I've titled our sermon this morning.
Don't give in to threats and Distractions.
Think with me a little story that I just made-up to
illustrate this point. On a nice summer warm summer
Saturday morning, Jack went out to go and cut the grass before
the sun got too hot. He left the house to go to the
shed to get his lawnmower. As he got to the shed, he opened
the shed door and found it was hard to open.
And he remembered, Oh yeah, that hinge at the bottom there is not
working properly. It's just binding.
I was, I meant to fix it last week.
Haven't got to it yet. So he decided, well, I can still
get that done before I cut the grass.
Standing there looking at the hinge, he decided how to do it.
He goes to the garage. He's going to get that hinge
fixed right now. He goes to the garage to get his
tools and walks into the garage and there he sees his
neighbour's nail gun that he had borrowed a month ago to do some
little bit of renovation, renovation work down in the
basement. Oh, oh, yeah.
I was meaning to bring that back the other day.
Had forgotten he had, he got distracted.
Well, he's he saw his neighbor in his backyard this morning
when he walked out. And so he's I'm going to do it
right now. I'm going to bring the nail gun
right now. He picks up the nail gun, walks
over to his neighbor and hands it to him and says sorry for not
bringing it back sooner, and they start chatting.
The morning minutes roll by and his neighbor says, hey, Jack,
want to go for a game of golf? That's a perfect day for
golfing. Yeah, let's do that.
Off they help. They go to the golf course and
have a great after great morning with golfing.
Late noon, they come back and the Jack pulls into the
driveway. He knows the raindrops on his
windshield. And Oh yeah, they called for
afternoon showers today, didn't they?
The rain starts to pour. He had not cut the grass.
He had not fixed the hinge. He had a game of golf.
His distractions had kept him from what he set out to do when
he left the house to cut the grass.
Not much lost. And that kind of a distraction
is there. It's not wrong, even.
Who really cares a whole lot? Got a good game of golfing,
maybe. But there's a place in life we
can't afford this kind of stuff. It's maybe OK for one little
project in the yard, in the grass, whatever it's it's not,
it's not bad. It's not wrong.
But what about in the soul, in the hearts of the.
I didn't do my devotions today. I got distracted.
You know what? I'm going to put that off till
tomorrow, and I'm guilty. We, I think we all are in some
level. And this, this is all of life.
I meant to, I was gonna, I had it in mind.
I was intentional and life passes us by.
The failing grade. Well, I meant to study for my
exam. I was going to, but then I got
this phone call. I was going to be a be to work
on time. But good intentions are not
enough. They have to be followed with
action. Single minded devotion and
commitment is what gets us where we need to be.
And distractions, interruptions are everywhere.
Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
Satan succeeded 1 Distraction, a temptation, but it was a
distraction too. We don't know how much time we
have. Just this last week we had a
funeral here from a young woman who was too young and and I are
heading out for another one, her sister, she died also too young.
We don't know how much time we got.
How untracked are we? How committed are we?
How single minded are we? How devoted are we?
This morning we were continuing our sermon series in Nehemiah.
Initially he had a great in Babylon.
He didn't need to go to Judea and take on a job of rebuilding
a wall from a fallen down city. Nobody twisted his arm to do
that. He had a good job with the king,
the cupbearer no less. He heard the story from
Jerusalem. What's going on there?
He's deeply troubled. He started praying and fasting
many days. It tells us the king notices and
shares with the king what's going on.
The king gives him permission and actually supports him to go
and rebuild the wall. And then and he meets the
people, he scopes the job, meets the people, and they get
together and they start this huge, tremendous task of
rebuilding the wall. And it's going well.
And one would think that was all that was visible on the outside.
It was just a well functioning, harmonious organized project.
And to some extent, most of most of it was.
But as we heard last Sunday, there were problems in in the
group. There was financial struggles
and people were mistreating each other and financially and so on.
There was a lack of unity and people taking advantage of each
other. And so Nehemiah had to deal with
that. But you know what?
That was a distraction. He had to deal with it, but he
could not let that derail the project he was doing.
His hands were more than full. Projects like that take a huge
toll. The internal conflict with the
people, the disunity he had to wrestle with.
Today we come to a section of the story where we.
OK now it's going to get better, right?
No, it's going to get worse before it gets better, But it's
going to get better, Yes. Nehemiah had the project of
building the wall to look after, yet there's some internal stuff
to work out among the Jews. First of all, that was not
enough. Today we see in Nehemiah how
he's distract there. He he's tempted to be
distracted. Actually, he's threatened.
I want us to read Nehemiah chapter 6.
