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Nate Heitzig: Nehemiah chapter 6, verses 1 through 14. We are continuing in our series, City in Shambles, and I’ve titled the message today: Focused in the Face of Distractions. Is there anyone in here who struggles with being distracted easily? I really struggle with being distracted. I have ADHD, so I’m constantly going from one thing to the next thing. I’m working on one thing and then I see an ad on TV and I spend two hours researching something I don’t care about, and I forget what was most important.

Hobbies for me are like a weekly thing. I get really passionate about a hobby, and then a week later, I could care less about it and never want to do it again, and I’m on to the next thing. I think a lot of us are easily distracted, especially in the day and age in which we live where there’s so much competing for our attention that there are distractions everywhere. Most of those things are just little things. They don’t really matter.

But we’re going to talk today about spiritual distractions, because we have within our lives spiritual distractions that want to pull our attention and our focus away from what matters most. I’ve found within a believer’s life, the enemy loves using distractions to wear us down so that he can get a foothold within our lives.

About 20 years ago, I had the privilege of visiting the ancient city of Troas, or Troy. If you’ve ever read Greek mythology or studied Greek literature, or if you just like Brad Pitt, you know the story of Troy and you know what happened in that city. In this city, they actually have a life-sized replica of a Trojan horse. It’s a giant wooden horse and you can go inside it and check it out. It’s pretty incredible to see.

But in every ancient city, the most important structure in the city was not the palace. It was not the temple. It wasn’t the market. It wasn’t the storehouses. The most important structure in every ancient city was the walls. The walls and the gates were paramount for the city. As a matter of fact, without the walls and the gates, there was no city.

In the story of Nehemiah, we’ve been studying and we’ve been learning he journeys to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls and the gates. The walls were the protection for the city. Without the walls, there would be no palace, there would be no market, there would be no temple. The walls were paramount. In ancient times, destroying the walls was paramount to victory because if you can’t get in, you can’t win.

So if you want to win, you have to figure out a way to get in. But here’s my question for us today: What do you do when the walls and the gates are too strong and you can’t break them down? What happens when the walls have been so well-fortified, so well-built that all of your attacks are just bouncing off the walls? How do you get in? You distract them. You distract them and you find a way in through distraction.

In the Odyssey by Homer, the Greeks, after 10 fruitless years of trying to lay siege on the walls of Troy, nothing was working. The walls were too well-built. The city was too strong. All the attacks were failing. So after 10 years of trying to take down Troy, what do they do? They use a distraction. They build a giant horse and they leave this horse, the Trojan horse, and they pretend to sail away in defeat.

The Trojans pull the horse into the city as a victory trophy, like, "Hey, we won! And they gave us a giant wooden horse to celebrate our victory." It's kind of weird, right? But they take the bait. They bring the horse into the city, they celebrate their victory, they held off the Greeks. Then at night, as the city sleeps, the Greek forces creep out into the city, they open the gates that are in the walls, and they allow the rest of the Greek army to come inside and destroy the city from the inside out, thus ending the war. How did they do it? Distractions.

Look, I’ve got some good news and some bad news for us as Christians. The good news is that God is and always will be at work within a believer’s life, strengthening us up, preparing us for every good work, fortifying our walls, helping us grow and find new purpose and find belonging, changing lives left and right, bringing people to salvation. But we have to remember that wherever God is at work, so is the devil.

Right up until the return of Jesus Christ, this spiritual battle will rage on. Satan’s desire is to destroy the work of salvation, to tear down the walls of your life before it’s ever had a chance to take root. But what happens when the walls are too strong? What happens when you’ve been in the Word of God and you’ve built up strong fortifications, you’ve built up the walls and the gates of your life, and you spot the easy attacks from the enemy?

When he throws those easy attacks at you, you’re able to defend them. You’re able to push them away. What happens when Satan can’t destroy the work that God is doing? He distracts us. What happens when the walls of our hearts are too strong and he can’t break them down? Satan is in the business of using spiritual distractions.

You need to know and you need to be aware. If you’re here today and you think, "You know what? I’m doing pretty good in my walk with God. My family feels strong. My marriage feels strong. My work situation feels strong. I’ve built up these walls. I’ve been defending myself against the attacks of the enemy." You need to prepare yourself because if he can’t tear down your walls, he will seek to come in disguise and creep into our midst in the secret of night, only to open the gates and destroy us from the inside out.

