The sermon 'Deadly Distractions' by Scott Brown explores the challenges Nehemiah faced while rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem, as described in Nehemiah chapter 6. Nehemiah encountered distractions and threats from adversaries like Sambalat and Geshem, who sought to harm and intimidate him through persistent invitations and false rumors. Despite these challenges, Nehemiah remained focused on his mission, relying on prayer and his unwavering faith in God. The sermon highlights Nehemiah's perseverance and compares his trials to the temptations faced by Jesus, emphasizing the importance of looking away from distractions and fixing one's eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of faith. Brown urges believers to identify and resist distractions in their own lives, maintaining focus on the worship of God and their spiritual mission.

Well, good morning. This morning we're going to be reading the entire chapter of Nehemiah, chapter, Nehemiah 6, verse 1. Now it happened when Sambalat, Tobiah, Gesham 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 that time I had not hung the doors in the gates that Sambalat and Gesham sent to me saying come let us meet together among the villages in the plain of Ono, but they thought to do me harm. So I sent messengers to them saying, I am doing a great work so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease while I leave it and go down to you?

But they sent me this message four times and I answered them in the same manner. Then Sambalat sent his servant to me as before, the fifth time, with an open letter in his hand. In it was written, it is reported among the nations, and Geshum 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 sent to him saying, No such things 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 Shemaiah, the son of Deliah, the son of Mahetabel, who was a secret informer, and he said, let us meet together in the house of God within the temple and let us close the doors of the temple, for they are 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 is 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 pronounced this prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sambalat had hired him.

For this reason he was hired that I should be afraid and act that way in sin, so that they might have cause for an evil report that they might reproach me. My God, remember Tobiah and Sambalat, 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 Alul in 52 days, And it happened when all our enemies heard of it and all the nations around us saw these things that they were very disheartened in their own eyes for they perceived that this work was done by our 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 Arah and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Mishulam the son of Barakaiah Also, they reported his good deeds before me and reported my words to him. Tobias sent letters to frighten me.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you and we are so thankful that we can come into your presence, Lord. We thank you now for the word which we are about to be fed from, Lord. We pray that you would open up our hearts, still our minds. Lord, help us to receive from you.

Oh Lord feed our souls and help Scott as he delivers this message to us. Lord may you strengthen him for this just as you strengthen Nehemiah's hands. Oh Lord may you build up your work. We are so glad that we are your workmanship Lord and we see here that it is all of you. Lord we are so thankful for what you're doing and will yet do in our lives Lord.

So be with us now, help us to hear your word. In Christ's name we pray, Amen. Well these narratives in the book of Nehemiah are all about a people who are returning from ruin and their city has been broken down and burned with fire and because they had really rejected the Lord and they've now returned and they've been rebuilding the worship of God in their city for a hundred and seventeen years since they returned from captivity So Nehemiah gives you a 117 year timeframe of how God is restoring his people and how God does that through the restoration of worship, through the rebuilding of the temple, and also the rebuilding of the wall to rebuild the protections of their lives that were so destroyed as a result of their disobedience and the whole the whole narrative you know from beginning to end in Ezra and Nehemiah is a picture of how God preserves his church, his sinful returning church with so many problems still latent in their lives. And Nehemiah is a picture of a man who perseveres in the work as well. And you know he's a persevering man because he runs into a lot of roadblocks.

We've seen so many troubles and roadblocks. And the reason we see this is because when you're rebuilding your life there are always roadblocks. There are always distractions. There are always works of the devil to try to pull you off the highway of holiness. And, but the Lord is very kind.

We find Nehemiah really unaffected by the works of the devil in many ways, but in this chapter we see the many distractions to the work of God in your life. And you know as we walk through this text you know I want us to always just be thinking about the rebuilding of worship in our own hearts in our families in our church and in our community And how really the way that that happens is by keeping your eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and the perfecter of your faith. There's something so helpful about looking to Jesus Christ. In the man of sorrows is all the medicine that we need to get us through the troubles that happen on this highway of holiness. I read a book years ago by Isaac Ambrose called Looking Unto Jesus and he says this, only Christ is the whole of man's happiness.

The sun to enlighten him, the physician to heal him, the wall of fire to defend him, the friend to comfort him, the pearl to enrich him, the ark to support him, the rock to sustain him under the heaviest pressures. As a hiding place from the wind and a covert from the tempest, as rivers of waters in a dry place and as a shadow of a great rock in a weary land. Looking unto Jesus is really the really the heart of everything that I think we see in this chapter in Nehemiah. And when the writer of Hebrews spoke of this matter of looking unto Jesus, the author, and the finish of our faith in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 2, This phrase, looking unto Jesus, is very critical to understand. There's the word looking and then there's the word unto.

And what we find in Nehemiah is a perfect picture of looking unto Jesus. The word looking first of all has to do with looking away from something. He uses a word that is designed to show that you look away from something first. You are looking away from anything that distracts you from Jesus Christ. Not even a glance, not even a squint, looking away from those things that would distract.

