In the sermon titled 'Hanani: The Man Who Feared God More Than Others,' Jason Dohm explores the qualities of Hanani and Hananiah as depicted in Nehemiah chapter 7. Hanani, identified as Nehemiah's brother, brings a report to Nehemiah about the dire state of Jerusalem, prompting Nehemiah to seek permission from King Artaxerxes to return and rebuild the city's walls. Hananiah is noted for his faithfulness and fear of God, qualities that make him an ideal leader for Jerusalem during Nehemiah's absence. Dohm emphasizes the close connection between fearing God and being faithful, using biblical examples, such as Paul's teachings in Ephesians and Jesus' parable of the minas, to illustrate how the fear of God produces faithfulness and readiness for greater responsibilities. The sermon encourages listeners to develop a genuine fear of God that leads to faithfulness in all areas of life, thus preparing them for more significant roles and responsibilities.

God we approach you again asking that you would continue to send your Spirit to work in our hearts to throw light onto your Word help us to to understand it but not just understand it God to love these words you've given us your Word and we want to little by little be trained to love all the things that you love and to hate all the things that you hate. And to be conformed little by little into the beautiful image of your son the Lord Jesus please come and accomplish this among us thank you for your word make us attentive students to it in Jesus name amen. My topic now is Hananiah, the man who feared God more than many. It's an interesting description that we have in our text. Our text this morning is actually Nehemiah chapter 7, so if you'll turn to Nehemiah chapter 7, it's Ezra Nehemiah, Esther Job, Psalms, so that's where it is.

Nehemiah chapter 7, not too far before Psalms. Nehemiah is a man who was cup bearer to an emperor, a king of kings, the king of Persia after Persia conquered the Babylonians. And the cupbearer is not kitchen help. This is not like a waiter at a restaurant. The cupbearer is among the king's most trusted servants.

And so Nehemiah had a place of trust and privilege in service to an emperor. And the book of Nehemiah begins with a report coming, a report being brought to him by Hanani, who is identified both in Nehemiah chapter 1 and Nehemiah chapter 7, we'll be in Nehemiah chapter 7, but Hanani in both of those texts is identified as Nehemiah's brother, I believe he was actually his blood brother, sharing parents, natural parents. And in chapter 1, Hanani, his brother, comes with other men from Judah with a report about Jerusalem and how the Jews are faring, and it's not a good report, and it actually is a report that causes Nehemiah to weep over the condition of the people. The people are really hard-pressed by their enemies, The gates are burned, the walls are broken down, and really the people in Jerusalem, Nehemiah's brethren, are subject to their enemies. They're under the thumb of their enemies.

And This causes Nehemiah to ask of King Artaxerxes, this emperor, this king of kings, if he can go back and lead the effort to restore Jerusalem. And Artaxerxes actually gives him permission. He goes back to Jerusalem and he leads this effort to to rebuild the walls and to hang the gates so that the people can defend themselves against their enemies on every side. And there's this miraculous work in 52 days, all of the breaches in this wall that has been compromised over a period of 70 years of captivity. In 52 days, they get it done.

But they get it done by sleeping in their work clothes. Okay, so it is work from the first light of dawn until the last light of dusk, and then they sleep in their clothes, and then they do it all over again the next day. And they're actually working with one hand, and they have a weapon in their other hand to discourage their enemies who are Desiring to attack them to stop the work To discourage them and God gives them grace and they finish the work They they build the wall and secure the city in 52 days. It's probably a three mile long wall that they've repaired in 52 days. So this brings us to chapter 7 in Nehemiah chapter 7.

The wall has just been completed And I'm just going to read chapter 7, verses 1 and 2. Then it was when the wall was built, and I had hung the doors, when the gatekeepers, the singers, and the Levites had been appointed, that I gave charge of Jerusalem to my brother Hanani and Hananiah the leader of the Citadel, for he was a faithful man and feared God more than many. Nehemiah is the unquestioned governor appointed by the Emperor Artaxerxes and so we might expect him to just govern the capital city, govern Jerusalem himself, but there's two things that we need to consider that we learn in the book of Nehemiah. The first is from chapter 2 that when he asked the king to be at liberty to go and lead this effort to secure Jerusalem that the king says yes you can go when are you coming back and Nehemiah actually sets a time for his return so there was always an expectation from the king that he would get back one of his most trusted counselors and one of his most trusted servants, his cupbearer, back at some point. And in chapter 13 we actually see that this happens.

