The High Cost of Leadership
Tom Shrader examines Nehemiah's example in chapter 5, contrasting godly leadership with self-serving authority. He shows how Nehemiah refused his governor's allowance and personally funded ministry needs to avoid burdening the people. True leaders operate with a fear of God, meet tangible needs while recognizing emotional strain, and pursue delayed gratification rather than immediate personal gain.
“Successful leaders are givers, unsuccessful leaders are takers.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Just Do It (2004)
Recorded: 2004
Duration: 45 min
Themes: leadership, sacrifice, service, authority, stewardship, humility, integrity, godliness, business owner, manager, pastor, elder, parent, new to leadership, struggling with pride, mentor
Scripture: Nehemiah 5, Nehemiah 5:14-19, 1 John 4, Daniel
Theological Themes: servant leadership, biblical leadership, fear of god, christian stewardship, spiritual authority, biblical integrity, godly character, sanctification
Full Transcript
We are today in session six of eight as we look at this study of Nehemiah. Again, I hate to be repetitive in the introduction, but maybe that's the purpose of an introduction, at least some of the time. Nehemiah is typically someone that you would study as you were looking at the idea of leadership. In Christian circles, and I've discovered even in some secular settings, you will find books on management and leadership where you will see them go to a biblical reference, and they'll go, in this case, to Nehemiah.
What we're looking at over these eight weeks are the eight chapters of the book of Nehemiah, the account of Nehemiah. The other day I used that word "story" of Nehemiah, and someone lovingly, kindly chastised me afterwards and said, "Don't use the word story because it connotes fictitious. It makes people think that this is something that is made up." I said, "What should I use?" And they said, "Record" or "account," something like that. So here you go: this is the account of Nehemiah.
I want you to understand that it's not fictitious. We're giving you dates. You've got real life people. Our setting is 444 BC. This is a real account. What we're talking about is, and for me, I'm not that excited about just studying accounts for the sake of accounts. What's it mean to me? Nehemiah lived 2,500 years ago. What's it mean to me? Nehemiah, I think especially, has some principles that you can apply to your life literally today. I get pretty excited about a couple of these things today.
The Universal Call to Leadership
If you are in a position where we would typically think of you as a leader—by that I mean you're owning a business, or you're running a business, or you're in a management position—we've got some real stuff, especially if you're the person calling the shots today. We've got some stuff to zap you right between the eyes today, hopefully in a very cheerful and helpful way.
You are, I would guess, a leader. Here's how Webster defines leader: Webster defines leader as one who leads. I doubt he was up all night thinking that through, but "one who leads." So you're a leader. It doesn't say one who has a title. It doesn't say one who gets paid this extraordinary amount of money to be at the top of the food chain. It doesn't mean prestige. It means one who looks around and somebody's following.
So it may be a group of people. It may be a whole corporate entity. It may be a singular person. It may be a little baby. You may be a grandparent and life is such that you are the significant person in that kid's life. You are a leader.
The other thing that we can learn about when we study leadership is following. We're not as attracted to that, and yet most of us would spend more time in the following mode than the leading mode. Years ago, I had a Saturday study I wanted to launch. I called it "the leadership forum." It was not about leadership and it wasn't a forum, but I knew everybody would come to that. It was about following, and I knew if I said "being an obedient follower," everybody's sleeping in on Saturday for that deal.
By studying leadership, I can learn a little bit about how to follow. We're leaders, not managers. I don't even like that term. "I'm a manager." You manage inventory. You manage a commodity. You lead people.
Nehemiah's Mission and Context
I'll remind you a little bit about Nehemiah. Nehemiah is a guy on a mission—a mission that God has given him. He's doing God's work, God's way, God's timing. He's exactly in the right place.
There have been a couple of opportunities to rebuild this wall. It occurred to me in putting this together today that we've now in our sixth week, and we've never even talked about the wall. I want to make sure you get a picture of this. We're talking about a wall around the city of Jerusalem, torn down about 200 years before this. Zerubbabel tried to rebuild it, didn't get it done. Ezra tried to rebuild it, didn't get it done.