Today, we’re going to look at three different distractions that the enemy used against Nehemiah. These are distractions that the enemy, Satan, uses within our lives today as well to try to infiltrate the walls of our lives and stop us from doing the work God has called us to do. As we examine these distractions and Nehemiah’s response, we’re going to learn how to be focused in the face of distraction.

So let’s look at point number one and let’s read our whole entire text, Nehemiah chapter 6, verse 1 through 14. Let’s read it together:

"Now it happened when Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem 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 Sanballat and Geshem 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 to go down to you?' But they sent me this message four times, and I answered them in the same manner."

So they send Nehemiah this request: "Hey Nehemiah, let’s go meet. We’ve had our differences, we fought, we’ve had all this disagreement. Let’s just go meet together in the plains of Ono and let’s hash it out. Let’s just deal with what’s going on." And Nehemiah says, "No. Can’t do it. I’m busy. Can’t do it."

They send the message four times, like they didn’t get the hint. So they ask him four times, "Well just come meet with us, come meet with us, please meet with us." I mean, it sounds sometimes like the meetings we get within our life, right? You tell someone no, it’s like a kid and they ask you again and again and again. No means no. I can’t do it. I’m busy. Four times they send this request to Nehemiah and four times he says no.

Then verse 5: "Then Sanballat sent his servant to me as before, the fifth time, with an open letter in his hand." Here they change tactics. Listen to this. "In it was written: 'It is reported among the nations, and Geshem says...'" Remember Geshem is one of these guys. It’s almost like Geshem was like, "Hey, what about this?" And they’re like, "Yeah, that’s good. Let’s run with that."

"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 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. I’m telling mom. So come therefore, and let us consult together."

"Then I sent to him, saying, 'No such thing as you say are being done, but you invent them with your own heart.' For they were all 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 Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, 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 are coming 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 Sanballat had hired him. Aha! For this reason he was hired, that I should be afraid and act that way and sin, so that they might have cause for an evil report, that they might reproach me."

"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."

Let's stop there. Here we see how Nehemiah stayed focused in the face of distraction. We see the three distractions the enemy used to try to pull him off the wall. The first distraction was the distraction of deceit. In verses 1 through 4, we see this first distraction brought by Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem. In verse 2, it says, "Come, let us meet together." Come, let us meet together. "But they thought to do me harm."

So Geshem, Sanballat, Tobiah, they send this message to Nehemiah: "Hey bro, let’s meet. Let’s talk about it. You built the walls, you did what you were supposed to do. Let’s meet. Let’s have a conversation." But immediately, Nehemiah sees through the deceit, sees through the distraction, and he recognizes they don’t really want to meet. They don’t really want to have a conversation. They just want to hurt me.

Guest (Female): This is Connect with Skip Heitzig. We’ll return to Nate Heitzig’s teaching in just a moment. Every day, the generosity of friends like you helps make clear verse-by-verse Bible teaching available to people searching for truth, direction, and hope. And this month, we want to thank you with two powerful resources to help you follow God faithfully, even when life feels uncertain or challenging.

When you give, you’ll receive the Expound Nehemiah seven-message CD series with digital download, along with Pastor Skip’s booklet, Overcoming an Anxious Mind. Together, these resources show you how God rebuilds what’s broken, strengthens you when you face opposition, and gives you peace, even in seasons of pressure and waiting. We’ll send both resources as our thanks when you give $50 or more to support Connect with Skip Heitzig. Call 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskip.com/offer. Now, let’s get back to the teaching of Nate Heitzig.

Nate Heitzig: It looked like diplomacy, but it smelled like danger. That’s a principle we need to be aware of in our lives. Oftentimes, when someone claims to be coming to us in diplomacy, they’re actually doing it to try to catch us and hurt us and put us in a bad situation. The enemy loves to disguise danger as diplomacy.

And here’s what we need to apply to our lives: Not every meeting request that you receive, not every opportunity that you get is a divine appointment or a new ministry opportunity. Some are simply demonic distractions dressed in spiritual language. And I think we need to be really careful with this. Some of us are really bad at this, and that is that we say yes to everything just because we feel like we’re supposed to.

And especially Christians, sometimes we feel like we can’t say no, like it’s the unchristian thing to do. And that if we really are good and caring, we’re going to say yes because they need me. They need my help. They want to meet with me. They want to talk with me. They want to hear what I have to say. And so we make everything more important than it should be and we end up saying yes to everything.