And then the word unto is a separate word, looking unto, and it has to do with fixing your eyes on Jesus and the writer of Hebrews uses those two words that really describe what we see in Nehemiah he's looking away from the distractions and he looks unto Jesus. He looks unto the author and the finisher of his faith. And I pray that our time this morning would help us to make more progress to to look away from the distractions, from the building of the kingdom of God in our hearts and in our families and in this church and in this town, and that we would look to Jesus and keeping our focus on what really matters and away from the trivialities that we see that we're distracted by. So there are two primary things that you see here in this chapter. And the first is the specific attacks of the adversary to distract Nehemiah.

That's one thing that we'll see. And then secondly you'll see Nehemiah's response and how he kept his eyes fixed on his Lord and how he prayed and how he really was undistracted. Now, I want you to notice something in the language here in this chapter. It's interesting because Nehemiah is talking about me, myself, and I. He's always using the word I or me.

I finished the wall. I did this. I heard this. I got this letter. It really is a picture of an attack on an individual.

And the devil wants to take this individual down for particular reasons. He has a place of blessing and authority in his city, and the devil wants to take him down. It's no different from the attack on a father or a mother or a pastor or a deacon or anyone who has any kind of authority in any part of life. Even a firstborn son or daughter has a particular role of blessing in a place. The devil has a target painted on your back.

And the devil has a target painted on Nehemiah's back. This is actually a chapter about a personal attack on an individual, not on a whole church, but on an individual to take him down. And then the devil is very, very careful to have strategic targets. So what about us? What about us in distraction?

Well, we actually live in a day of distraction. The voices, the images, the opportunities, and the messages, and the devices that bombard us are like no time before. It was really funny. I was reading an article this last week about texting. I laughed through most of the article.

But the article began by talking about when people are texting and walking, they walk really funny. And there actually were people that were studying how people walk when they're texting. And they actually pick up their feet. They walk very strangely. And you can tell when somebody is texting.

They pick up their feet an average of 18% more than people who are just walking normal. Then the article went on and talked about how their municipalities in different parts of the world, they're actually creating sidewalks in their downtown areas that have a line right down the middle And they have texting on one side with little icons to show you the texting, you know, side of the sidewalk that you should walk on and the other side where you can just kind of walk free. You know, because people walk funny and they bump into stuff and it's not all that safe. You might get knocked over by somebody if you're walking in the texting line, right? They didn't talk about driving in the texting lane, but that's a whole other subject, isn't it?

But we live in a day of distraction where there are so many things that distract us from staying on target, staying on mission. It happens in your heart, it happens in your family, and it happens in your church. It happens everywhere, and the devil is always behind it. And we'll see how Nehemiah is tempted to be distracted by so many issues. Now, the devil seems to work on two planes in people's lives.

And I'm going to call the first through fatal attractions, through moral compromise. And The second is through frivolous attractions. This is mission compromise. And the devil is no respecter of persons. He'll work on whatever works for you, because he does have a target on your back.

And he wants to distract you from the work of the kingdom of God. And He'll use anything. He'll use 1, 000 good things to try to distract you from the work. What we find with Nehemiah, though, is these are really dangerous, deadly distractions in Nehemiah that are coming upon him. Now, I believe the Lord would have us really contemplate the works of the devil in our lives to distract us from his work.

I want us to take that very seriously here from this passage. What is it in your life even if it's a good thing that's distracting you from the rebuilding of the worship of God in your heart, or in your family, or in your church? Now, in Nehemiah six, I'm gonna identify at least five different devices of the devil that were used to distract Nehemiah. And I'll just think we should ask, are any of these working on me as well? The devil's methods never change.

They're the same old well-worn tricks to lure believers into what is unprofitable. He does it through two primary things, distraction and fear, or the distractions of fear. You'll see both of them working. And God desires his people to be on mission, to be, you know, focused at work on the mission that he has established for his people. And it's just so easy to get involved in so many other things.

So as you See in your outline in front of you there are five ways that Nehemiah is undistracted in the great work. First of all, he's undistracted by opportunities to dialogue. That's verses one through four. Secondly, he's undistracted by fear of false information. That's verses five through nine.

Thirdly, he's undistracted by the threat of harm. That's verses 10 through 13. And then fourth, he's undistracted by temptations to compromise the worship of God for personal safety. That's verses 10 through 16. And then finally, he's undistracted by the threat of networks and alliances verses 17 through 19.

And then I pray we'll have time to turn around and apply some of these things. So when we pick up chapter 6, the wall is almost finished and then it's finished. And so let's begin here with working through these ways that Nehemiah was undistracted. First of all, Nehemiah was undistracted by opportunities to dialogue, that's in verses 1 through 4. He's persevering, he's keeping his mind and his labors on really the kingdom of God and rebuilding worship.

