Rick Warren - Getting People to Work Together (05/16/2024)
In part five of Building a Better Future, Pastor Rick examines Nehemiah chapter 3, uncovering six timeless principles beneath the list of names and gates for getting people to work together effectively on any God-given dream: dividing the dream into smaller tasks, sharing ownership, organizing around natural relationships, developing team spirit, investing in the willing, and never stopping to say thanks.
Hi, everybody. I am Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church, author of "The Purpose Driven Life," and speaker on the Daily Hope broadcast.
You know, because Daily Hope is heard on hundreds of radio stations around the world and on podcasts, I get a lot of letters every day. I want to read just one of them to start us off in today's message.
A Fresh Start After the Pandemic
Now, today we are in part five of a series that I am calling Building a Better Future. You know, the pandemic has given us an opportunity for a fresh start in life, and as we go into the future, it is an occasion to build a better future.
Now, if you want to know God's way to build anything or rebuild anything, you are going to want to study the book of Nehemiah, which is the story of one of the greatest building projects in the history of humanity. It was completed in record time.
Now, today we are going to look at the third chapter of Nehemiah. So get out your teaching notes.
Many of you know that I wrote a book many years ago. In fact, it was the first book I ever wrote as a young man called "How to Study the Bible for Yourself." And one of the keys to understanding the Bible—any chapter—is to first pay attention to what are the key words in that chapter. Key words are often repeated over and over.
And in chapter three of Nehemiah, there are four key words and several key phrases. And we are going to look at all of them in this message today. Using different translations, for instance, we discover that the word built is used thirty times in this chapter. The word rebuilt is used twenty-nine times. The word repaired is used thirty-one times. And the word worked is used twenty-four times. Those are key words.
So, if you want to build anything or you want to rebuild anything or you want to repair anything or you want to get people to work together, you need to know and use the principles of chapter three of Nehemiah.
Enlisting Others to Fulfill the Dream
Now you remember that in our last study together, I pointed out that to fulfill any dream God puts in your heart, you are going to have to enlist other people to help you, okay? You cannot do it yourself. You will never reach your dream by yourself. God wired us to need each other. No one ever succeeds on their own.
So last time we looked in Nehemiah chapter two at seven principles that Nehemiah used to enlist an all-volunteer army—helpers, workers—to rebuild the wall around the city of Jerusalem. Remember, Jerusalem had been destroyed by conflict, war, and neglect—conflict and neglect.
Now by the way, conflict and neglect can make you vulnerable and make you defenseless too.
So if you missed that message on how to enlist the help of others, you can watch it online. But once you have recruited some people to help you with your dream and build a better future, you also have to know how to get them to work together—and that is a whole different issue. You might get some friends to help you with your dream, but will they know how to work together?
You know, one of the reasons I believe the world is in such a bad shape these days is because people do not know how to work together anymore. They work against each other instead of working with each other. And so as we look around in the world, we see the problems are just getting worse.
What we are going to look at today is a skill that you need. You need it to succeed in life. Business studies and home studies show that the number one factor in getting promoted in life is having good people skills. It is the number one factor—having good people skills, being able to work, to get other people to work together.
In contrast, the number one reason people get fired is poor communication skills—poor people skills—not knowing how to get along with others.
So this is a message that you need to take notes on—not just for yourself but to help other people going through a tough time.
The Background: Rebuilding Jerusalem's Wall
Now let us just review the background. The city of Jerusalem was a pile of ruins—destroyed by war and seventy years of neglect while the Jews were held captive in Babylon. God gave Nehemiah the dream of rebuilding a protective wall around the city so it could flourish again.
And I just want to say to you that as your pastor, my goal for you in this Building a Better Future series is that you will flourish—that you will flourish again after COVID-19.
Now, if you read Nehemiah chapter three without any understanding, it just looks like one of those chapters that you want to skip over because on the surface it just looks like a boring list of hard-to-pronounce names and funny-sounding gates. This guy built this part of the wall—this guy built this gate—and on and on. And it just does not look like something that you are going to get a lot out of.
