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August 6 Daily Reading- Read the Bible in 1 Year
9 Plays2 days ago
If you would like to download my FREE calendar for keeping track of your commitment to read the Bible every day, you can find that on my site, here: https://www.inthefamilywaycoaching.com/pages/read-the-bible-in-1-year
Monthly memberships to support this event can be purchased on my site, here: https://www.inthefamilywaycoaching.com/offering_packages
In today's reading we will read continue reading the Book of Nehemiah, with Chapters 4 and 5. In today's reading we will see Nehemiah living the example of how to be a servant leader. Nehemiah looked out for the people, whether it was to pray for them, offer them encouragement, stand up for them when they were being treated poorly by the leaders, or showing how lead mercifully and caringly by not taxing the people but instead, feeding them.
In our discussion for daily application we will talk about being a servant leader whenever WE are placed in a position of leadership and taking care to treat our brothers and sisters with service, rather than lording authority over them. Jesus modeled this behavior as well, and taught us about it in Matthew 20:25-28, when He told the disciples that he, himself, came to serve, not be served, and so we, too, are to serve one another. We will discuss 2 Timothy 3:16-17 which tells us that all scripture is God breathed (spoken by God) and useful for teaching, correction, restoration, and training in righteousness so that we may be made capable and fully equipped for every good work that God has prepared for us to do. Thank you, God for providing us with your loving and powerful teaching so that we may be encouraged, capable, fully equipped, and READY TO SERVE YOU in every good work you give us to do. Amen.
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Transcript
Introduction and Bible Reading
00:00:03
Speaker
Hello everybody, welcome to today's daily Bible reading through the day-by-day kids Bible written by Karen Henley. I am your hostess, Robin. I am with In the Family Way Coaching and I am so glad that you are joining me here this year.
00:00:18
Speaker
If you are following along on your commitment calendar, it's time to take that out and get your sticker ready or whatever you're using to mark it off because guess what? Yep, you're about to hear the Bible today.
Nehemiah's Challenges and Faith
00:00:34
Speaker
Today we are going to be continuing on in the book of Nehemiah and we are almost finished. I just, and I hope you're as half as excited as I am.
00:00:46
Speaker
This is so cool. i i was so concerned that I would not be able to complete this project. And just like we have been learning when God puts something in your heart, he will carry it through to completion.
00:00:59
Speaker
So I'm so thankful that God is so faithful to put it into my heart and to give me such a desire to do this every single day.
00:01:11
Speaker
Let us pick up today and check out Nehemiah chapters 4 and 5 today. Today we're going to be looking at opposition and the people working with tools in one hand and swords in the other.
00:01:29
Speaker
it's important to note that when God gives us a task on our heart, that doesn't mean that it will come easily. It means that we may have to work for it. And Jesus tells us that the kingdom is like that.
00:01:43
Speaker
He tells us that the kingdom of heaven is like a field where you find something wonderful there buried in it. And so you bury it back again.
00:01:53
Speaker
and then you give everything you have. You sell everything so that you can go and buy that particular field. It's like that. And if we want something, we have to want it badly enough.
00:02:07
Speaker
God doesn't say, if you just kind of seek after me, you will find me. He says, you need to seek after me with your whole heart. And that's what the people are going to be doing, is seeking to do this job with all of their heart, all of their mind, and with all of their soul.
00:02:24
Speaker
And they're going to be putting everything they have into this project of rebuilding the walls.
00:02:33
Speaker
Chapter 4 Now, Sanballat heard that we were building the wall again, and he got very angry. He made fun of the Jewish people, and he talked about us to his friends.
00:02:45
Speaker
He talked about us to the army of Samaria. Sanballat said, What are those weak Jews doing? Can they give gifts to God again?
00:02:56
Speaker
Can they build their wall back? Will they be done in one day? Can they make the stones live? The gates are burned down.
00:03:07
Speaker
The city is just a pile of sticks and stones. And Tobias said, what do they think they're building? A fox could break the wall just by jumping on it.
00:03:20
Speaker
Hear us, God. They hate us. Pay them back for this. They are making fun of the workers here.
00:03:30
Speaker
We built the wall back up again, and we got it half as high as we wanted. The people were working as hard as they could. But Sanballat and his friends heard about it, and they heard that the holes in the wall were being fixed.
00:03:46
Speaker
They were very angry. They made plans to come and fight Jerusalem. They planned to make trouble for us. But we prayed to God.
00:03:57
Speaker
Then we put men on guard to watch day and night. Our people said, the workers are getting tired and there are so many piles of sticks and stones.
00:04:12
Speaker
We can't build the wall. And our enemy said, we'll go in there with them. They won't even know we're coming. We'll kill them and then their work will end.