And first of all, I think we should see there's kind of a flattering invitation that was issued to him. Sanballet and Geshem try to distract Nehemiah by inviting him to kind of a political summit. I mean, it seems reasonable, right? He's the governor of Judah. Don't you think you should come and meet with the governors of the Arabs and the governors of the Samaritans and these other places?

Well, of course, it makes so much sense. Come and dialogue. Let's have a summit, and let's discuss things. And this is a political summit in kind of a ritzy area. It would be a nice place to go, a place where rich people went.

And so it was kind of a G7 kind of a summit. Let's all get together here now and we'll bask in the opulence and the power that we have and let's talk about how to make things happen. So it was sort of a flattering invitation. They said come, let us meet together among the villages in the plain of Ono. And then Nehemiah says, but they thought to do me harm.

Now Nehemiah understands why they're inviting him here. But the cities of Ono were where the wealthy gathered. And the devil always comes as an angel of light. He's going to present his opportunities for distraction with some compelling positive things about it. And that's the way he always works.

The cities of Ono were about a half a day and a half journey from Jerusalem to the Northwest, about 27 miles away. But it was a fatal invitation that made Nehemiah vulnerable. Why am I saying it was fatal? Well, first of all, they did want to do him harm, but it was right on the border of Philistine territory. It was a place, it was in the borderlands.

It was just right on the border of enemy territory. And this is kind of what the devil wants to do. He wants to get you right on the borderline. A lot of people live life on the borderline. Well, that film, it's just kind of, it's a little borderline, isn't it?

Or this thing that I'm doing, well, It's not as bad as it could be, but it's not as good maybe as it should be. And what the devil often wants to do is to draw you to the borderland, to the world of borderline. Whenever you find yourself accepting the world of borderline, you're in trouble. It was right on the edge of safety, and the devil wanted to lure him to the borderline. You know, most entertainments today, they take you right up to the borderline.

At best, at best they take you to the borderline. So we have to ask ourselves, how is the devil distracting us in particular ways? When somebody wants you to go to, oh no, the first thought you should have is, oh no, oh no, no, no, four times no. That's what Nehemiah did. Oh no, oh no, oh no, no, four times.

He resisted it And notice it was also a distracting invitation because he says he was doing a great work. I am doing a great work. That's in verse 3. So that I cannot come down. And you know, Solomon said it, you know, all hard work leads to profit.

But mere talk leads to poverty. And Nehemiah didn't want to talk about it, he wanted to work on it. And so he was going to keep his focus on the work. He says it's a great work. I think that's really interesting.

You know, think about Nehemiah. He's just recently arrived from the capital of Persia in Susa, this opulent city. He's surrounded by remarkable resources and beauty and benefits and everything you can imagine. He's in this remarkable place of abundance, and he goes to a bombed out city, and he says, this is a great work. What's that all about?

It was a harder work, but it was a great work. It was a greater work than living in, with the favors and the abundance of the capital of Persia in Susa and Shushan. It's so important that we dedicate ourselves to the rebuilding of the worship of God in these cities and that we that that we're we set ourselves to the building of biblically ordered hearts, biblically ordered families, and biblically ordered churches in the city. God has called us to establish the true worship of God in these cities. And so Nehemiah says, this is a great work.

You know, whatever work we're doing, there's nothing as great as rebuilding the worship of God in a person's heart and in a church of Jesus Christ and You know, I pray that God would just multiply places of true worship in these cities. But what Sam Ballant and Tobiah wanted, they wanted to distract him from that great work and get him up to the borderland, to the borderline world up in the plain of Ono. And he said, no, I'm not going. And so it was very persistent four times. He says no, no, no, no, I'm not going up there.

And persistence is one of Satan's devices to distract God's people from the work that he's called them to do. You know, there are so many ways in this world to be distracted by the enemies of God. And, you know, we probably don't have somebody like Sam Ballett and Tobiah who actually want to kill us. We don't have people like that. But we do have angels of light that come to distract us from the work of the rebuilding of the worship of God in our homes and in our cities.

We just live in such an age of distraction. And the question I think we should ask you know and just upon reading this first section is you know are we dedicating to our lives to the most important matters? You know, are we sticking to the work that is at hand? It's so easy to get distracted from the work. You know, this happens to us all the time.

You remember, You probably don't remember when you were six years old and your mom told you, hey, I want you to go up and clean the room because there are all these toys, the place is all bombed out and you go up there and you start cleaning up and you see, if you're a boy or you see a truck, your favorite truck, and you start playing with your truck, and all of a sudden, you know, your room, you know, has become a road trip, and you're going all over your room with your truck, and then 30 minutes later, you hear your mama's voice and say, are you finished cleaning your room? There's no response because you've been playing with your truck. You didn't do what your mama asked you to do. So she comes up there and she finds this room and it's still unclean because you're still you're playing with your truck well that happens in our lives it happens when you're six or seven or eight and it happens when you're 27 and 37 and 47 and and 67 to maybe 97 and because the devil is always wanting to distract us from the work of the really the rebuilding of the worship of God and there's so many ways that we're distracted from that whole thing And Nehemiah is being tempted to get off mission to go to a summit in the cities of the plains of Ono.

