00:00Hello everyone, my name is William Chambers. It is good to be here with you all, all the time,
00:04in the Word of God, looking at what he's done and he continues to do in our lives.
00:10If I had a title for today's message, I would call it, I Cannot Come Down, The Devil Wants Your
00:20Focus.
00:22Oh, help today. We're coming out of the Book of Nehemiah and there were some governors,
00:26uh, Tobiah and Samballot, that wanted to keep the people of Jerusalem oppressed.
00:32They wanted to keep them poor. They did not want them to build the wall because they would
00:36be able to defend themselves. They wanted to keep the people weak, but God sends Nehemiah to the city
00:42to rebuild the wall so the people are in strength and can defend themselves and have national pride
00:48once again. Uh, but the, but Samballot and Tobiah did not like that. So they invited Nehemiah to
00:54come have a meeting with them in their village because they were just, just trying to distract
00:59Nehemiah. Uh, but Nehemiah seen right through it. One of the greatest weapons of the enemy is
01:05distraction. The devil understands that he does not always need to destroy us. Sometimes he only needs
01:12to break our focus. Nehemiah teaches us that mature believers know when to ignore certain invitations.
01:21We know to ignore invitations that pull us away from God's purpose. Whatever it is that's pulling
01:28you away from God's purpose, it should be ignored. Some battles are simply attempts to get you off
01:35the wall. And when I mean off the wall, it is out of the place that God has assigned for
01:40you.
01:40And I sent messengers unto them saying, I am doing a great work so that I cannot come down. Why
01:47should
01:47the work cease while I leave it and come down to you? The enemy tried to distract Nehemiah. He said,
01:56come, let us meet together. Samballot and Tobiah seeing that open opposition was not working against
02:05Nehemiah. The wall kept on going up despite their ridicule, despite all of their threats, despite all of
02:13their resistance. So the enemy tried to pull the workers away from the work. Since I can't stop the work
02:20from going on, I'm gonna try to pull the workers away from doing this work. Ah, if the devil cannot
02:27destroy
02:27your calling outright, he will try to divide your attention. What do I mean by that? He will send
02:36unnecessary arguments your way. He will send emotional traps your way. He will send all kind
02:43of offenses your way. All kind of unnecessary drama your way. He'll send temptation your way.
02:51Oh Lord, help us. He'll send opportunities to get revenge. He'll send that your way. He'll send
02:58meaningless debate your way. Anything that will distract you from doing what God called you to do.
03:05There are many believers that slowly lose effectiveness in doing the work of God because
03:12they give too much time to things that don't matter. The Bible says, seek ye first the kingdom
03:20of God and all its righteousness and all these things will be added. But we seek so many other
03:25things. We give so much time to things that don't matter eternally. Is what you're doing going to matter
03:31in eternity? Or are you just focused mainly upon the temporal? Have mercy on us today, God.
03:39Nehemiah refused to come down. He said, I cannot come down. Nehemiah understood that every emotional
03:49battle has cost us energy. Every spiritual battle costs us energy. Every mental battle, it costs
03:57some energy. It's going to take away from the energy I need to do what God is calling me. And
04:03I must
04:03reserve my energy and my focus for God. I will not come down, devil. You will not get my focus.
04:11I
04:11cannot come down. What does come down? It means come down and lowering yourself. Oh Lord, I will not be
04:17lowered unto bitterness. Bitterness will take you down. Resentment will take you down. Lowering
04:23yourself into gossiping about somebody else. Oh goodness help us. There's a saying that says
04:28that you cannot keep a man down without staying down with him. You're trying to keep somebody down.
04:33You are lowering yourself. Nehemiah said, I will not be lowered into gossip. I will not be lowered
04:40into revenge. I will not be lowered into trying to prove myself to you. Oh, I will not be lowered
04:48into temptation or pointless arguments. Nehemiah said, I'm not coming down unto you. You are sent to drain
04:56my focus. Some people are just sent to drain your focus, drain your peace, drain your clarity, and
05:03ultimately just drain your momentum in doing the things of God. Uh, ain't that right birds? Nehemiah
05:10said, I cannot come down. And this is the language of spiritual focus. Uh, I have the language of
05:17spiritual focus. Sometimes you got to say, no, not doing it. I cannot. That means I will not
05:23abandon God's purpose for pettiness. That means I will not trade my peace for that drama you want
05:31to put me in. You can keep your drama for yourself. That means I will not leave obedience to God
05:37to chase revenge or chase validating, trying to validate myself. No, I'm not chasing any of those
05:44things. That's lowering myself. Some battles are designed to pull you lower, not move you forward.
05:51Uh, sometimes just stay on the wall is victory. I'm just going to stay on the assignment.
05:59It's victory. If I just stay on the assignment, keep my focus. The enemy often attacks workers
06:06because they are productive believers. And when you are a productive believer, we need,
06:11we need more productive believers because productive believers threaten darkness.
06:18Nehemiah was threatening darkness. Nehemiah, if you do, if you build this wall, we will no longer
06:24be able to oppress the people like they, we once did. We will not be able to keep them weak
06:29and attack
06:30them whenever we want to and plunder them whenever we want to. We want the people to stay weak. We
06:35want
06:35the people of God to stay weak. Uh, but Nehemiah came threatening darkness. My question to you are,
06:41is, are you threatening darkness? Uh, help us Lord. I want to be one that threatens darkness.
06:48That means you must be a productive believer. That means you must be on task. Nehemiah saw
06:55that this work was too important. He said, he said, watch the work cease. This is a great work,
07:02a great work because it's been given to me by God. Nehemiah said, I have spiritual momentum right
07:10now and doing the things of God. And I don't want to lose none of that momentum. Many people lose
07:15years because they stopped building to entertain bitterness. They stopped building because they're
07:24entertaining online arguments. They so busy looking at social media. They stopped building because
07:31they got a job. They stopped building because of ego battles. They stopped building because of
07:36offense. They stopped building because of fleshly desires. I want what I want. So I'm not going to
07:44feel the things of God. It caught. I got to work more. Or I want that girlfriend. I want to
07:49get this
07:49money. So I'm not going to do the things of God. They stopped building because of distractions.
07:53They stopped building because of toxic relationship and lose years in doing the things of God. I know
08:02exactly what this is. I've lost momentum before. I'm determined not to lose it again. Nehemiah understood
08:09something valuable is happening here. And I refuse to interrupt this valuable thing that's taking place.
08:18Do you look at the things of God, the work of God as valuable? I would that more believers would
08:23look
08:23at the work of God as valuable. He said a great work is going on right here. And every unnecessary
08:30detour risks delaying something that God wants me to build. So I can't take no unnecessary detours.
08:38I got to be careful. He had to be disciplined and watch his time. Watch his focus. Manage your focus.
08:45Help us. One spiritual detour can delay years of spiritual progress. One mental detour. You just focus on that
08:55thing too much. It delays years of spiritual progress. One emotional detour can delay years of progress.
09:05I would that we would all say what Nehemiah said. I cannot come down because the devil, he wants
09:13your focus. Help us, Lord, to not give the enemy our focus. In Jesus' name, I pray and say, amen.
09:18Amen.