When you think of a wall, don't think of something three and a half, four feet high. This is a wall that's used for defensive purposes to protect the city. This wall, and the topography was such that they're kind of rolling hills in that area, so the wall would vary in height from—obviously it's going to be constant at the top—from 50 feet to 70 feet to 60 feet all the way around the city of Jerusalem. I found a map of the city of Jerusalem at Nehemiah's time, and it's significantly smaller than now. Nonetheless, this is a huge project. That wall's going into the ground and up 50 feet or so for defensive purposes. That's the way a city was protected.
For literally now a couple hundred years, the city has laid exposed to enemies, to predators, to anyone who would come and pilfer, steal, destroy, do anything that they wanted to the city of Jerusalem. So off Nehemiah goes to be God's man.
Nehemiah's Background and Character
Remember Nehemiah's position. Remember what his job was originally? Cupbearer. He's a slave. He's a slave to the king. So even here, Nehemiah demonstrates extraordinary godly sensitivity. He goes to the king, and the king says, "What is it you want?" And he says, "I want to go build this wall." And he gets a note from the king and a note from the king to the keeper of the forest who's going to provide him the materials.
Nehemiah reminds me a lot of Daniel. I've been reading back and forth. As you're reading Daniel and you're reading Nehemiah, you see a lot of character traits that are constant in both of them.
Just their dependence upon God, especially in the face of adversity. That's what we looked at the last two weeks. God's man, God's job, God's timing, God's way, all that stuff. And yet there's opposition. The lesson is so practical for us—you need to understand that just because you're doing what God may have for you to do doesn't mean there isn't opposition.
Two weeks ago we saw opposition from Sanballat and Tobiah. That's that outside opposition. That's what we would expect. We would expect that in the course of tackling some feat, some job, some mission, we would expect opposition from out there. We understand—those of us who would say we're Christians and those of us who would say that we accept the Scripture as the Word of God—we understand there's an enemy, an enemy who absolutely is out to destroy you, and that's Satan. Now we can overestimate that, we can underestimate it, but that it's there is evident. That's what we saw two weeks ago. We assume that we're going to have that opposition.
Internal Opposition: When Brothers Fight Brothers
What we saw last week is intramural opposition. Now the Jews are fighting with the Jews. That's not what we always expect. That's not what we're always anticipating. Nehemiah comes in, the Jews are suppressing the Jews. They're charging interest, and that's a violation of God's law as the nation dealt with each other. Consequently, the work stops. There's a wildcat strike. These guys say we don't have any food, we don't have any seed to plant the field, we've got major problems.
And there was an outcry in chapter 5. If you've got your Bibles with you, it will be in Nehemiah chapter 5. He said there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their Jewish brothers. Verse 6, Nehemiah is very angry. Nehemiah is ticked off. And he's angry, and here's what he does. He confronts these guys.
And he says, "Listen, have you guys been doing something that's wrong?" To me, again, he's even very gentle in the way he confronts it. That's not how I do it. I would tend to be in their face saying, "Hey, listen, you guys, you're screwing up, you're the problem, you've done it." But he's gentle, gives them a little dignity. And they don't say anything. And Nehemiah says, "Okay, here's the problem now. The problem is that you have sinned." And the sin was this. That's the problem. And he gets a buy-in on that. Then he says, "Here's the plan. You're going to give all that money back. You're going to put these guys back on their feet. And you're going to resolve not to be the oppressor anymore."
Good Plans Require Execution
And it's a good plan. But a good plan is not enough, is it? We talked about it last week. It's one thing to have a great workout plan. It's one thing to go and get a trainer and have that trainer put you in a tank and say, "Wow, we've never seen that much body fat before." And then they pull you out, and then they say, "Gee, that's incredible. Now, eat this. Lift this. Push this. Take these vitamins and these supplements. And I'm telling you, in a month from now, that weight won't be here. It'll be here. And that body fat won't be here. It'll be here. And if you do it, it'll happen." And that's exactly true. That's a great plan.