But like in any passage of Scripture, if you dig below the surface, you find treasure.
Now, before we get into that, let me show you a map of Jerusalem with the wall and the ten gates that Nehemiah rebuilt. This is what it looked like when it was all finished. All of these gates and the wall are mentioned in chapter three, and he starts at the north part of the town up there with the Sheep Gate—see that in chapter three verse one. And then he begins to go counter-clockwise to the Fish Gate, the Old Gate, the Valley Gate, the Dung Gate, Fountain Gate, Water Gate—by the way, that is the only mention of politics in Scripture, the Water Gate; we know what happened there—the Horse Gate, East Gate, and the Inspection Gate.
Now, I wish I had time to explain all those gates and why they were named what they were, but I want to get right to the point. Jerusalem is built on a steep hill—actually several steep hills—with deep valleys on either side. And in chapter three, Nehemiah reports who built each part of the wall and who built each of the ten different gates.
Now, right now you are probably thinking how in the world does this chapter relate to me today? And again as I said earlier, the answer is because beneath the surface of this chapter God gives us an example—an amazing example—of how to get people to work together.
If you are going to be a success in life, you are going to need other people's help, and you are going to need to know how to help people work together.
Nehemiah in this passage models six principles—yeah, six principles—you can apply to any dream that you have to build something or to rebuild something in your family, in your career, in your personal life, in your church, in your ministry—whatever.
Now these principles—these six principles—will affect whether the rest of your life is a success or a failure. So I really want to encourage you to write this down, okay?
Six Principles for Getting People to Work Together
Let us get right into these six steps.
1. Divide the Dream into Smaller Goals and Tasks
Number one: when God has given you a dream—we have talked about that in previous messages—when God has given you a dream, the first step to getting other people involved is to divide the dream into smaller goals and tasks. Divide the big dream that you are given into smaller goals and tasks.
Nehemiah broke down a huge dream into manageable chunks. Now, in the Contemporary English Version of Nehemiah, the Scripture—the word section is used twenty-eight times in thirty-two verses. Repeatedly it says, "The next section was built by so-and-so."
Now what is a section? Well, a definition of section is a smaller part of a whole.
Now Nehemiah had to think through how he is going to take this big goal—build a wall all around Jerusalem—and break it down in manageable chunks into sections. That took some thinking. It took some planning, and it probably was during that midnight ride that we looked at last week.
I do not want to go into this because I think you understand it, but you know what? I still have the chart that I developed in 1979 before starting Saddleback Church with just Kay. And what I did is I took a forty-year dream and I broke it down into 480 monthly goals. I still have that chart—480 monthly goals, forty years divided on a monthly basis, figuring out what it would take each month to get where I believe God wants us to be.
That is the first step: you break the dream—you divide the dream into smaller goals and tasks.
2. Let Others Share the Ownership
Here is number two: you must let others share the ownership. Share ownership of the dream.
Your dream—if it is ever going to be accomplished—must become our dream. Other people have to share in the dream for it to happen.
You know, in 1980 with no members yet I wrote an open letter to the community sharing a dream of a brand-new church that we were going to call Saddleback Church. But I never used the personal pronoun "I." Instead, I used the word "we" in that letter that we hand-addressed and hand-stamped and mailed out to thirteen thousand people. I never used the word "I"—used the word "we."
Now here is the funny thing: when I wrote that letter, we had not even had a first service. So there was no "we"—it was just "me" and Kay. But I wrote it in faith, and in that first service when 205 people showed up at the first service, "me" became "we," and we never looked back.
Do you realize that our church today all around the world exists because of shared ownership—the second principle? Everything in our church has been built by millions of hours of serving given voluntarily by volunteers and millions of dollars given voluntarily out of love. That is shared ownership.
Saddleback would not exist if we had had to pay for everything that we were trying to do. It is done by volunteering. I am a volunteer—I have served this church for free for forty-two years.