And what I think what we learn here is how important it is that we look away from the distractions and we look unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, and that we look away from the trivialities that are all around us. So the first thing that we see is he's undistracted by opportunities to dialogue in a fancy place with a bunch of powerful people. He's going to turn away from that, and he is going to turn toward the work of rebuilding a city that's in ruins. It's better to be in a city in ruins than to be in the palace drinking fine wine. I think that's what Nehemiah is saying.

And then the second thing is he's undistracted by fear of false information. That's in verses 5 through 9. Then Sanballat sent his servant to me before the fifth time. Now it's relentless. Now it's the fifth approach with an open letter in his hand.

So picture the moment, Nehemiah is there and Sam Ballett has a servant and he comes with a letter and he hands it to Nehemiah and he acts like it's a personal letter but it's not really a personal letter at all. It's an open letter that's going to go all over the Internet as fast as he can get it up there. That's what it is. Open letters are not like personal letters. They brought this open letter and then they made a threat.

And they threatened false information. They admitted that they were rumors. They admitted that they were going to spread rumors about Nehemiah. And, but that's what open letters are often designed to do. They're, they're rid of, they're, they pretend to write to the individual, but they really are written for public consumption.

And that's what this open letter was. And you know, the essence of verses five through nine is that these men are threatening Nehemiah, that they'll spread rumors if he keeps building. You stop building, we won't release the letter. You keep building, we're going to let it fly. And it's almost like they're saying, Nehemiah, if you don't stop, we're going to destroy you with false information.

If you don't stop, we're going to tell the world. We're going to tell the king that you're building your own kingdom. We're going to tell the king that you're rebelling. We're going to tell the king that you're building your own kingdom. We're going to tell the king that you're rebelling.

We're going to tell the king that you're hiring all these prophets to speak for you and to launch this marketing campaign for your rebuilding of the wall. We're going to tell the king he's going to find out, you know, why don't you, we need, we'll help you get in front of this That's what they're doing. They're threatening him with a letter and You know they they they already wrote a letter to King Artaxerxes It's it's recorded in chapter 4 verse 11, and they said to King Artaxerxes, they're building an evil and a rebellious city. They've done this before and then Artaxerxes sent troops and shut the work down. Now they're threatening that it's going to happen again a second time in this 117 year period of the rebuilding of this city.

And so in verse 6 we read, It's reported among the nations, and Geshem 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 appointed prophets to proclaim concerning you at Jerusalem, saying, there is a king in Judah. So this open letter was just meant to spread more opposition to a broader group. And these letters would have been written on papyrus or in stone.

That's what the open letters of the 5th century BC were written on. And they're designed to discredit these people. How do you discredit people today? Let me count the ways. The Internet is full of stories of people who've had their reputations destroyed, they've lost their jobs, they've been barred from industries for different reasons.

They may have told a joke and got thrown out of their job. It wasn't funny to certain people. And as a result, they were pushed out of their positions. And, you know, corporations today have to be very careful about who says what in their board meetings. And they don't want to record things anymore because people actually want to tell jokes in the meetings.

Just happened within the last couple of weeks. And there are websites, there are blogs, there's Facebook, there's Instagram, there's Snapchat. These are the open letters on the internet today. Those days it was papyrus and stone. Today it's electronic and it's all over the world in a second.

So it's kind of a different world. Open letters work a lot faster today than they did back then. But they're nothing new by the way. They're not new at all. That's what we see.

Notice they're pretending to be their friends. So come, let us consult together. Come, let us reason together. You know, let's get in front of this before it happens, you know. And They're acting like they're friends.

The devil does that. He would like to lure you into particular things with somebody who acts like a friend, but they're not a friend at all. You know, Paul said to the Corinthians, do not be ignorant of his devices. You know, the devil is the accuser and the divider, brethren, and he'll use many, many ways to do that. He has emissaries that want to harm, like they did want to harm Nehemiah.

But look at the way Nehemiah responds. Verse 8, look at this. Then I sent to him, so Nehemiah sends a message back, no such things as you say are being done, but you invent them in your own heart. And then Nehemiah interprets what was happening, for they were trying to make us afraid, saying their hands will be weakened in the work and it will not be done. Nehemiah is going to be really brief about this.

He's not going to get all wrapped up in the controversy. He says, these are inventions, you made all this up, we're going to keep working. And we're not going to let this weaken our hands. Fear is one of the most weakening things you can experience. I don't know if anybody's experiencing fear from anything right now, but it weakens you.