What's the problem in that plan most often? You. You're the problem. You'll eat some of that, but not all of it. Last night, and I've been eating pretty well and exercising a lot. Last night, I'm looking for anything edible. Anything edible that's not fruit or vegetable. I want anything. Is there anything? Is there any candy left from Christmas? Is there a pie? You know, Sarah was married three weeks ago. Is there a piece of cake left? Is there anything around? The plan's great, but there has to be execution.
I'm reading a biography on Napoleon. Napoleon makes this statement: "I have fought 69 battles and never learned anything new." And I thought, what an odd statement. What a strange thing to say. Because we would think every time we encounter something, we're learning. You've got to go on and let Napoleon finish. Here's what he said: "I fought 69 battles, and I've learned nothing that is new. Here's what I know. It's all in the execution."
So if you're watching a basketball game, and it's halftime, and they're interviewing the coach on the way out, they're always going to say this: "We're just not executing. We've got a solid game plan. We need to execute it." It's the same thing in your life. Adversity comes.
The Greater Test of Prosperity
Just one comment on adversity, and then we've got to get into the lesson. Thomas Carlyle, the Scottish author and historian, writes this: "Adversity is hard on a man, but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred who will withstand adversity." In other words, when we think of testing, we think of adversity, but perhaps the greatest test in our life is prosperity. The greatest test in our life is when the good times roll.
Here's the sentence I wrote, kind of an offshoot of that: It's very difficult to live a life that is successful by the world's standards and maintain your spiritual, emotional, and moral equilibrium. It's just very hard to do.
So here comes adversity. We think of it as an attack. I just want to kick the slats out of that and broaden that a little more. For every person who can handle the challenge of the spot on the lung on the X-ray, Carlyle says there's only one person who can handle the promotion and the job and the increase. When I think of great testing, and you too, if I say to you, "You're going to be tested today in a great way," you're going to think of a death of somebody that you love. You're going to think of a sickness, losing a job. Then Carlyle says, "No, here's the great test. The great test is having the deal closed and you get the check for half a million bucks."
Now, I am sick enough to know how you're thinking. "Bring on the test, my friend." I understand that. I understand that. You think you're the... But isn't that the truth?
Don't you always think you're the exception to every rule? That no one else could handle this but I could? There's a lot of guys in the office who couldn't handle a little flirtation, but I can. I can go right up to the boundary.
And then the boundary moves, and then it moves, and then it moves, and we discover you weren't the exception to the rule. There's a reason there's a rule.
The Four Areas of Leadership
So here's Nehemiah. You got the outline, four areas. There's going to be a contrast of leadership, the conduct of leadership, the compassion of leadership—a relatively new idea for leadership—and the compensation of leadership. We're going to look at these and throw them together in some cases because as you look at it, you can see there's a contrast and compare here.
Successful leaders are givers. Unsuccessful leaders are takers. That's Nehemiah's experience.
The Governor's Food Allowance
Here's what happens in verse 14: "Moreover, from the day that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the 20th year to the 32nd year of king Artaxerxes, for 12 years, neither I nor my kinsmen have eaten the governor's food allowance. But the former governors who were before me laid burden on the people and took bread from them and wine besides 40 shekels of silver. Even their servants domineered the people."
Here's something about a leader, Nehemiah says. A leader doesn't always take advantage of every fringe benefit that's been given to him. In other words, a leader is not just in it for the money.
There's something extraordinarily powerful about someone who's not engaged in an enterprise because of the cash.
Haley's Example
Haley starts a new job today. She went from one place to another. The place that she left—they're just doing evaluations and they love her. They love what she does. The future's unlimited. Everything's terrific. Here's the deal: she took a job for a fraction of the money she was making at the other place.
And they don't understand it. She says it's been pretty cool. Haley's driving on the freeway. She's got to leave early. She doesn't want to get hung up—she's a pretty conscientious person. So she'll get to work, typically a half hour or so early, and just go into the workroom and sit. Typically there's nobody there yet, and she'll just take her Bible and read, and that starts her morning.
