Distractions And More Opposition Series

Sermon Brief

Date Written: February 8, 2013

Date Preached: February 10, 2013

Where Preached: OPBC (AM)

Sermon Details:

Series Title: Building with God

Sermon Title: Distraction & Opposition

Sermon Text: Nehemiah 6:3 [ESV]

3so I replied by sending this message to them: “I am engaged in a great work, so I can’t come. Why should I stop working to come and meet with you?”

Introduction:

[show the dog video … AFTER I thank everyone!]

DISTRACTION… is defined as something that interferes with our concentration OR something that takes our attention away from something else.

Have you ever dealt with the issue of being distracted? I am sure when we are at our jobs we have a lot of things that can distract us from what we are supposed to be doing!

I am also sure that around our house we have things that NEED to be done, but we allow other things to distract us and keep us from doing what needs to be done!

Let me ask you this… Are you distracted in your walk with Christ? I truly believe that with MOST believers, the problem of serving God is NOT open rebellion OR outright disobedience, but it is believers allowing themselves to be distracted from what they are called to do…

When believers are distracted, their attention and focus is swayed by the enemy and God’s plan and purpose suffers because we are not focused!

In the video you just watched, did you notice how the dog was distracted by something out of the picture… something unrelated to his situation… unrelated to the task he had been sent to accomplish?

How many times as a believer are you distracted from God’s plan and you stray away from obedience because you are distracted by things that are out of the picture? Things unrelated to the situation at hand?

The major question this morning for us as individual believers AND as a fellowship is “are we like the dog in the video?” Do we allow things unrelated or unimportant to the work God has called us to… to distract us from that work?

I want you to notice something about that dog… He was loyal, loving, and very excited about his work, but what we can see is that he was also very easily distracted from what he was supposed to be doing…

This is a major issue in our society today. There are FAR more distractions in our lives today than there has ever been!

We have MANY believers today who are loyal to Jesus and the Gospel, they profess their love for God and do things out of their love for Him! These people get excited about God’s kingdom and work, but they have the tendency to get easily distracted FROM the work God has called them to!

Now when we look at our main character today, Nehemiah, what do we know about him? Well, what we DO know about Nehemiah is that he was NOT easily distracted from his task!

Nehemiah had rec’d the distressing news from Jerusalem and God had guided him and provided for him to come and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

Nehemiah had focused all of his trust on God and had rec’d the support of the leaders within Jerusalem. He had built a team of workers and they were almost completed with the wall.

BUT all was NOT rosy for Nehemiah… Here in ch6 we can see that there were still many who did NOT want to see this wall finished.

Scripture mentions in ch2 and ch4 that there were several people against the completion of the wall and here in ch6 we see them rearing their ugly heads yet one more time!

In ch2 they had tried to intimidate Nehemiah with forceful and scary words…tried to bully him

BUT WHEN THAT DID NOT WORK

Next they tried to intimidate Nehemiah and the people through ridicule and mockery…hoping to shame them or make them lose heart!

HOWEVER, WHEN THAT DID NOT WORK

Here in ch6 we find them once again trying to intimidate Nehemiah by using lies, trickery and the threat of violence to get them to stop…

What we see here is that those who did NOT want the wall to be completed were in desperation mode now… EVERYTHING they had tried had failed to stop Nehemiah and his team from rebuilding the wall!

NOW the wall was ALMOST complete and they knew that when that happened they would lose ALL the influence and power that they had enjoyed over the Jews living in that area.

These men tried almost everything in the book to distract Nehemiah from doing what God called Him to do…

They were concerned and angry! They were DESPARATE so they decided the only way to stop this movement, was to get rid of the leader…