Time to Build | Week 5 | Daniel Goulding | Echoes Church · Rewind

Time to Build | Week 5 | Daniel Goulding | Echoes Church · Rewind

Daniel Goulding · Mar 5, 2025

Big Idea

The greatest obstacle to God's purpose on earth is the people of God loving money more than people — we're meant to love people and use money, but too often we use people and love money.

Nehemiah shows a community rebuilding ruins that gets threatened not by outside enemies but by God's own people exploiting each other financially. Our relationship with money reveals our relationship with God, and when we forget the mercy we were rescued from, we start building our own kingdom instead of His. The call is to remember we are stewards, not owners, and to trust God with our resources so His mission can advance.

Key points

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1The most damaging opposition can come from inside the church, not outside it.
Pastor Daniel opens with his own story of being shunned by pastors and church families after he and his wife fell short of God's standard before marriage, noting he was ready for criticism from outsiders but not for the shunning he received from insiders. He connects this to Nehemiah facing internal opposition from God's own people after external opposition in chapter four.
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2Wealthy people among God's own were re-enslaving the poor through predatory lending even as Nehemiah worked to free them.
He reads Nehemiah 5, where families cry out that they've mortgaged fields, vineyards, and even sold their children into slavery just to survive a famine, while nobles and officials profited off their debt. Nehemiah realizes the rebuilding cannot move forward because people are enslaved servicing loans rather than free to work on the wall.
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3Scripture speaks constantly about money because our handling of it reveals whether we've forgotten God's generosity toward us.
He cites a study finding roughly 2,500 verses on money, possessions, treasure, and idols compared to 500 on faith and prayer, and notes nearly 40% of Jesus's parables involve money. He explains the Old Testament's financial laws existed to remind Israel of God's generosity and that their resources were never truly their own.
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4Our relationship with money says more about our relationship with God than we realize.
Drawing on Jesus's words that where your treasure is, your heart will follow, he argues people wait to trust God until they feel ready, but obedience with money must come first and the heart follows the investment, not the reverse.
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5Nehemiah confronted the nobles with moral authority, and the whole story hinges on him having earned the right to be heard.
He walks through Nehemiah 5:6-13, where Nehemiah gets angry, prays it through, publicly confronts the officials, demands restitution of fields and interest, and shakes out his robe as a warning of God's judgment if they break their promise. He points out Nehemiah had no army, title, or royal lineage, yet the nobles obeyed because Nehemiah had walked the talk himself.
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6Moral authority — the credibility earned by walking the talk — is what gives believers real influence, more than biblical knowledge used to bludgeon others.
He warns that Christianity's reputation for hypocrisy comes from leaders who say one thing and do another, and shares that he has watched many ministry leaders lose their platform by losing their moral authority. He points to Paul's charge to follow me as I follow Christ as the model of leading by going first.
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7Tithing is God's one invitation to test Him, and withholding it robs us of blessing, not the other way around.
He reads Malachi 3:6-10, where God accuses Israel of robbing Him through withheld tithes and offerings and dares them to test His promise to pour out blessing. He notes only four to eight percent of regular churchgoers tithe and argues the tithe scales with income because we are stewards, not owners.

Application

Pastor Daniel frames the ask as testing God with the tithe — the one place Scripture invites us to put Him to the proof.

Examine where you actually put your trust
Ask honestly whether your hope is in God or in your own ability to provide, since Jesus said your treasure shows where your heart really is.
Start tithing instead of waiting to feel ready
Bring 10% back to the storehouse now rather than waiting until you have enough to trust God with it — obedience comes first and the heart follows.
Test God with Malachi's promise
Take God up on His invitation in Malachi 3 to bring the tithe and see whether He opens the windows of heaven, rather than assuming your gift is too small to matter.
Pursue moral authority, not moral superiority
Stop using the Bible to point out others' struggles while ignoring your own disobedience; instead walk out what you say you believe so your life, not just your words, can be followed.
Lay your crown down
Respond in the moment by setting down your achievements and self-reliance and acknowledging God as your provider and provision.

Take it into your week

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7-day devotional

A personal reading plan from this message — scripture, reflection, and prayer for each day.

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Day 1

Related passage

When we picture opposition to God's work, we usually imagine outside enemies — the people throwing up roadblocks while the wall went up. But in Nehemiah 5, the cry that rises is from inside the family. God's own people were charging one another interest, mortgaging fields, even selling their children into servitude just to eat. The threat to the rebuilding wasn't a hostile army; it was neighbors exploiting neighbors. Pastor Daniel pointed out that the most damaging opposition to God's mission often comes from within — when those who should be building each other up are instead using each other. That's a sobering place to start the week, but it's also an honest one. Before we examine the watching world, God invites us to look at how we treat the people right beside us — in our homes, our workplaces, our church. Are we building them up, or quietly extracting what we want from them? The wall in Nehemiah's day moved forward only when the people inside stopped wounding one another. The same is true for whatever God has called you to help restore today.

For reflection

Where might I be a source of strain rather than support to the people closest to me?

Pray

Ask God to show you honestly how you treat the people inside your own community of faith.

Small-group discussion guide

For leading a group conversation about this message.

Open

Nehemiah was busy rebuilding a wall when the real threat showed up — not from enemies outside the city, but from neighbors inside the community. This message takes a close look at what happens when God's people start loving money and using people instead of the other way around.

Discussion questions

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In Nehemiah 5:1-5, the cries that interrupt the rebuilding come from within the community itself. Why might opposition from inside the family of faith be more damaging to God's work than attacks from outside enemies?
Related passage
2
The sermon described a reversal of how things are meant to be — loving people and using money flipped into using people and loving money. What are some ways that reversal can quietly show up among people, even good-hearted ones?
Related passage
3
Pastor Daniel pointed to 'spiritual amnesia' — forgetting how far God has brought us — as a root of self-centered living. How does remembering God's past faithfulness change the way people hold what they have?
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What does Jesus mean when He says, 'Where your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be' — and how might that reshape the way we think about where our investment goes before our feelings catch up?
5
In Malachi 3, God invites His people to test Him in the tithe and frames us as stewards rather than owners. How might seeing ourselves as stewards rather than owners change the way we approach what's been entrusted to us?
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Nehemiah's 'moral authority' came from closing the gap between what he believed and how he actually lived, and the sermon noted the watching world is taking notes. How might a community of believers grow in that kind of credibility together?

Pray together

Thank God for His past faithfulness, and ask Him to grow soft, trusting hearts that love people freely and hold everything as stewards — closing any gap between what we say we believe and how we live, so that those around us experience the love of Jesus through us.

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Topics

Financial Faithfulness Generosity and Giving Internal Opposition Moral Authority Stewardship

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