We need to stop saying yes to everything. In your life, if you want to accomplish what God has called you today, you want to accomplish the goal He’s put in your life, whether that’s strengthening your family, your marriage, building a business, stepping into a calling of ministry that God has put on your life, focusing on your mental health—in order to achieve your goal, you need to stop saying yes to everything.

Now, I’m not telling you that every meeting you request is some kind of a ploy or a plot to kill you. Like, "Oh, they want to meet with me, I wonder if they want to harm me." That’s not what I’m saying. Everyone’s not out to get you. It doesn’t mean that every meeting is a plot to kill you, but while it might not kill you physically, it might kill your peace. It might kill your calling. It might kill the opportunities that God actually does want to give you to achieve what He’s called you to do.

And look, it might not even be a bad meeting, but it’s not what you’re supposed to be doing. You’re called to something greater. And these little meetings, these little requests, can get in the way of what God is wanting to do. And when you start saying yes to every little meeting, every opportunity, every single thing that comes your way, you become distracted from the work at hand and you get pulled off the wall.

So we’ve got to focus on what is most important. Notice how Nehemiah was laser-focused. As a matter of fact, through this whole entire book, every time Nehemiah gets momentum building the wall, his enemies try to lure him off-track. His enemies try to pull him off the wall. And yet he stays laser-focused. "No. Hey Nehemiah, come meet with us. No. Hey Nehemiah, you’re making a plot to rebel and overthrow the king and become your own king. No, I’m not." Nothing else. No long explanation. He just stays on track.

Why? Why does he stay on track so easily? Well, because giving in even once would unravel weeks of progress. And Nehemiah discerns it instantly. Again, four times they ask him to come down off the wall and four times he refuses. Why? Well, he says it: "I am doing a great work, and so I cannot come down." I’m doing a great work.

His mission, the calling God put on his life, that was his focus. Every day he woke up, he was thinking about the mission God had given him. The mission was his focus, and his mission gave him an easy filter to determine what was important to do and what wasn’t important to do. So if there’s a task that comes up, he simply asks, "Is this task, this meeting, this opportunity helping me accomplish my goal?" If it is, I’m going to do it. If it’s not, then I’m not going to do it and I’m not going to apologize about not doing it because it’s not what I’m supposed to do. Somebody else can do it.

His mission gave him focus. So when they come to him, "Nehemiah, meet with me," he can look at it and say, "Oh, this thing you want me to do—sure, it sounds great, but that’s not what I’m supposed to do. I’ve got a mission, something I’m called to, something my eyes are focused on, and that’s not it. So as great as it sounds, I’m going to say no so that I can say yes to what I’m supposed to do."

Look, that’s not pride. That’s focus. That’s not arrogance. That’s focus. That’s not being rude. That’s being focused. Nehemiah had a clear, singular aim in his life. He had his eyes fixed on his mission and he refused to be distracted or pulled away from it.

And within our lives, our ambition, that is where our eyes and our heart are fixed. Our ambition affects our entire life. And if we get distracted from the mission that God has given us, we will cease to be effective in what He’s called us to do because we become busy doing so many other things. Even if the other things we’re doing are good, we become busy doing those things we’re not supposed to do and we can’t get done what we need to do.

I’m going to illustrate this in your life. Have you ever had a task leading into a week? Sunday, you’re like, "All right, this week I have to get this done. I’ve got this big task, I need to get this done." Anyone ever have those things where you know your focus on what you have to do? No one? You guys don’t or do you guys do anything? Anyone ever had a task that you say, "This week I’m going to get this done"? And have you ever gone to the end of the week and realized you didn’t do it because you got busy doing a bunch of other little things that didn’t matter? And you look at what you needed to get done and what you did get done and you say, "That wasn’t what I wanted to do this week. I got a bunch of nonsense done that doesn’t matter and I didn’t get the big thing done."

This is what happens in our spiritual lives. God has given you a call. He’s put you on a wall. He’s told you to build. He’s told you to fortify. And you get distracted by all these little things, all these opportunities, all these new meetings, all these new things, that you don’t get done the one thing that actually matters because you’re doing a bunch of things that don’t. Busy doing maybe good things, but they’re not the most important thing.

Nehemiah had a single-minded ambition to serve God. And if we have that same single-minded ambition to serve God, it will give your life purpose and direction. So I have a question for you: Do you have double vision? Are you trying to simultaneously fix your eyes on Jesus and something else? Do you have one eye on spiritual things and one eye on earthly things? Lot’s trouble began when he began looking at Sodom and Gomorrah. When he began looking, when he took his eyes off of what he was supposed to be fixed on, off of God’s plan, off of God’s calling—when he stopped looking at what he was supposed to look at and started looking at Sodom and Gomorrah, that’s when he went off track.