Now, you know, I can always tell who is a member of our church and who is an attender of church by how they talk about our church. Attenders will walk up to me in the grocery store and say, "You know, Rick, I love your church." Members will walk up to me and say, "Rick, I love our church." Get the difference? It is our—it is we.
Now, if you are going to pay people to help you with your dream, they do not need to own the dream—they are just hired hands. But if you are going to use other people that you are not paying to fulfill the dream like Saddleback Church, you have to share ownership if you are building with volunteers.
And you do that by showing how the dream will benefit them, okay? You give ownership by showing them how the dream will benefit them.
Now, another key phrase that is used many times in Nehemiah three is this phrase "by his own house." If you are taking notes, circle the word "own." We are talking about ownership—"by his own house."
Now, let me just give you a few examples that are there on your outline. Verse 10: "Jedaiah repaired the wall beside his own house." Circle "own." Verse 17: "Hashabiah built the wall in his own district." Circle the word "own." Verse 28: "Each priest made repairs near his own house." See that? And in verse 23: "Benjamin and Azariah repaired the wall by their own homes."
These are just examples. Now these last two guys represent every dad who recognizes their responsibility to keep their family safe by building a wall of protection.
Now, today you may not need a physical wall, but sadly today many parents are not protecting their families from harmful influences. That is our job as parents—is to build a wall of protection around our kids.
Now here is the point: if you are going to have a dream and it is going to grow, you are going to have to share ownership because you are not paying everybody. Ownership increases motivation.
Now, in this case, people began to build the part of the wall behind their own house. People were allowed to work in their area of interest. And they would go, "Hey, you know what? This part of the wall protects my house. So I am going to do my best at building a good part of the wall. I am not building somebody else's wall—I am building the wall behind my house."
Of course it saved time because there is no commuting to work. If you are building the wall behind your house, you walk outside your house in the morning—start building. You do not have to commute anywhere. It is also easier to feed the workers because when you are hungry, you just go inside your house.
But also you could protect your family at the same time because you are not working in some distant location. People built by their own house—shared ownership.
3. Organize Around Natural Relationships
Number three—here is the third principle: organize around natural relationships. If you have a dream and you are going to get other people to help you with your dream, you need to create work groups that use relationships that already exist.
We see this in verse 13. In Nehemiah 4:13, I posted them by families, all right. We will come back to that. But in chapter three, we see a lot of other examples of groupings using existing relationships.
For instance, in verse one of this chapter we see a ministry-based work group. In other words, people were working on a project together because they share the same ministry. The Bible says there in verse one, "Eliashib and his fellow priests rebuilt the Sheep Gate."
Now it is interesting—the Sheep Gate is where the sheep came in that they were going to sacrifice at the temple. So you would figure they get priests rebuilding the gate that affects the temple the most. But these guys are serving in ministry together. It is a ministry-based group.
In verse two, we see a geography-based work group. It says, "The men of Jericho built the next section." Now what is this? These guys are all from the same city. They already had a community connection. So they knew each other because they all live near each other. They had a community connection—their location. It is a geography-based group.
In verse three, we have a family-based work group. It says, "The sons of Hassenaah built the Fish Gate." And what are the sons of Hassenaah? They are brothers, okay? They are related—they are family.
Verse 12: we see another family-based work group. Shallum and his daughters built the next section. They are all sisters. These are existing groups. The relationships are already there.
Now in ancient Hebrew culture, women were not honored like this. So Nehemiah is giving credit where credit is due. These daughters built their part of the wall behind their house.
And in verse 32, we see a career-based work group. It says the goldsmiths—people who worked with gold—and the merchants—these are retailers—built another section. So you have got craftsmen—you have got retailers. These are people being grouped by professions.
Now, why am I pointing this out? Because at Saddleback Church, we do the exact same thing. We have small groups based on each of these categories. We have groups that are based around a common ministry—they work with students or they work with young people or they work with people struggling with a different problem or whatever—recovery. We have ministry—common ministry groups.
