Distractions...When to Say 'No'


[PDF]Distractions...

0 downloads 210 Views 725KB Size

am doing a great work and I cannot come down.” Facebook may be beckoning. “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.” It may be you are praying in your room reading and God’s word to center your heart for the day and the kids are yelling and banging on your door. “I am doing a great work and cannot come down.” Dads, you may be a powerfully important person at work, but you are the only one who can be a father to your children. You can’t seem to get home for the evening meal with the family, you can’t ever make it to your son’s game or your daughter’s play. Block that time slot. Write it in. You are their only father who can show up. Tell the company you have an important commitment at that time. When I was working for PG&E, I took a time management class. They taught us to list out all the things I needed to get done that week, and then go back over that list and rate them by importance either a 1, 2 or 3. The 1’s were the most important, most mission critical, crucial and also usually the more difficult tasks. Do them first. If you have time work on some of the numbers 2’s. If you follow that plan you probably won’t have time for any of the 3’s, but what typically happens is if we have motivation to even make the list, we start with working on the 3’s because they are the easiest and then we wonder why it is we never ever accomplish anything of significance. Keep focused on what you are convinced God wants you to do. We need to establish a paradigm of obedience. A number of years ago Demmings TQM (total quality management principles) became all the rage in business leadership. A paradigm is an overriding principle that guides decisions to be made. For example, back at a time when customer service was optional, Nordstrom’s paradigm was “Delight the customer”. So how this worked for the employee was that if there was ever a time when they weren’t sure how to respond to a complaining costumer, think to yourself, “how can I delight this customer?” If you approached it with that paradigm in mind, the Nordstrom management was happy with the employee. Sometimes this can be confusing because other paradigms we’ve held to might conflict, such as “sell all you possibly can”. Or “never let people take advantage of you.” Those can get in the way if your sole purpose which is to delight the customer. As believers we are called to delight the Lord. There are other paradigms that we have learned in the past that conflict with that. “Look out for number one.” We are too familiar with the paradigm, “if it feels good do it.” God wanted Nehemiah to build a wall and strengthen the people. Nehemiah was focused and kept doing what God wanted him to do. What does God want you to do? Just do it. Say no to those things, maybe even good things, that distract from what God has

clearly called you to do. Keep focused on what God has, not for your friend, but focused on what God has for you. In Mark chapter one, Jesus has been healing people and performing miracles. The crowds are growing every day. The disciples are totally pumped. They can imagine huge healing bus tours, TV interviews, books and big budgets. Ministry is really taking off! So in Mark 1:35, one morning Jesus is nowhere to be found. He had gone to a secluded place to pray, to talk with His Father. The disciples finally find Jesus and blurt out, (V. 37) “where have you been?…Everybody is looking for you.” Jesus responds in the next verse, “Let’s go someplace else so I can preach there also. That is what I came for.” Basically, “I am doing a great work and cannot come down.” Jesus was able to say “no” to a very good thing and pursue the best thing, because He knew clearly his mission from Father God. Jesus came to this earth with a clear mission. Today we celebrate Palm Sunday. Jesus entering into the gates, into Jerusalem. Yet he would die that very next week. Hero to zero in just a few short days. Jesus was not swayed by public opinion. His mission was clear, but it was not easy. Maybe what God has called you to is not easy. GK Chesterton said, “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and not tried.” Determining what we should say yes to or no to is not an easy thing to determine. But when I clarify who God has created me to be and what He wants me to do about it. When we know the answer to that question, it is easier to decide which opportunities fit into that vision for this season of our life and which ones do not. Is God asking you to say no to something so you can focus on what He has asked you to say yes to? What is that? What are those 2 or 3 things that are really important to carry out God’s mission for you? Clarifying God’s mission for you helps us determine what to say yes to and what to say no to. It keeps us on track. Know the enemy’s strategies and clarify God’s mission for you.

This message from the Scriptures was presented at NORTHVIEW BIBLE CHURCH, Spokane, Washington. Scripture quotations are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE (“NASB”), © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995, 1996 by the Lockman foundation. Used by permission.

