I Cannot Come Down

If you attend Northpoint Community Church with me then you heard Andy- No, the Lord, scream blatantly from the stage yesterday, "Kristen, I want you to meet me in prayer & study of the Word, consistently, everyday, without distraction!"



"Okay" . . . . dragging my feet, preparing my arguments of excuse, and without a good attitude.



Then last night I met my parents at their church to hear Anne Graham Lotz (daughter of Billy Graham) speak with instruction about how to do a bible study and hear from God!



"okay, I get it"!



So here begins the first day of the rest of my life with a new obedience to something I should have been doing all along. I prayed about what scripture to begin with this morning, so I dated my journal last night and prayed about where to begin this morning and when I woke up today . . . for some reason. . . this is what came to me! “I Am Doing A Great Work, I Cannot Come Down”. This is God's message to watch out for distraction in my blessed but EXTREMELY busy life.



"Okay God, I hear ya . . . now let's get into Your Word."



First let me give credit where it is due. I found this message online by The Reverend Bryn MacPhail in November 12, 2006. The text is Nehemiah 6:1-16 and here is where I begin today. I just thought you may want to join me on this one.



Nehemiah’s vision was to rebuild the walls and city gates in order to encourage the reassembling of God’s people in Jerusalem. The vision was grand, but after significant prayer, planning, and probing, the vision was presented and promptly accepted by the people of Jerusalem. They then proceeded with great enthusiasm as they put their hands to the reconstruction project (2:18).

As is the case with most significant projects, problems soon arose. Opponents of Nehemiah began to cause disruptions to such an extent that Nehemiah and his builders were compelled to arm themselves and set a guard while they worked on the wall.

And, as if these external challenges weren’t enough, the project was temporarily shut down because of severe levels of internal strife. Nehemiah, the master problem-solver, eventually got things under control and now we find in chapter 6 that the reconstruction is nearly complete. Nehemiah reports that “All I lacked was hanging the doors in the gates” (6:1).



It appears that Nehemiah’s opponents would challenge him to the bitter end, and these final challenges, we see in chapter 6, come in a veiled manner. Nehemiah writes, “Sanballat and Gesham sent a message, asking me to meet with them in one of the villages in Ono Valley” (6:2). The NASB renders this more literally, “Sanballat and Geshem sent a message to me, saying, ‘Come, let us meet together at one of the villages in the plain of Ono.’



As for the wording of Nehemiah’s response, again I prefer the rendering of the NASB, “So I sent messengers to them, saying, ‘I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?’” (6:3).

We see that the final tactic of Nehemiah’s opponents was to distract him. The assumption must have been that the success of the project could be compromised if the leader was absent. Sanballat and Geshem attempted to draw Nehemiah away by providing an opportunity to meet and talk things over.



Nehemiah had invested so much of himself into this vision of reconstruction. The finish line was in sight and so Nehemiah refuses to be distracted. In my mind, Nehemiah gives a marvelous reply. His response reveals a delightful mixture of courage and wisdom. Moreover, it is a response that honours God’s call on his life. Nehemiah replies, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.”

Friends, I reckon that this is a phrase we should carry with us throughout our day. When we are confident that the thing we are doing is exactly what God wants us to do, we must refuse all distractions.

We may be presented with a great opportunity, and you may be able to see how you and those around you could be helped by this opportunity. However, if that opportunity pulls you away from the main thing to which God has called you, it must be refused. We need to have Nehemiah’s phrase on our lips, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.”

In order to accomplish what God has called us to, we may have to pass up some good opportunities. It is these good opportunities that have the greatest capacity to distract us from the main thing, our vision.



For the entire message see http://www.reformedtheology.ca/neh6a_06.htm