This morning we are going to be talking about a man who faced tremendous discouragement and distractions this man is Nehemiah.

Opening: Have you ever been discouraged in your life? Have you ever gone through something that just made you want to give up? Have you ever felt so discouraged that you just wanted to throw in the towel? This morning we are going to be talking about a man who faced tremendous discouragement and distractions this man is Nehemiah. Background: 1. Around 600 B.C., the people of Israel were defeated by the Babylonian Empire, and led away as captives, as Jerusalem and their temple was destroyed they became exiles, not allowed to return to Jerusalem. 2. In 539 B.C., the Persians defeated the Babylonians, and became rulers over the people of Israel. A year later, the exile from Jerusalem ended, and the people of Israel were allowed to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple for worship. 3. We pick up in Nehemiah about 100 years later, under the Persian reign of King Artaxerxes. 4. King Artaxerxes was actually the step-son of Esther, whom many of us are familiar with. 5. Nehemiah was the cup bearer of King Artaxerxes. a. A cup bearer originally was an individual who would taste the drink or food for the king to see if it was poisoned. But at this time, the position was even more than that. Since the cup bearer was always with the king, they often were trusted advisors of the king. 6. Nehemiah s brother returns from Jerusalem and Nehemiah asks him about the condition of things down there. His brother reports that things are in terrible shape the walls are destroyed, the gates are burned by fire, and the people are in great trouble and shame. 7. Right then and there, Nehemiah begins to pray and feels compelled to go to Jerusalem and repair the city. Right then, he feels a call from God to do something about this. You have to imagine the situation. The land around Jerusalem was God s Promised Land to the people of Israel. That was their 1

home. That was their identity. To know that it is in rubble, to know that the land of his fathers was in such bad condition hurt to the very core of who he was. 8. So he receives permission from the king to go to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls this man was not a builder, the Bible gives us no reason to believe Nehemiah had any clue how to build walls or buildings. But he felt compelled by God, so he went. 9. As Nehemiah arrives and begins to work on this project, we are going to find that he faces enemies who are trying to discourage and distract him from completing the project. a. Friends, when you get saved, when you become born-again, the next step is to become a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every single one of us is called to be a witness of Jesus to this lost and dying world. God has a plan for your life. b. But our enemy, Satan, does not want you to fulfill the plan God has for you. And he will do anything in his power to keep us from finishing the plan God has for us. c. Two of his main tactics are discouragement and distraction. And this morning we are going to talk about these two tactics and how we can learn from the story of Nehemiah how to overcome them. 1. Discouragement Nehemiah 4:1-3 Now when Sanballat heard that we were building the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews. 2 And he said in the presence of his brothers and of the army of Samaria, What are these feeble Jews doing? Will they restore it for themselves? Will they sacrifice? Will they finish up in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, and burned ones at that? 3 Tobiah the Ammonite was beside him, and he said, Yes, what they are building if a fox goes up on it he will break down their stone wall! So here we have Sanballat, who was a governor and when he hears about the work of rebuilding the wall, what does he do? He begins to mock the Jews. He calls them feeble; he makes fun of their attempt to rebuild the wall from rubble. 2

And then Tobiah, the Ammonite, mocks them by saying if even a fox were to go up on that wall, the wall would crumble down. Can I tell you, if you are serving the Lord, if you are a disciple of Jesus Christ, if you are using your gifts and talents for the Lord, whether that means being a pastor, an evangelist, a worship leader, whether that means being a witness at your work, telling people about Jesus at school, or anything else the enemy is going to come against you and one of the ways he comes against us is through discouragement. One of his main tactics is to discourage us from the work of the Lord. He ll come at you and say: 1. Who are you? 2. You can t do the work of God. 3. Look at the mistakes you ve made. 4. You are not holy. 5. You are not able. 6. Even if you do end up doing it, no one will care. It will not matter. He ll use people to ridicule and mock you, saying: 1. Oh, don t tell me you believe in those fairytales. 2. Why do you spend so much time at church? 3. Why do you give so much money to that church? 4. Oh, now you re too good for us? 5. Oh, you re too holy for us now? We don t like to be ridiculed; we don t like to be mocked. And so the devil will use this tactic to discourage us from the work of the Lord. His goal is to make us quit. He doesn t care if you go to church, he doesn t care what we say we believe, as long as you are not serving the Lord in your everyday life as long as the plan of God for your life is not being fulfilled. 2. Discouragement #2 Nehemiah 4:7-8 3