And how do you deal with that? Well, you deal with it the way that Nehemiah deals with it here. You tell the truth and you keep on working and don't let your fear destroy you. Don't let your fear so weaken you that you take your hands off of the work that God has called you to do The devil uses fear like like very few things That's why you know in Scripture the most repeated command in the entire Bible is do not fear because it's one of the most pervasive attacks of the devil in our hearts is to cause us to fear. So Nehemiah sets the record straight and then in verse 9 Nehemiah shoots up another arrow prayer.

Nehemiah is always praying. He fires up this prayer to heaven. Nehemiah has this contact, this connection, this intimacy with God. When he hears bad news, the first thing he does is his eyes go to heaven. They don't stay on the earth and they don't muse about all the difficulties that might happen.

They go straight to heaven. It's such a blessing to have Nehemiah to help us. He realizes he's not adequate to meet this challenge at all. So he doesn't he doesn't go to craftiness he goes to crying out to God and he seeks the Lord's face and he's not deterred and he's not discouraged he says oh Lord strengthen my hands. He cries out to God and he presses on and the and the and the and the wall is finished in 52 days imagine all that we've read about so much tumult that happened in this 52 day period and the only thing that kept it going was God.

We read in verse 16 that it was God who did it. It was God who made that wall get finished and so what do we say about this this fact that Nehemiah is undistracted by fear of false information. Look away from the distraction, look to Jesus, keep your focus on what really matters, and turn away from the trivialities. And you know when there's fear, remember that when you look at the face of Jesus Christ, you're looking into the face of the man of sorrows who carries all of your sorrows. And The man of sorrows has all the medicine you'll ever need to get through your fear.

The man of sorrows has all the medicine you need to get through any fear you have had or ever will have. It's such a blessing that he is the man of sorrow, is acquainted with grief. And then the third thing that we see is that Nehemiah was undistracted by threat of harm, verses 10 through 13. So he's fixing his eyes really on the work of the building of the kingdom of heaven on Jesus in the midst of this. They continue to mount this intimidation campaign.

They're escalating it. And they really want to cause even more fear in his life in verses 10 through 16 Afterward I came to the house of Shemaya the son of Deliah The son of Metadiel who was a secret informer and 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 indeed at night they are coming to kill you so Nehemiah ends up in this house of Shemaiah it says he was a secret informer. The King James says that the word is difficult to translate. It could mean that he was set apart. He was set aside.

He was in seclusion, almost acting like a prophet, acting like a holy man, probably, a holy man who has answers. And Nehemiah goes into that house. But he is actually a secret informer. And he wants to tell Nehemiah lies to make him afraid and he says now may they may not be lies they're going to kill you so let's go into the temple. And I'll hide you there.

We'll be together. Come on, let's go. Let's be buddies. I'm going to protect you." And he was lying about his protective intentions. And he tells them that he's going to be assassinated, so he needs to go in the temple.

You know, that's what people often do. There are different stories in history. It happened during the fall of communism in Romania. People ran into a church to protect themselves. You know, when the walls of Jerusalem was being destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD, the last place they went, the last fortification was the temple itself.

It was a real place of protection. Of course, you know, they were overrun. But Nehemiah understood that this man had been hired by Sanballat and Tobiah, and his job was to do two things, to cause him to fear so much, first of all. Secondly, so that that fear would drive him to go seek refuge in a place he knew he should never go. The Old Testament makes it really clear that during the Old Covenant, during Old Covenant worship, only priests could go into the temple.

And Nehemiah knew that. I'm sure he understood what happened to Uzziah. Uzziah got proud toward the end of his life. He was a remarkable leader. He got high and lifted up and he went into the temple and 80 priests follow him in there trying to hold him back and he's throwing them off in the temple and then God strikes him with leprosy because he went into the temple.

He was a king not a priest and You know Nehemiah knew he could not go into that temple. He could not compromise the worship of God. But would he do it to save his skin? Would he compromise worship to save his skin to receive favor from this world? Would he do that?

The worship of God is so important. God, if you read the history of the kings, God destroys every king that steps out of biblically ordered worship. That's what God does. And the worship of God in his temple is sacred. You cannot do it ever you want.

You can't be whoever you want in his house. And Nehemiah knew that. And so he wasn't tempted at all and he would not seek refuge there. So Mr. Nice Guy shows up and he says, I'm going to protect you, come along with me.

There's just a little bit of compromise in where I want to take you, but it'll save your skin. And Mr. Religious, Mr. Protector isn't listened to because Nehemiah understands that. You know, we don't just live in a day of distraction, we live in a day of intimidation.

That's what this is here. You'll lose your reputation, you'll lose your life unless you compromise on this one thing. And that's what Nehemiah is facing. You know, Paul, I was reading the book of Philippians a couple days ago, and there were so many connections with this. You know, Paul says that Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.

Philippians 1.20. He says, I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. In chapter 3, verse 12. In chapter 4, verse 29, he says, for to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him but to suffer for his sake. Again Another evidence that Nehemiah was undistracted by threat of harm.