Nehemiah actually does go back to serve the king for a period of time and then he comes back and has sort of another time period where he's governor in Jerusalem. And so, Nehemiah as the governor needs to entrust the heart of Judah, Jerusalem, the capital city, to men who in his absence can continue to lead it well and defend Jerusalem against her enemies. And then this is what we see happening. Mission number one, job number one was to secure the wall and as soon as they do that they appoint gatekeepers and Levites and singers and then the next order of business is to entrust the leadership of Jerusalem to others so that when he goes back there will be continuity of capable leadership. This is what we're looking at.

So he knows his brother, Hanani, and so he trusts his brother and he's one of the men who he appoints, but there's another man. By the way, there is a disagreement among scholars about whether this is two men or whether this is really just one man because you'll notice the names are very close together. Our church went through Nehemiah and we've studied this whole book in detail. I think it's two men. I'm not sure it really matters for the purpose of this morning, but I believe it's two men, Hananiah is a separate man.

And he knows his brother Hananiah, so he entrusts the leadership of Jerusalem to him, but there's another man here, and he knows two things about Hananiah. Look again at Nehemiah chapter 2, Nehemiah chapter 7 verse 2, just the end of that verse. This is what Nehemiah knows of Hananiah. Hananiah was the leader of the Citadel, for he was a faithful man and feared God more than many. So we're not told why Hanani was chosen other than maybe just simply his brother.

He was a known and trusted quantity and so Hanani was chosen. But more detail is given us as the reason, as the basis for Nehemiah appointing Hananiah. What was it? He was a faithful man and he feared God more than many. To Nehemiah, by the way the study of Nehemiah as a leader and a godly man is tremendous.

And the instincts of Nehemiah is we need a man who fits this description to lead and defend Jerusalem against her enemies. We need a faithful man and we need a man who fears God who will not compromise when the pressures come. When you study the book of Nehemiah, you find Nehemiah is a man who fits that description himself. And when he's looking for someone to entrust Jerusalem to, he finds another man who also fits that description. And this was the reason that Hananiah was chosen to be a leader of Jerusalem.

There are two things I want us to consider about what the Bible says about Hananiah. First, by now you should see that these two things are connected. In other words, when it says that he was a faithful man and feared God more than many, these are not two things that are pulled out of the air from different spheres. These are things that are very tightly connected. That he was a faithful man has a close connection to the fact that he was a man who feared God more than most.

Fearing God helps a man become faithful in every other part of his life. Do you get that? Do you see that from our continuing study of the fear of God, that the fear of God is not something that is unproductive. The fear of God is something that is completely productive in a man's life, meaning it produces things in his life. One of the things that the fear of God, knowing that we're always under the eye of this loving Father, but a Father who also sees everything, is that it makes us faithful in the different categories of life.

It makes a husband a faithful husband. It makes a father a faithful father. It makes a leader a faithful leader. It makes a worker a faithful worker. Consider what Paul says in Ephesians chapter 6.

In Ephesians chapter 6, Paul is addressing servants, bond servants. Listen to Ephesians chapter 6 verses 5 and 6. Paul writes, bond servants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling in sincerity of heart as to Christ. Now listen to verse 6. Not with eye service as men pleasers, but as bond servants of Christ doing the will of God from the heart.

What Paul is teaching here is, if you're a bond servant of a master according to the flesh, a human master. You're really a bond servant of Christ. Your service to that human master is really a service to Christ and so Christians must view it that way. So we don't serve them as if just serving a human is the end point, but we serve them as if serving Christ is the end point, and that we're always within view of Christ. And so we don't render eye service.

What is eye service? Eye service is doing well when you're watched. It says, not with eye service, as men pleasers. In other words, my work is pleasing to the man, to the boss, to my master according to the flesh when he's there in the room, when he's watching me, when his eyes are upon me, that is eye service. That is man-pleasing.

I please that man while he's watching. What Paul is saying is Christians must be different than that. The Lord's people can't have one kind of work and one level of faithfulness when the human's in the room. And another kind of work, another level of faithfulness when the human leaves the room, because the point is for people who fear the Lord, They know that God's always in the room. God never leaves the room.

The human master is in the room, he's out of the room, but God always sees everything. And so, God pleasers, not man pleasers, but God pleasers, don't care whether the boss is in the room. Okay, because they're not working to please the man. They're working to work in a way that would honor their real master, Christ. Christ working as unto the Lord.

So Hananiah is a man who is faithful and who feared the Lord, feared God more than many. And these are not unconnected things. One is flowing from the other. The faithfulness of this man in his leadership, right, it says that he was a leader of the Citadel and now he's being made the leader of Jerusalem, the capital city. And the reason that he's faithful is that he fears God more than many.

