Distractions

Well, I don't typically do this, but yesterday I kind of gave you the introduction to my sermon today in the letter that I sent out on Friday mornings. And for those of you who don't have email or may not have read that letter, I'll just briefly recap what I wrote there. I was talking about focus and how important focus and concentration is in our lives. You know, God has called us to a tremendous purpose in our lives. He's given us a goal. He's given us a mission.

He gives us His Holy Spirit so that we can be directed and focused on His Kingdom. And that focus we need to maintain every day of our lives. You know, Jesus Christ, when He was on earth, He told the disciples and tells us in John 17, it's not my will that I take you out of the world. You're going to live in the world. You're going to have these other things that you have to do. You have to have a living. You have a family. You have things that you need to attend to. You've got jobs you need to do, education you need to do.

You need to do it all right. But your overall focus needs to be on the Kingdom and that when you do those activities of daily life, you need to remember who you are, what you are, and what your focus needs to be. And I gave you some quotes in there and, you know, throughout our lives when we were growing up, you know, we had those little things our parents would give us.

You know, that was about keep your focus. Keep your focus. And if you lose your focus, you're going to lose. You're going to lose a number of things in life, you know, in sports, you know, keep your eye on the ball. When I was younger, my dad was very much into sports and he would always keep your eye on the ball. And, you know, I got marbled because I, much of as much as I enjoyed baseball, I never could get to the point where those fastballs I could hit. And I would go to the batting cages and I thought, I don't know how those guys do that, but I know if I had just had my focus and if that was what I really, really wanted to do and practice and focus on it, I could.

But it just wasn't that important to me to do that. So focus is just an important thing in our life. You know, one of the quotes that I put in the letter yesterday that is, that I thought was just very, very good when I read it was, the successful man is just the average man with focus, with focus.

Because all of us can succeed in what we do. And then we see that around us. We see the entertainment figures, you know, when they focus, they can really hone their talent. They can really become more than they would just become naturally. We see it in sports all around us. The people with focus become the stars. And you can kind of be just amazed when you see what they can do and the laser focus that they have.

God wants us to have that laser focus on His kingdom. He wants us to have that laser focus on the things that we are called to do. And not to forget it. And not to allow it to to relax or to to wane just as unimportant for us as an everyday part of life. Well, just like focus is important to us, there's an enemy of focus.

There's an enemy of focus. And every single one of us in this room face it probably every single day. There's not one of us that is exempt. There's not one of us that haven't felt this enemy. It comes up all the time. And of course, the enemy of focus comes from our enemy. Let's turn over to 1 Peter 5. A very familiar verse here in 1 Peter 5. But once a bear in mind as Peter is speaking here to the people that he is writing to, Paul in his writings echoes the same comments.

Christ himself told us to beware of this. But in 1 Peter 5 and in verse 8 it says, Be sober. Be vigilant.

Now keep your mind abound you. Be aware. Be alert. Be vigilant. That means there's energy that has to be attached to it. You got to be aware what's going on. You have to put energy into this. You just can't go through every day and just kind of waltz through the day and think this is going to happen. Be sober. Be vigilant. Because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. And we know some of the attributes of lions. They stalk their prey.

If you watch some of the nature shows, you see how lions, they will lay in wait. They're very patient. They'll kind of size up the flock that they're ready to attack. They'll see where the weakness is. They'll see where the weak one is. And they'll sit there very patiently. And when you watch those nature shows, you can see the gazelles and you can see others. They kind of look around. They know something's in the area. They kind of are aware that there's danger. But the lion is very still. He's very still and he's just sizing things up. And they get comfortable. They get comfortable and then boom out of nowhere. That lion pounces. Then they're gone.

And so it is the way Satan works with us. You know, he can lull us to sleep in so many ways. We've talked about the devices of Satan. You know, Paul talks in 2 Corinthians 2 about we're aware of the devices of Satan. And it's one thing we need to be constantly aware of because he can trip us up and he can stalk us in so many ways. It can be through temptations. It can be through doubts. It can be through fear. It can be through depression. It can be anything that he uses to kind of take us away from the focus that he has us because that was his mission and his purpose in his life or his being is if I can just steal their focus. If I can get them on something else and forget who they are and what they're doing, I can wait. I can be patient. And I eventually get them because while God's will is that we all come to repentance and receive eternal life, Satan's will is we all perish. We all perish. And he never gives up in that quest. Just like God will not give up on us until we let him know we give up and we throw in the towel.

