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…
So they conspired to get rid of Nehemiah and then they believed the work would stop!
They may have wanted to kill him all along, but the implication here was that they wanted to damage his reputation and cause the people to stop following his leadership! So they appealed to his pride and attacked him that way…
Attacked Nehemiah’s pride & standing with the Jews v1-4
1Now when Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the wall and that there was no breach left in it (although up to that time I had not set up the doors in the gates), 2Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, “Come and let us meet together at Hakkephirim in the plain of Ono.” But they intended to do me harm. 3And 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?” 4And they sent to me four times in this way, and I answered them in the same manner.
These men were appealing to Nehemiah’s pride by sending him this letter. When he received this letter Nehemiah could have thought ‘Oh look how important I am!’ These men think I am the reason this is getting done!
He could have thought to himself, “Maybe I can go over to them and CONVINCE them that this is a good thing…If they think I am that influential then maybe it IS me that is making this happen? Maybe I can change their minds about what we are doing?”
I wonder; how often does our human pride get in the way of us doing God’s will? How often do our prideful hearts distract us from our service to God?
Here we are serving God and He puts us on a path, and we experience a little success and then BLAMMO our pride begins to distract us away from what is godly and important to Him!
Nehemiah could have allowed pride and a sense of self worth distract him, but what we find is that Nehemiah had NO TIME for their shenanigans!
He tells them in NO UNCERTAIN terms that he was too busy to deal with their foolishness… look how he responds in v3 - 3And 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?”
Basically what Nehemiah is saying here was that he was doing not only a great work… but he was doing God’s work! So WHY in the world would he put God on hold to satisfy their curiosity or his pride?
When our pride begins to pull us away from our task that God has set before us… when our pride begins to distract us from our work… we must put our foot down like Nehemiah and say “Why should I stop? I am doing God’s work here!”
Nehemiah KNEW his standing with his people, but more importantly his standing before God. On mission with God…don’t distract me! Nehemiah was a focused man…
We use the phrase ‘he is a man on a mission’ which we say when we see someone who has a laser focus and they are fully dedicated and sold out to the task at hand! These people do NOT allow things from the outside OR things from the inside to distract them from completing their task!
Nehemiah was a man on a mission… it was a mission directly from God about rebuilding the wall! He was focused and determined to complete that task and was NOT going to be distracted!
God calls us ALL to a mission for Him… It could be ANYTHING in the church or in your community! When we know God is calling us, our attitude must be FOCUSED and DETERMINED to complete the task God has set before us!
Application: The enemy will attack us from all different angles and perspectives. NOT all attacks will ‘look like’ attacks but may play to our pride or sense of importance!
We cannot allow ourselves to get caught up in prideful self importance when it comes to God’s work. We cannot allow ourselves to be distracted by things that appeal to our selfish desires!
I believe if we are going to rebuild this church with God that we must have the same attitude as Nehemiah did at this time… He basically said to these men, “GO AWAY! Stop bothering me because I am too busy working for God right now; I am not going to allow you to distract me from my work!”
Nehemiah’s pride was attacked by the enemy, but when that fails we find that then they…
Attacked Nehemiah’s position with the king…v5-9
5In the same way Sanballat for the fifth time sent his servant to me with an open letter in his hand. 6In it was written, “It is reported among the nations, and Geshem also says it, that you and the Jews intend to rebel; that is why you are building the wall. And according to these reports you wish to become their king. 7And you have also set up prophets to proclaim concerning you in Jerusalem, ‘There is a king in Judah.’ And now the king will hear of these reports. So now come and let us take counsel together.” 8Then I sent to him, saying, “No such things as you say have been done, for you are inventing them out of your own mind.” 9For they all wanted to frighten us, thinking, “Their hands will drop from the work, and it will not be done.” But now, O God, strengthen my hands.
Rumor from the enemy camp had it that Nehemiah was going to anoint himself as King and have prophets declare it to be God’s will… this would have been a disaster if that news got back to the king!
After four unsuccessful attempts to lure Nehemiah out by attacking his pride, they change tactics and basically threaten his position with the King.
Remember that Nehemiah was the cupbearer of the King and had a special relationship with the King. These men were threatening to send a letter to the king detailing how Nehemiah had tricked the king to come over to Jerusalem and then he had set himself up AS King!
Once again, Nehemiah is blessed with godly wisdom. I believe it is because of his intense prayer life, but God leads him to see right through this attack as well!
We find that Nehemiah refuses to listen to their threats and basically tells them that they are ‘full of it’
Nehemiah IGNORES this threat because of 2 things:
FIRST and foremost, Nehemiah knew and understood that God had brought him here for a specific purpose and that task was still NOT completed AND he could not allow himself to get distracted from that mission! So we find Nehemiah ignoring them on this basis…
SECOND we also know that Nehemiah was the cup bearer of the king for many years & had a special relationship with the King.