But when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and that the breaches were beginning to be closed, they were very angry. 8 And they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it. Again, Sanballat, and the other enemies of the Israelites, they attempt to disrupt the work going on. This time, they plan to come and fight against them they threaten to come against them physically. These guys are trying to make the Jews quit rebuilding the walls they are trying to make them give up. You ever feel like every time you try to live for God, life gets worse? Ever feel like the enemy just bombards you with attacks every time you try to live for God? Guess what? He does. He does it to try to discourage you from serving God. He ll hit you with whatever he can: 1. You ll lose your job 2. You ll get hurt 3. You ll get sick 4. You ll have marital problems 5. You ll have family problems Whatever the devil can do to discourage you, to make you give up on serving the Lord, he will do it. Again, his goal is to make us quit. He doesn t care if you go to church, he doesn t care what we say we believe, as long as you are not serving the Lord in your everyday life as long as the plan of God for your life is not being fulfilled. 3. Distraction Nehemiah 6:1-9 Now when Sanballat and Tobiah and Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies heard that I had built the wall and that there was no breach left in it (although up to that time I had not set up the doors in the gates), 2 Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, Come and let us meet together at Hakkephirim in the plain of Ono. But they intended to do me harm. 3 And I sent messengers to 4

them, saying, I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you? 4 And they sent to me four times in this way, and I answered them in the same manner. 5 In the same way Sanballat for the fifth time sent his servant to me with an open letter in his hand. 6 In it was written, It is reported among the nations, and Geshem also says it, that you and the Jews intend to rebel; that is why you are building the wall. And according to these reports you wish to become their king. 7 And you have also set up prophets to proclaim concerning you in Jerusalem, There is a king in Judah. And now the king will hear of these reports. So now come and let us take counsel together. 8 Then I sent to him, saying, No such things as you say have been done, for you are inventing them out of your own mind. 9 For they all wanted to frighten us, thinking, Their hands will drop from the work, and it will not be done. But now, O God, strengthen my hands. Sanballat and his buddies seem relentless in their effort to stop the work of Nehemiah and the Jews. Here, they are sending letters to try and get Nehemiah to come for a meeting. It was a ploy to distract them from the work. And when it was not working, they threatened to tell the king of Persia that Nehemiah was planning a rebellion and to come to talk with them about such allegations. Again, their motive was to frighten them, to distract them from completing the work. So now we see a different tactic used by the devil, and that is distractions. The devil often tries to distract us from the work of God. He ll use: 1. Family parties 2. TV 3. Video games 4. School 5. Your job All the sudden, everything has to get done on church days. 5

Again, he ll use anything he can to distract us from serving the Lord. Now, none of these things are bad in and of themselves, they aren t evil things, but the devil will use them to suck up all your time so that you don t have time to serve the Lord so that you will drop out of the work of the Lord. According to a 2009 survey by Qwest Communications: 47% of Americans say they can last an hour at most before feeling "antsy" about checking email, instant messaging, or other social networking sites. 46% said they could only make it one day. The rest (7%) said they could probably go a week without checking in. Amazing, we live in a time and culture flooded with distractions. Beware of things that just suck up time. When you can t come to church because of school (college level), when you can t come to outreaches and church events, or conferences, because of a family party beware. Beware, as it just may be a ploy of the devil to distract you from serving the Lord. Again, his goal is to make us quit. He doesn t care if you go to church, he doesn t care what we say we believe, as long as you are not serving the Lord in your everyday life as long as the plan of God for your life is not being fulfilled. Solution: So how do we overcome these attacks of the enemy? How do we overcome discouragement and distraction by the enemy? First, let s take a look at how Nehemiah handled it. Nehemiah 4:4-5 Hear, O our God, for we are despised. Turn back their taunt on their own heads and give them up to be plundered in a land where they are captives. 5 Do not cover their guilt, and let not their sin be blotted out from your sight, for they have provoked you to anger in the presence of the builders. 6 So we built the wall. When Sanballat and Tobiah began to mock the Jews, Nehemiah responds: 6

