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• Illustration: A letter from the Harvard Business Review demonstrates that our culture views leadership in terms of "having your say," and "putting your stamp on the future."
• But what is godly leadership?
• Transition: I want to note eight aspects of godly leadership that are present in the book of Nehemiah.

• When Nehemiah hears about the state of Jerusalem's walls, his first act is to pray.
• Nehemiah 1:5–9
• Nehemiah's prayer includes adoration, confession, a scriptural promise showing how his request honors God, and the request itself. That's a good model for prayer.
• A godly leader must cultivate a dependence upon God in prayer.

• Nehemiah 2:1–6
• Nehemiah addresses the king despite his fears.
• Throughout the book, Nehemiah continually takes the initiative to start, and finish, whatever needs to be done.

• Nehemiah 4:1–3, 7–9
• As the opposition increased, Nehemiah prayed and posted a guard; there is nothing inconsistent between those two actions.
• In the face of personal attacks, Nehemiah did not change his actions in order to stop the negative reports about him (Nehemiah 6:15–19).
• John 15:20

• In chapter 5, we find that some of the rich members of the community were taking economic advantage of the poor.
• Nehemiah 5:12–13
• Is your heart like Nehemiah's? Or do you find yourself cold to the needs of others?

• In chapter 8, Nehemiah leads to people to hear, and respond to, the Law.
• Nehemiah forgives the people from weeping over their sin, instead encouraging them to be joyful about their revival (Nehemiah 8:10–17).

• Nehemiah 9:32–37
• Nehemiah leads to people in confessing their sins, and the sins of their fathers, and asking forgiveness from God.
• All of us are guilty of sinning against God.
  -Illustration: William Gurnall said, "Better to die in a prison, die in a ditch, than die in your sins."

• Nehemiah 9:38
• Nehemiah and the people make specific promises to God based on Scripture.
• Have you ever promised anything to God?

• After being absent from Jerusalem for a long period of time, Nehemiah returned to find that the people had made several mistakes.
• The temple was being used for non-religious purposes; the singers, priests, and other temple servants had gone back to farming because they weren't being paid; and the Sabbath had been forgotten and desecrated (Nehemiah 13:7–16).
• Even worse, the people had begun to marry foreign women (v. 23).
• In Ezekiel 34, God had foreseen the waywardness of his people, and promised to come himself and be there shepherd.
• We must all continue our battles against sin.

• Big Idea: Godly leadership is about delighting in seeing God's name exalted and revered.
• Do you delight in that yourself?