And it should help us to see what a blessing it is to look away from the distractions, to look away and then look to Jesus, to keep your eyes fixed on what really, really matters. How many good things are there out there that will distract you from what really, really matters? And, you know, Nehemiah looks to the man of sorrows. He looks to the king who's high and lifted up and who has all the medicine he needs to get him through his fear. And then the fourth thing we see about Nehemiah, he's undistracted by temptations to compromise the worship of God for his personal safety.

And I like the way that Ralph Davis speaks of this. He says, Shemiah's intent was to get Nehemiah to commit a ritual transgression and thereby to be discredited. He was going to be discredited if he did this. And this was part of the entire plan. And the Bible spoke very clearly in Numbers chapter 18 verse 7 we read these words therefore you and your son shall attend to the priesthood and for everything at the altar and behind the veil and you shall serve I give your priesthood to you as a gift for your service but the outsider who comes near shall be put to death very serious Leviticus 26 verse 2 you shall reverence my sanctuary Second Chronicles 26 is the whole drama of Uzziah.

But this man is using really smooth words to try to get him to compromise regarding holiness and worship. You know, he's giving, this man's giving spiritual advice, but Nehemiah refuses the opportunity. Look at what Nehemiah says in verse 11. And I said, should such a man as I flee, And who is there such as I who would go into the temple and save his life? I mean Nehemiah realizes what God has appointed him to do.

He's been appointed by God to Reestablish the worship of God in a bomb doubt city It's really really important. Why he said why would I do that In view of how sweet the worship of God is, in view of how good the Lord Jesus Christ is, Why would I go anywhere else? Why would I want to turn my hand away from the bread of life, from the light of the world? Why would I want to turn away from the living waters? Why would I do that?

You know, Nehemiah is seeing God protect him all along the way. I think Nehemiah was thinking, I've been commissioned by a king to come and do this. Why would I do that? He's saying, I would rather die than sin against God because God is so good. His mercy is new every morning.

Why would you turn away from the mercy of God? Why would you want to turn away from the ever-lasting waters of life? You know, David said it, he said, in your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. Why?

Why would I do that? You know, Nehemiah's heart is turned toward God. That's why you always see him interacting with God all through this whole thing and And then Nehemiah prays in verse 14. My God, remember Tobiah and Sanballat, according to these their works, and the prophetess Noadiah, and the rest of the prophets, who would have made me afraid. So there's so many people that want to make him afraid.

What does Nehemiah do? He prays. You know, the New Testament landing page for this is, well, there are several of them, but Philippians 4 verses 6 and 7 is one of them. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your request be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

You know, fear is so debilitating, but prayer is nothing but liberating. And that's why Paul says, don't worry about anything, but just pray about everything. Tell them what you need and thank him and the peace of God will fill your heart. That's what Nehemiah is always doing in this book and he's constantly praying. In chapter one after learning about the bombed out city, he cries out to God for months.

He's praying constantly. And in Nehemiah, you find two kinds of prayers. You find what we've called arrow prayers. They just go up and when there's something really rough that's going down, a difficult question being asked like by King Artaxerxes who could lop his head off, he prays before he opens his mouth. And then you have longer prayers like the one in chapter 1.

We're coming up to a really long prayer in the following chapters. It's over 70 verses of a prayer. And I can't wait till we get there. But Nehemiah is always lifting his eyes up to the hills from which his help comes. Why?

Because the man of sorrows has all the medicine you need for anything that you will ever face. Looking unto Jesus, fixing your eyes upon him, turning away from the distractions of this world. That's exactly what we find Nehemiah doing. And then in verse 15, we read, the wall was completed. Verse 15, so the wall was finished on the 25th day of Elul in 52 days.

And it happened when all our enemies heard of it and all the nations around us saw these things That they were very disheartened in their own eyes for they perceived Now slow down and look at these next words Are you looking? Look in this verse, verse 16, the very end of it. They perceived that this work was done by our God. It was God who did the work. It wasn't a work of man.

God put it within a man's heart to look unto Jesus and he did. And the work was finished by the hand of God. Nehemiah gets no glory here. It's God. It's God who does everything in Nehemiah.

It's God who motivates every good thing that takes place here. This whole story is the story of God. It's the story of how God will preserve his people. God will preserve a people in this world. He will bring people from the Gentiles.

He'll save sinners. He'll put them together. They'll have all kinds of baggage and problems that are revealed in Ezra and Nehemiah. All kinds of baggage we've already dealt with, and there's more to come. He brings them together.

And in this narrative here, beginning in Ezra, it's a 117 year cycle of sanctification where sin is being rooted out among the people and there's more to come as we get toward the end of Nehemiah as well we just saw last week how There was all this internal dissension because people weren't loving each other in the church there. But God's sanctifying His people. It's a God who is doing it. And the tumult is the mechanism by which God uses to sanctify his people. It's all that trouble that causes people to turn their eyes up to heaven and have them finish the wall, even though, like we learned last week, They're in debt up to the hilt.