Catalog No. 361 page 4

“Distractions...When to Say ‘No’” Sermon Series: “Nehemiah”

A bear and a hunter surprised each other in the woods. They each had their own needs. The hunter told the bear, “I sure would like a nice warm bear skin coat.” To which the bear replied, “I sure would like a full stomach.” As the hunter raised his gun, the bear lifted his paw and said, “Now listen Mr. Hunter, instead of shooting why don’t we sit down on this log and see if we can work out some sort of compromise?” So, the hunter leaned his gun against a tree and the two sat down to talk it out. The bear didn’t do any talking. The bear ate the man and both of them went away with their needs met. The bear had a full stomach and the man had his bear skin coat. Compromise is a good and healthy thing when two people are trying to work out differences. Good marriages, businesses, neighbors, friends all must make mutual concessions to discover an alternative that is acceptable to both parties with differing ideas of what needs to be done. But sitting down to talk compromise with the One who devours is not wise. Compromise in one’s spiritual life, compromising one’s values and standards against what God says it right and true, will drain your spiritual vitality. I’m not talking about someone’s preferences or opinions. I’m talking about compromising with the enemy. Satan is like a bear (or a prowling lion) who would like nothing better than to trick you into sitting on a log with him, eat you up, walk away and belch. Satan wants to pull you away and distract you from your real mission and purpose and make you think you can get your needs met his way and it won’t hurt you a bit. It’s rare that the enemy will make his attack so direct and obvious. Satan knows it’s often more effective to be subtle. If he can woo us into compromise, knock us off our mission, muddy our vision using something seemingly so innocent as distraction, then that is the tool he will use. How can we keep on track in following Jesus? How can we be sure we are saying “yes” to the right things and perhaps even more importantly, saying “no” to the wrong things which are not necessarily even bad things, but good things that are less than the best? Have you ever felt like you were tracking with Jesus and then the enemy whispers in your ear to compromise? Tempting you with a distraction? Was it during a time when you were frustrated? Discouraged? Lonely? Maybe it right after a great success, or a much-needed vacation. How do we keep from getting derailed by distraction or crushed by compromise? How can we say “yes” to the right things and “no” to those things that are less than best? This morning we learn from Nehemiah’s response to the enemies’ distractions. In order to

Catalog No. 361

Nehemiah 6:1-4 Pastor Norm Schwab March 25, 2018

stand strong, we must know the enemy’s strategies and clarify our mission. As I read Nehemiah 6:1-4 listen for the enemy’s distraction techniques, compromise, and watch what Nehemiah does to stand strong and keep from becoming sidetracked by distraction and compromise. Stand together as I read Nehemiah 6:1-4. Watch how he keeps his vision clear in the middle of a subtle attack. It’s interesting to note that in the previous chapter 5, there was no mention of the enemy, namely Sanballet, Tobiah and Geshem. In chapter 5 the wall building had come to a screeching halt. There was plenty of internal strife. No need for the enemy to attack when God’s people are already shooting at each other. The conflict between the domineering nobles and the poorer working folks had come to a head. The poor were struggling to eat in the middle of a famine, forced into slavery, losing their homes and farms they had put up for collateral because they couldn’t make the monthly loan payments. Nehemiah led the people in a resolution of conflict. The nobles have developed a softer heart for the hurting. Both sides are now following God and the wall building has resumed with much enthusiasm. The wall builders can almost taste completion. Only the doors and gates are left to be hung. With the wall building resumed and internal peace restored, the enemy ramps up the attacks. One thing this book clearly teaches us is this. Life is a battle from beginning to the end. Nehemiah ran into opposition the moment he chose to follow God’s direction. Do not expect that if one attack is countered, the enemy will go away. No, the attack will simply come from a different angle, a different approach. This is a great moment in the history of Jerusalem. The walls are complete and only the doors and gates are needed to be hung. Completion is close, success is at hand, yet this is the time when they are most vulnerable to distraction, to compromise. Distractions often come when things are going well. This is why the Bible “warns the proud person to beware lest he fall.” When did David fall with Bathsheba? When, as crowned King, he had not been beaten in battle. When did Jonah fall into the misery of self-pity? It was right after he preached the greatest revival sermon that swept over the city of Nineveh. When was Joseph tempted by Potiphar’s wife? Right after he had been promoted as CEO to run Potiphar Industries. Some of my most discouraging days occur on Monday. We may have had a great time on Sunday, worshipped together, sang together, prayed together, LIFE group sharing together, but then after that Monday comes. Some of my pastor friends don’t take Mon-