1. With prayer a. The first thing we ought to do is pray to God. God help us, we are being mocked, we are being ridiculed, we feel discouraged God help us. Help us to not feel discouraged, and help us to overcome this. 2. By pressing on a. Notice in verse 6. Nehemiah prays to God, and then what? It says, So we built the wall. I love that. Nehemiah prays, and then he presses on. He cries out to God, and then presses on with the work. After we pray, we press on, we lay our feelings aside, and continue serving God. Don t give up. Don t give in to the discouragement; press on with serving the Lord. Nehemiah 4:9, 16-18 9 And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night. 16 From that day on, half of my servants worked on construction, and half held the spears, shields, bows, and coats of mail. And the leaders stood behind the whole house of Judah, 17 who were building on the wall. Those who carried burdens were loaded in such a way that each labored on the work with one hand and held his weapon with the other. 18 And each of the builders had his sword strapped at his side while he built. The man who sounded the trumpet was beside me. When threatened with physical attack, Nehemiah again responds: 1. With prayer a. The first thing Nehemiah does is pray to God. 2. By pressing on a. After he prays, Nehemiah and the Jews prepare for a potential physical attack, and press on with the work. They labored with one hand and held a weapon in the other. Nonetheless, they pressed on to complete the work. Nehemiah 6:3 7

And I sent messengers to them, saying, I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you? Lastly, when Sanballat and Geshem try to get Nehemiah to stop the work and meet with them, when Nehemiah is faced with this potential distraction he responds: 1. I cannot come down a. I am doing a great work 2. Why should the work stop? a. Why should this great work stop while I come down to you? What if we would begin to respond to our distractions this way? Nehemiah understood his mission. He understood his purpose, he understood what he was doing, he understood the importance of what he was doing, and he understood why he was there. So, to overcome discouragement and distraction by the enemy, we need to [1] pray, [2] press on, and [3] understand our mission. Ultimately, if we do not understand our mission, if we do not understand our purpose, if we do not understand why we should serve the Lord, we are not going to pray; we are not going to press on; we are going to quit, we are going to give in to the discouragement and distraction of the enemy. Matthew 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations You see, Jesus commanded His apostles to go and make disciples not just believers, not just converts to Christianity He didn t say, go and bring people to church He said go and make disciples. So each one of us is called to be a disciple, not just a believer, not just a church member we are called to be disciples. Now, a disciple is basically a student of a teacher, who devotes their lives to learning everything about the teacher so they can carry on the life, teachings, and work of the teacher. 8

So, now we are disciples of Jesus and our job is to learn everything we can about Jesus, and carry on His life, His teachings, and His work. God has created us all with different personalities, gifting, and talents, and has a plan for us to use our uniqueness, use our talents, use our gifts, to carry on His message, to carry on His work to take this Gospel to the ends of the earth. God has gifted some in singing, so that they can carry on His message and to draw people unto Him through singing. Some He has gifted in teaching, so they can teach people the truths of His Word. Whatever you have been gifted in, whatever talents you may have, whatever type of personality you may have God wants you to use it to carry on His message, and to carry on His work. That is our mission: to worship and glorify God with everything that we are taking His Gospel to the ends of the earth. Conclusion: When we face discouragement and distraction from the enemy, we need to: 1. Pray 2. Press on 3. Understand our mission Paul, the apostle, could have been discouraged in his work for the Lord. He could have been discouraged when he was stoned nearly to death. He could have been discouraged when he was arrested and chained to a jailer, not having committed any crimes. But he pressed on. He understood his mission. As a result, the work of God continued, and we are fruit of that work. I challenge you to serve the Lord with everything that you have. Use your talents and gifting to glorify Jesus in this church, in your home, wherever you can. And as you face discouragements and distractions, press through. Don t give up. Don t quit. Stay the course. Finish the race. 9