It's a powerful little story. Nehemiah Chapter 6 is that now
it happened when Sambal Sambalat to buy a Gersh from the Arab and
the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall and
that there were no breaks left in it.
Though at the time I had not hung the doors in the gates that
Sambalot and Ghesham sent to me saying, Come, let us meet
together among the villages in the plain of Ano.
But they thought to do me harm, so I sent messages to them
saying I'm doing a great work so that I cannot come down.
Why should the work cease which I leave while I leave it, and go
down to you? But they sent me this message 4
times, and I answered them in the same manner that San Balot
sent his servant to me as before the 5th time, with an open
letter in his hand, and it was read.
It is reported among the nations, and Gesham says that
you and the Jews plan to rebel. Therefore, according to these
rumors, you are rebuilding the wall that you may be their king.
And you have also appointed prophets to proclaim concerning
you at Jerusalem, saying there is a king in Judah.
Now these matters will be reported to the king.
So come therefore and let us consult together.
Then I said to him, no. Then I said to him, no.
Such things are as you say, are being done, but you invent them
in your own heart. For they all were trying to make
us afraid, saying their hands will be weakened in the work and
it will not be done now. Therefore, O God, strengthen my
hands. Afterward I came to the House of
Shami Aya, the son of Dali Aya, the son of Mahatma Bal, which
was who was a secret informer. And he said, let us meet
together in the House of God within the temple.
Let's close the doors of the temple, for they're coming to
kill you. Indeed, at night they will come
to kill you. And I said, should such a man as
I flee, and who's there, such as I, who would go into the temple
to save his life, I will not go in.
Then I perceived that God had not sent him at all, but that he
had pronounced this prophecy against me, because Dubai and
Sanbalot had hired him. For this reason.
He was hired that I should be afraid and act the way and act
that way and sin so that they might have cause for an evil
report, that they might reproach me.
My God, remember to buy in San Balat according to these their
works and the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who
would have made me afraid. So the wall was finished on the
25th day of Elal in in 52 days. And it happened when our enemies
heard of it and all the nations around saw these things, that
they were very disheartened in their own eyes, for they
perceived that this work was done by their God.
Also in those days the nobles of Judah sent many letters to
Tobiah, and the letters of Tobiah came to them.
For many in Judah were pledged to him because he was the
son-in-law of Shekinah, the son of Era, and his son Johanna.
Nan had married the daughter of Mashuaam, the son of Barakaya.
Also. They reported his good deeds
before me and reported my words to him.
Tobiah sent letters to frighten me.
Nehemiah was strong, committed, it was a single minded devotion
and dedication to the work that kept him focused and that none
of this stuck, that he wasn't derailed, he was not deterred.
So let's look a little bit this morning at what he experienced
and how he responded to the threats against him and then
let's see how this applies to us today.
Well, first there was the attack of deception.
They had heard that the wall was in progress, had been rebuilt.
Not quite done yet, not quite finished.
Some work was still left to be done.
But the brakes in the wall, they'd been closed.
The intimidation tactics previously used against Nehemiah
hadn't worked. Nehemiah had stayed on track
with his work of building the wall.
He had armed the people to defend themselves themselves,
but at no point had the work ever stopped.
We heard of the rich oppressing the poor of last Sunday
passenger mentioned how the how they said one thing or lived one
way and and said something else. They were they were hurting each
other. Nehemiah stepped up took care of
it, never stopping to build the the project on the wall.
But we see now enemies don't tire easy.
They don't just give up like that.
They just come up with a different plan.
Threatening Nehemiah had so far not worked.
So now they decide to put their heads together and pretend to be
his friends, make him, make him believe we're friends, trap him
that way. And verse 2 Sambalat and Ghesham
sent saying, come, let's meet together among the village in
the plain of Ano. Not after at this time an
invitation. You know what, let's meet
together. These were not ordinary men.
They were men of power, influence.
There were leaders in the community.
They didn't like what the Jews were doing.
They're building the wall. They wanted to stop.
And this was one way they're going to do it.
This place. The villages in the plain of Ono
were quite a long ways away from Jerusalem.
Some commentators suggest that about maybe 40 kilometers
distant. That's quite, a quite a jog if
you want to cover that on foot. But Nehemiah saw right through
the lies of these men and he refused to come.
He told him I got an important job to do.
I can't come. Well, it's true he couldn't
come, but also he wouldn't come. It would have been foolish to
stop the project at the wall. Why he was there was to build a
wall, not to go off to some meetings that had nothing to do
with it. Some guys who know threat had
first threatened him, now trying to butter him up.
There are people in our lives we should not engage because they
have I'll intent. And I'm not saying we have
neighbors like that perhaps, but there are people, our
communities, we know they're up to no good.
