SPEAKER_00: Good morning, First Baptist Wimberly.
SPEAKER_00: This is Mike Gibbons.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Friday.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah was called by God to rebuild Jerusalem's wall.
SPEAKER_00: In Nehemiah 6, which we will look at this Sunday, we find even more opposition to his project.
SPEAKER_00: Now remember, first he was mocked in chapter 2, and then threatened in chapter 4, and now in chapter 6, his enemies are inviting him to talk things out.
SPEAKER_00: Now that seems like a reasonable request.
SPEAKER_00: Discussion about issues or conflicts is often wise, and it's important to hear the other side of the story.
SPEAKER_00: But when Nehemiah received the request to talk, listen to how he responded.
SPEAKER_00: Let me read verses two through four of chapter six.
SPEAKER_00: Sandbalat and Gisham sent to me saying, Come, let us meet together at Hakharim in the plain of Onoh.
SPEAKER_00: But they intended to do me harm.
SPEAKER_00: And I sent messengers to them saying, I am doing a great work, and I cannot come down.
SPEAKER_00: Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?
SPEAKER_00: And they sent to me four times in this way, and I answered them in the same manner.
SPEAKER_00: I am doing important work and cannot come down.
SPEAKER_00: And he kept repeating it.
SPEAKER_00: Nehemiah was unwilling to be distracted from the mission God had given him.
SPEAKER_00: Now most of us don't have the clarity of Nehemiah's dramatic calling to rebuild a wall.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus made our mission pretty clear throughout the New Testament, especially in Matthew with a Great Commission.
SPEAKER_00: And we paraphrase our mission here at First Baptist as to magnify Christ and share the gospel in our homes, the Wimberley Valley, and beyond.
SPEAKER_00: This is the most important mission, and one that requires faithful, focused attention.
SPEAKER_00: Yet we are so distracted, aren't we?
SPEAKER_00: From social media to the news to entertainment, distractions are everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: The world wants to talk about something new every hour.
SPEAKER_00: It wants to tell you about accidents that happen across the world and wars and crimes that seem to occur with concerning regularity.
SPEAKER_00: These are things God cares deeply about and that require urgent attention.
SPEAKER_00: But they should, in various seasons, in my opinion, be ignored.
SPEAKER_00: It seems to me this is what Nehemiah is telling us.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you need to be confident that you are already doing important work in your family, your church, and your community, and tell the world that you cannot come down.
SPEAKER_00: This is Mike Gibbons, and I love being your pastor.