So they don't know what to do with Haley. She doesn't fit in any box. And yet she's this cute, perky person that everybody loves to work with.
The hospital called her in about a month ago, and they said, "Haley, we need to see you. The boss wants to meet with you." Not her boss, but the boss above them. He came in and said, "Haley, we just got this letter from one of your former patients, and let me read it to you." It was this guy saying, "In this time of trauma, not just for me, but for my family, there was this nurse named Haley who made everything right."
So that's Haley. Now Haley leaves this to take a job for less money, and they're going, "Why?"
Divine Calling vs. Divine Reason
So they're individually coming up to her and saying, "Haley, do you think this is providence?" She says, "I don't know. What do you mean by providence?" "Well, do you think this is a divine calling?" And Haley's smart. She knows you don't answer questions. "What do you mean by divine calling?" You make people define the terms.
It's like when Oprah says, "Everything happens for a reason." Well, let's break that down. If everything happens for a reason, then something's at the cause of it, or something controls the reason, or something controls the purpose, or something has to be in control. How can it happen for a reason? It can't be totally random and have a reason to it, Oprah. So there must be a sovereign authority in there. But we don't want to go there. See, we'll say these things, but when we say, "Now let's define them," we got issues.
So Haley says, "Listen, all I know is I get a chance to do some serious ministry, and that's what I want to do." There's something powerful about that.
The Problem with Executive Compensation
There's something powerful to me about a CEO that isn't making $28 million a year with all these benefits. I am as pro-free market capitalism as anyone walking the face of the earth. But there's something that, to me, is sickening when you've got a company that can't turn a profit, and you've got to pay the CEO $50 million to quit. They ought to be firing him, and he ought to give you the money back. You ran it in the ground.
And yet you see somebody who's saying, "No, I'm going to give my life to something else." We see it at our church all the time. We're doing a lot of tech stuff right now, and you get these young tech guys in there. I interviewed this kid about three years ago. He was 21, and I said, "Do you have any experience?" He said, "Yes, I've been running my own business now for seven years." I said, "You were 14?" He said, "Yeah, it's a computer business. I was 14 when I started." I'm trying to think when I was 14 what I was doing. I don't remember running a business.
So we got these guys in there that are 23, 24, that absolutely are six-figure-plus guys all day long out in the marketplace, and we pay them half that. Well, see, there's something exciting about that. That's what Nehemiah's saying. Nehemiah's saying, "You know what, here's the deal. I'm not going to take everything that's available to me. The other guy did. Did you see that?"
The other guy took it all. Let me point out, the other guys have had 150 years to get this wall built and haven't put a brick up, basically.
Well, wait a minute. If I do this, if I live this way, if I'm a giver, not a taker, won't people take advantage of me? Sure.
Won't People Take Advantage of Me?
I mean, there's no better illustration to me on this than the husband-wife illustration. Here you go. This isn't hard to figure out. Wives submit to your husbands. Husbands love your wives like Christ loved the church. Now, there's the guidelines.
So you sit down with a couple, and you go through this entire problem, and she'll say, "I've been submitting now for seven days." Whoa, whoa. Stop the presses. Now, we're happy that you're submitting for seven days. But she'll say, "I'm submitting for seven days, and he hasn't cooperated at all. How long am I to submit?" And I'll have to say, "Well, I don't know. Let me see. Wives submit to your husband. I guess there's no expiration date on this."
And guys, "Husbands love your wives. I've been loving her, but I've got to tell you, she's frigid. I've got to love her, but I'm telling you, nothing's going on here." Listen, you love her.
The Power of an Outward Orientation
When you're in a situation like that, here's how you grow. You get an outward orientation. You're looking out.
At a meeting the other day, we have a subset of people in our church, a subgroup that fly under the radar screen, and we've got a couple of things going. We're on Thursday nights out in Queen Creek with migrant workers who have absolutely nothing. And we go out, feed them, share the gospel with them, support them, take clothing to them. We have clothing bank in Gilbert that we're part of. We have a bunch of stuff that we do that doesn't show up anywhere.