We see this in how the King inquired about Nehemiah’s sadness, how the King responded with help and support for the problem!
When we know this about Nehemiah we can make the presumption that Nehemiah KNEW that this tactic would NOT work! He knew that the king would NEVER believe such a thing…
In fact I can almost hear Nehemiah saying something like, “If you feel you must tell him… GO AHEAD, he knows me better than that plus you have NO proof!”
Nehemiah ignores their threat and in fact pushes it back in their face by saying, “this is ridiculous… you are making this up!”
Application: When we are working FOR God, the enemy is going to try to derail us any way he can! AND he will us everything he can, and he will even LIE about things!
The enemy will try to get us to believe that he can report us to God about our sin and that God will abandon us in our disobedience.
But here is what we must remember about our King. We have a close relationship with Our King… He knows our hearts and He knows whether or not we are trying to be our own God.
God has equipped and empowered us to do HIS work and Scripture tells us that all who are in God’s will… that there NO weapon formed against them that shall stand!
We will be attacked in our pride… we will be attacked by threats and the Enemy will try to bully us into giving up on what God has us doing!
We are beginning the process of building this church in this community. God has called us to the task, but we have to understand that we cannot be distracted… we cannot allow our pride or the bullying tactics of the Enemy stop us!
They went after Nehemiah’s pride and position, and finally when that did not work, they tried to…
Attacked Nehemiah’s self-preservation… v10-14
10Now when I went into the house of She-maiah the son of De-laiah, son of Me-het-abal, who was confined to his home, he said, “Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple. Let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you. They are coming to kill you by night.” 11But I said, “Should such a man as I run away? And what man such as I could go into the temple and live? I will not go in.” 12And I understood and saw that God had not sent him, but he had pronounced the prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. 13For this purpose he was hired, that I should be afraid and act in this way and sin, and so they could give me a bad name in order to taunt me. 14Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, O my God, according to these things that they did…who wanted to make me afraid.
Rumor of a night mission to kill Nehemiah was spread and a prophet offers Nehemiah a place of refuge to hide from the attack… He encourages Nehemiah to come with him to the Temple and hide in there overnight for his protection!
This prophet came to Nehemiah with news of an attack that was coming and offered Nehemiah a way to avoid that attack, but the entire time this man was trying to get Nehemiah to shame himself before all the people of Jerusalem.
Once again we see Nehemiah’s discernment is sharp and God reveals to him that this prophet is NOT from God… but instead he has been hired by Sanballat and Tobiah!
Nehemiah then responds to this prophet with 2 very simple yet powerful questions! These questions reveal the character of Nehemiah’s heart in this situation!
First question: ““Should such a man as I run away?” In other words Nehemiah KNEW and understood his position in the community and cowardice and running away would set a terrible example for others…
Can you imagine what it would look like if our leader ran and hid when danger came… Now I know that our President is protected by the Secret Service and that in many cases he does not have a choice in being removed from a situation… BUT can you imagine a president that would run and hide based on a rumor of a threat?
Can you imagine a dad hiding out in the neighbor’s storm shelter while his family is left out in the cold?
Here Nehemiah KNEW and revealed his heart as a leader! He was a true leader in every sense of the word… He was NOT going to turn tail and run when things got a little heated, he was going to stand an fight!
Nehemiah shoots down their attempt to make him look like a coward… but Nehemiah asks a 2nd question too:
SECOND Question: “And what man such as I could go into the temple and live?” Nehemiah knew who was allowed in the Temple and who was NOT allowed!
God had instructed the Jews that only certain people could enter the Temple, and the King was NOT one of them. It did NOT matter what the King thought of himself, he was not allowed in the Temple where only priests were allowed!
King Uzziah, who was a great king and a king who did what was RIGHT in the name of the Lord decided one day that he would go and burn incense in the Temple, but God was displeased and Uzziah was given leprosy for his act… King Uzziah died a leper.
Here Nehemiah realized this very quickly and kept himself out of trouble with the people! Here we find Nehemiah showing bravery and a respect for the Law of God!
They wanted Nehemiah to lose face with the people and then they would be able to destroy the wall… but Nehemiah was strong in his resolve and he leaned on God!
These men attacked Nehemiah with several things that should have and COULD have easily distracted Nehemiah from his duty to finish the wall, but what do we see happening here…
We see Nehemiah not allowing distraction and conflict take him away from his duty to serve God.