We have common location groups—that we all live in the same neighborhood. We have common career groups based on professions where certain groups get together with realtors or accountants or whatever.
By the way, if you are not in a small group—why are not you? I mean, what are you waiting for? You are missing out on everything.
It is interesting that in this chapter there are no professional builders mentioned in the building of the wall around Jerusalem. Everybody was a volunteer. Everybody was amateur. Everybody had another career. Everybody is building the wall—working on the dream together—without being paid. They are all volunteers, okay?
So we divide the dream into smaller goals and tasks. We let other people share ownership, okay, of the dream. We organize around natural relationships—who are people like me and have a similar interest or background or location or whatever.
4. Develop a Team Spirit
And then number four—here is the fourth principle: develop a team spirit. If you are going to reach your dream, you are going to have to get your friends or the people who are working with you—whether it is two or five or ten or whatever—you are going to have to develop a team spirit.
What does that mean? You focus on cooperation, not competition. You emphasize what we are doing is something we are doing together. Somebody said you spell success T-E-A-M-W-O-R-K—teamwork. You cultivate community.
This is the fourth key. You develop a team spirit on your dream team. How do you do that? By getting them to pay attention to those working alongside them.
You see, if you are only listening to me on this—because some of you have a problem with this—if you are only focused on your task, if you are only focused on your goal, if you are only focused on your dream and you do not focus on any of the people, you are not going to value them. And in fact, you are not even going to notice the people who are serving with you.
One of the reasons—another reason—Nehemiah succeeded where other people had failed—they had tried to build a wall around Jerusalem twice and failed—He succeeded where others failed because he created a team spirit.
Do you know how to do that? Do you know how to get other people to work together with a team spirit? It is a skill you need.
He helped people feel a part of something bigger than themselves—than just their own individual efforts. He said, "Look on either side of you." And he said, "We have got this thing. We are doing this together."
That is why another key phrase in Nehemiah—this phrase is used twenty-one times in thirty-two verses—is the phrase "and next to them." "And next to them."
Nehemiah is saying, you know what? If you get tired and you are discouraged building your part of the wall, look to your right—look to your left—and you will just see who is serving next to you. Realize you are not alone—we are a team.
In fact, in this chapter Nehemiah mentions eighteen different teams—and that is just a sampling.
I read this week on the importance of working together—working in formation. I read that geese can fly seventy-two percent farther in formation. You have seen them in a V—that they can fly seventy-two percent farther in formation than they can by themselves. I think that principle probably works with adults and children and any human being too.
1 Corinthians 3:9 says this, "We are partners working together." Circle that—"we are partners working together for God."
In the body of Christ, there is no place for prima donnas. We develop a team spirit.
I want you to write this down, okay? This is really important because it is the reason a lot of people fail: God's work is always done in partnership. God's work is always done in partnership.
Paul never did any of his ministry alone. He never went after any dream alone. He always took a team with him.
Jesus' entire ministry was done with a small group of twelve people. When Jesus started His ministry, the first thing He did is build a small group.
If you are not in a small group—who is helping you with your dream? Who is encouraging you?
You have heard me say many times that there are fifty-eight "one anothers" in the New Testament. That phrase "one another" is used fifty-eight times. The Bible says we are to love one another—we are to care for one another—we are to serve one another—we are to help one another—we are to pray for one another—we are to bear one another's burdens—on and on.
What is that? That is this principle of developing a team spirit.
One of Saddleback's core values is we are better together. In fact, our official name is actually Saddleback Community Church. We believe in community. We believe in unity. We believe in team spirit. We are a fellowship of Christ followers—we are a family of brothers and sisters—we are a community committed to each other. Every member signs a covenant to love the other members.
Now, why is a team spirit essential to your dream? Well, let us look at a couple of verses.
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 says this, "Two people can accomplish more than twice as much as one because they get more done"—notice—"by working together." Underline that. "They get more done by working together. If one falls down, the other can help him up, and two can resist an attack that would defeat one person alone. Three people are even better. And a rope made of three cords is hard to break."