And sometimes it's because, well, it's always because of what Satan, we've allowed Satan to do and him to get involved in our lives. Back just a few books here in James. In James 1, it kind of gives us a way that Satan works. Again, if he was out there and there was a frontal assault on all of us, leave the church, curse God, we would all be well aware of what's going on there and say, absolutely not. It's the subtleties. It's the cunningness. It's the cleverness that Satan has. And it comes a little by a little as we allow it in. In verse 12 here, it talks about temptation. Jesus Christ was never, he never fell by temptation. He was tempted in all points like as we were. He never yielded to us. And if we use the same spirit that God gave him, we can get to the point where we can resist temptation as well. Verse 12 says, "'Clessed is the man who endures temptation.' It's going to come to all of us. None of us are exempt. Every single person, this is something we all have in common. It's just a matter of what is the thing that tempts us. For one person, it's one area. For other people, it's another area. It's not the same for all of us. But Satan knows where we are weak. "'Blessed is the man who endures temptation. For when he's been approved, when he reigns over it, just like God told Cain back in Genesis 4, verse 7, sins at the door, but you should rule over it. And I give you the power to rule over it. You've got to choose to use that power. Blessed is the man who endures temptation. For when he's been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him. Let no one say, when he's tempted, I'm tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil. And as His Holy Spirit, as we allow it to grow in us and define us, that Holy Spirit you'll see over times, just like I know we have in many of our areas already. We're not even tempted by that anymore. It used to be something that we would give into, but now it just doesn't even seem that important. And we wonder why in the past did it. It's God's Holy Spirit that is changing our nature and changing the way we think and what even entices us. Don't let anyone say, I'm tempted by God, for God can't be tempted by evil, for nor does He Himself tempts anyone, but Satan tempts everyone. And God allows that to happen, and it is an opportunity for us to grow when we feel that temptation. If we can stop and say no. Each one is tempted when He is drawn away. I want you to remember those words drawn away. We'll come back to those in a bit. Each one is tempted when He is drawn away by His own desires and enticed. There's something. It doesn't have to be even sinful desires. There's good desires that are right and good, as we'll see, that can tempt us and that can draw us away from the focus that we have. We just have to be aware. Nothing is off limits for Satan.

Nothing is off limits. He will use anything, even if it looks so, so, so good, to lure us away and to draw us away from what God has called us to, and the focus we need to have. Each one is tempted when He's drawn away by His own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.

So it is when we lose our focus. We allow something to draw us away from what we know we should be doing. Something else becomes more important than what God's calling is.

It doesn't happen overnight, but as we allow that to be in us and to grow in us, and as we make room for it in our lives, when it's fully conceived, it brings forth death, spiritual death, just like that lion who's sitting back there watching, waiting, and at the exact right moment, he pounces. That animal loses its life, and if we're not aware, if we're not constantly vigilant, we can lose our spiritual lives as well. And James here, finishing this thought, says, don't be deceived. Don't be deceived, my beloved brethren. You know, as you look at the people in the Bible, again, just like us, none of them, none of them were exempt from this. It's a clever ploy of Satan, and we look at people like David, who God says was a man after his own heart. But David, in his early days when he became king, he had a temptation. He had a distraction, if you will. You know, distraction, the definition of it is, when there is something that draws us away from our original intent and our original purpose for being, when it draws us away from that. Bathsheba was a distraction for David, wasn't she? Actually, it would be for many of us in the room. If we sat on our rooftop and all of a sudden saw this beautiful lady bathing a few houses down or whatever, it would be a distraction. It would be a distraction. David let that work in his mind. He could have said, no, I'm not going there. I know that's wrong. But he let it work on his mind. He sent for her and when sin conceived, he was in danger. He was in danger. And you watched David over the months that followed that incident. The baby was born and it wasn't until God shook David and sent Nathan to him that he realized, I've sinned. I've sinned. And he went back and he looked and he said, how did this start? How did this begin? And you know what, David, the rest of his life, when he prayed that prayer in Psalm 51 said, you know, my sin is ever before me. He was aware. How did that start? And you know what? I can't let that happen to me again. I can't make the same mistake. He knew there's a weakness. David at least caught it or not. Well, God actually caught it. David responded in the right way. He repented, but he was distracted from his calling. If you go back, I'm not going to turn to 2 Samuel 11 is there. You can see that he stayed home that time. He should have been out fighting as the kings of the, as the kings did in that time, but he decided he would stay home during that time. He was going to take a time off, if you will, take a little bit of a breathing space. And that's when it all happened. And that's when it all happened. He got, he got distracted. Today we can have the same distraction. Maybe we don't go outside and see our, you know, two houses down, our neighbor, you know, bathing nude, but boy, there's all sorts of things we can watch on the internet and TV that are distracting, aren't they? Yeah, I can turn the TV on any, any night and I can see worse probably than what, what David saw. We've got the same temptations. We've got the same distractions that can happen to us that, that, that it's just a different time and a different age. And it's right there in our house.

And it's right there where we can even be private. No one else can know, you know, what we're doing.

We got distractions all around us, just like David did. Well, he, he learns his lesson.

He had a son. He had a son Solomon who became king. Solomon started off so strongly, remember?

So strongly when he became king, he implored God, just give me wisdom, give me wisdom so I can, I can judge your people righteously. That's all I want. I just want to be a good king.

He was there. He was committed. He was converted. He was, he was focused, laser focused on God.

So much so that God was so pleased with him, he said, Solomon, not only am I going to give you wisdom, I'm going to give you wealth because I'm so pleased with your attitude and what you're saying that you will do. And you look at the chapters in Solomon's early kingship, and he was focused on building the house of God. The very same thing that you and I are supposed to be building, the temple of God in our individual lives and in our church and whatever, we're building the same temple that God did in the physical same. And Solomon was committed to it. He was focused on that temple. And when it was done in just seven years, God was very pleased. And you read through the prayer that Solomon gave, and you can just see his heart pouring out to God.

He is there. He was focused. He was exactly where God wanted him to be. You look at Solomon and you say, you know, he's even stronger than David if we were to look at it in human terms at that point. Look, look at what he had done. But let's go back to to 1 Kings, 1 Kings 6.

