are, you know,
what kind of career you're gonna have necessarily.
You know, and that's a pastor's heart too.
You know, they watch for your souls
as they that must give account.
You know, this is just another added bonus to the pastorate.
Not only Paul, you know, and others,
as he said in 1 Corinthians 4,
he's gotta put up with all that negative feedback
and, you know, have to say no
and make hard calls and deal with situations.
Then he has to give an account to God for all of it too.
You know, pastors are gonna be held accountable
for how they lead.
There's gonna be a lot of them up there.
It's gonna be a sad day.
It's gonna be sad.
It's gonna be a shameful moment for them.
I absolutely believe that.
There's gonna be a lot of pastors who get up there,
and God's gonna be like,
"Didn't you read 1 Corinthians 5?
"Didn't you read Leviticus 20?
"Didn't you read Romans, did you read what I wrote?"
And they're like, "Well, I read it, I knew it was in there,
"but I didn't wanna be mean.
"And you know what, you're kinda mean."
You're gonna think God's mean,
'cause he's gonna exercise some tough love
and say, "Well, you know what?
"I had this crown for you, pastor.
"I had these jewels to put in it.
"I was gonna cordon off this part of heaven for you
"and put your mansion right there,
"but why don't you take the back 40?
"Why don't you go way back there?"
I mean, you ever think about that?
I think about this.
It's like, in the New Jerusalem,
I mean, it's so massive, right?
Just thousands of miles.
It's four square, huge, right?
There's all these mansions that are there,
but it's not like Jesus is in all those mansions.
He's gonna be in just one spot, right?
Meaning some people, it's like,
"Hey, let's go see Jesus."
It's like, "Well, you better hope we can fly.
"You better hope we can teleport,"
or however it's gonna be, right?
'Cause 3,000 miles is a long walk, right?
And some people are gonna be like,
"Oh, I see him, that little glimmering dot.
"Way off in the distance, that's Jesus."
And some people are gonna be like, "There's Jesus."
And there's gonna be a lot of pastors
are gonna give an account, and it's like,
"Nope, you're gonna take, you're gonna go further away."
And look, it's still gonna be great.
Still gonna be heaven.
But it's like, if you're gonna be held accountable,
wouldn't you wanna do the best job that you could?
They watch for your souls as they that must give account
that they may do it with joy, right?
So they're gonna be held accountable,
but then they're also gonna give a report,
kind of like, "Well, here's what I did,
"and here's how they took it."
And it's great if a pastor can get up and say,
"Hey, I mean, Nehemiah's story, I think,
"ends well for the most part."
Some people had to grow some hair back,
slap a piece of steak in an eye, maybe.
But he's like, "I cleansed it, I fixed everything,
"and people got right, and people made,
"the Levites showed up, they were back in their places,
"we dealt with these things, they stopped violating
"and defiling the Sabbath day."
I mean, at least it ends kinda on a high note, I think.
You know, that's how I wanna give a report.
I wanna be able to give a report as pastor with joy.
Not meaning like, "Oh, it was so great, Lord.
"I was a pastor."
And our church never had any problems.
You know, there was never a controversy,
there was never any sin in the church.
No, that's just not reality, right?
The reality, you know, but you can still give a report
with joy in spite of that, by saying,
"Hey, you know, there was problems, there was issues,
"there was sin, but I dealt with it like I was supposed to.
"I preached the way I was supposed to,
"and you know what, Lord, people got right.
"People fixed it."
1 Corinthians 4, I'm sure, was a hard letter
for Paul to write.
And later he said that he repented him that he wrote it,
but not that he repented that he wrote it.
He said, "It made me sorry to write that,
"but I'm not sorry that I wrote it."
He was happy that he wrote it.
Lord, it doesn't make us happy to get up
and have to step on people's toes,
but it sure is great when you do,
and people are like, "Okay, message received, I'll fix it."
That brings joy to the pastor's heart.
That'll bring joy to your parents' hearts, kids,
when they tell you to do something and you do it.
He says that they may do with joy and not with grief,
not just like, "Oh, man, I preached and I told them
and I preached and I told them.
I tried to get them in church
and I tried to get them to go to church.
I tried to read their Bibles.
I tried to get them to get a sin out of their life.
And I just preached and I preached and I preached
and they didn't get right."
And look, it ends by saying,
"For that isn't profitable for you."
If the pastor has to go to heaven
and give a report with grief over the fact
that people didn't get right despite all of his efforts,
he's not gonna suffer loss, they are.
And people that wanna just hear hard preaching like this
or hear hard preaching that comes from this pulpit
at other times and just point a finger at the man of God
and say, "He's mean."
You can go ahead and do that,
but you know who you're harming?
You.
I like to think I've developed enough thick skin
where I can handle somebody calling me mean.
That's fine.
You wanna call me a name this morning,
you wanna call your pastor a name
'cause he preaches hard and steps on your toes.
Go ahead, you know what?
He's gonna be just fine.
You wanna get angry and get bitter and quit the church
and go online and start talking trash.
You know who you're hurting?
You.
And your pastor and the people that stick by the stuff here
who take the correction when it's appropriate,
you know what?
They're gonna do just fine.
You're only hurting yourself.
So tough love is something that must take place
in a church that's gonna stay right
and accomplish great things.
And you know what?
It's no coincidence that there's been a lot
of tough love exercised from this pulpit
and look at everything you guys are doing.
Look at everything you've accomplished.
Best year yet?
You think that's a coincidence?
No, it's because someone's doing the job
the way it's supposed to be done.
Let's go ahead and close the word of prayer.
Lord, again, thank you for this great church.
Thank you for this body of believers.
Lord, thank you for the word of God.
Lord, I pray that you would just use your word
to edify your people this morning.
And Lord, help us to be people
who are able to receive correction.
And Lord, people who are able to correct the things
in our lives no matter where it's coming from,
if it's our parents, our pastors,
or even just the conviction of the Holy Spirit.
Lord, help us to be people that are sensitive to that
and Lord, who desire to do better as your children.
We ask these things in Christ's name, amen.