It's a time of famine. They're not even changing their clothes hardly to finish the wall. They're being oppressed. There's a remarkable oppression of the rich against the poor. It's happening in this 52-day cycle.

But God is sustaining his people. These people are coming to rebuild the wall and they're weary. I mean, they're beat up, they're oppressed, they're out of money, they're out of hope except they're not out of hope in God. You can be out of money but not out of hope. If you're out of hope because you're out of money You're sitting on the wrong foundation But the wall was completed the word this work was done by our God I love that line What does that mean it means It means that Jesus is keeping his promise.

I'll never leave you or forsake you. I'm going to keep taking you on. It seems really troubled and bumpy right now. It's a jagged line that's sanctification. Wouldn't it be nice if the curve on the graph was just a smooth curve right up?

It's not like that, is it? It's jagged. Sanctification is a jagged line. But God is in control of it all. What a blessing it is.

And then fifthly, he's undistracted by the threat of networks and alliances. This is in verses 17 to 19. Also in those days, the nobles of Judah sent many letters. So now the letters are flying all over the place. 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 Shakeniah, the son of Errah, and his son Jehonanan was married to the daughter of Mishulam, the son of Barakiah. They also reported his good deeds before me and reported my words to him. Tobiah sent letters to frighten me. So Tobiah had all kinds of connections among the Jews. And some were family connections, some were economic connections.

And now, Sambao and Tobiah are activating their network against the building. So they want this thing to spread so that that kind of work there of rebuilding worship According to the ordinances of God would be shut down. The Samaritans hate the worship of God that's governed by God. They want to do their own thing. They want a little bit of Hollywood and a lot of God in their worship.

That's what they want. And they want this worship shut down that's being done because they want to do it according to the law of Moses and so these guys are activating their network to be subversive there there will always be traitors to those who want to regulate the worship by God and God's word alone. They'll always be around. And that's what they're dealing with right there. Jesus spoke about this.

He talked about even when those networks include your family members. Now brother will deliver up brother to death and a father his child. And children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death. And you will be hated by all for my name's sake, but he who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in this city, flee to another.

For assuredly I say to you, you will not have gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes." And then he says, a disciple is not above his teacher nor a servant above his master that's another way of saying Jesus was persecuted and so will you. David said even my own familiar friend whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me. Well that's what Nehemiah is experiencing. This whole network that he was enmeshed in was being activated by his enemies. And so, you know, but God is not allowing the enemies to overtake here.

They finished it. They finished the wall. But by the way, God's not finished with them yet. They finished the wall, but then there's a little bit more left to do in their lives in this thing. Okay, so let's talk about some applications.

The first application really comes in the form of a question. What is distracting you? Now with Nehemiah it was alarm and deception and slander and fear. And we live in such a day of distraction today. I read an article, I think it was last week in the Washington Times, how a culture of distraction is keeping millennials from marrying.

There's just so many distractions, trivialities that millennials get sucked into that they're not actually building lives that make themselves ready for marriage. We've created a whole social system of distraction where you can be sitting with people but they're not really with you. They're texting somebody else in another country maybe. They're looking at something, they're not really with you. Their body is there.

But they're not there. We live in a society that's so filled with distraction. And what is it that distracts a mother from raising her children and loving her husband, which would be the primary of her mission in this world? What is it that distracts a father from the discipleship responsibility he has with his children and his work in the Church of Jesus Christ and his evangelization of the world. What would distract a father from that?

Or what distracts a young person from seeking first the kingdom of God? Or what does the devil use to distract elders in a church? Believe me, the devil would like to distract elders of churches. You know, I have first-hand experience with that. Or distract the deacons in a church.

You know, the deacons in our church would ask, what's the devil trying to do to distract me from this work of God? You know, it's a really critical question. What's diverting me from that? You know, what distracts us from equipping the saints? What distracts us as a church from evangelism in this community?

You know, what distracts us from training men to go out and preach the gospel and expanding our missionary activity? What is it that distracts us from that? What is it that's being put in front of us that is just trivializing our lives? And we're wasting our lives through all kinds of interesting and lawful things, but it takes us away from the work of God. What is it?

I know what some of it is for me, I don't know what it is for you. But I think the Holy Spirit has been sent to help us to understand that individually. Remember this was a chapter about an individual. So we should think really individualistically at minimum when we read chapter six. So what is it?

I mean, what is it for you? Maybe you're like that nine-year-old and you're just playing with your trucks all the time, and you're not doing what your dad and your mom want you to do, and you're wasting your life because of it. So I think the first thing really is a question, what is distracting you? The second is a statement that contradicts what we think. It's this statement, perception is not reality.