Now see what happened to Solomon. From that early beginning, where he was so focused, so dedicated, where he built the house exactly to the proportions, exactly to the instructions of God in seven years, and then offered a prayer that is inspiring to anyone who reads it. In 1 Kings 6, verse 38, we see the completion of the temple. It says, in the eleventh year, in the month of bull, which is the eighth month, the house was finished in all its details and according to all its plans. So he was seven years in building it. Seven years?

Good job, Solomon! Good focus! Got the work done! The very next verse.

But, boy, we never see the word, but, and there's something following it, but Solomon took thirteen years to build his own house, so he finished all his house.

So he finished what he was supposed to do, very good, and then he was building his own house.

Nothing wrong with building your own house. Nothing wrong with having a home. God wants us all to have homes. He wants us all to have things. But Solomon took thirteen years during that process. Almost twice as long as he took in building God's house, thirteen years he took that.

Nothing wrong with it. Good cause? A blessing that God gives us those things? But what happened to Solomon during those thirteen years? Did he maintain the focus on God during that time? Did he do that and build the house while he kept focused on God and what his purpose and his plan was? No, we know he didn't. We know he didn't. He got off focus. He was distracted by that building. He became distracted by the wealth that God gave him. You know, the book of Ecclesiastes says, here becomes his life. He talks about everything that I could do physically. I did. I looked for happiness in all the places that I could possibly do. I was given wealth and I looked everywhere. Somewhere along the line, he was distracted by building a house, distracted by the wealth he had. He began seeking after that as the way to to a fulfilled life. At the end of his life, he realized what he had done and only God knows whether he repented or not at the end of his life. Very sad story when you look at Solomon, because it started off with so much presence, so much promise, but he'd gotten so distracted.

You know, distraction, we experience it every single day. Distraction is one of the very fine tools that Satan uses to accomplish his mission. And every single one of us can be distracted. Here it was Solomon. It was the wealth that God gave him.

And I've said a few times, you know, we get tried. God will put us through trials where it's health problems, financial problems, relationship problems, but there's trials when times are good, too. There's trials when times are good, too. If we look at 1 Kings and when things are going well, because we can become so distracted and so unfocused on what God wants us to be. Let's go a few chapters forward here. 1 Kings 10 and verse 23.

King Solomon had said, surpassed all the kings of the earth and riches and wisdom.

He had it all. He had it all. God gave it to him. And it talks about how what he gathered and how many how what his wealth was and how people of the earth came to visit him because they were so enamored by what he had. They wanted to hear his words and they wanted to see the wealth of Israel that what Solomon had amassed. Chapter 11. God gave him all those things. And chapter 11 begins with another but. But King Solomon loved many foreign women as well as the daughter of Pharaoh. Women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites. From the nations of whom the Eternal had said to the children of Israel, you shall not intermarry with them, nor are they with you. They will turn your hearts away. They will draw you away after their gods. Solomon clung to these in love. No, he became distracted. He became distracted. Look what I can do. Look at these beautiful women.

They all want to marry me. 700 wives, 300 concubines. You don't think he was fully, fully, fully distracted from God? He knew what the command of God was and there he was just blatantly doing it. 20 years earlier, he wouldn't have never thought of doing that. He would have said, no way! I understand God's law. I understand what he said and he said it for a reason.

But then, 20 years down the road, as he became so enamored and so distracted by this physical thing and that physical thing and this beautiful woman and that beautiful woman, look what he became. Satan won. Satan drew him away. All the distractions took him away from the calling and the promise that he had.

You know, good distractions. Good distractions with a noble cause, they're there. But if they draw us away from God, if they draw us away from what he says we should be doing, they're not good.

They're evil, disguised as good, even when they can have a very, very noble purpose.

Well, let's go to the New Testament. There's a couple times that the New Testament actually uses the word distracted. One of them is in 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 7.

1 Corinthians 7 is, you know, we've commonly referred to it as the marriage chapter. And Paul is talking about the marital problems. I can, you know, many marriages have issues. Oftentimes when we're counseling, we go back to 1 Corinthians 7 and talk about what's going on there. And getting our proper focus back, if our proper focus is on God and both parties are focused on God, those relationships can heal. But at the end of chapter 7 here, as Paul is talking about, and remember in 1 Corinthians 7, we talked about this in the Bible study, Paul really believed the end was imminent. He believed that given all the signs that were going around, Christ was returning soon. And so when he speaks in 1 Corinthians, he's giving them a sense of urgency. The time is short. Don't allow any distractions to come in your life. Even if you're not married, don't seek to do that. And he kind of goes through in the last verses here of chapter 7 about, if you don't need to be married, don't be married. Keep your focus on God, he's saying in there.

From verses 29, you see in verse 29 says, the time is short. And he really believed the time was short. Keep your focus on God, because if you're married, you're going to necessarily be distracted. You're going to do things for a wife. You're going to do things for a husband and whatever. Now, you know, but he also says, if you're married, that's fine. That's not a sin or anything. But look what he says in verse 35. He says, this I say for your own profit. Not that I may put a leash on you, but for what is proper, that you may serve the Lord without distraction, without distraction. What he was telling them is keep your focus on God. It was okay to be married. It's okay to have jobs. It's okay to build houses. It's okay to do those things of life. Keep your focus on God. Obey Him first. Put Him first. Don't let this other distraction lead you to do something that you know God would say don't do. If you're thinking clearly, because when we get distracted in that distraction, clouds are thinking. All of a sudden, we begin using human logic. Oh, God's okay with that. That's okay. He understands I need to do that.