He is saying, you know what? God never meant for you to be a lone ranger. God never meant for you to go through life isolated—trying to do everything by yourself—trying to reach your dream just by you. God wants us to have this team spirit in the body of Christ.
Philippians 1:27 says this, "Above all else, you must live in a way that brings honor to the good news about Christ." All right? He says "above all else"—that means number one—"you have got to live—if you are going to call yourself a Christian—live in a way that brings honor to the good news about Christ."
And then he says in the rest of the verse how you do that. He says, "I want to know that you are working together"—circle that—"working together and striving side by side"—that is what Nehemiah is saying—look to your left, look to your right—next to him was this person serving—next to him was that person serving—next to her was that person serving—"working together, striving side by side to get others to believe the good news."
Notice in that verse—look at it again—what does God say brings honor to Him? When we work together—not individually but when we work together as a team to bring others to Jesus.
5. Love Everyone, But Invest in the Willing
Number five—here is the fifth principle we extract from the treasure of Nehemiah three: when you are getting ready to build your dream—here is what you do—love everyone but invest in the willing. Love everyone but invest in the willing.
Now this is the strategy of Jesus. I want you to follow me. Jesus loved everybody. There was no person that Jesus did not love. He loved everybody. He fed the five thousand, okay. He preached to the crowd, but He trained the seventy and He discipled twelve and He mentored three, all right. See how it gets smaller, okay? He loves everybody but He spends the maximum amount of time with those who bear the maximum responsibility.
The Bible tells us that only Peter, James, and John got to go up on the Mount of Transfiguration. Only Peter, James, and John were brought into the Garden of Gethsemane a little bit further to pray with Him. Only Peter, James, and John got to see Peter's mother-in-law be healed.
Was Jesus playing favorites? Yes. He was investing the maximum amount of time with those who would bear the maximum responsibility, okay? And later in the book of Galatians, James calls Peter, James, and John the pillars of the church. Did it work? Yes. It worked. The people who spent the most time with Him—He gave maximum responsibility.
So you love everybody but you invest your life in the willing—those who want to help in the dream.
Now, listen—not everyone is going to want to be part of your God-given dream. Do not worry about that. Do not fret about it. Do not sweat about it. Do not get uptight about it. Do not get depressed about it. Not everybody is going to be a part of your God-given dream. That is okay.
Nehemiah was not discouraged by those who would not help. In fact, in this chapter he just barely mentions their reluctance. And he then keeps on focusing on those who did want to be a part—that is in verse five of this chapter.
In Nehemiah 3:5 it tells us, "The next section of the wall was rebuilt by the men of Tekoa"—okay, that is the good news—but it says the nobles—the noblemen—of that town refused to work or help, okay? That is all he says about them. The noblemen of that town refused to work or help.
We do not know why they did not want to help. I think it reveals Nehemiah's leadership character that he does not elaborate. He did not have to speculate. He did not guess about their motivation—well, they thought they were too cool or they were too important—they did not want to do menial labor. No, no—we would do that. We would start saying, "Well, they do not want to help because of this or that..."
Here is the truth: you do not know your own motivation much of the time. So why do you think you assume that you can know the motivation of others? You do not. I do not know my own motivation a lot of times. I have so many mixed motivations—and you do too. And if you cannot figure out your own reasons why you do what you do, how in the world makes you think you are an authority on anybody else?
So you love everybody but you invest in the willing. You do not get upset by people who do not want to help.
Remember—even Jesus who, by the way, remember was perfect—had a defector named Judas who bailed out on Him and caused enormous damage. But Jesus kept His focus on the eleven faithful guys—not the one unfaithful.
You are going to have people in your life who betray you—let you down—disappoint you—but you do not keep your eyes on them. You keep your eyes on the people who work with you hand in hand—who are serving as a team spirit.
And you love everybody—you keep your heart clean—you do not get bitter—but you invest in the willing.