Perception is not reality. If you're controlled by people's perceptions, as Nehemiah wasn't, Nehemiah was not controlled by people's perceptions. He wasn't controlled by the press. He wasn't controlled by fear. He wasn't controlled by the letters of stone and papyrus that would be flying around.

He wasn't controlled by the networks and the old boy world. He wasn't controlled by that. Why? Because perception is not reality. Reality is reality.

Stay with reality. Stay with what's real. And don't worry about what's unreal. And don't worry about what's spread. Stand before God alone.

Cry out to God that He would humble you and show you your sin, of which there will be much, and keep it the work. Keep it the work of God. And the next application is this, don't let the angels of light distract you. You know the enemies of your soul are winsome, they possess qualities of the angels of light, but they're really death angels. And when the enemy of your soul invites you as an angel of light to the borderlands, to the border, to the place where it's not all that bad, beware.

Beware. Don't live life in the borderlands. Live life in the promised land. Right in the heart of the heartland of the promised land. Don't see how far you can get to the edge of the borderlands.

Don't be a borderline kind of person in this world. In the kingdom of heaven, there's light and there's darkness. And that's really all that there really is. And sometimes what happens, people think they're on the borderlands, but they're actually not, they're in the darkness. Because they want a little bit of this world, which is a poison pill.

How does this relate to Christians living in the days of the New Covenant? And I think perhaps one of the greatest and sweetest applications of this passage Really really comes from the fact that Nehemiah really is a type of Jesus Christ. Nehemiah is a type of Jesus Christ who went out into the wilderness and was tempted there. Nehemiah was tempted here as he was rebuilding this wall. The devil was tempting the Lord Jesus Christ and the devil tempted him while he was weary.

Nehemiah and his people were weary when they were tempted and Jesus Christ was tempted in many of the same ways that Nehemiah was tempted. The Lord Jesus Christ left his heavenly glory and came to a broken down world to save a bunch of broken down people. Nehemiah left the opulence of Shushan and he came to a bombed out city. Nehemiah was tempted to be distracted from the work. Jesus Christ in the wilderness was tempted to be distracted from his work.

And the devil waged a war against him, recorded in Matthew 4. And the Lord Jesus Christ was tempted in every way that we are tempted and he was he was tempted at his weakest moment in the same way that we are as well. And yet the Lord Jesus Christ was tempted, yet without sin. Jesus was never distracted for a second. Jesus' heart was never filled with fear.

Jesus never got off mission. Jesus never did anything trivial, not one thing. And because of that, he is able to take the wrath of Almighty God for all sinners who do get distracted, who do involve themselves in trivialities, who do get filled up with fear. Jesus Christ is the man of sorrows and he is the one that carries your sorrows. You know, we are a room full of people that have been distracted in so many ways, aren't we?

You know, there are so many ways. And none of us have any upmanship in this at all and I think I think what we learned from Nehemiah is really is is really that God sent his son to save sinners. And God does save sinners who get really distracted. And what the Lord Jesus Christ doesn't want to do is just leave people in their distraction. He really wants to call them to look unto him, the author and the finisher of faith.

So don't be satisfied with your distraction level. Don't be satisfied with that at all. If there are things that are distracting you, you need to pitch them into the trash can and Get on mission or stay on mission, whatever it is. If you're a mom, if you're a dad, if you're a single person, if you're a little person or a really, really old person, stay on mission. Get rid of all the distractions.

But if you're, but let's just say that your whole life is nothing but distractions and you don't even know Jesus Christ. Come to the man of sorrows. He'll carry all of your sorrows. He'll carry all of the sin that stands behind all of your distractions. And He'll heal you over time.

Just like He's healing the people here in this chapter here. Here is what God has done with the temptation and the victory of Jesus Christ he imputes his obedience to you because he was never distracted and he is your righteousness you will never be undistracted enough to be acceptable before God. Only Jesus Christ and his imputed obedience to you can help you to stand and I pray that we'll stand and we'll keep moving forward. Would you pray with me? Lord, we thank you for this remarkable narrative that shows us visions of Jesus Christ and his suffering on the cross and how he had victory.

The prophecy was fulfilled. Your walls will be built. The walls of centers will be built one block at a time. In the midst of all the threats and the trials and the fears and the temptations and the enticements, You're building your temple. Oh Lord, we thank you that you are doing that.

I pray that you would, if there are any here today who haven't seen how good you are, that you would help them to turn their whole lives over to you that they would repent and believe in the gospel and that your obedience would be imputed to them and they would be free and you would set their sins as far as the east is from the west and the bottom of the sea. And Lord for those who struggle with their distractions as Christians as we all do, Lord, we thank you for the freedom by which Christ has set us free. And we also thank you for calling us upward and not to leave us like we are. Lord, there are some things that just shouldn't stay the same in our lives. We thank you that you'll speak to us about those things so that we could walk dearer and nearer to you.

That our prayers would be sweeter to you, and that we would look away from what distracts and we would look unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. Amen.