God is very clear in His Word. No. What He says He wants us to do, He intends for us to do exactly the way He says it. And all these other things, some of which are easy distractions, we can say, no, I shouldn't be doing that. But other things can be good distractions, we can say. These are noble things to do. Even getting married, it's a good thing to do. We grow in that relationship. We make each other better if we're doing it right. But He says, you keep your focus on God. Don't let marriage become a distraction. If there's going to be a distraction for you, don't do it.

But then He says, if you do, it's okay. So a challenge there. You know, Christ talks about it. He uses the word distraction as well. Let's look back in Luke 10. It's a very interesting point here where that Christ makes when He's talking to Mary and Martha. And here in Luke 10, you know He's coming to visit them. And one of the ladies, He says they're distracted. Distracted. Let's look at Luke 10 and verse 38.

It happened. It says, as they went that He, Christ, entered a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted. Martha was distracted.

The Greek word that's translated distracted there can say, drawn away. That's what its real meaning is. She was drawn away. Martha was distracted with much serving.

There she was. She was doing what anyone would say. She's making sure everything is fine. She's cooking. She's making sure the place is good. She's making sure everyone is comfortable. Boom, boom, boom. And Christ says, I'm here. I'm here. But Martha, you're distracted.

You're doing good things. Nothing wrong with serving. Nothing wrong with having a fine meal. Nothing wrong with making sure those preparations are there. But Christ says, you're missing the point. Mary? Or is it Martha? Ah, Martha? You're distracted.

You're too worried about these things. Don't you know that the Messiah is sitting in front of you? Don't you understand that you should be listening to Him? Forget these other things. It's great to do. There's nothing wrong with it. There's no sin in it. But you are distracted. You're being drawn away from an opportunity that you have. You've lost your focus. You've made this more important than being in the Messiah's presence. Martha, don't be drawn away. Don't be distracted.

Know where you are. Know what you're supposed to be doing. Keep that focus. There's a time for everything. But God has to be the focus. He has to be the priority. That's where our focus needs to be.

And Satan can use literally anything to distract us. And all of us have seen it in our lives. We've seen ourselves get distracted, and God has shaken us some time in our life. And we realize, whoa, what am I doing? My thought process is wrong. I'm allowing this to overtake what I know to be right. We've seen it happen with people. They become distracted. Sometimes they're very good things. And it's hard to say, oh, no, I understand what you're saying. But that can't be where the focus is. The focus has to be God and all these other things will be added to you, as Christ would say. Martha was distracted, verse 40, with much serving. God calls us all to be servants.

Martha was distracted with serving, and she approached him and said, Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her to help me. What is she sitting there listening to you for when she should be over here doing this and that and whatever? And Christ answered and said to her, Martha, Martha, your word is troubled about many things, but one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her. Our focus in life has to be that we choose that good part. And when there's a choice between God and another really good thing, we choose God. We choose God no matter how painful it might be to others or whatever it is.

Because Satan can use anything, anything in our lives. If it draws us away from God and the focus we need, we need to be aware. We need to be aware. He's very cunning and he's very, very clever.

You know, if you if we turn back one page, we just I'm not going to go through all these verses here in Luke 9 at the last three verses there. As Christ is calling people to follow him, you remember, you know, people had excuses. They had things that would distract them from that calling. You know, one said, let me go and bury my father. I've got this obligation to my family. I have to finish that up before I can follow you. He was distracted. It should have been laser focused. This is God's calling. I can do both. I can serve my family, but put God first.

They said, no, no, I'm putting you on hold, God. I'm putting you on hold. I'm distracted by this.

Another one, you know, I got people at the house. I've got to kind of finish this up. I just gotta, you know, I gotta be nice to them and whatever. I'll deal with you later.

They were distracted. Good things to do. Serving your family, entertaining the people that come to visit you. But the focus is to be on God. Over in Luke 14, in verse 16, we find Christ here inviting people to his table, inviting people here in a parable to supper with him.

What greater honor can there be than to have Christ or God invite us to dinner with him?

And in this area, this is a noble man. A certain man gave a great supper and one by one, the people that were invited, had distractions that kept them from being where they should have been. They lost their focus and this, of course, is a message to us. A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, just like God has invited you and me to his family, invited us to eternal life, invited us to the promises that he has given us. He invited many and sent his servant to supper time to say those who were invited come. All things are now ready. Now is the time. But they all with one accord began to make excuses because they had distractions in their lives. They had excuses why they couldn't do or wouldn't do exactly what the man wanted him to do. Just come here and be at this supper. Just be here when I summon you. They all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, I bought a piece of ground. I have to go and see it.

I ask you to have me excused. Is there anything wrong with buying a piece of ground? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. But it became a problem because what did he do? He allowed that to distract him from what he should have done first, and that is to be at that supper. He allowed that to take him away and he disregarded the very clear invitation that the man had given him and he counted it as second best. I'd rather go see the land that God has given me than be at the supper you called me to.

Another said, I bought five yoke of oxen. I'm going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.