You know, over the last forty years I have been disappointed by people who benefited from our church for years without ever giving back. They did not give back financially—they did not give back in serving—they were just consumers, okay?
I have been disappointed by people like that. They came around forever at Saddleback but they just never gave or served or did anything to help the church. But you know what? They did not hurt us. They only hurt themselves.
And when I would think about those people, I would always remind myself of two facts. And I want you to write these down because you are going to need to remember these about your dream, okay?
When people do not want to support the dream God has given you—here is the first thing to remember: waste no time judging others. Anytime you spend judging others is time you are not working on your God-given dream. Waste no time judging others.
Romans 14:10 and 12 says this, "Why do you judge your brothers or sisters in Christ? And why do you think you are better than they are? Remember each of us will stand personally before the judgment seat of God. And then each of us will have to give a personal account to God. So he says stop judging each other. God is God and I am not."
Now, people who disappoint you in life—they are not accountable to you—they are not accountable to me—but one day they are going to give an account to God. So just leave it at that—one day. Their excuses for not getting involved will feel pretty embarrassing.
I can just imagine God saying to some people, "Oh, I see you were fortunate enough to benefit from my family at Saddleback Church. Tell me how you served there—how you supported my family there." That might be embarrassing for some people—"Well, I went there for ten years but I never served—I never gave—I never did anything back."
Just let God be God and do not fret about it.
Another thing to remember instead of getting disappointed with people is: remember God will reward what I do. Write that down. Remember God will reward what I do. I do not have to worry about anybody else.
I am going to be rewarded for two things, the Bible says. First is Proverbs 14:14. First, I am going to be rewarded for how I served. You are going to be rewarded for how you serve.
Proverbs 14:14 says this, "The faithless will be fully repaid for their ways, but good people will be rewarded." Okay—people one day are going to get their due. And one day you are going to get your due. Think about—good people will be rewarded for their service—eternal rewards last forever.
Second thing—I am going to be rewarded for what I gave—not just how I served but what I gave.
Proverbs 22:9 says, "People who are generous will themselves be blessed." Did you know that God is keeping a list? God is keeping a list—and people who are generous will themselves be blessed.
You know, when I read that verse it made me think—and I do not know that I have ever mentioned this in forty-two years—I wonder how many people have put Saddleback in their will in forty-two years. I am not sure I have ever even talked about that or encouraged you to do it, but it is one way you can leave a legacy—is put Saddleback in your will.
Let me ask you—do you want to leave a legacy that outlasts you? It is real simple—no one is honored for being self-centered or stingy. Nobody is daunted for that. They do not build statues to people who are self-centered or stingy. Legendary people are remembered for their serving and their giving.
Jesus said I did not come to be served but to serve and to give.
You know it is interesting—as we read this chapter—three thousand years later we are reading the names this weekend of people who served and sacrificed for God's project three thousand years ago. That is a legacy, okay?
These hard-to-pronounce names of people that actually lived—and we are still studying the sacrifice that they did when they volunteered to do God's project.
And you know the funny thing about those noblemen of Tekoa who refused to help and did nothing—I doubt any of them imagined that their selfishness would be revealed and discussed three thousand years later or for three thousand years.
6. Never Stop Saying Thanks
Now, Nehemiah models one more secret of getting people to work together, and I want you to write this down: never stop saying thanks. Never stop saying thank you.
Our staff has heard me say this many, many times—that the first duty of a leader is to clearly communicate your dream. But the second duty of a leader is to always say thank you—to say thank you. Live an attitude of gratitude. Live in the spirit of appreciation.
You know that when you appreciate people you actually raise their value. If you have ever bought a home in Southern California, you know the value of appreciation—it goes up in value. If you have ever bought a car, you know the meaning of depreciation—it goes down in value.
Do you realize that every time you appreciate people you raise their value? When you appreciate your kids you raise their value. When you appreciate your spouse you raise their value. When you appreciate a coworker you raise their value.
In Ephesians 1:16 Paul says this, "I never stop being grateful for you"—as I mention you in all my prayers. That is a leader.