And I say this to young people, to older people.
Maybe it's a business venture. Don't get involved because they
have don't have good intentions. Maybe it's a young person.
Join us in this crowd. Let's do these things.
What's it about? It's a distraction.
They're always people we should not engage with, people who want
to take us away from what God has called us.
And these men don't give up easy. 4 * 4 times they sent this
message in verse four. He answered them the same time
every time. They're persistent, determined.
They have to find a way to lure him, to distract him and
hopefully get rid of him. They wanted to kill him.
Nehemiah was what we could say. He was the brains behind the
whole project, and if they could get him, the project would
falter. And of course, you know God's
behind it. He wanted to see it come to
fruition, to see it finished. God was leading it, but He used
Nehemiah and it depended on Nehemiah.
Nehemiah was committed. He wasn't going to give up.
In our world today, we often are tempted with distractions and
it's hard to say no the first time.
And it's, it means it's easy to say no the first time.
The second time, maybe not quite so easy.
And the third time it's a bit harder to say no on the 4th.
Eventually, just whatever, just just let's do it already.
I've said no so many times, you know, just.
And so we, we become weak, we become soft, we become
distracted. Nehemiah very fortunately
didn't. What are some things that you
and I have changed? Our convictions on that we at
one point in time were very clear and very strong based on
biblical principle, we would not budget.
And now we have, we all have those struggles.
I do too. Nehemiah would have had thought,
could have thought, you know what, maybe we can do something
together. But he's so single minded, so
focused, so committed, he won't budget an inch.
Well, this temptation to well, let's see if we can get him as a
friend and then we'll destroy him from with from that way.
That did not work. They kept trying.
Well, they tried again, the attack of fear, intimidation.
well-being a friend won't work. Sanbelot sends a letter, verse
5, and he says it's a it's an open letter, verse 6.
It says that it's reported among the Jews.
He says that you and the Jews, you're planning to rebel.
It's an accusation and you're rebuilding the wall.
You want to be their king. You've already got prophets who
are going to preach. Judah has a king.
The king will hear about this. So let's get together.
We got to deal with this. Nehemiah wisely says, Nope, it's
not happening. You're just dreaming this up in
your own heart. And he says they're trying to
make us afraid. He's writing that.
Then he's praise and verse 90, God, strengthen my hands.
He's appealing to God. This was an open attack on
Nehemiah to strike fear in his heart.
If the friendship distraction didn't work, maybe the fear
distraction might. He's accused of wanting to make
a name for himself to grab power and rebel against the king.
Let's just think about that for a second.
When people really want to gain power and control, they would
not be doing what Nehemiah was doing.
As I said before, he had no need to be there to begin with.
He could have stayed home in Babylon, continued his job
there. He was only here on in a
sacrificial way because he wanted to Jerusalem to be
rebuilt, because God put it in his heart to do so.
He had no desire for control or power at all.
And Sand Ballot says it's they Sand Ballot was one of the
people who just wanted to find one way or another, seeing if he
could distract Nehemiah. He was the one he was playing it
safe in a sense, saying, you know what, let's, let's talk
about this. Let's, let's, let's solve this
problem before it gets out of hand.
Nehemiah says, what problem? There is no problem.
It won't become before they came because it doesn't exist.
And back in those days, letters didn't travel the way they
traveled today, like e-mail, it's instant or texting is
faster. And that day, it would have
taken X number of days for letters to go back and forth,
giving Nehemiah a lot of things to ponder and meditate on this
and maybe chew it, chew on it. We don't find that Nehemiah ever
once became distracted from the work he did.
He stayed completely focused on his call and continued what he'd
been called to do. And verse 8, no such things are,
as you say, are being done. You're inventing of your own
heart. He calls him Samblot, a liar.
You're inventing this on your own.
There's a place in time to call people out, to simply say, look,
what you're doing is wrong. You know it, and it's wrong.
It's sometimes hard to discern what the time that is, and I'm
not here to say when it is. We can err on the side of saying
something too soon, even too much.
But silence is not always golden.
There's a time to speak up when someone's continually pressuring
and pushing and eroding and compromising, trying to get you
as a person to do the things you know are evil, are sinful, or
disobedient. Speak up.
Just say no. I can't and I won't.
Nehemiah did that and so he prays to God to strengthen him.
He doesn't attack this guy back or anything like that.
He just won't go. These guys, they wanted to just
stall it and then destroy it and make sure it would end, but it
doesn't work. So the friendship or the
deception of buttering him up doesn't work.
That attack doesn't work. The fierce threats doesn't work.
But he's not finished. Sambalat and these guys, they
have another one, the religious attack.
