Nehemiah- Part 4

Scripture: "And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that The Lord had commanded Israel. So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the month." Nehemiah 8:1-2

Good morning, as we take a look at today’s scripture in Nehemiah there are a few things we have to know. The main piece of information I would like us to pay attention to is that, at this point, Nehemiah is in charge. He is officially the governor of Israel. He makes the decisions on what is to happen. Now Ezra as we learned from yesterday is about to teach the Law to Israel where the people will join in worship and repentance for their sins. This is essentially a great revival.

The reason I wanted to point out that Nehemiah is in charge is because he was not the one leading the assembly; it was Ezra who led the assembly. For anyone put in any leadership position whether at work, church, school, etc., there comes a point where we know of something that has to be done and that we might not be the best one to do it. That is what Nehemiah realizes here. He steps aside and lets God work through Ezra to start a revival. Could Nehemiah have said "No Ezra, I worked so hard to get this wall built I am going to be the one to read the Law"? Yes, he could have done that, but he didn't. He stepped aside because he understood that Ezra was the better fit for the job.  

As leaders we will burn ourselves out if we try to do everything ourselves. In school I learned that this is called a superman complex.  A superman complex means that you have to do everything yourself and you refuse to delegate assignments to others.  What eventually happens is that leader burns out and when he steps down from a business, church, etc.... it begins to fail. We have to learn that God puts people in our lives with gifts to help us; so let’s let them help us.  Lets stop trying to do everything and allow others to operate in their gifts. I challenge everyone who is in a leadership position in anything to focus on seeing the gifts of those that God has placed there with you.  Find away to let them operate in their gifts and it will allow you to focus on your gifts as well.

Let us pray, Heavenly Father we come before you and we ask for your guidance to show us how to step aside in our pride and allow others to flourish in there gifts.  In Jesus’ name, amen.

David Wiggins

Youth Pastor

www.nbcornerstone.com