A Final Word

The tragedy that individuals and families, even societies, communities, and nations are facing is the absence of a moral frame of reference. Dr. Tony Evans says when we follow God's direction, we find stability no matter what's going on around us. God has called us as Christians to receive instructions from above that we might live successfully here below. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. As Nehemiah's story draws to a close, he offers one final word, an appeal for God to remember His faithful service. Today, Dr. Evans unpacks that heartfelt request and challenges us to embrace an attitude of investing our resources in ways that carry an eternal impact.

A powerful reminder that finishing well isn't just about endurance, it's about stewardship with purpose. Let's listen. We live in a world in crisis and in chaos, and increasingly so. Our culture has wrestled with problems year after year that it only sweeps under the rug and cannot ultimately address. And what's even worse is that some of those problems are as much in the church as they are in the society. The tragedy that individuals and families and churches and yes, even societies, communities, and nations are facing is the absence of a moral frame of reference applied by the people of God to address the chaos of the environments in which they live. And no matter what else you do, at best you can fix the symptom.

You can never eradicate the cause. Our concern during the book of Nehemiah has been rebuilding our community from the inside out. That is, rather than merely looking at external things that are symptomatic, we've been looking at causal things that are the fundamental issues for why they're broken lives, broken homes, broken churches, and in this case, broken societies. They all stem from the same root cause. So what I'd like to do today is simply extract some of the broad principles that we've already learned in our exposition of the book of Nehemiah and apply them to our assembly of believers, our church.

What are we going to do to make a difference in the world in which we live? Christians operate from one of two extremes. Some Christians are so heavenly minded, they're no earthly good. They're on their way to heaven, but they're going to mess up themselves and everybody else they run into on the way there. They have their Bibles under their arms on Sunday, but it seems to have very little impact in their lives on Monday. Other Christians are so earthly minded, they're no heavenly good.

They think secularly, talk secularly, act secularly, react secularly, and so heaven can't use them because all they do is parrot out the non-Christian approach to things, and so they're of no heavenly benefit. God has called us as Christians to receive instructions from above that we might live successfully here below. Our feet firmly planted on the ground, but our minds in heavenly places, receiving divine truth that we exercise in history.

We want to look at some of those principles as it's related to the nitty gritty life. If Jesus Christ comes back, we don't have to do any of these things I'm getting ready to talk about. Because if Jesus Christ comes back, we won't have any problems. We won't study war no more.

You don't have to deal with those personalities, but if he doesn't come back, we're in a mess. And it's a mess that's getting worse and worse, and the Christian church must come forward to make the difference. Principle number one is that Christians must pray for change. We saw in Nehemiah chapter 1 verse 4 through 11 that there was a mission that Nehemiah had. As we state, the mission was to turn the Christian community's heart back toward God, thus bringing healing to the land along with moving or removing apathy in the society. The mission was theological in nature. Before you seek political change, before you seek social change, before you seek economic change, you must always first of all seek spiritual change.

If you don't get spiritual change, all the other changes are only temporary. Nehemiah first, before he tried to fix Jerusalem, fixed the problem. And the problem was that sinful men had rebelled against God, and it was working itself out in history. The problem in your family is that sinful people live there.

The problem if we have one in our church is that Christians are acting in a sinful way. And what Nehemiah did was the very first thing he did was establish what the causes were. If you haven't talked about the wickedness of men's heart, if you've not talked about the fact that men do not have a moral standard that sits in judgment on them, if you don't start talking about the fact that sinful men, when they get in sinful scenarios, do sinful things, it's just some get videotaped and others do not. If you don't start off with the fact that the heart is deceitfully wicked above all things, then who can know it? If you don't start by the fact that all of our righteousness, the Scripture says, is as filthy rags, if we don't start with the fact that we are sinful men in need of divine guidance, then you'll never hit the bullseye of the problem.

You will always search for illegitimate solutions to symptoms that are not causes. Nehemiah started right, because he started with praying on God's terms. And that's the last thing I want to say about this first principle, is that he prayed in accordance with the Word of God.

Principle number two has to do with something that's repeated over and over again, and that's the principle of firstfruits. We see them in Nehemiah chapter 10 and numbers of other passages in the Scripture where he talks about the fact that you must not only pray for change, you must contribute for change. The principle of firstfruits was the principle that had to do with taking what belonged to God and giving it to the storehouse of the temple first. Now, the key here is that these funds or resources were not simply to benefit just the internal storehouse of the church or the temple in that case, but these firstfruits were designed to be a revenue base from the church whereby the society at large would be helped. One of the things that must happen by the church as in Nehemiah's context is that if we're going to impact the community in which we are located, we are going to have to have a firstfruits mentality, a mentality that says we want to use the resources that God gives us to reinvest them in such a way that they will roll out into eternal benefits.

Principle number three, comprehensive well-being, the concept of being whole, concept of being totally fit to do God's plan and God's program. We have a lot of needs in our community that go beyond the soul. And don't get me wrong, the soul is critical.