day off because they don’t want to feel that bad on their one day off. Satan knows exactly the times we are most vulnerable and will attack then. Do you know when you are weak and exposed? Be assured the enemy knows. In order to keep on track in following God, we must Know the enemy’s strategies. When direct attack doesn’t work; when Sanballet, Tobiah and Geshem can’t instill fear into the people and stop the work, they work to slow it down, distract, attack the leader directly. If they can divide the leader from the rest of the people they can win. Divide and conquer. Did you notice the change of tense in verse one to first person? “I had rebuilt”, “I had not set up the doors.” Nehemiah is writing from the enemy’s perspective. Their attack is now aimed directly at Nehemiah. He can feel the heat. If they can eliminate Nehemiah (and it is a very real threat - see the end of verse 2, “they were planning to harm me”). Or if they can discredit Nehemiah then they might be able to mobilize their allies living in Jerusalem and take over the city. Leaders are often put on a pedestal with a target on their backs. At times they get blamed for things they have not done and then criticized for things they tried to do. They are criticized for being reckless in acting too quickly. Leaders are also criticized for acting too slowly and being uncaring and cowardly. Leaders draw fire. Leaders absorb some shots. In the mid 1970’s, towards the end of his career, Sonny Jorgensen played quarterback for the Washington Redskins. After a particularly frustrating game, a reporter asked if he ever wanted to quit because of all the negative things people said about him leading the team. Sonny replied, “I don’t want to quit. I’ve been in the game long enough to know that every quarterback, every week of the season, spends his time either in the penthouse or the outhouse.” A leader can go from hero to zero in 60 seconds. The attack against Nehemiah has become more personal and more intense, but this is nothing new. It’s well known if you can pick off the leader, you can severely damage the group. In the revolutionary war with England, the Patriot soldiers were instructed to target the Redcoats wearing the epaulettes, the decorative fringe worn on the shoulder, indicating a ranked officer. If you take down the leaders, chaos ripples through the entire squadron. Sanballet knew that if he could neutralize the leader, isolate and bring down Nehemiah, he would gain the upper hand. It is tougher to attack the group as a whole. Take down the leader and you’ve got the whole group as well. Sanballet and Tobiah wanted to pull Nehemiah away from Jerusalem and away from the mission and vision God had given him to rebuild the wall. They wanted him to spend less time leading the rebuilding and more time having to deal with them. Satan wants to pull

you away from where you need to be, away from the group, away from your support, away from those who can encourage you, away from those who are loving enough to correct your perspective. Satan wants to separate them by wedges not made of steel, but wedges of words. What would Satan need to do to separate you from people, your support, your mission, your calling to render you ineffective? It grieved me to hear this week of a pastor friend who once led the largest church in Vancouver has fallen badly. Take out the leader, wipe out the church. Has Satan picked you off because he wiped out a spiritual mentor you looked up to? The evil one is a destroyer. At first, he will come “like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour (I Peter 5:8). He will crush you in his jaws and swipe his powerful paws across your mind, your emotions, your soul. But if that doesn’t work, Satan will come attacking as “an angel of light” (II Corinthians 11:14) smiling, and accommodating and flattering with enticing promises that assure us what he suggest will cost us nothing. He cares not whether its fear or flattery that works, distraction or compromise. He wants to win. He wants to destroy. We need to be aware of Satan’s strategies. Look at verse 2. Sanballet and his gang wanted to meet with Nehemiah in Chephirim out on the plains of Ono. What did they want? (V. 1) They had heard the wall was just about done. It sounds like a concession speech from a losing political candidate who wants to negotiate moving forward, be friendly, work out their differences. They say, “Come on out to Chephirim on the plains of Ono. Chephirim is the plural form of the Hebrew word for village, so it may refer to a proper name of a town yet undiscovered, or just any village out on the Ono plains. The Ono plains were about 25 miles from Jerusalem on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, very near the modern-day Israel’s Ben Gurion airport. At any rate, preparing for the trip, two days there and several days back and at least a day in conversation would take up a weeks time. Four invitations perhaps included offers of a beach side villa for much needed rest, a get away from all that brick and mortar. Come on out and get some perspective. Maybe later Nehemiah discovered they were wanting to do physical harm to him. Maybe God revealed their plans to him. He would have taken his bodyguard with him, so I think it was a set up to smear his character, to distract, to tempt. If you can’t stop progress, distract them, slow them down. Sometimes the evil one uses the strategy, “if you can’t beat ‘em, then join ‘em and then take over.” Satan has used this strategies in far too many American churches and universities and hospitals and YMCA’s. Many started out to be strong organizations following God and serving people, but godless people infiltrated into leadership and the

