Nehemiah 6:1-16
Dealing with Distraction
RSVP Your Regrets to Your Distracters
Refuse the Rumors of Your Distracters
Receive the Strength of the Holy Spirit
Resist Advice Contrary to the Word
Slide 1
How many of you have ever started a home improvement project?
It takes a lot of work and energy to get going on a project.
How many of you have unfinished home improvement projects still around?
While it takes a lot of work and energy to start a project, it takes a lot more work and energy to actually finish the job.
Why is that? It is because other things come up that take our attention.
We get distracted.
And if we are not careful, the same thing can happen
in the church and
in our life,
Because it is much easier to begin a project or change in the church or in our life, than to see it through to completion. Because that requires that we continually maintain our focus,
and learn to deal with distractions.
We have been studying Nehemiah and seeing him begin this great project that the Lord had laid on his heart to
build the wall of Jerusalem to
remove the disgrace from the people of Israel.
We have seen that if we want to receive a vision to do great things for the Lord, it requires us to be faithful with the smaller things that God has us doing now.
We talked about how we should respond to the vision.
We spoke last week about realizing the vision by facing the challenges of leadership.
This week we are going to continue to talk about how to realize the vision by Dealing with Distractions.
Satan does not want things accomplished for the Lord.
He is going to put all kinds of obstacles in our way. We saw some of those last week
When those obstacles and challenges don’t knock us off course, he is going to try and distract us personally.
We need to be aware of ways he may try to distract us and know what we can do about it.
This applies to all areas of our life. In what ever we are doing.
When we are striving to just live our life for the Lord and do the things He wants us to do, we are going to face distractions to get us off track.
Maybe you are facing some of these right now.
Maybe in your personal life
Maybe you are being distracted by all the activities in your life
Maybe in your devotional life
Maybe you are being distracted from spending time with the Lord
Maybe in church
Maybe you are trying to be distracted from serving and being part of the church. You may already be a member but Satan is trying to get you to be unuseful.
Maybe in your marriage.
Maybe he is trying to distract you from being a godly husband or wife.
Believe me, Satan is cunning and his distractions will sound reasonable to us. But how should we respond and how can we prepare?
Slide 2
We are going to be reading in Nehemiah 6 today. (p. 345). We are going to see some of the distractions he faced and learn for our lives how he dealt with them so that we can deal with them.
Nehemiah 6:1-4
1 When word came to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left in it-though up to that time I had not set the doors in the gates- 2 Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: "Come, let us meet together in one of the villages on the plain of Ono."
But they were scheming to harm me; 3 so I sent messengers to them with this reply: "I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?" 4 Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer.
A little background up to this point.
Nehemiah had overcome many of the challenges of leadership. His enemies were not able to defeat him by discouraging the people, so now they sought to distract Nehemiah. They said come and let us meet together.
They were giving the appearance of civility.
Well, since we are going to be neighbors, let’s meet together and seek to get along, you and your people and me and my people.
Nehemiah was still in the process of building the wall and knew from experience that Sanballat and Tobiah were not trustworthy.
So He sent his regrets, “Sorry, I am busy and can’t make it.” And that is what we need to do
You need to
RSVP Your Regrets to Your Distracters
Slide 3
Nehemiah 6:1-4
When someone is seeking to distract you from what you need to be doing and accomplishing, you need to say no to it.
I’ll tell you.
When we as a church are working at getting moving toward accomplishing what God wants us to, Satan is going to seek to distract us from that mission.
When you in your life, commit to being the person God wants you to be and you begin to take steps toward that,
Being in study
Being in prayer
Being accountable to someone
Serving at church
Satan is going to seek to distract you from that.
How does he do that?
He will do that with people or things that will seem urgent for you to respond to and take care of.
You need to deal with this situation right now
We have this activity and that activity
A problem or issue that has been around for a while surfaces again.
Distractions. These are a scheme of the Devil…Do not be unaware of it.