So I'm meeting with them, and of course, they're always wondering, how do we get more visibility? And so we've got to find ways. And this gal says, "What surprised me is I got into this in a sense for me. I felt it was something I needed to do. But now I'm meeting needs. And then I have a chance to share the gospel, and what's happening is I'm actually growing spiritually." And I'm saying to her, "That's great, but let me tell you something. That happens every time I have an outward orientation."
We're getting ready to go to summer camp. We've got 41 dads. They're taking time off work. They're paying their own way. They're going to work their tail off. They're up every morning by six, because their first study starts at six, and they run security most of the night. And they will tell you, to a man, that their lives have been and will continue to be transformed because I'm looking outward.
There's something powerful about a giver versus a taker.
The Conduct of Leadership
Here's the second point. There's a conduct of leadership. There is a spiritual foundation, and there is a practical principle. There's a spiritual side to it, spiritual foundation, and there's a practical principle to this in this conduct.
In verse 15b, "I did not do so because of the fear of God." There's the spiritual principle. He said, I had every right to take this, but, see, I'm worried about something greater than men. I'm worried about God. I have a fear, a reverential awe of God. I understand who He is.
And then he says, consequently, he said, "I also applied to myself the work on this wall. I did not buy any land, and all my servants were gathered there for the work." He said, I didn't benefit from this project one bit.
Here's the principle. Nehemiah says this, I do what I do to please God.
Thinking Beyond Tomorrow
One of the challenges, and again, I apologize for taking you through this, but if I have to experience these things in life, so will you. One of the challenges of going with junior high and high school students and teaching them is to get them to think beyond tomorrow. Their whole mindset is tomorrow. And that, for you as well, unless you get this fixed, that's the same issue that you have.
You and I have to understand in this entire process that we need to be thinking about something grander, bigger than ourselves. Here's the deal. Most of us overestimate what we can do in a day and underestimate what we can do in a decade. So most of us will sit out with some grandiose plan for today, and it doesn't get done, but we forget that it takes time. And in this, I have to persevere.
God's Work Through Smart People
We had a kid. It's amazing to me. God just brings these really smart people in around me. And it's got to be frustrating for them. Because I'm dealing with this guy who has a Ph.D. in physics. I'm dealing with all these people and all these engineers, and I can't relate to them a lick. I don't know what they're talking about.
I told a guy the other day, "I don't even know what you're talking about. I don't have a clue." And I'm sure that's very frustrating for you, but I don't know. And here's the second part. And I don't care, because I'm never going to figure this thing out.
We got this kid. This kid is like the smartest kid in the state of Arizona. He ends up valedictorian and all this other stuff. Well, here's what happens. He's a devout atheist. So he's in with all of our kids, because our kids are saying to him, "Well, there's a God."
The Atheist's Journey to Faith
And all of a sudden, in the middle of this, this kid, who I'm sure there's really smart people in here, and this kid is just like really smart, way smarter than you. All of a sudden, this kid comes to this simple conclusion that there has to be a creator. And then becomes convinced that if there's a creator, and there's an aspect of love to Him, that He must have demonstrated His love. And if He's a creator that demonstrated His love, He must have communicated to us. And if He communicated to us, it ought to be around. And it might be in a book.
This is now a sophomore in high school. He starts going through the Koran. He starts going through all the sacred writings. And they just begin to blow them all off. And then he comes to the Bible, and as he applies every truth, and he applies every principle, he finds no errors. And all of a sudden, he comes to
The resurrection. And he says, you know what? If Jesus really did rise from the dead, then I better listen to what He must have been who He said He was. At his valedictorian speech, because now he's the valedictorian speaker, down there at his high school, 3,000 students, he gets up and does this incredible thing. And they brought the video for me to see. He does this thing about... because he said, they've asked me to talk about what's the most important thing in my life. And he said, they've taught us a lot here about physics and chemistry, and those are all important. I've learned a lot about man, and how man really can do some great things. But they don't wait for it, and they start clapping.