Is there anything wrong with having oxen? Is there anything wrong with having fine houses? Is there anything wrong with having material possessions? Absolutely not. God says he'll bless us with the fine things of earth. But if we don't watch out, those blessings, as we saw with Solomon, can become curses to us. They can distract us. They can become more important. They can help us. They can cause us to lose focus. And all of a sudden, we're serving those rather than serving God. Satan is very clever. Nothing wrong with that. It's a good thing to do, right? Isn't it exactly what God would have us to do? Doesn't he want us to do all these things? Yes, he does. But the focus is on him.

The focus that we have to have if we're going to be in the Kingdom is him first, his will first.

Still another said, I've married a wife and therefore I can't come.

Anything wrong with being married? Not at all. It's a blessing from God.

He created man and woman to be married.

Can that marriage become a distraction? Yes, it can. Yes, it can. If there's constant turmoil in a marriage, it can become quite a distraction.

If we're not working on the marriage, especially if one is in and one isn't in the Church, and if we're walking together, we should be able to work through those things and sit down and use God's Spirit to do that. But it could be a distraction. Back in 1 Corinthians 7, Paul talks about marital discord and how distracting it can be.

Probably all of us in our lives have had times in our marriages like, you know what? I know exactly what Paul is talking about. I can't even focus on that because there's discord over here, and we've got to get it resolved so that I can get my focus back on where it needs to be.

Marriage was a distraction. I'm married. I'm going to serve my wife first. I'm going to do that first. I'm going to forget what God has to do. That's a distraction. Solomon, with so many exclamation points after it, was kind of so much of an example of this. He allowed himself to be distracted to the point that he actually forgot God and may have lost everything that God wanted him to have.

It can happen to us. We just have to be aware, and we have to realize there are distractions that can come in any way, shape, or form. They can look so right. They can have such a noble purpose. If they take our focus away from God, beware. Beware. Don't say, I'm not going to do them anymore. Beware and keep God first. Keep him first. How do we fight distraction?

Is there a way we can fight distraction? Is there a way that we can become aware of it and nip it in the bud with God's Holy Spirit? We can look to David, kind of, but David didn't really do it when that incident was back to us. We can't really look to him. He yielded to it. It's only because God shook him that he came out of it. When God shakes us, we need to come out of it as well. We need to not ignore those signs and those things in our lives where God will shake us and try to wake us back up. Can't look to Solomon. He yielded to every distraction. But there is a man in the Old Testament that didn't yield to distractions. Let's go back and look at him and see how he handled the very many distractions that came up in his life and with the commission that God had given him. That man is Nehemiah. Let's look at Nehemiah. You remember after the Jews were defeated by the Babylonians that they were exiled and then after 70 years, God said they would come back. They would rebuild the temple. And it began with Zerubbabel. It began with Ezra. But the project waned. It was just sort of sitting there. The temple got built. Some other things got built. But the walls around Jerusalem never got built. Nehemiah, if you will, we talked about it a few weeks ago. He bothered him that the job wasn't complete. He wanted the work of God to be done. And so he prayed to God, you know, let me be the one if you want. Let me be the one to go back and finish the job that you started. And God gave him the opportunity. And so he's a cup bearer. He's just a cup bearer. He's just an ordinary guy in the kingdom. So he goes on his mission. The king gives him permission to do that. He's got some obstacles that come along his way, but he keeps fighting through them. In chapter 4 of Nehemiah, we begin seeing Nehemiah in the process of building.

And as we read through these verses, when we read about sand ballads and tabiah, you know, we can kind of see Satan's spirit there. He's going to interrupt the work, just like we have a building project in our lives, personally and with the church. That God is building his temple with us. And just like sand ballad and tabiah, as we read about these people, Satan is there to interrupt that building, to distract us, to get us to stop the project. Nehemiah doesn't allow that to happen. Chapter 4, verse 1. It so happened when sand ballad heard that we were rebuilding the wall, that he was furious and indignant, and he mocked the Jews. You know, when we yield to God's calling, when we yield to him, Satan is furious.

He's not willing, like I said, that any should have eternal life. His only will is that everyone perish and that God's plan be interrupted. So he goes about early on, early on in the project, to see if he can disrupt us. Verse 2. And he spoke before his brethren in the army of Sumerians, saying, What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they fortify themselves? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they complete it in a day? Will we revive the stones from the heaps of rubbish, rubbish, stones that are burned? What is he doing? Come on, Nehemiah! Do you think you're going to be the one to rebuild these walls? Come on! You're not qualified! You people don't know what you're doing! You've lost everything! What is he trying to do? Certainly the words are a distraction. We probably had words spoken to us that are a distraction to us, and we think and we stop and think, is that true? They can kind of wound us a little bit when we hear some things. They can kind of harm us a little bit. They can maybe create some doubt in us and think, well, no, I'm not the person to do this. You know, Tobias added his comments. Tomaiah the Abenite was beside him, and he said, Whatever they build, even if a fox goes up on it, he'll break down their stone wall. That's going to be so weak. Whatever. You know, we hear words maybe when we're coming in to the church, maybe when we've been to the church a long time. What? Do you think everyone else is wrong and you have? You are all right. What would your God say that it's wrong to do that when it's the right thing to do? And that he would say, You be where I want you to be or do what I want you to do first? That can be a tough question sometimes. Yes. Yes, I need to be where God says first. And yes, that's more important. That's where my focus is. That's what I've been called to. Nehemiah heard all those words. He knew what they were designed to do. He knew that what they were trying to do was create doubt, create frustration. If he had paused and listened to those words, it might have stopped the project. It might have stopped it. But notice what he did. He didn't listen. He turned it off. He ignored it. He heard the words, but he didn't let it sink in because he knew he was doing God's will. His focus was, I am here to build that wall. I know it. I believe it. God has given me his spirit. I understand what I need to do, and I'm not going to let anyone talk me out of it or divert or distract my attention. Hear, O God, for we are despised. Turn their reproach on their own heads and give them as plunder to a land of captivity. Don't cover their iniquity. Don't let their sin be blotted out from before you, for they have provoked you to anger before the builders. What did he do? He tuned it out, and he prayed to God instead. He tuned them out and tuned God in.

