The Good Work

Shut the Door on Distractions

Sermon Notes | May 30-31, 2026

If your enemy can’t DESTROY you, he will DISTRACT you.

“Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies found out that I had finished rebuilding the wall and that no gaps remained - though we had not yet set up the doors in the gates. So Sanballat and Geshem sent a message asking me to meet them at one of the villages in the plain of Ono.”

Nehemiah 6:1-2 (NLT)

What we often think is an OPPORTUNITY, God calls a DISTRACTION. 

Don’t say MAYBE when you MEAN no.

If you’re always AVAILABLE to everyone, eventually you will have NOTHING to give to anyone.

Just because you COULD do something, doesn't mean you SHOULD do something.

“The fifth time, Sanballat’s servant came with an open letter in his hand, and this is what it said: ‘There is a rumor among the surrounding nations, and Geshem tells me it is true, that you and the Jews are planning to rebel and that is why you are building the wall. According to his reports, you plan to be their king.’”

Nehemiah 6:5-6 (NLT)

You will never do BIG THINGS if you’re distracted by SMALL-MINDED people.

“I replied, ‘There is no truth in any part of your story. You’re making up the whole thing.’ They were just trying to intimidate us, imagining that they could discourage us and stop the work. So I continued the work with greater determination.”

Nehemiah 6:8-9 (NLT)

“Later I went to visit Shemaiah…He said, ‘Let us meet together inside the Temple of God and bolt the doors shut. Your enemies are coming to kill you tonight.”

Nehemiah 6:10 (NLT)

“But I replied, ‘Should someone in my position run from danger? Should someone in my position enter the Temple to save his life? No, I won’t do it!’ I realized that God had not spoken to this guy, but that he had uttered this prophecy against me because Tobiah and Sanballat had hired him. They were hoping to intimidate me and make me sin. Then they would be able to accuse and discredit me.”

Nehemiah 6:11-13 (NLT)

“And I sent messengers to them, saying, ‘I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop and I leave it and come down to you?’”

Nehemiah 6:3 (ESV)

“Remember, O my God, all the evil things that Tobiah and Sanballat have done. And remember Noadiah the prophet and all the prophets like her who have tried to intimidate me - so on October 2 the wall was finished. Just fifty-two days after we had begun.”

Nehemiah 6:14-15 (NLT)

“When our enemies and the surrounding nations heard about it,  they were frightened and humiliated. And they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God.”

Nehemiah 6:16 (NLT)

You will never finish what you don’t start.

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