Sometimes it can be difficult to do an impossible task.

Where do I begin...

Internal struggles we will look at are…gathering energy to get started, determination, purpose, focus and integrity.

We will slow down our sermon series and look at one of these each week instead of packing them all in one sermon.

Today, we will look at gathering energy to get started.

Sometimes it can be difficult to do an impossible task. - Captain Hector Acosta

Mission Impossible 2

Nehemiah 2:17–20 NVI

17 Por eso les dije: —Ustedes son testigos de nuestra desgracia. Jerusalén está en ruinas, y sus puertas han sido consumidas por el fuego. ¡Vamos, anímense! ¡Reconstruyamos la muralla de Jerusalén para que ya nadie se burle de nosotros! 18 Entonces les conté cómo la bondadosa mano de Dios había estado conmigo y les relaté lo que el rey me había dicho. Al oír esto, exclamaron: —¡Manos a la obra! Y unieron la acción a la palabra. 19 Cuando lo supieron, Sambalat el horonita, Tobías el oficial amonita y Guesén el árabe se burlaron de nosotros y nos preguntaron de manera despectiva: —Pero, ¿qué están haciendo? ¿Acaso pretenden rebelarse contra el rey? 20 Yo les contesté: —El Dios del cielo nos concederá salir adelante. Nosotros, sus siervos, vamos a comenzar la reconstrucción. Ustedes no tienen arte ni parte en este asunto, ni raigambre en Jerusalén.

Cornerstone Biblical Commentary: Ezra, Nehemiah & Esther Notes

they began the good work. Lit., “so they strengthened their hands for the good.” Rather than understanding “hands” as implying an immediate physical action, it seems better to see this as mental strengthening of their resolve for this good cause or as a strengthening of their commitment by mutual encouragement

Ezra-Nehemiah Encounter with the People: Nehemiah’s Diplomacy (2:17–20)

The section concludes with the cryptic “but you have no share or claim or historic right in Jerusalem” (v. 20b). Whether we decide the three terms to have reference to “civil, legal, and cultic rights in the Jerusalem community” (Williamson, Ezra, Nehemiah, p. 193) or “the past, present, and future of these unenviable outsiders,” as Kidner trenchantly observes (p. 84), the battle lines have been drawn and the opening salvos fired.