You know, that's the one, right? If you can, if you can attack
somebody where their faith is what the core of their
convictions and belief are, then you have a much better chance of
getting at least a response. That's that's where the
connections are. And verse 10, afterward, he came
to the I came, he goes there for some reason to the House of
Shami Aya, the son of Delhi, Aya, the son of Mahatabal, who
was a secret informer there. And he said, let, he said, Shami
Aya, let us meet together in the House of God within the temple.
Let's close the doors of the temple for they're coming to
kill you. That's where you can be safe.
Nehemiah, go to the temple. Well, this was a difficult one
to navigate. It's carefully disguised.
I'm reminded of what Jesus did when he was in the desert,
tempted by the devil. He was tempted three times.
First it was to turn stones into bread.
He refused. He quoted scripture second, it
was to jump down from the temple and God would take care of him.
He quoted scripture and 3rd it was if you fall down and worship
me. Jesus as a man refused each
time. He's the Son of God.
We know that and understand that.
But as a man He was put through these temptations to understand
how humanity works or for us to do so that he would also
experience temptation as we do now.
We know He's the Son of God, but he still experienced this.
Distraction from Satan is a temptation, but also
distraction. And Shami Aya says to Neha, this
is to protect you. This is this is to for your
benefit. That's not true.
When Satan tempted Jesus, that was not true.
When Satan tempted Eve, that was not true.
What does Nehemiah say to this? He sees right through it again.
He said, should such a man as I flee, I'm not joining, I'm not
coming, I'm not going along. He realized the real plan.
There was no protection for him in the temple.
He was actually not allowed by law to go into the temple.
He was not a Levite. Only Levites was were allowed to
go into the temple and the priests into the holy places.
Nehemiah could not go there. Well, let's go to the temple,
lock the doors and then let's talk.
And so Nehemiah says, I, I realized God hadn't sent this
guy. He says Tobiah and Sambalot had
hired him. Tobiah and Sambalot had hired
him. That I should be afraid to act
that way in sin. He knew it would be sin what he
did. Sandra had given this guy the
job, hired him to do it, maybe even be a hitman.
We don't know. If they could get Nehemiah to
sin, that would give them a foothold in his life that would
destabilize him. Once they achieved that,
there'll be no telling what they could do next.
Is he the big? The big failures often start
with little tiny compromises, but Nehemiah prayed again, he
says in verse 14, he says my God remember to by ensemble out
according to these their works and the prophetess no Adiah and
the rest of the prophets who would have made me afraid.
There was not just one man to contend with or two men to
contend with. There was many and even this
this woman prophetess, no Adiah don't know what she all said.
And the rest of the prophets, He had a lot of opposition and yet
he faithfully built the wall. He knew what was going on.
I can just try to imagine the immense and heavy emotional
strain that must have caused this man, in spite of all their,
the obstacles that threw at him, the the hard work that he
endured, the economic disparity between the, the, the, the
congregation of Israel, all that stuff going on and these
repeated attacks one after another in different waves, just
coming and coming and coming. He stuck it out.
God allowed these attacks for a
divine purpose, which he didn't tell Nehemiah, but I believe
they were there to show the people this is what God can do.
And every attack on him failed. In the end, he was vindicated.
So the wall was finished. Verse 15, on the 15th day of
Ilal, the fit in 52 days. That's a short time and it
happened. All our enemies heard of it and
all the nations around us saw these things.
They were very disheartened in their own eyes, for they
perceive that this work was done by our God.
When God makes a statement, people can't refuse it.
There's value and lasting benefit to staying the course,
to not pay attention to distractions, to derail 1's
focus and ministry. For Nehemiah, this was one whole
complete victory. But for his opponents, what a
waste of energy, what a waste of time.
They failed completely and totally.
Now they had to acknowledge, they had to admit, this was a
work of God. The wall was completed in record
time, not just the finished wall.
It was a complete and total victory, much more than just
bricks and stones around the city.
This had a much bigger emphasis, a much bigger message, and
everybody around them knew it. Everyone who saw it knew it.
This is not normal. This does not just happen.
The effect of the completion of the wall was where it became
evident God's power again was recognized.
Think for a moment what would have happened, What could have
happened if Nehemiah had gotten distracted?
Little bit of here and a little bit of there and a little bit of
that. Maybe we can all be friends and
maybe we can all just get along and this guy doesn't want God
here and this guy wants the wall to stay.
Now maybe we can compromise on that too.
Yet what would have happened? His single minded, committed
devotion was what God used to complete this job and spread the
message. This is the God of Israel.
