SPEAKER_00: Good morning, First Baptist Wimberly.
SPEAKER_00: This is Mike Gibbons.
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Friday.
SPEAKER_00: We have reached the end of the book of Nehemiah.
SPEAKER_00: I would encourage you to read the last chapter of Nehemiah, chapter 13, before we gather on Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: Especially the last verse.
SPEAKER_00: Let me read verses 30 and 31.
SPEAKER_00: Thus I cleansed them from everything foreign, and I established the duties of the priests and Levites, each in his work, and I provided for the wood offering at appointed times, and for the first fruits.
SPEAKER_00: Remember me, O my God, for good.
SPEAKER_00: Throughout the whole process of building the wall and the city, Nehemiah called upon God to remember.
SPEAKER_00: We see another example in chapter 5, verse 19.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Remember for my good, O my God, all that I have done for this people.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the beautiful thing about Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: I think we see a little echo of Nehemiah's plea in the final words of Jesus when he says, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.
SPEAKER_00: In the words of one commentator, just as Nehemiah entrusted himself to God's remembrance, so did Jesus entrust himself to God's remembrance.
SPEAKER_00: And Christ did not ask God to remember what he has done for his own benefit, but for ours.
SPEAKER_00: And we need to pray that our Father remembers us with favor.
SPEAKER_00: Not any favor we have earned through our good works, but the favor granted to us through Christ.
SPEAKER_00: This is Mike Gibbons, and I love being your pastor.