Especially when it has been someone who has caused problems for you in the past, Like Sanballat and Tobiah, be aware that what they are trying to do now may be just to distract you from doing what you need to be doing.
Don’t let that happen.
Step back, assess it and send your regrets that you are not going to be drawn in to the distraction. And then get back to being about the Father’s business.
A second thing you need to do is
Refuse the Rumors of Your Distracters
Just like Nehemiah did.
Slide 4
Nehemiah 6:5-8
5 Then, the fifth time, Sanballat sent his aide to me with the same message, and in his hand was an unsealed letter 6 in which was written:
"It is reported among the nations-and Geshem says it is true-that you and the Jews are plotting to revolt, and therefore you are building the wall. Moreover, according to these reports you are about to become their king 7 and have even appointed prophets to make this proclamation about you in Jerusalem: ’There is a king in Judah!’ Now this report will get back to the king; so come, let us confer together."
8 I sent him this reply: "Nothing like what you are saying is happening; you are just making it up out of your head."
So here these men are, trying like crazy to distract Nehemiah and get him to stop what he is doing to harm him or kill him.
They can’t get him to come down by being nice so they send an unsealed letter to him.
It was unsealed because they wanted others to read it and get the rumor out that Nehemiah was going to revolt against King Artaxerxes and make himself King after he finished the wall. This was supposed to get him to stop and go down to meet them so they could harm him.
But Nehemiah would not bite. He knew what he needed to be doing. He called them the liars that they were and did not go to meet them to clear up the matter.
This could have been quite dangerous for Nehemiah. What if word got back to the king about this like it was intended. The Bible doesn’t tell us if it did or did not, but what if it did?
This is where living our life in a godly manner really works to our benefit.
1. Nehemiah had worked for the king for years and was trusted. The king knew Nehemiah’s Character
2. The people saw that he was not like the other governors who used to place a heavy burden on the people, but He was a man of sacrifice.
3. The people saw that he was willing to do the right thing even when the right thing was hard. He confronted the other leaders and nobles about their taking advantage of the people
He did not have to go and deny the rumor.
The way he lived his life denied it for him.
He just said that is not true, and went about his business.
We need to do the same thing. We need to refuse to be intimidated by rumors that will distract us from being who it is God wants us to be as individuals and distract us from fulfilling what the Lord is calling us to as a church.
But even beyond that, we need to live our lives in such a way that we can be confident that those who know us, would never believe a false rumor about us.
I will tell you that there is a peace and assurance that comes from living your life in such a way.
I remember a time that I was starting at a new ministry and someone was saying that someone else was saying something about me.
I knew what the Lord was calling me to do and I needed to keep my focus on that.
I told this person that, that there really was no need for me to try and respond or clear up the matter. I believed that those who knew me would know that the rumor was untrue.
And anyone who knew me and did believe it, then I would take the blame for that for not living my life well enough in front of them.
That is what we all need to be seeking to do;
We need to be living our life in front of people in such a way as they will not believe false rumors.
Oh, did you hear what Joe is trying to do? He is trying to do such and such.
Really, that doesn’t sound like Joe. In fact I have seen Joe
do the right thing when it was hard,
sacrifice when he did not have to,
and live humbly.
I don’t believe that about him.
If someone is saying, “Yeah, I can believe it” about some false rumor about me, then it should be because they don’t know me, otherwise, if they know me and believe it, it will be my fault for not living life well enough in front of them.
Don’t put yourself in that position.
Put yourself in the position that you can refuse the rumors of those trying to distract you and continue the things the Lord wants you to be doing.
A third thing that Nehemiah did was
Receive the Strength of the Holy Spirit
Slide 5
Nehemiah 6:9
9 They were all trying to frighten us, thinking, "Their hands will get too weak for the work, and it will not be completed."
[But I prayed,] "Now strengthen my hands."
Nehemiah prayed for the strength of God to complete the job he had been called to do.
None of us in any circumstance are going to be able to do what God wants us to do in our own strength. We need to continually keep our focus and receive His strength.