You see a lot of people in life start out good, but then life
happens and fatigue sets in and troubles come and distractions
rise, and once great ideas and great decisions and time fade
into the dust, there's nothing left but distant memories.
It would be nice to the passage like this, just to close it and
with a sigh of relief and go like, yeah, well, must have been
nice to have that victory. Must have been good.
I'm sure it was nice. It's not how the story ends.
The battle's never over. The battle's never finished.
Nehemiah had not just survived, he had thrived, and he was ever
more prepared than he ever was. This, this grew him, it
strengthened him. But the problems kept on coming,
it says. And also in those days were 17.
The nobles of Judah sent many letters to Tobiah.
The letters of Tobiah came to them.
For many in Judah were pledged to him because he was the son of
Shakhana Anaya, the son of Arah, the son of Johanna, who had
married the daughter of Mashulam, the son of Bakarat.
Anak goes all the compromisers, all the distractors, they were
still out there. Nehemiah was the leader.
What was with these nobles of Judah were 17.
What was with them? They were the ones who followed
their distractions. The compromisers, the Jews in
the Judea had committed connections with these people
like Tobiah and now they cause problems.
They were not single minded committed.
They were multiple minded, desire, whatever they desired
they did. Says Tobias was liked by many of
the Jews, but he was a dangerous man and so he did some good
deeds they brought before Nehemiah.
And it says in verse 19, they reported his good deeds before
me and reported my words to him. Not a good thing.
Tobias sent letters to frighten him.
It went on and our passage ends with a sober note that says
Tobias sent letters to frighten Nehemiah.
His journey wasn't over, but he stayed the course.
He wouldn't allow the distractions to change him, to
frighten him or derail him. And yet it existed. 1 commentary
put it to this. Put it this way, he said these
Jewish brothers of Nehemiah could not see what was so plain
to Nehemiah. Perhaps they did not see much of
the evil work to buy a first hand, so they had a hard time
believing it. We imagine them saying he's
always been nice to us, look at all the good he's done.
Or it's a is it possible? Maybe they just didn't have the
shepherd's heart that Nehemiah had.
Nehemiah was called to protect God's people, do God's work.
He was watching and guard all the time.
These nobles, there was self-interest.
They had financial dealings with the Tobiah, with this man
Tobiah, and they wanted to protect him.
They were pledged to him. As difficult as it was for
Nehemiah, he succeeded because he remained at his task and he
stayed faithful to his calling. So what difference does it make
for Unite Today when we were together here this morning?
In a church like this, it's easy to not be distracted at least
for an hour or so, right? But what about when we leave?
What about when we go home? And these distractions come in
many shapes and forms, folks. One that comes to mind is worry.
Worry is a powerful distraction, a powerful distraction.
Another one is fear, powerful distraction.
All things Jesus said, don't do them, don't have them, and then
there are others, pleasure, enjoyment, ease and comfort and
security. All these are distractions.
Isaiah 29 verse 13, the prophet writes.
Therefore the Lord said in as much as these people draw near
me with their mouths and honor me with their lips, but have
removed their hearts far from me and their fear toward me is
taught by the commandment of men and the message Eugene Peterson
wrote it this. We said these people make a big
show of saying the right thing, but their hearts aren't in it
because they act like they're worshiping me but don't mean it.
The men of Judah benefited from the work of Nehemiah, but they
had a divided hearts, their hearts with Tobiah.
Anyone can make you the promise and for a while keep it, but
then distraction said in and it goes.
Staying the course isn't easy. We have to be alert, awake on
the ball, and always be on guard.
There's never a time to let go of the wheel.
Course correction happens all the time in our own strength.
We cannot live like Nehemiah did here.
It takes the power of God in our lives to do so.
The question do we have it? What is it that's driving us?
When Jesus walked this earth, there were initially a lot of
people who wanted to follow him. Didn't last long.
When Jesus spoke of suffering, carrying a cross, that didn't
sound appealing, and most of them left.
Jesus is calling you and I today to come to Him, to repent, to
follow him and be his disciples, and then to walk with Him.
We're invited today to receive His grace and every day to put
our focus and trust in Him. And as we give our lives to
Jesus, we will experience this freedom, this peace, and this
joy in our hearts that nothing, no temptation, and no
distraction can take us from. Let us pray, but thank you for
Your grace to us and how Your Word teaches us to live.
We know in this world we face many temptations and many
distractions and it happens so easily.
Help us to repent where we fall. I pray you'll give us your
Spirit. Your this church.
Your this church is your body. Give us wisdom and courage to
walk with you regardless of what our culture around us does and
how it tempts us. We pray we'll walk in humility
before you in obedience and joining me, pray.
Amen.