Shut The Door
Shovel & Spear • Sermon • Submitted
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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), 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. 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?” And they sent to me four times in this way, and I answered them in the same manner.
Intro:
For those of you that don’t know, I am raising three young boys; Jaden, Jude and Jaxon. One of the things that I have found very funny in raising these boys is the possessive nature they have with their rooms. Parents, you know what I am talking about.
My boys, like clock work, have gone through a phase where they want no one in their room. They shut the door, and then they add a sign that lets everyone know that they cannot enter. It’s not just that they shut the door the tickles me, but it’s the sign they tape to the door.
Jaden, when he had his own room had enough of Jude and so he taped a sign that said, No Jude and No Girls on the door. This of course was hilarious to me because all his friends are boys. We only hav sleep overs with boys. There’s no girls in our family, apparently we only make boys… and so the sign was unnecessary. But it was a good sign to add to the door.
Parents, do you remember the signs your kids taped to their doors?
As you can probably already tell, I want to talk about doors today, because we see some doors missing here in the text.
The Trick of Distraction
The Trick of Distraction
Nehemiah is wrapping up the building project. He’s finished just about everything that there was to finish, but he had not yet hung the doors.
This is significant because doors allow access, and they deny access. When the door is open, anyone can walk on thru and enter the room. When the door is closed, you are letting people know that access is denied.
The exiles had done a great job rebuilding the walls, but the doors were not yet complete. Having an open door, or in this case, no doors, exposed them to attacks from their enemy.
Now remember, Nehemiah had permission to build by King Artaxerxes. So their enemy’s, in order to stop the building of the wall, would have to trick Nehemiah into stopping.
We just read that the enemies tried to lure Nehemiah out of Jerusalem. They told him, “let’s go hang out at the coffee shop in the plain of Ono.” Here is how Nehemiah responded.
“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?”
Here is what his enemies were doing. They were trying to get him to stop doing a great work.
The Enemy will use Distractions
If there is one thing that the church cannot afford to do in this day and age that we are living in is to get distracted. I think over the last couple of years we have had to push back against distractions. As a church there’s been urgent issue after urgent issue. There has been crisis after crisis. If the church runs to address every crisis to the detriment of our mission, we can become a distracted church. Our mission is simple, “go into all of the nations and preach the gospel. The person who believes and is baptized will be saved. The one who does not believe will not.” As a church, we cannot get distracted from this great work.
Likewise, you cannot get distracted from your great work. The enemy would want nothing more than to get you consumed with inconsequential things that compromise your ability to do the thing that God has designed you for.
You have been fearfully and wonderfully made. God has deposited purpose on the inside of you. There is a hope and a future for you. But you won’t see that future if you are distracted. If you stop doing a great work to go and do some other work.
When the enemy comes to your door, and tries to lure you out through distraction, you have to ask yourself, is this pulling me away from my purpose, or propelling me to my purpose. If you are seeing something that is pulling you away, you have got to run away. Someone say run. Run, not walk.
Your purpose is too important to be distracted by fake news.
Your purpose is too important to be compromised by the culture.
Your purpose is too important to be distracted by the latestmanufactured crisis.
Don’t get distracted!
The Trick of Deceit
The Trick of Deceit
In the same way Sanballat for the fifth time sent his servant to me with an open letter in his hand. 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.
When Nehemiah’s enemies couldn’t get him distracted, they tried their next trick - deceit.
They manufactured a bold faced lie in order to get Nehemiah to stop.
They planted the lie that the Jews were looking to rebel against the Persian empire and establish themselves as a nation with their own King. This sort of behavior would have led to their complete destruction. They would have been swarmed by the Persian army and thrown right back into captivity, if it was true. Someone say if it was true.
The Enemy Will Use Deceit
If he can’t distract you, he will start to lie to you. He will begin to say things to you that are completely untrue. This is who he is. He is the father of lies. In him is no truth. He has one single mission, to steal, to kill and to destroy.
He will start to whisper into your ear that you aren’t good enough.
He will start to whisper into your ear that you aren’t loved.
He will start to whisper into your ear that no one understands you.
When he does that, and listen to me, he will do that. You need to bring out your weapon.
You know that you have a weapon right?
The word of God is sharper than a two edged sword. This is our weapon. When what he is saying disagrees with what the word is saying, stand on the truth of God’s word.
Make a decision that you are going to listen to the voice of truth, and not the voice of lies.
Don’t stand there motionless and paralyzed, get on the offensive, and start to use your weapon.
Part of the reason I start my morning in the word of God is because I want his voice to be the first voice that I hear. That sets the tone.
When I start with truth it exposes the lies.
The Trick of Delusion
The Trick of Delusion
The third and final trick that Nehemiah’s enemies used was the trick of delusion.
Now when I went into the house of Shemaiah the son of Delaiah, son of Mehetabel, who was confined to his home, he said, “Let us meet together in the house of God, within the temple. Let us close the doors of the temple, for they are coming to kill you. They are coming to kill you by night.”
And I understood and saw that God had not sent him, but he had pronounced the prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him.
The Enemy Will Use Delusion
Now delusion simply means this - altered reality in spite of evidence to the contrary.
The Prophet Shemaiah was prophesying to Nehemiah. This had the evidence of a word from God. Furthermore, he told him let’s get to the temple to hide from your enemy. How could going to the church be wrong?
But Nehemiah knew, this was yet another trick. It was another tactic. This prophet had been hired to give Nehemiah a false word in order to trap him.
Here’s what this means, just becuase its good does not mean it’s God.
In life, there’s going to be opportunities and options that appear to be good, but once again it could be a trap to get you into a place that you are not supposed to reside in.
Shemaiah said let’s go the temple and close the doors.
The enemy would like for nothing more than to get you behind the wrong closed doors.
So Pastor, how do I know if it’s good or God?
It comes from a place of communion with God. It is hearing the voice of God in quiet times. It is spending so much time in his presence that anything that is counter fit is easily exposed.
When I worked at the bank, they didn’t spend hours on hours showing us counter fit currency. They told us that if you spend lots of time handling authentic currency, the counter fit will be easy to spot.
Church, spend time in his presence. Spend more time in his presence. Learn his voice. Discern his will.
How do I start? Set a five minute timer on your phone and spend time with him. Then grow your time. As you grow your time, and grow your frequency, you’ll grow your intimacy.
Conclusion
Conclusion
After all of those tricks and tactics, Nehemiah knew what he needed to do. He needed to finish the job. As long as the door was open, the enemy could walk through the doors with distractions, deceit and delusions. As long as the door was open, the enemy could come in. So Nehemiah finished the job.
And that’s exactly what is happening today. We have people who are making the decision to finish the job. How are they doing that? They are closing the door. They are closing the door.
Baptism Closes the Door
It’s not enough to be in the church and having received Christ and not close the door. Your next step is to not just be in the church, but to close the door on the world, close the door on the enemy and put everyone on notice that the door is shut.
As we get ready for Baptism now, I want to know if there is anyone else who wants to shut the door. You’re done being in the room with an open door and you are ready to close the door, you can get baptized today.