He used prayer, and when those things came, he just simply went to God, and he didn't allow it to interrupt him because he knew what he was doing was the will of God. If we really believe that what we're doing is the will of God, nothing should distract us. We might be momentarily blitzed by words or anything else that can distract us for a moment, but we should catch ourselves and go to God and not lose resolve, not lose faith, not lose focus, but to keep moving forward. And that's exactly what Nehemiah did. Verse 6, so we built the wall. We just kept working.

I wasn't going to let words. I wasn't going to let thoughts. I wasn't going to let Satan get a foothold in my mind. I'm just going to keep doing what I know I've been called to do.

So we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to hapits height for the people. For the people had a mind to work. They were focused. They were focused.

He kept them on the straight and narrow. He kept their eyes looking straight ahead. He kept their eyes on the prize. He said, you lay aside those weights that are coming on you. They're going to be laid on you. You keep your eyes on it. You continue running that race right until the very end.

Don't let person. Don't let thought. Don't let words. Don't let anything come between you and the goal. You keep your eyes straight. You do all these other things in life that you're supposed to be because that's what God calls you to do. And we learn so much from it. But you keep your eyes focused straight ahead, and you keep your eyes focused on what God has called us to.

They did that.

They used the tool of prayer to give them the focus, to give them the focus, or to recall the focus, and they just kept going. But Sanballat and Tobiah didn't give up, just like Satan doesn't give up with us, right? Just because we resist him once, as it says in James 4.7. Just because we resist him once doesn't mean he gives up. Okay, okay, I give up. No, no, he'll come back. He'll come back in another way with another form. Verse 7, It happened when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were being restored and the gaps were beginning to be closed, they became very angry. What? They continued? That didn't work? Now they were mad because look at what was going on in what was going on in the building. They just kept going on, and it made them mad. So now they're going to use another tactic, ridicule, mocking, saying, Who do you think you are? You're no great people.

Didn't work? Now they're going to try something different.

All of them, verse 8, conspired to come together and attack Jerusalem and create confusion.

Create confusion. Now, who's the author of confusion?

We know who the author of confusion is. It's not God.

What they thought, but here's what I'll do. I'm going to threaten you.

We're going to create... You think you're working there in one accord. We'll create confusion. We'll create people that are at odds with one another. We'll disrupt the whole process just by doing something in you that's going to create this disunity that God wants us to have.

And if we are of the same spirit, and if we are following and letting God lead our spirit, we will be united and we will be strong with one another. None of us are perfect in that regard at all. But they were going to attack. Now we've got physical threats going on. Now something's going to happen that the people there could actually find themselves like, whoa, I could actually hurt. They might actually come and attack me. They might actually come and overcome us. They might actually kill us. Who knows what's going to happen? You know, as we build our wall, as we build our temple, as God builds his temple in us, that's going to happen. There will be those somewhere down the road who will mock. There will be those who will distract us with fear, tactics.

You know, we hear some of the rumblings even in some of the court cases that are out there in the tax laws. And we know kind of somewhere down the road it'll probably be coming that if you don't teach this and if you don't teach that, you're going to lose your tax-exempt status. We know that. We know that those threats are going to come. It's not going to make a difference. We're going to keep teaching exactly what God said. It makes no difference what the tax laws say. We will follow God first. It'll be a distraction. There will be some changes that happen when that if and when that day comes and other things more severe than that. But you know what? The church and we have to be continually focused on what God wants. Not worried about what the government says. Not worried about what the IRS people say. Focus on what God says and continuing the work that he wants done.

And so, you know, they have all this and they know they're conspiring. The people could have been confused. They could have said, what are we going to do now? We're not warriors. We're not armed to attack or to withstand an attack. It could have created confusion. It could have stopped everything. People could have ran and said, I'm afraid. I didn't bargain for this. I came to rebuild the wall. I didn't plan. I didn't know that my life was going to be in danger.

Look what they did. Verse 9, nevertheless, we made our prayer to God. They went back to God again in prayer, just like they did the last time. Nevertheless, we made our prayer to God. And because of them, they did something. They did something. We set a watch against them day and night. Day and night. We prayed, but we also took action. And we had a plan that we were not going to allow this to happen to us. We would trust in God. We will rely on Him, but there are some things we have to do. Prayer, certainly, but sometimes some plans that have to be made. Be prepared ahead of time. And you know what? This is happening. This is what we're going to do, as led by God. Not just sit still and do nothing, but with God leading, set up a plan.

Then Judah said in verse 10, the strength of the laborers is failing. They're getting tired. They're getting weak. And there's so much rubbish that we're not able to build the wall.