He's a man that knows that whether other men are in the room or not, God is, He's serving God as He's doing His work. So the first thing that I want to observe coming out of this text is by now we see the connection between the faithfulness of this man that shows up in his work life and the fact that he fears God more than many these things Aren't disconnected. They're very connected secondly These make you ready for more sons We want you to know that the Kingdom of God works this way. These traits, if you can be accurately described as Hananiah is accurately described, you're ready for more. If the people who know you best can say, he's a faithful son and he fears God more than many.

Even among Christians, the fear of God is evident in his life. He's faithful. If you've given something to do, you can trust that it's done. And he has a fear of God that is observable in many ways in his life. If that is an accurate description of you, then you are ready for more.

In Luke chapter 19 Jesus teaches a parable. Okay, Luke 19, Jesus teaches a parable. It's a lot like the parable of the talents, but it's the parable of the minas. Okay, A mina is three months worth of wages. If you did just honest work for three months in Jesus' time, maybe you were a laborer in the fields, honest work for three months, you would get paid the equivalent of a mina.

And in the parable of the minas in Luke chapter 19, the master goes away and he has ten servants and he gives each of the servant a mina. He gives each of the servants three months wages, which is a pretty good amount of money, right? It's not nothing. If you got your paychecks for three months and no expenses come out of them just all at once, and you're entrusted with this to put to use for the master to bring him gain while he's away, right? I mean, this is completely to the point.

The master's not in the room anymore. The man that you're serving isn't in the room. He's out of country. But you're left with the resources. And the question is, what will you do with the resources?

So in the in the parable when the master comes back the first servant that he calls to account for the three months worth of wages says like you gave me one mina and I've gained ten minas. I've got a tenfold increase in your investment. And here's what the Master says in Luke 19 verse 17, Well done good servant, because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities." So, The boss went out of the room. The master left the country for a long time. But when he comes back, the servant has been working as unto the Lord.

He didn't need the eyes of his master to be upon him. He was hard at work. How can you tell he was hard at work? Because he turned three months wages into ten times three months wages. And the master clearly has a lot of resources because he said, you know, back then I just gave you a little bit to play with, essentially.

Like, you've been faithful with a very little. Now, I don't consider three months' wages a very little, but the Master obviously has a lot, so he considers a very little. And you are faithful with a very little. Now, rule ten cities. Okay?

Nehemiah chapter 7 is the literal fulfillment of that. Okay? You were faithful. You feared God more than many. You led the citadel well, You led the citadel well, apparently.

Now rule the capital. Rule the capital. Sons, I think we've been stressing this. The most important reason to fear the Lord is to be able to see Him as He is so that you understand Him rightly and you understand yourself rightly and by seeing that, you run to Christ for mercy. So overwhelmingly, that is the point of last night and today, that you would fear the Lord in a way that would cause you to flee to Christ for mercy and be in Christ and know saving faith.

But we also want you to know that the Bible teaches that the fear of the Lord secondarily when that primary thing is done the fear of the Lord yields good fruit in your life that helps you in every other category. It makes you faithful and makes you ready for God to entrust you with more. You want a wife someday? Fear God and become faithful and God will give you more and then you want children in that equation be Faithful as a husband and God will make you ready for more and at work God will make you ready for more the fear of God will yield this in your life. You need this sons Your fathers all know men who profess to be Christians but don't have the fruit of faithfulness in their life.

They only serve well when human eyes are on them. So first and foremost, we want you to come to saving faith, but when you come to saving faith, Like we want you to press into this so that God will use a right view of serving Him even when the humans are out of the room to build the kind of faithfulness into your life that makes you ready for more that God can entrust you with more in every category of your life This matters. Okay, this matters for your future. It absolutely matters for your eternity But it matters in this world too. It matters what kind of man you're going to become It matters what God will entrust to you or hold back from you in the future Let's pray God your word is so profitable Two verses and so much profit can be extracted from any two verses of your Word.

Thank you for giving us this great revelation of your mind and so many different areas of life. I thank you for setting Hananiah before our eyes, a man who was faithful, a man who feared you more than many. I pray that you would make us men like this. Work in us by your spirit that we would fear you and that all of our work would be serving Christ. So that whether anyone else is watching or not, we would know that we are under your eyes, under your watchful care, and we would want to honor you by the way that we work.

You would make us faithful men who are ready to be entrusted with more. God may not be said of us that our God could not entrust us with more because we were unfaithful men. We had such a slight fear of you. Oh, keep us from that future, Lord, we pray. In Jesus' name, Amen.

We're going to take 10 minutes, and your assignment is this. Pick out three things that you need to be more faithful in. Just look across the things that you're engaged in in your life. You say, you know what, really, I need to be more faithful in this, this, and this.