Now, what does God want you to appreciate in other people? Well, Nehemiah models it in this chapter, and he gives us four things that we need to be more appreciative about in the people in our lives. Write these down, okay?
First—the first thing to appreciate is this: recognize individuals by name. Recognize individuals by name.
When you see something being done and you think that is a good thing—do not just say I want to thank everybody who helped? No, no, no. Be specific.
I think it is amazing that Nehemiah in this chapter singles out seventy-one individuals. There are seventy-one Hebrew names in thirty-two verses. And he singles out seventy-one people for special appreciation.
He does not only honor the people who are building the wall—he actually honors their parents. He said and this guy built this part of the wall—his dad was so-and-so—and that guy built that part of the wall and his dad was so-and-so. He is not just honoring people—he is honoring their parents. Parents love to be proud of their kids. Nehemiah knows that.
So recognize individuals—call them by name. The sweetest thing people like to hear is their own name. Do not just say I want to thank all of you. Get specific—identify specific people in your life who make a difference.
Number two: recognize not just specific individuals but recognize specific work. Do not just say after a project, "Well, you all did a good job." Do not just say that at work or in your ministry or in your small group or wherever. Do not just say "y'all did a good job." Point out the details.
Now, many, many examples of this in Nehemiah chapter three—let me just give you one—verse six. And he talks about a group—he said, "They laid the beams and they put the doors and the bolts and the bars in place." That is pretty specific.
So do not just say I am proud of you. Say I am proud of you for doing this, this, this, and this.
Recognize specific individuals and recognize specific work.
Number three—third thing to be appreciative of: recognize great attitude. When you see great attitude anywhere around you in a world that has bad attitude most of the time—you are going to excel in helping people become who God wants them to be. And you are going to have more people helping you with the vision God gives you. Recognize great attitude.
You know, in this chapter Nehemiah singles out one man for his attitude—his enthusiasm—his passion—in verse 20. Nehemiah 3:20—it says this, "Baruch zealously repaired another section."
Now he does not say that about anybody else. He says this guy repaired this and she repaired that and these daughters repaired that and they repaired that. But this one guy Baruch gets "zealously repaired another section." And he says he is doing it with enthusiasm. He is doing it with passion.
You want to recognize great attitude.
Who is it around you who has a great attitude and you just need to say, you know, I appreciate that.
By the way, let me just give you a personal tip: if you want to get noticed where you work—here is what you do—just do what everybody else does but do it with more enthusiasm and more passion and you will get noticed, okay? You just do what everybody else is doing but do it with enthusiasm—with passion—with zeal. He zealously repaired another section—great attitude.
And then number four: recognize extra effort. When people go the second mile—when people do more than is expected—you have people like this in your life. Recognize extra effort.
In verses three, four, and twenty-one there is one guy who gets mentioned twice. He gets mentioned twice in chapter three. His name was Meremoth. I do not know what that name means but Meremoth was his name.
Meremoth repaired in verse four the section by the Fish Gate—by the way that is where fishermen came in and sold the fish—it was the fish market there. It says then in verse 21, "He also repaired another section by the high priest's home." So he did not just finish one section—he finished two. He is going the second mile.
You know, Dan Cathy is a friend of mine. He is the CEO of Chick-fil-A—the company that his dad Truett Cathy founded. I have known the Cathy family for about thirty years as good friends. And I have helped with them—I have been in their home.
And one of Chick-fil-A's core values is called second-mile service. And second-mile service means you go beyond expectation, okay? You just do not cook the meal for people—you take it to them. You make sure they have an extra cup to get their drink and on—you go the second mile.
And I saw this visually expressed by the CEO when nobody else was watching. You know when they opened the Chick-fil-A in Foothill Ranch—the night before any Chick-fil-A opens they have a party and people actually come and spend the night and they set up tents and it is a big, big deal.