In fact, the soul is first. Housing is necessary. Fitness is necessary. Counseling is necessary. Medical health care is necessary, but it's secondary to the soul.

And here's why. If a man doesn't have this world's goods, that's bad, but he can recover from that. If you don't have the house that you want to live in, that's bad, but you can recover from that.

If you don't have the food that you would prefer to have, that's bad, but you can recover from that. But if a man dies without knowing Jesus Christ, you hit him with a blow he can never recover from. Because when a man dies without Christ, he's eternally separated from God. One of the things that we're concerned about is the great plague that is operative in our communities, particularly in inner city and urban centers, where many of the things needed for people to function in a proper way are just not available to them, starting with information. What better place than to have the church as your primary information center in the community, where people can find out about the things relative to their total well-being.

Why? Because the church should be concerned about the comprehensive well-being of its members, and operate in such a way that people can find wholeness. That's the Old Testament word shalom. The word shalom in the Hebrew doesn't mean peace, meaning don't be troubled. The word shalom means well-being. It means comprehensive wellness in living, that your whole world is well. So today we have shalom, or wellness of life. So the concept of God's peace in the Bible is not only concerned with whether you have good little feelings on the inside, but whether your world in which you live is shalom. That is, it's full of well-being, your mental, your physical, your attitudinal, and of course, foundationally, your spiritual life is well. So many of our children die because of inadequate information about prenatal care.

Seventy percent of all the problems, particularly in the minority community, are avoidable. They have to do with changing your lifestyle. And what other place should you learn how to change your lifestyle than in the family of God? What other place should you learn about what you should be doing and not be doing than in the Church of Jesus Christ? Dr. Evans will have more on how a strong biblical foundation can bring lasting change to our lives and society when he continues in just a moment.

Don't go away. The Bible makes it clear that you know when God has cursed a land, when its fathers are nowhere to be found. Dr. Tony Evans says that what becomes of the next generation of men depends on what happens with this one. Our kids need to see men in their midst who love God and who love them. But what does it take to be that kind of man?

You can find out with the help of the Tony Evans Training Center's free course called Kingdom Man. It'll teach you to see past the phony images of manhood that society surrounds us with and become the loving leader that a wife and family would want to follow. As with all of our courses, there's in-depth study material you can work through at your own pace. Lots of exclusive content from Tony, tightly focused Q&A videos, and an online forum where you can collaborate with other students.

It's almost like having a seminary on your smartphone. Check out the free course called Kingdom Man and the growing list of other subjects waiting for you. Visit TonyEvans.org today and follow the link to the Tony Evans Training Center. Today's message is the final installment from Dr. Evans' comprehensive 15-lesson study on the book of Nehemiah.

The story of Nehemiah isn't just about rebuilding a city's walls. It's about restoring lives, strengthening faith, and stepping boldly into God's calling. Through this series, Tony has uncovered practical insights on leadership, perseverance, and spiritual renewal. Lessons that apply to your personal walk with God, your family, and even your community. We'd love for you to own the complete collection of messages as our gift.

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Next is the issue of education. Nehemiah chapter 9 verse 3. It says this. When Nehemiah was teaching the people and the priest Ezra came out, he said in verse 9 chapter 3, While they stood in their place, they read from the book of the law of the Lord their God. For a fourth of the day and for another fourth they confessed and worshiped the Lord their God. In chapter 8 it says that Ezra read the word of God to everyone who had understanding. Let me give you a basic principle related to education. In the Bible, all education for God's people is to be bibliocentric or theologically founded. In the Bible, there is no such thing as truth that does not intersect with God. Why should the church be concerned about education?

I'll tell you why. Because for the very first time in the history of American civilization, your children and my children are being taught information without ethics. Our children are being taught truth is neutral and truth is relative. For the first time, if you were raised like me, you always had a teacher who would tell you reading, writing, and arithmetic, but should also tell you right and wrong.

They'll also tell you good and bad. That's not the case anymore. There used to be a time when God was at least in the vicinity of the school. You could pray in school. They stopped that and said, well, no, you can't pray, but you can have a moment of silence.

They stopped that and said, no, you can't have a moment of silence. Why? Because now education has become relevant. If we are going to live in this culture, we must affect education. We must say that education, education must have a moral arm to it and that truth is not neutral and truth is not relative. That's why we can't solve the racial crisis because truth is relative. What's right to me is wrong to you and what's racism to me is not racism to you and I don't feel that way.

That's the way you feel it. We need a standard that governs everybody and that means Christians raise up and begin to influence the educational environment. How? It means that we raise up a new generation of people who are called to the classroom. Nehemiah's whole point was make sure your kids get a spiritual frame of life from the point that they begin to understand.

Why? Because if you don't educate them, somebody on the street will. If you don't educate them, the media will. If you don't educate them, their peers will. So the issue is whether it's spiritual or not, the issue is who's going to be the spirit? What's going to be the influence that influences our children?