Imagine for a moment, Nehemiah facing all of these challenges and sensing people are out to kill you and turn others against you, like the king. It is in moments like that that we so desperately want to take things into our own hands.
Lord, I thought you wanted me to come and rebuild the wall.
Why are these things going on? Maybe I should
Go and meet and clear up the matter
Try and appease these men
Go and attack them so they aren’t a bother anymore.
We cry out, “Lord tell me what to do.”
I already did, says the Lord.
Build the wall,
remove the disgrace from my people.
In the situation that you may find yourself in today, maybe you have known what it is God wants you to do, but then came all of these other things, distractions.
Maybe you are being distracted from being the spouse God wants you to be. You are being distracted by someone.
Or maybe it is even your spouse who is distracting you.
Keep your focus and pray and receive God’s strength.
Satan will use anything and anyone in his quest to bring you down.
1 Peter 5:8-9a
8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith,
Stand firm in God’s strength.
Maybe being distracted from serving the Lord, like in Nehemiah’s case,
You are being distracted from serving in the capacity that the Lord has called you in because you are focusing on the distractions instead of the “one thing.”
This is why you need to be praying for and receiving the strength of the Holy Spirit
to accomplish the thing He wants you to do or
to be the person He wants you to be.
But understand that
You can’t do it by yourself.
Zechariah 4:6
’Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.
Receive the strength of the Spirit in those moments when the flesh wants to act. He is the one that will strengthen our hands to be able to do what He wants us to do. Rely on that.
The last thing we need to do, just as Nehemiah did, is
Resist Advice Contrary to the Word
Slide 6
Nehemiah 6:10-14
10 One day I went to the house of Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, who was shut in at his home. He said, "Let us meet in the house of God, inside the temple, and let us close the temple doors, because men are coming to kill you-by night they are coming to kill you."
11 But I said, "Should a man like me run away? Or should one like me go into the temple to save his life? I will not go!" 12 I realized that God had not sent him, but that he had prophesied against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. 13 He had been hired to intimidate me so that I would commit a sin by doing this, and then they would give me a bad name to discredit me.
14 Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, O my God, because of what they have done; remember also the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who have been trying to intimidate me.
Nehemiah knows something is wrong because he knows that only priests are allowed to go into the holy place.
He knows this because he knows the word of God.
He wanted him to get him to do something wrong so they could discredit him.
Now this almost seems like a rational thing to do.
People are trying to kill me.
God wants me to finish this wall.
I will protect myself in God’s presence .
When we are doing what God wants us to, we will never need to protect ourselves by doing what He doesn’t want us to, and He will never guide us to go against His word.
You can be sure that the Lord is not behind it if you are being directed to go against His word.
If a friend even gives you advice that is Contrary to the Word, don’t follow it.
They are either trying to do you harm or they themselves are being deceived by Satan.
Conclusion
Friends, listen.
There are going to be times that it is going to be difficult to keep going because of the distractions around us.
Stop and pray and ask for strength in those circumstances.
Don’t let others from outside get you off track. Keep doing what you are supposed to be doing.
Don’t listen to the false rumors started about you, let the life you are living speak loudly for you.
And
be in the word so you know it and
continue to pray so you will be strengthened
to not do anything contrary to what God has put in His word
so that you can glorify Him and fulfill the vision He is giving you and be the person He wants you to be.
When we do those things, and rely on Him, then we will be able complete the task and be the person that God wants us to be.
Listen to the end of ch. 6. As Nehemiah continued and did not allow the distractions to derail him, this is what happened.
Nehemiah 6:15-16
15 So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days. 16 When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God.
Less than 2 months God built the wall through Nehemiah and the people he led.
What incredible thing is God trying to do in your life?
Have you been allowing distractions from keeping you moving forward in doing what God wants you to do or
being who God wants you to be?
Recognize that it is Satan who is trying to distract you from that and
pray that the Lord would strengthen you to continue to pursue His will for you.
Let’s pray.