00:04:27
Speaker
Some Jews lived near our enemies, and they came to tell us what the enemy said. They will fight you wherever that you turn, they said. So I put people behind the short parts of the wall, and I sent them with their swords and their bows.
00:04:46
Speaker
Then i looked at everything. I stood up and talked to the people. Don't be scared of our enemies, I said. Remember God.
00:04:57
Speaker
He is great and wonderful. Fight for your families and fight for your homes.
00:05:05
Speaker
Our enemies found out that we knew about their plan and then we all went back to work on the wall. And after that, half of my men did the work and the other half held swords and bows.
00:05:17
Speaker
The army captains stood behind the people who were building and people carried tools in one hand and they carried swords in their other hand. Each worker had his sword behind him while he worked.
00:05:32
Speaker
The man who had the war horn stayed with me. I told the people, there is lots of work to do and we're far apart from each other on the wall.
00:05:43
Speaker
So if you hear the war horn, come to fight. Come wherever the sound of the horn is and God will fight for us.
00:05:54
Speaker
So we kept working and we started every morning when the sky first got light. We worked until the stars came out.
Social Justice and Leadership Principles
00:06:04
Speaker
I told everyone, stay in the city at night and that way you can be on guard.
00:06:11
Speaker
We never took our clothes off. We always carried our swords, even when we went to get water.
00:06:21
Speaker
Chapter five. Money for Grain.
00:06:26
Speaker
Now the people began fussing at each other and some said, we have big families. We have to get grain so we can make food. And others said, we need money to buy grain.
00:06:41
Speaker
Nothing will grow in the fields now. We gave our fields and houses to our leaders and then they lent us the money. Others said, the king taxes our fields and we had to borrow money to just to pay the tax.
00:06:56
Speaker
We borrow from our own leaders. We even had to sell our children as slaves to them.
00:07:06
Speaker
I heard what they were saying. I got very angry. thought about it and then I talked to the leaders. You are taking things from your own people, I said.
00:07:20
Speaker
And then I called a big meeting. Our people have sometimes been taken to be slaves, I said. They've been taken by people from other lands.
00:07:31
Speaker
And then we try to buy them back. But now you're selling your own people.
00:07:38
Speaker
The leaders were quiet. They couldn't think of anything to say. This is not right, I said. You should be um afraid of God.
00:07:50
Speaker
I lend people money for grain and my men lend them money for grain. And we don't ask them to give them, give us our their houses or their fields. But you, you ask for their houses before you will lend them money.
00:08:05
Speaker
This has to stop. Give their houses back. Give their fields back.
00:08:13
Speaker
We will, they said, and we won't ask them for anything else.
00:08:20
Speaker
Then I called the priests and I made the leaders promise to do what they said. I shook out my robe.
00:08:30
Speaker
May God shake out the people who do not keep this promise, I said. May God shake them out of this house. And everyone said yes.
00:08:41
Speaker
And then... They praised God and they did what they promised to do.
00:08:49
Speaker
Now the king chose me to be the leader of Judah. And the leaders before me had made the people pay a big tax. Their helpers had bossed the people around. But I loved God.
00:09:04
Speaker
and I loved God too much to do that. So instead, I kept working hard on the wall and all of my men worked. and We did not take land from anyone.
00:09:16
Speaker
Every day, I fed 150 Jews and Jewish leaders at my table. I could have asked for food like the leaders do, but I never asked for food.
00:09:28
Speaker
That's because I saw that these people worked hard Remember me, God. I've done all of this for your people.
00:09:44
Speaker
That's the end of our reading today.
00:09:48
Speaker
Wow. Can you believe what was going on?
00:09:54
Speaker
Wow, that was so much. It was so hurtful. I couldn't believe it. the The leaders were charging an exorbitant amount of interest. They were charging a lot of interest.
00:10:07
Speaker
And God had already taught them previously not to charge a lot of interest, that when you loan people money, not to ask for that.
00:10:18
Speaker
Nehemiah is a great example of what we call a servant leader.
00:10:27
Speaker
God intended for the leaders to be shepherds over the people. A shepherd takes care of those who are under him. He is a great example of how if we are placed in any type of a position of leadership, that we need to make sure that we are looking out for those who are below us.
00:10:49
Speaker
That can even mean if you are an older brother or sister and you have younger siblings to look out for. You may be in charge of them, but it is not to be bossy.
00:11:02
Speaker
It's not to lord it over them. It's to take care of them. It's not to take advantage of them. Jesus talks about this as well. He teaches us in Matthew chapter 20, 25.