And he said, oh, I'm not finished. Can do some great things humanly, but ultimately, at his core, he's a depraved sinner. It's like somebody sucked all the oxygen out of the gym at this moment, and they go, what happened to our little boy? See, all of a sudden, you've got to do what's right. And that's not very popular anymore.
Doing What's Right Because It's Right
The other day, Haley said, do you think my decision here to take this job is a good decision? I said, Haley, let me take some pressure off you. This isn't a moral decision. You're leaving a job for another job, and it's not like you're quitting to be a hooker. If that were the case, I'd say, no, it's a bad decision. It's an immoral decision. You're making a good, bad decision.
And all of a sudden, here's what Nehemiah says. I'm going to do what's right. And this is my message to the kids. I'm going to do what's right because it's right. Even when it doesn't feel right. I'm going to do what's right because it's right until it feels right.
So if I go to the doctor, and I put my knee up there, here's what he does. Oh, there's a rebound. That's natural. Our natural thing is to sin. If you're sitting at home at night, your spouse answers the phone, and it's somebody trying to sell you a time-share Sedona. You say, this is instinctive. I mean, nobody trained you. You just say, tell them I'm not home. But you are home.
So why? Where's that come from? Well, you're a sinner. That's your natural instinct. So now I have to consciously think about this. Tell them I don't want to talk to them. That's okay to say. Or to call back another time. But that doesn't feel right. But it is right. So I keep doing what is right, because it's right, until it feels right.
The Conviction to Do Right Despite Opposition
And that becomes Nehemiah's motive in the midst of all of this. He says, I'm not afraid of the people. I don't care about the people. Again, I hesitate to use Reagan and politics, because it's such a dividing issue. But I probably, at least four times a year, go through a lot of Reagan stuff. And you go back, and now they've got all these people. I'm watching the other night. I mean, it's kind of funny. Mike Wallace and Dan Rather. These guys are really trying to say something really nice about him. It's got to be killing them inside. It's got to be destroying them. The one thing I learned about all this is, I hope I die before Clinton, because I couldn't sit through this 24 hours a day the other way.
But if you go back on this stuff with Reagan, I'm telling you, and our memories are very short. Those first two and a half years of Reagan were ugly. It was tough. You've got guys standing in line to get a block of cheese, because there's no jobs. But old Dutch, he understood what he was doing was the right thing, or at least was convinced of it. I don't want to get into an argument. He was convinced it was the right thing. And what he knew was, you couldn't blink.
See, the right thing doesn't mean it produces results now. You do the right thing because it's right. And we've lost any sense of that. I came across a bumper sticker a while ago that said this: Pursue Delayed Gratification. We're so instantaneous.
The Spiritual Foundation for Practical Leadership
Here's what he's saying. There's this spiritual foundation, and it has a practical application. I fear God, and because I fear God, I didn't take advantage of this stuff, and I pushed in. If you say, and by the way, this has become very clear to me. The pagans have figured this out. We Christians, for whatever reason, there are theologians at seminaries who are arguing about this question. Can I believe in Jesus and not have my life changed? Well, no! The pagans figured it out.
When Your Faith Doesn't Match Your Behavior
If you walk in with a Bible, here you go, I've been saved about a year. And my salvation? Fairly radical. I'm one day standing at the front door at Coldwell Banker, and there's people going in and out. I'm talking with another guy. I'm a Christian. We're talking. We're trying to negotiate something. I'm losing. When you lose, you crank up the volume, and I'm grabbing a couple of my old favorite words, and I throw them in. Just as I do, this lady comes around the corner, and she hears it all. Here's what she said to me. Tom, I didn't know Christians talked that way. And I said, well, yeah. They're not supposed to, I guess. I don't know.
Mike Barber. Remember Mike Barber played in the NFL? He was all pro, tight end, I believe. Barber's coming over the middle one day, and a linebacker takes a shot at him. Barber gets up. He had gotten converted. It was, again, very visible. Threw an elbow. Just nailed this guy. And this guy said, I thought you were a Christian. And Barber says, I am, but I've got a lot of growing to do. Will you pray for me?