David prayed, "Unite my heart to fear your name." Jesus said to Martha, who had been going around in circles, she was so busy doing this and that and fixing that and doing these things—He said, "You are troubled and agitated and worried about many things." Or simply, Martha, you’re distracted. You’re distracted, you’re running around doing all these things, doing all these busy tasks, saying yes to everything that you’re missing the most important thing. Jesus is in your house. I’m here. Focus on Me. Give Me your undivided attention and stop worrying about everything else.

See, Martha didn’t really know what she wanted. She didn’t know what her ambition was. Mary, on the other hand, did. She had a single purpose, a single aim, and she was not distracted. Paul also had this clear singular aim. In Philippians 3:13, he says, "This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth to those things which are before, I press..." or literally, I agonize toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of Jesus Christ. I’m busy at work.

David had this clear singular direction as well. It says, "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek." Do you have that same singular clear vision and aim within your life, or do you have double vision? Here’s why it’s important: If the devil can’t destroy you, he’ll try to distract you. If the devil can’t destroy the walls in your life and you have defenses and you’re defending him away from those easy attacks, if he can’t destroy you, he’ll try to distract you and take you off the walls and pull you away from those things that you’ve built so he can attack them when you’re not looking.

If your focus is on building your family and strengthening your family, fortify those walls, pour into your kids, pour into your family, love on them. Don’t be distracted. Don’t come off that wall because if you do, you better be sure Satan’s going to attack them. If your marriage is the wall that you’re building, you’re trying to strengthen your marriage and rebuild the walls of a broken-down trust from before, if you get off those walls and start doing something else, you better be sure Satan’s going to attack your marriage.

If you’re trying to rebuild your integrity because of a decision you made or something that you fell into previously within your life, if you get off those walls, if you stop fortifying those walls, if you’re distracted and start doing other things, you better believe Satan’s going to attack your integrity. He will distract you. He will try to destroy you. Stay on the wall. You’re doing a great work. Don’t come down. Keep working on it. Keep fortifying it. Keep building it.

What we often think is opportunity, God calls distraction. Just because someone wants your attention doesn’t mean they deserve your time. I’m going to say that again. You should write that down if you struggle with trying to meet other people’s expectations instead of doing what you know you’re supposed to do. Just because someone wants your attention doesn’t mean they deserve your time.

And we need to become better at saying one of the most important words out there: No. You know, we love to say yes to everything. We think it’s our duty, but we need to learn that no is a complete sentence and it’s okay to start using no more often. "Hey, I need to meet with you. Can we talk? Can we go to coffee?" No. "Well, why not?" Well, one, I don’t need to give you an answer for why not. But two, because I have better things to do, because I’m concerned about making sure my family is loved and cared for, that my wife feels nurtured, that my ministry and my calling are being poured into, that my integrity is strong. And if meeting with you is going to pull me away from what matters most, then no. No, we can’t meet.

"Oh, that’s so mean, Nate." No, it’s not. No is not a mean word. No is okay to say. It’s okay to say no, I’m not going to put down my shovel and sword just to chase the devil’s rabbits. I’m called to do something. I’m on the wall. I’m doing a great work and I can’t come down. It’s okay to say no. It’s holy to say no. There is a planned holy neglect within the Christian life that we neglect the things that aren’t pushing us forward so we can focus on the things that are. It’s okay to say no to nice people. It’s okay to say no to good things if they’re not the most important thing. So it’s okay to say no, and we need to do it more often. No is a complete sentence. Learn to stop meeting and learn to start building.

Guest (Female): We’re so glad you joined us for Connect with Skip Heitzig today, featuring Pastor Skip’s son, Nate Heitzig. Before we go, remember: Your generosity helps share God’s Word with people all around the world, offering truth, hope, and encouragement where it’s needed most. And this month, we’d love to thank you for your gift of $50 or more by sending you the Expound Nehemiah seven-message CD series with digital download, along with Pastor Skip’s booklet, Overcoming an Anxious Mind. These resources will help you see how God rebuilds what’s broken in your life and gives you peace, even in the midst of pressure and uncertainty. Give today at connectwithskip.com/offer or call 800-922-1888. We’ll see you next time on Connect with Skip Heitzig.