Catalog No. 361 page 2

mission and vision became diluted until it was Christian in name only. hen the name was changed. Be aware of the strategy, if you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em and then take over. If Nehemiah is distracted or discredited, the enemies will mobilize their allies and take over the city from the inside out. Satan uses compromise to knock us off track. What’s wrong with a little meeting? Don’t you need political and economic allies with those neighboring countries who are surrounding Judah? The gold embossed sealed invitation invites him. “Come sit down and talk with us, you’re legit, flattery, be friendly, be neighborly, let’s have some peace talks.” Didn’t it make sense to normalize relations with the neighboring states. It’s a baited hook, yet hidden underneath the juicy worm is sharpened steel that bites back. Take a week out of project time to go visit with and compromise and get distracted by the enemy away from the mission God has called me to? The enemy wants to negotiate and talk things out. It sounds like a good idea. Nehemiah writes back four times. “Oh No….I’m not coming out there.” The evil one wants to lure us away from doing what God wants us to do. The enemy wants to slow us down. Take a break! You’re becoming a fanatic. Don’t read that Bible so much. You deserve some pleasure. You need a little rest, a little culture. Step out and live a little. Come on out to the plains of Ono. The reason we aren’t getting along is because we don’t know each other. Come on and have some fun. Satan will use various means to desensitize us to sin, to compromise and make us take the bait. Just say no! Oh no. I think one of Satan’s favorite ways of knocking off from tracking fully with God is distraction. Distractions are fatal to visions. Certainly, we can all get distracted by wasteful…even bad and evil things. In ancient times, when the king of Siam had an enemy he wanted to torment, he would send them a rare gift of a live albino elephant, a white elephant gift. These animals were considered sacred and the recipient of that elephant had no choice but to accept and care well for the elephant gift. They didn’t want the gift but were stuck with it. The elephant devoured a huge chunk of their time and money just to care for the animal they would be brought to ruin. Feeding an elephant is expensive. Keeping his stall clean is a time consuming dirty job. We only give white elephant gifts at Christmas time, but Satan sends white elephants to consume our time and money and distract us away from God’s mission. What are those white elephants in your life that so consume your time that they have pulled you away from God’s mission for you? I could list a few things and step on toes, but I think the Holy Spirit does a far better job at that than me. Your white elephant is probably something that is

not evil. It may even be a decent thing by itself, but it has taken over and so distracted and pulled you away and controlled that you are no longer as effective for God’s kingdom as you know you could be. It is the good things that have the greatest potential to distract us from the best things. We live in a time when there are so many good opportunities available for us to invest our time in. We have more entertainment options, travel options, vacation, retirement, athletic, business, career, investment options than we ever had before. But the multitude of options now available to us can also sacrifice the mission God has given us. Saying no to bad things is fairly straight-forward. But every week I have so many opportunities that come up that are really good. Connecting with people. Good. Meeting with pastors. Fundraiser events. Speaking opportunities. Community boards. Conferences. Planning sessions. School open houses. I could be out every night of the week engaging in some very good activities, but I must realize that I could be even busier than I already am and even be doing good things, and yet actually be accomplishing fewer of the things I know God wants me to do. The good can become the enemy of the best. How can we keep tracking with the mission God has called us to? Not only do we need to be aware of the enemy’s strategies; Divide and conquer, compromise and distraction; we need to keep our mission, our purpose and our target, crystal clear. It is the focused life that makes a difference. The person with a focused life knows who they are and what they are doing. When we clearly know what our mission is, it’s then that we will be equipped to say “no”, not only to the bad things, but say “no” to those “good” things that are less than the best. I loved hearing Nehemiah say four times, “no, no, no, no” to an invitation that was less than the best that God had for him. Does anyone here struggle with saying no to an invitation that really is a good thing? Perhaps it’s because you haven’t clarified what is it God has called you to during this season in your life. Missions from God can change, will change with your availability and commitments. Moms of preschool kids, your God given mission is those kids. It won’t always be that, but it is for the next few years. Ask yourself, “Is there anyone else who can care for these kids like their mom?” No. You are it. Some of you are very high capacity and will have many invitations and opportunities come your way. You may be able to do several of those, but please don’t sacrifice the mission God has given you to raise your children. You are the only mom those kids have. I love Nehemiah’s response in verse 3. Did you catch that? “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.” Thee may be a thousand things that tempt you away. Make a little sign. Put it up to reminds yourself. Memorize this verse. The phone may be ringing. That’s why there is an answering machine. “I

Catalog No. 361 page 3