The Consoling Breath of God is restoring you, abiding in you, and empowering you to be whole and free, SO THAT you can participate in His redemptive plan for all mankind.

God’s redemptive plan on earth: Everyone should know someone who lives like Jesus.

So, His goal is to deliver you, restore you, and empower you to lead well where you live, work, study, and play. (Every generation of us!)

The Project:
- Your Walls = identity, security, peace, and definition
- Your Gates = access and egress of friends, enemies, resources, and commerce.

Nehemiah 5:1-19
“Now the men and their wives raised a great outcry against their fellow Jews. Some were saying, “We and our sons and daughters are numerous; in order for us to eat and stay alive, we must get grain.” Others were saying, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our homes to get grain during the famine.” Still others were saying, “We have had to borrow money to pay the king’s tax on our fields and vineyards. Although we are of the same flesh and blood as our fellow Jews and though our children are as good as theirs, yet we have to subject our sons and daughters to slavery. Some of our daughters have already been enslaved, but we are powerless, because our fields and our vineyards belong to others.” When I heard their outcry and these charges, I was very angry. I pondered them in my mind and then accused the nobles and officials. I told them, “You are charging your own people interest!” So I called together a large meeting to deal with them and said: “As far as possible, we have bought back our fellow Jews who were sold to the Gentiles. Now you are selling your own people, only for them to be sold back to us!” They kept quiet, because they could find nothing to say. So I continued, “What you are doing is not right. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our Gentile enemies? I and my brothers and my men are also lending the people money and grain. But let us stop charging interest! Give back to them immediately their fields, vineyards, olive groves and houses, and also the interest you are charging them—one percent of the money, grain, new wine and olive oil.” “We will give it back,” they said. “And we will not demand anything more from them. We will do as you say.” Then I summoned the priests and made the nobles and officials take an oath to do what they had promised. I also shook out the folds of my robe and said, “In this way may God shake out of their house and possessions anyone who does not keep this promise. So may such a person be shaken out and emptied!” At this the whole assembly said, “Amen,” and praised the Lord. And the people did as they had promised. Moreover, from the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, until his thirty-second year—twelve years—neither I nor my brothers ate the food allotted to the governor. But the earlier governors—those preceding me—placed a heavy burden on the people and took forty shekels of silver from them in addition to food and wine. Their assistants also Lorded it over the people. But out of reverence for God I did not act like that. Instead, I devoted myself to the work on this wall. All my men were assembled there for the work; we did not acquire any land. Furthermore, a hundred and fifty Jews and officials ate at my table, as well as those who came to us from the surrounding nations. Each day one ox, six choice sheep and some poultry were prepared for me, and every ten days an abundant supply of wine of all kinds. In spite of all this, I never demanded the food allotted to the governor, because the demands were heavy on these people. Remember me with favor, my God, for all I have done for these people.”

1. The Great Outcry
- Some of us do not have enough to provide for our family (verse 2)
- Some of us are over-extended due to a crisis (verse 3)
- Some of us are mortgaged due to a changing economy (verse 4)

Result: Our children have become enslaved and we are powerless to rescue them. (verse 5)

2. The Honest Truth
There are a variety of earning powers, talents, skills, strengths, etc among God’s people. This is not a bad or sinful reality. It is God’s intentional design.

God’s intention is not to create a world of Haves and Have Nots. The diversity is intended to bring us together in shared responsibility, beauty, and connection to God and one another. All of creation working in harmony together, in submission to God, to reflect His nature and His will.

The tragic irony is that while God is rescuing His people from slavery, His own people are selling them back into slavery, and He has to rescue them again. (verse 8)

Three Practices of Oikonomics:
1. Be Mission Motivated:
- Live in the Fear of God
- Live to reveal God

Economic diversity is an opportunity, not an obstacle. (Verse 10)

2. Take responsibility for God’s people.

Practice Acts of self-denial:
- We did not take the Governor’s allotment
- We fed 150 people per day at our table
- We did not buy their land at crisis prices

Practice Acts of Irrational Generosity:
- Lend money and grain interest-free
- Return to them their fields, vineyards, olive groves, and houses

3. Refuse to judge people based on income or money management

Trust God’s promised favor; not yourself, the economy, or the generosity of others (v20)

Bringing it all together:
Acts 4:32-35
“All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.”