That's what we're saying. Your belief affects how you behave. So let's go to the other side of this. If I don't think there's a God, then I am my own God. I have to create something that controls morality, or I become my own God. We saw that with Herod, remember? People tell me I'm God, and I begin to think I'm God. If you believe a stock that's at $10
Today is going to $20 tomorrow, you're going to buy it today. What you believe affects how you behave. Nehemiah says, "I have that spiritual foundation, and it changes how I live."
The Compassion of Leadership
Leaders address tangible needs and recognize emotional strain. Look at verse 17: "Moreover, there were at my table 150 Jews and officials, besides those who came to us from the nations that were around us. Now, that which was prepared each day was one ox and six choice sheep and birds prepared for me, and once in ten days all sorts of wine were furnished in abundance." And he says this: "Yet for all this I did not demand the governor's food allowance because the servitude was heavy on my people."
Two things again. Here's what he's saying: "I got all these people around me. They're part of the job. It's a legitimate expenditure. But here's what I saw. If I met that need out of the treasury, the people would suffer. So I met that need on my own to not put a burden on the people."
If you're a leader, you're a manager, you're not just a business executive—you're a marriage counselor, drug and alcohol rehab person. You've got to deal with the totality, especially now. You've got to deal with the totality of the person. Nehemiah understands that there are emotional needs and stresses on the people around him.
I would be a free market capitalist guy. Barry Asmus—you all know Barry or most of you do—Barry says what makes capitalism so terrific is it's the only economic system in the world that understands the depravity of man and assumes the depravity of man. It assumes you will do what's best for you. Having said all of that, I think especially those of you who are in a position of leadership have to carry a mantra to the business world that's unique. Here's your mantra: The bottom line is not the bottom line.
Understanding Your People
You want to know how you're doing in your business? Don't ask your peers. I'll go every once in a while—I have some need or something—so I'll talk to a doc about a doc. I'll say, "Tell me about him." And these guys, you can get them to say "he's the butcher of Baghdad" in a million years, but they'll say, "Well, he's this or that or the other." Here's what I'll do: I'll go to the nurses. I'll say, "Tell me about him." Well, and now you get the story.
In the office, don't go from the vice president to the vice president. Talk to the receptionist. Ask the secretary, the person that's at the bottom of the org chart. Ask them how they're doing. And while you're down there—and I'm going to just take a little parenthetical insert here—and you're the person who has the ability to begin to deal with that person, are you dealing with them in a civil way? That's one of the things they were talking about Reagan the other night. They said Reagan could not—they said no way he could walk by the elevator operator and not stop and say, "How you doing? How's the family? How's the kids?"
Now since we're on this secretary and you're the key person, why do you pay her the amount you pay her? Because the market will bear it. So typically here's what you do: You go out and say, "Well, a receptionist is worth $16,000 a year, so I'm going to pay her $16,000 a year because that's what all the other people pay her." But why? What does she need? Why not pay her $19,000?
The Economics of Compassion
I mean, what's the $4,000? The $4,000 is a golf trip to Monterey, which, by the way, you're not going to go without because you're going to take it anyway. It's nothing to you. And to her, it's a 25% increase. There's nothing to me. So wait, that's what it's worth? I'm not saying pay her $50,000 because she says that. I'm saying there's a sensitivity here that Nehemiah demonstrates.
"Well, she can get another job." Really? What does that do to you? All of a sudden now she's not as alert as she should be. Or here's what's going to happen: You're going to pay her $16,000 until somebody else comes along and they have an office that's closer to her house or they'll pay her $16,000 and she's gone. I don't get it.
Read this Starbucks story. This Shultz guy—and I don't know Shultz from a post—there was a kid at one of the Starbucks down in our area who killed himself about a month ago. His mom was a person, a manager here. Shultz shows up for the wake. That's big. I'm guessing this guy's got a boatload of stuff to do in his day.