Because whatever is influencing them now is not working. Then the next principle is there must be community business patronage. That is stabilizing the community by buying and trading locally. You remember that the walls were down and so the people did all of their commerce outside of the city.

So what? Nobody wanted to live in the city. What Nehemiah did was he brought commerce back into the city in order to establish a business connection there so that people would then want to live there. Whenever commerce leaves, of course population is going to leave because population is going to filter out to where commerce is. Nehemiah wanted to rebuild his community. And so in order to do that, he used the temple as a base for commerce.

And so what he has is community business patronage or that is buying power that stems out of the people of God. The next principle that is there is that there must be redevelopment in the area of housing. People must live somewhere.

You remember Nehemiah chapter 11 verse 1 and 2. It says 10% of the community moved back to the city. 10% of the people had moved to the suburbs. We must relocate. We must get people who are committed to seeing these neighborhoods that have been run down because people have left to be redeveloped because God's people returned.

Getting people to actually take up residences in communities that need witnesses living in their neighborhood. 10% of the people moved back. Now that meant that 90% did move back.

Now I can remember what the 90% said. I've been waiting all my life to get in these suburbs. I've been waiting a long time to move out here. You're not going to tell me to move out.

I am not going back to that particular place. All right? Let me make you feel good.

Don't feel bad. All right? However, there is something you can do. You can take some of the savings that you are saving and look for investment property in those neighborhoods that are in the inner city. You can then buy that investment property, fix it up. Then you can sell it to a member who is in an apartment and can't afford a house.

You've just solved a bunch of problems. You've taken your suburban benefits and reinvested them in an inner city environment. You've provided somebody who couldn't afford a home the ability to get a home. You've moved representatives of Jesus Christ in the neighborhood and you can stop feeling so guilty because you didn't want to move there yourself. The point of it is that there are ways in which we, from where we are situated, can be used of God to have a presence in the world in which we live. It is not enough to come to church. It is not enough to say amen to the sermon. We live in a world that's going to hell in a hand basket and we've got to have a presence there.

And I believe God is calling some Christians, some Christians, to these environments to reestablish a presence in those environments. Next, political activity. We need to influence the political agenda. The principle is to influence the political environment for the purposes of God.

Like it or not, you're affected by politics. Christians must be informed politically. Our church must become a center of information so people know what the Bible has to say and measure politicians against that standard. We need today a new generation of politicians, men and women who will run for political office because they have a standard. You see, one of the great problems we face today is the absence of leaders. See, if you took a unanimous vote against the word of God, I'm still going to be your leader. You're not going to be following because I'm not going to go with that vote because there's a standard that supersedes the majority.

God is the majority and his standard is the standard that must rule. And so we need a new generation of politicians who is commissioned to the will of God who will take a stand for right because much of the political agenda today is the cause for the mess we're in because it has passed laws that are not in keeping with God's standards. And we need people who are going to vote righteously, who are not going to be intimidated by people who want to promote unrighteousness, but who are going to take a stand for that which is true and good. Now, if Jesus comes back, we won't have to worry about it. But if he doesn't, we're going to have to save our children.

We're going to have to save them educationally, economically, politically, socially, and most of all spiritually. But it will take the church having a comprehensive view of impact to make this kind of difference. My closing word is taken from chapter 13 of Nehemiah verse 14 where Nehemiah says, Remember me, O God, remember me. And when he asks God to remember him, he says, And do not blot out my loyal deeds which I have performed for the house of God and its services. He ends in verse 31 by saying, Remember me, O God, for the good. Dr. Tony Evans bringing to a close the final message from his powerful series on the book of Nehemiah. But he'll have one closing thought to share with us in just a moment, so don't go away. Now, as I mentioned earlier, all 15 full-length messages in this sermon collection can be yours with our thanks when you make a donation to help support the alternative's mission of bringing life-changing messages to a world in need.

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That's 1-800-800-3222. Or, once again, make the arrangements online and get your digital downloads right away at tonyevans.org. Confusion and compromise are everywhere, but believers aren't left to figure it out alone. On Monday, Dr. Evans explains how God's truth keeps us grounded and delivered from deception.

Right now, though, he's back with his final thought to wrap up our series on Nehemiah. My prayer is that God will remember us. When he says remember, he doesn't mean God forgets. When he says remember, he means God help. Help us, O God.

This is a big undertaking. I could stay up here every Sunday probably for the rest of my life and preach you sermons. I could stand up here for the rest of my life and do exposition of the Word of God.

But I'm afraid that's not enough. Exposition of the Word of God won't stop people from moving out of this neighborhood and allowing the continuous movement of commerce. Exposition of the Word of God alone will not make people kingdom-minded in their business careers.

It's got to be exposition matched with application. It's got to be setting up systems in our church that make a difference in our community because this is the community we live in that must raise our children. May God remember us.

May God help us to make a difference in the world that our kids grow up in because if you don't, who will? And if not now, when? Time is fleeting fast. Our world is falling apart. Our government is looking for answers. Could it be that we've been called to the kingdom for such a time as this?