And so I went over the night before that Chick-fil-A opened to the party to see Dan—my good friend. And so we are there and we shook hands with a lot of people and talked to a lot of people—and then we were hungry but Chick-fil-A was not open yet—it was not open till the next morning. So you know what we did—we went next door to Taco Bell and our hands were dirty from hugging and shaking hands with all kinds of people. So before we ate we first went into the Taco Bell restroom to wash our hands.
And then I watched this happen. When we were finished washing our hands, I watched Dan Cathy—the CEO of Chick-fil-A—take extra paper towels and clean the messy sink area and make it spotless. And I am watching—nobody else is seeing this. And he said we teach our people to always leave every place a little bit better than you found it.
That is called going the second mile. And I thought to myself—little does the Taco Bell staff know that right now in their bathroom the CEO of their competitor is cleaning their restroom. That is second-mile service, okay.
And you need to—when you see that—you reward it.
You know, a few weeks ago I found this card and I actually gave one of them to somebody in my small group. And it says this, "Some people just go the extra mile." And I open it up and it says, "Thank you for being one of them." And I gave this to a guy in my small group because he is a second-mile person.
Now here is your homework: I want you to write a note of appreciation every day this week using these four factors of appreciation, okay? Never stop saying thank you, okay?
And then either recognize individuals by name—call them, write them, email them, text them, send them a card—recognize specific work that they have done—be specific—just do not say you are a good person—tell them something that they did that was good—recognize great attitude—and recognize extra effort.
I want you to work on that this week. You know what? God will bless you for doing that.
Three Kinds of Work and Your Involvement
Now let me wrap this up. This chapter talks about three kinds of work. Three kinds of work are mentioned in Nehemiah three: no work, some work, and enthusiastic work. No work, some work, and enthusiastic work.
I want to ask you two questions. I want you to think about these.
First: God notices all three kinds of work—no work, some work, enthusiastic.
Let me end with these two questions. Which phrase describes your involvement in God's work? Let us just get right down to it right now—which phrase describes your involvement in God's work: no work, some work, or enthusiastic work?
Let me ask you another one—another question: which section of the wall are you building at Saddleback? Which section of the wall are you building in your home church—in your family?
Now, literally God has not asked you to build a wall, but He does expect you to be involved in His work on earth.
You know, a lot of the work that you and I do throughout our lives is really pretty pointless. A lot of work on earth is really useless in the long haul. A lot of work that people do is really worthless in light of eternity. But God's Word promises this in 1 Corinthians 15:58, "Brothers and sisters, always give yourself fully to the work of the Lord." "Always give yourself fully"—that means zealously, enthusiastically, passionately.
Give yourself completely to the work of the Lord because you know that your work for the Lord is never wasted.
That makes working for God different than every other kind of work—it is never wasted.
He said, "Well, nobody even sees what I am doing." Does not matter. Others may not see what you are doing, but God does.
I hope you will take these six principles on how to get people to work together. What our world needs today is people who do the exact opposite of culture. Right now people work against each other—bridge builders. People who create harmony—people who teach others how to work together—they are rare. And the Bible says that if you do that it brings glory to God.
What honors God the most is when we work together—standing shoulder to shoulder—and we get along. It is our greatest witness to the world.
Let me lead you in prayer. Let us bow our heads:
Father, we thank you that your word is practical—that even in a list of names of people who built a wall three thousand years ago we can learn principles of how to be better people—how to influence others—how to lead—how to reach goals and tasks by developing them into smaller goals and breaking them down into chunks. And I pray that we will apply these principles in our homes, in our schools, in our work, in our lives, in our ministries, in our church family. Help us to not think that we are invincible—that we can do everything by ourselves. Help us to realize that we need each other and to practice these principles—building a team spirit and working together—knowing that what we do is never in vain.
If you have never opened your life to Christ, I always like to give you an opportunity to do that. You can say:
Jesus Christ, I want to know you. I want to open my life to you. And as much as I know how I ask you to fill me with your love and your purpose. I want to learn to trust you and follow you the rest of my life. In your name I pray. Amen.