There's so much rubbish. There's so many things that are coming down on us, so many distractions that are taking our focus away. The people are tired. They keep fighting this. They keep seeing all these things happen to us. There is so much rubbish in our lives, so much rubbish in our lives, so many things that can take us away from God in an age that has never been like that before. They felt the rubbish all around them. Look at the rubbish in our lives. We've got phones, right? Phones that ding and that interrupt you and all things. I mean, we've got phones that can distract us from any number of things that we do. We've got the internet that is such a distraction. We've got TV. We've got media that's such a distraction. We've got so many things in our lives, so much rubbish that surround us every day. Nothing wrong with having them. Nothing wrong with technology. It's a blessing, but it can be a distraction, a real distraction. And I know I've seen it as a distraction in my life from times, and I have to think, you know what? It just has to be turned off for a while. I have to give these things done. That's where the focus has to be. And you know what? 20 years ago, none of us were able to get each other at the moment we called, right? We had to wait until someone returned home. We got a voicemail or whatever. And sometimes, you know, we have to do that. If you're in the midst of study, if you're in the midst of prayer, turn the phone off. If it's bothering you and you find those distractions, turn it off. There's no law. God's not going to say, you know what? Shame on you. You turn that phone off when someone's trying to meet you. It will wait. It will wait. Get rid of the rubbish in your lives that's causing a problem between you and God and preventing you from keeping the focus that you need, whether it's in prayer, Bible study, or just your overall focus in life. Because there is so much rubbish out there that can disrupt us. And that's what they were finding in here. And of course, then, their detractors, their distractors, they had all these things that were going on, the threats and everything else like that. But if we go down to it, and you can see Nehemiah's plan there, and as they kept building the wall through it all in verse 15, it says, it happened, when our enemies heard that it was known to us and that God had brought their plot to nothing, all of us returned to the wall, everyone to his work.

We had this momentary thing. It kind of stopped us for a minute in our dealings. But our focus was, we got to get back to work. You got to get back to work.

Not let it stop. Not let it stop what God has started in us. Let's go to verse 23 to show how focused they were at that time. They've already had some things that could easily have distracted them from what they were there for. Verse 23 says, Neither I, Nehemiah speaking, neither I, my brethren, my servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me, took off our clothes, except that everyone took them off for washing.

How focused were they? We will get the job done. We're not going to make any provision for the flesh.

As Paul says in Romans 13 verse 14, we're not going to make any provisions for the flesh. We're going to get the job done. God will take care of those other needs. We are focused on getting the work done that He's doing in us individually and collectively.

Well, as you go on here in chapter 5, you see, here's something unexpected that happens. You know, if Satan can't work through outside forces, he's going to use something from the inside to distract us. First chapter 5 verse 1, There is a great outcry of the people and their wives against their Jewish brethren. For there were those who said, We, our sons and our daughters, are many. Therefore, let us get grain that we may eat and live. There were also some who said, We've mortgaged our lands and vineyards and houses that we might buy grain because of the famine.

There were also those who said, We've borrowed money for the king's tax on our lands and vineyards. Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children. Indeed, we're forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves. And some of our daughters have been brought into slavery. It's not an hour power to redeem them, for other men have our lands and vineyards. Wow, they've got someone out there within their own midst who is looking at this as an opportunity for them to gain some wealth. We're going to take over your lands. We'll lend you this money. You've sacrificed a lot. You need some help. And all of a sudden you've got confusion, discontent, a real distraction that can be the distraction in any of our lives when we have financial problems and issues. And that was what was going on during this rebuilding time as well.

Notice what Nehemiah did. He became angry. I became angry. He knew this was a distraction. He knew this was from Satan. He knew that people were playing into Satan's hands and that they were distracting. And here's another attempt to stop the progress, to stop the building.

I became angry when I heard their outcry in these words. After serious thought.

After serious thought. He didn't have the answer right then. He knew what was going on. He didn't know what to do with it. But after serious thought, and I'm going to infer in there, after serious prayer as well as to God, what do we do now? How do I stop this threat? Where do I go? I don't know the answer. After serious thought, I rebuked the nobles and rovers and said to them, each of you is exacting usury from his brother. Oh, he went back to the Bible.

He went back to the Bible. And there in Exodus 22 verse 25, it says, let none of you charge interest to your brother. Look what's happened. We're not even following what God's will is. When we go back to His Word, we see what His will is. And there's this problem that's come because people have forgotten that. They've overlooked it. They've reasoned. They've used logic and thought, well, if I lend the money, it's only right that I would get interest, right?

And it's created all this confusion, and the work could stop.

Nehemiah prayed. Nehemiah took action. Nehemiah went to the Bible.

Just like David had to do at that time when they were bringing the ark back, and Uzzah touched it and was instantly killed. And David had to wonder, all we were doing is trying to bring your ark back.

And after months, he realized we didn't look in your Word first. We didn't look in your Word first. And when he realized and followed God's commands explicitly, it was brought back safely and without incident. Nehemiah did the same thing. He went to the Bible. When we find distractions, we go to the Bible. What does the Bible say? It's very clear in what we need to do and what we should do. Sometimes we forget it. Sometimes we forget it, and we need to be reminded.