00:11:16
Speaker
verse twenty five When the two sons of Zebedee, I don't remember which brothers this these are, but their mother came, they were brothers, and asked Jesus if he would allow one of them to sit at their left, and his his left, and the other to sit at his right.
00:11:37
Speaker
And Jesus said, you have no idea what you're asking.
00:11:42
Speaker
He says, this is not for me to decide anyways. It is for our father in heaven to decide this. And so the other disciples, they became irritated with these two brothers because they were trying to raise themselves to be above the other apostles.
00:12:03
Speaker
And this is what Jesus said to them. He said in chapter 20, verse 25 through He said, Jesus called them over and said, You know that the rulers of the nations lorded over them, meaning the people, and their great ones play the tyrant over the people.
00:12:26
Speaker
It shall not be this way with you. Whoever wants to be great among you shall be your servant. And whoever wants to be first among you shall be your slave.
00:12:41
Speaker
Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
00:12:53
Speaker
We are not above Jesus and he himself came to serve. And before Jesus had even
Role of Scripture in Believers' Lives
00:13:01
Speaker
come, Nehemiah was and the prime example of a leader who looked out for the people.
00:13:10
Speaker
He didn't take, he gave, he worked hard. You notice when they had trouble, he prayed to God. That was the first place he went.
00:13:21
Speaker
When we have trouble, we need to remember that that is the first place we go, is to pray for ah protection, to pray to God about the situation that is going going on.
00:13:33
Speaker
When they faced discouragement by people who hated them, Nehemiah encouraged the people. We need to be sure that when we experience difficulties, that we build one another up.
00:13:48
Speaker
that we speak good things to them, that we are helpful, and that we are not bringing people down. We have need to remember that it is God's good work.
00:14:00
Speaker
He is the one in charge. And Nehemiah remembered all of these things. I am also reminded, as we go through and learn all of these many lessons throughout the year this year, as we are just about ready to complete the Old Covenant,
00:14:18
Speaker
This was everything that the people in this day had. They didn't have Nehemiah's letters of his record of what was going on. They lived it.
00:14:29
Speaker
They had all of the scrolls for all of God's law. They had all of the prophets' writings. They had all of these teachings. And Paul tells us in, I believe it is...
00:14:44
Speaker
Timothy, or 2 Timothy, chapter 3, verses 16 and 17. It says, All scripture is breathed by God.
00:14:57
Speaker
Some translations will say inspired, but it says all scripture is God breathed. How many times this year did we read the phrase, It is a declaration of the Lord.
00:15:11
Speaker
Thus says the Lord. That means God said it. And that means that the scriptures are God breathed. God spoke. And we recorded those words that God spoke.
00:15:24
Speaker
And we passed them down. And all scripture is not only spoken by God, but is useful for teaching, for reproof, which means for correction.
00:15:39
Speaker
for restoration, we talked about restoration yesterday, and for training in righteousness so that the person belonging to God, that is you, that is me, may be capable, fully equipped for every good deed.
00:15:59
Speaker
We have been talking about doing the work that God sets for us to do because he makes good works for us to do and he equips us for these good works. Studying God's word this year is equipping us and helping us realize that he is placing us exactly where we are meant to be for such a time as this and that he is equipping us and making us capable so that we may do the every good work that he asks us us to do.
00:16:31
Speaker
And then as we do it, we are making sure to build one another up, to not lord it over others, but to be a servant, to have a servant's heart.
00:16:45
Speaker
Isn't that a great goal to have in mind as we get ready to enter the New Testament and know that Jesus will be taking everything we've learned and telling us all these same things?
00:16:59
Speaker
it's It's really going to drive these lessons home as he lives out this way of living and shows us the way, the truth, and the life that is in him.
00:17:13
Speaker
I am so excited to get to it. And I hope that you are too. So I know it can be hard as kids are getting ready to go back to school and as we have summer vacations here to keep going and following along with this daily reading every day.
00:17:29
Speaker
But I'd like to encourage you to keep going. You can do it. Thank you so much for being here with me. We are going to be fully equipped for every good work by the time we finish the Old Covenant, and even more equipped with these lessons brought home as we see Jesus teaching us how to live these out every day in our lives by the time we finish December thirty first this year.
00:17:55
Speaker
So thank you for joining me this year and today, whether you are following along on that podcast or whether you are watching on video somewhere. Please be kind and hit that light button.
00:18:07
Speaker
That light button looks like a thumbs up. It looks like a heart. It might say follow or subscribe or even share. But let's click those buttons so that we can spread the word about reading God's word so that our fellow brothers and sisters may also Be taught by God's word and fully equipped and capable for every good work.
00:18:31
Speaker
I hope you have a fantastic rest of your day today on August 6th, and I will be here for every everyone again tomorrow.