So preacher what does this mean for me? Well when we look at the results of what happened here to Nehemiah we can see several things we need apply in our Christian walk!
We cannot allow ourselves to be distracted from the task at hand… we cannot allow ourselves to ‘chase rabbits’ when it comes to building this church. We must have a laser focus and a bullseye approach!
Results… v15-19
Wall completed
The wall was completed and it closed all the gaps and brought protection & safety to Jerusalem!
The wall was completed Nehemiah & his team, all by them having faith in God and trusting God would lead and protect them.
This wall was completed in an incredible 52 day time-span… Nehemiah reflects that this happened ONLY because of God’s help. But also the people realized this as well!
The wall that Nehemiah and those who worked with him built is said to have been approx 4½ miles long, 24ft wide at its base and just over 26ft tall.
And! What’s MORE incredible than the size of the wall, it is that ALL of the work was done by hand and with no power tools or machinery.
Talk about determination and NOT being distracted!
But not only was the wall completed we also see that…
Enemies were defeated
These men had tried to stop this from happening on many occasions and in many ways, but everyone of their plans had met with FAILURE…
These men had tried to intimidate and bully the leadership of Jerusalem… They attempted to bribe and conspire with nobles, but all those nefarious actions FAILED!
After their tremendous failure in stopping Nehemiah and the wall from being built, these men were now afraid for their lives! NOW it was THEY who was living in fear!
The wall was completed and the enemy was defeated, but what we cannot overlook is the most important thing and that was…
God was glorified
God was glorified in Nehemiah’s faithful obedience to God’s calling…Nehemiah heard God’s calling and answered that calling, and it did NOT matter how difficult… Nehemiah answered the call to serve and glorify God… ARE YOU READY THIS MORNING? Or are you TOO distracted to think about this…
God was glorified in the people’s faithful obedience to the leadership of Nehemiah whom God had sent…
Nehemiah had set a great example and the people had followed his example and had begun to live out their lives as Nehemiah had and they took on the challenge that God laid before them… and they DID it! AND because they did it… God was elevated and glorified in the eyes of their enemy!
God was glorified in the protection of those who were being obedient in their actions for God… many times those working on the wall experienced opposition and danger, but the Bible does NOT speak to any casualties! God was glorified in that the wall was rebuilt and the people were once again safe!
Finally we can see that God was glorified in that the wall was completed! It had been completed just as God had commanded and that God was seen as the instigator and provider for this project [show highlighted v16b]
“…for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God…”
Application of these results:
One very important concept that we MUST learn to accept is that what God begins in us HE will complete!
He will leave no stone unturned and I believe that it God desires that our church to ONCE AGAIN be relevant in our community and that ONCE AGAIN our fellowship needs to be a force for God in our community!
However, just as our journey in this world is NOT an easy NOR a safe one for any Jew, OUR journey is not guaranteed it would be safe or easy!
YES, I believe that God is for us, but the question is are we expected to work hard for Him! We must trust that HE will equip us and be faithful to His promises… we need to be vigilant in our service and NEVER give up… God will complete His task with us…
Second we can see that the enemy will come against us… When you begin to serve God then you will be attacked! This story in Nehemiah reflects that all who come against God will fail!
Scripture says that, “No weapon formed against us shall stand…” The enemy will throw everything in his arsenal at us here at Oak Park, but we must remain faithful to God and vigilant in our work!
Finally, God is going to be glorified! When we BOND together in Christian love and fellowship and when we BUILD up our faith and walk in Christ thru Bible study and the Word of God… we will then become a force that can BLOSSOM out into our communities with the love of Jesus and service to our fellow man!
There are four tables here at the front… four separate areas and emphases of toward service listed on these tables! Discipleship, Prayer, Ministry and Outreach!
Last week I called you down here to surrender yourself to where God is already calling you… many of you came forward and signed your names… If you signed your name…
GET READY because we are about to hit the ground running and we are going to begin doing a work for the Lord that this community has NOT seen in decades! Are you ready?
Maybe you were here last week and you heard the sermon and you saw the tables, but you just could NOT tear yourself away from your pew…
I want to encourage you to NOT allow the enemy to distract you with other thoughts or with negativity or with your own pride or with any other distraction…
I want you to allow the Holy Spirit to give you a peace and that you will step out and come to these tables and see what God has for you!
But last week I also told you that we cannot begin to serve God until everything we have between us and God is removed!
That is what this Cross is for… this morning if you have a sin in your life that you need to confess, I am calling on you to write it down and bring it to the cross… lay it at the feet of Jesus with a broken and repentant heart and allow Christ to wash over you with mercy, grace and forgiveness!
Give Evangelistic invitation here…