So Shultz sits down and says, "We're going to pay our part-time people. We're going to give them health care benefits." And everybody said, "You're nuts. You're never going to make it. You're going to run this thing into the ground." Last I saw, they're doing fine. They're still getting $4 for a $0.23 drink. They're doing fine. And you know what? When you go in there, those guys know what's going on. They're not turning people over.
I really appeal to you to look at the people around you. Look at the people that you can influence. They've got needs. And it's good business. It's great business. You're going to have the greatest receptionist on the planet.
The Payoff for Leaders Comes Later
Now, that's the compassion. Here's the last thing. I mentioned or alluded to it earlier. There's this idea of compensation. The payoff for the leader is later. The performance of the leader is now.
Verse 19: "Remember me, oh my God, for good according to all that I've done for this people." He says there's two things. Number one, I'm engaged in this good stuff now. God, remember me in the future. I alluded to it before when I talked about delayed gratification. Let me put it in another term: You and I as Christians are on the ultimate deferred compensation program.
a tendency to say that and understand that the compensation here is magnificent. I was thinking about it this morning driving in. As I'm driving in this morning, I was thinking about what will heaven be like? What will it be like to be in the presence of the Lord forever with no pain, no sin, no hurt, no anguish, growing, loving, nurturing? What out of this world will that be like? But in spite of that, because we can go, well, I'm going to put up with all of this for that. No, I'm saying while you're here, there's a payoff now.
I watch it in the case. I watch the students. Again, freshman, I'll watch the students. I'll watch the students that are punks. I'll watch the students that I would be fairly confident that when they're on their own, they're probably doing a little drugs, probably sexually active, doing their own thing. Nobody's telling them what to do. I'm going to tell you something. They're miserable. All you've got to do is look at them. They're miserable.
I see it in adults. I see guys that are doing their own thing, knocking it out of the park, getting everything they can, just dump this honey for the next honey. They're miserable. There's a little smile and a little twinkle for a season.
The Joy of Following Christ
And yet, I'm just saying the kids, and yet I watch these kids. I'm telling you, I watch my own kids. I watch the kids that they know the Lord, they love the Lord. I'm with this girl the other day. I was trying to explain. Give me an extra minute because this is incredible. I'm trying to explain the Trinity. I'm trying to explain Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I'm trying to explain 3-1, mathematics, heaven I'll never understand now.
This girl comes up to me and she said, "Tom, I think it's like this. I think it's like a compound word. You've got three words in and of themselves that make one word, and that's what the Trinity is like." That's pretty good, huh? From a fourth grader? I said, "Did somebody tell you that?" She said, "No, just as you were thinking, and it looked like you were struggling trying to figure this out, I thought of this." And I watch her, and she's got such happiness and such joy.
She was in the bookstore looking the other day. I said, "You find whatever book you want. You pick it out. You read it. Here's what I'll do. I'll buy it for you, but you've got to come and give me a book report when you're done." And she came back and she said, "All right, here it is. It's $20. Is that all right?" I said, "Whatever. You just get the book and take it." I said, "What are you doing this summer?" She's a fourth grader now. She said, "Well, I'm going on a mission trip to Mexico. It should be pretty cool. It's kind of weird because I'm the only real kid. I'm the only young one going." And there's a joy there.
True Leadership Through Giving
Nehemiah's the leader, and Nehemiah steps to the pump. And Nehemiah says, "You know what? What I believe is going to affect how I behave, and I'm going to be a giver, not a taker." And there's a foundation to this, and there's going to be a whole way that's going to be visible because I'm going to see needs and meet them.
By the way, that's what John writes in 1 John when he says, if you see a brother in need and you have the goods to meet that need and you don't, is the love of God in you. There's a leader. It's a different form of leadership. We don't think of that very often, do we? There's a different form of leadership. That's real leadership right there.
Well, we still got to get this wall built. So maybe next week we'll tackle that. Let's pray. Father, thank You for this, for all that You've taught us this morning. God, share this truth with us. Open our eyes to see it. We pray to You in Jesus' name. Amen. Have a great week. We'll see you next week.