And so, as you go down to verse 13 in chapter 5, as he calls this assembly, and the people agree, when they look at the Bible and they say, you know what? Yeah, you're right. We shouldn't have done this. Verse 13, I shook out the fold of my garment and said, so may God shake out each man from his house and from his property who does not perform this promise, because they all said, what will you do, Nehemiah? We see it in the Bible. We will follow it. Even thus may be shaken out and emptied. And all the assembly said, Amen, and they praised God. And the people did according to this promise.

They followed Him. When we follow God, when we come together as one mind, when we look at what He has to say, then we'll find a cord, and the work will go on. Nehemiah 6. Chapter 6. Oh, that didn't work. It's been through three challenges, three distractions here. Nehemiah, who was laser focused on getting the job done. It happened when Sanballat, Sabiah, Gethsemane, the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall.

It just kept going. Nothing stopped it, even though some good attempts were made to stop the building process. When they heard that I had rebuilt the wall and that there were no breaks left in it, that Sanballat and Gethsemane sent to me saying, Come, let's meet together among the villages in the plain of Ono. Oh, come on. Just come down and meet with us. Just take some time off from that wall. We'll just have a nice lunch. We'll have a nice dinner. Just forget that for a while.

But you know what? Nehemiah kind of saw for what it was like. I don't need to meet with you. I need to finish the work. Because he knew from their past history, they weren't certainly there to support him. They weren't there to encourage him. They were there to stop the work. And so, whatever they had planned, he says in the very next sentence there, because I knew they did me, they wished me harm. He knew. They hadn't changed overnight. They didn't give up and say, Okay, you know what? Okay, this is God's work. Now, later they say that in chapter 16, when they see the whole thing done, they knew it was of God's work. Nehemiah kind of said, No, I'm not going. I'm here to finish it. I'm staying focused on finishing the work, and I have no time to meet on those things. Let's go back to Proverbs 4. Proverbs 4.

Even something as seemingly innocent is, Come and have lunch with us. Come and let me do that. Have dinner with us. Just relax a little bit. Let's talk.

If we know what the intention was, and if we look at the history, we can be aware of the distractions that can stop us. For chapter 4, Proverbs verse 25. Nehemiah followed his principles that are there in the Old Testament, the principles that are in the New Testament as well. Verse 25, Let your eyes look straight ahead. He never took his eyes off the goal. He never took his eyes off the prize. He knew what he had been called to do, and that wall was going to get built, and he wasn't going to let anything distract him. Let your eyes look straight ahead. Let your eyelids look right before you. Ponder the path of your feet. Think about what you're doing.

Get God involved in what you're doing, and let all your ways be established. Don't turn to the right or the left, and remove your foot from evil. Nehemiah did that. Nehemiah did that, and as we go through our lives and see where the distractions are, whether they come from people, whether they come from relatives, whether they come from bad things, good things, or whatever it is, remove your foot from the things that will lead you away from God. Oh, if only Solomon had remembered that. As David, I'm sure, many times in his life thought, if I had only remembered to remove my feet from evil, and when I felt that temptation, when I felt that I was being drawn away from God, and what I knew to be wrong, if I had just said no, and used the power that God gives me to say no, that if I had just stopped, instead of yielding to temptation, I would have prayed to God, give me the strength to say no. Give me the strength to resist this temptation, this distraction, and every single time that we practice that in our lives, and eventually we will see Satan retracting. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Nehemiah says here, or back in Nehemiah, says he completed that wall in 52 days.

52 days. It was a miraculous work that obviously was done by God, but a lot of credit to Nehemiah who made the choices along the way to keep his focus on God, to keep his focus on what he had been called to do, and he never gave up. Saruba Bell, you know, who's of the royal line, he never completed that work. Ezra never completed it. Nehemiah, a cupbearer, did. Distractions come to all of us, every single one. As long as we live, those distractions will be there. We just have to learn to identify them and fight them. Let's close here in Ephesians 6. You know, when Paul was writing to the church in Ephesus, and there were so many distractions with the churches that were being raised up in the Gentile world, the distractions would come from the Jews, the distractions would come from the Romans, attractions would come from the people around them. He kept the people there, and he wanted to keep them aware, beware of the wiles of Satan. Beware of the wiles of Satan, and he gives us here in the few verses in chapter 6 of Ephesians, the same thing that we saw Nehemiah did, that we must do as well. Ephesians 6, verse 10.

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. If we don't have the whole armor of God on, we won't be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. He is powerful. He is clever. He is cunning. He will find a way, and it's with the whole armor of God that we can resist him. Stand therefore, having girded your ways with truth. Know the truth. Love the truth.

Understand the truth. Make it part of you, heart, mind, and soul.

Stand therefore, having girded your ways with truth, having put on the breast place of righteousness.

The things that you do and the things that you apply in your lives when you see the truth in the Bible and you see the error of your ways and you change those ways and you apply what God has for us to do. Having shied your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. You're prepared. You're ready to stand. You know the Bible. You read the Bible. You do it continually. You don't wait until a crisis occurs. You're doing it all the time. You're prepared when that day comes. Above all, take the shield of faith with which you will be able to clench all the fiery darts of the wicked one, and they will be many in our lives. They will be many in our lives, and they can come in any way, shape, and form. And take the helmet of salvation and the word of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Just like Leneabiah did, you go back to the Bible and you see what God said, and you do it exactly the way that he said to do it. Praying always, with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end, with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. Be aware. Be aware of distractions. Be aware of distractions in our lives. Keep your focus. Keep your focus on God and his plan for you and me.