Ezekiel 2-3, God Chooses To Use Human Messengers
1. God Wants To Speak With You (Ezekiel 2:1)
2. God Enables You To Listen By The Spirit (Ezekiel 2:2)
3. Let God’s Word Sink Deep Into Your Heart (Ezekiel 3:10)
4. Then Go Tell Others What God Says (Ezekiel 3:11)
As we look at Ezekiel chapter two and three this morning, we're looking at the commissioning of Ezekiel, and chapters 1/2 and three include this whole experience when God revealed himself to Ezekiel in a powerful way and then called him to service, called him to be the messenger of the Lord, and I've titled The Message.
This morning, God chooses to use human messengers.
Six, as we look at the beginning of Ezekiel calling, we are reminded for each of us that it's not a unique calling in that way, that Ezekiel is one of those rare, special kind of occasions, but that like all other people that God has used throughout all of history, he was a regular guy.
He was a person that was used by God extraordinarily, but not because he was extraordinary.
He was used by God extraordinarily because he allowed God to work through him.
In Ezekiel chapter one, you have the vision of Ezekiel roar that Zico has of the throne of God and the four living creatures.
And it's this incredible and brilliant and very difficult even to imagine, seeing that he writes there in Ezekiel chapter one, this glorious vision of God, throne and the angelic beings.
Around them, and it is a little bit of a contrast for us then, as we go from chapter one to Chapter 2, where God has these incredible angelic beings at his disposal.
He can send them. He can use them, he can cause them to work miraculously and blow people's minds.
Just by show.
Going up.
And yet the instruments that God has chosen to use to deliver his messages are primarily human.
He doesn't use angels a whole lot in.
That way he.
Doesn't have angels, you know, flying around telling all of the world.
Not right now.
There will be some during the Tribulation period.
We see that in the Book of Revelation.
But primarily throughout all of history and the present day, God has chosen to use regular people, human beings like you.
And like me, no different than one another.
Human beings that are flawed and messed up and have issues.
Use as Zechiel was just like us, and yet he was chosen by God to deliver the message of God.
Matthew Henry comments on this, saying though God had here a splendid retinue of holy angels about his throne, who were ready to go on his errands, yet he passes.
Them all by.
And pitches on Ezekiel, a son of man, to be his messenger to the House of Israel.
For we have this treasure in earthen vessels, quoting from the apostle Paul and God messages sent us by men like ourselves, the important thing to take note of as we get started.
Here is that God chooses to use human messengers.
He could use angelic beings, he could breakthrough the heavens and speak directly.
But that is not the way that God has chosen to work.
And so if God is going to reach your family, if God is going to reach our schools, if God is going to reach our communities, if he's going to speak to living water, if he's going to speak to us individually.
He is very often going to use.
Human messengers.
He's going to use people around us, and every Sunday morning we gather together before service at 10:00 AM, you're all invited.
I encourage you to come, and we pray specifically for the roles that God has given in the body of Christ outlined in Romans chapter 12.
Because we believe that as we gather together, it's not a show on the stage and you know, everything is about what happens up here.
But as we gather together, I I believe God's ideal is that the majority of ministry doesn't happen on stage.
That that's a portion.
That's a piece, but that the majority of God.
's work in.
Our lives as we gather together happens.
Before service as we interact, after service, as we congregate in between services during the week as we pray for one another, encourage one another and talk to each other that that there is the one another ministry that God has used and and designed for us to engage in to be part of his work in each other.
Lives, and sometimes we kind of withhold.
Ourselves from that.
We are reluctant to participate in that.
That we kind of hold up other individuals and think of them as, you know, really super special.
Not like us.
And that's why God can use them and they can have words of wisdom for people and insights from the Lord.
And and so you know, that's why the Lord uses that person.
But I'm not like that person, and I have these flaws and issues, and I have these challenges.
And so I'm not even going to entertain the idea of fulfilling any kind of spiritual role, or being any kind of disciple or of anyone, or helping anyone hear from the Lord and know what God has for them.
And it's not the right approach to take.
Listen, I'm up here this morning.
I appreciate the the prayers and the appreciation and all of that.
It's awesome.
But I I hope that you understand that I'm not up here today because I'm the one who signed the lease this week that the Lord said, OK, who is going to send the lease this week?
The most righteous of them all.
That's Jerry.
He's up there.
In fact, the way that God works, OK, don't be surprised if the Lord puts me up here, because I'm the one who sends the most this week, right?
Like the way that God works is not the way that we think and and we need to understand God chooses to use human messengers.
I mean if.
We were to stand up Josh right here next to me and it's Josh and me standing side by side and you had to figure out like who.
Sinned the most this week.
I think our tendency would be the kind of lean tornan gravitate towards.
Well, he has this role.
There's this special position there.
There must be some extra righteousness.
If you want to know if there's some extra special righteousness in my life, please take 5 minutes and talk to Kim.
She'll set you straight right away.
There is no special righteousness in my life apart from what Christ imparts to me, if you wrestle with that.
Or or no, I'm not sure.
Talk to Richard.
He's known me for close to 30 years now.
He could tell you there's no special righteousness in my life.
God chooses to use human.
Who have bad days and bad weeks and bad ideas and fall down and are frail and are forgiven and stand back up and continue to desire for God to use us.
And Ezekiel was one such person.
A human messenger.
Someone Like You.
Someone like me.
God could have used an Angel or spoke directly.
Well, he chooses to use his instruments, his people, his creation, to bring forth his message. And so we're going to look at four points to help us grasp hold of this truth and live it out. Point #1, found in Ezekiel, chapter 2, verse one. God wants to speak with you.
You need to know this morning that God wants to speak with you.
Verse one here of Ezekiel Chapter 2 says stand up son of man, said the voice.
I want to speak with you, God declares his desire, his will.
What he wants is to speak with you.
Now as he is addressing Ezekiel here, he refers to him with a specific label he calls.
Him son of man.
And son of man is a very interesting phrase.
It's used over 90 times in the book of Ezekiel, as God refers to Ezekiel as son of man.
We also see this phrase used in the prophecies of Daniel and Daniel, Chapter 7 in referencing an appearance of Jesus.
That Daniel gets and we'll get to that as we continue our journey through the Bible in three years in Daniel Chapter 7.
Jesus then later on in his life and ministry, takes up this title, this label, and applies it to himself.
It's one of his favorite ways to refer to himself as the son of man.
And so there's a couple different usages of the phrase and I don't I can't get into all of the.
That the different understandings and looks at it and the the depths of it.
But in Jesus adopting this title for himself, he's claiming to be the Messiah, referencing back to Daniel Chapter 7, but it's kind of veiled.
He's announcing his deity, but it's like a parable.
You have to be willing to search it out and understand that's what he means when he refers to himself as the son of man.
But at the same time, there's a double meaning.
That he is Speaking of his humanity.
That he is referencing the fact that he, being God, became man and so it has a very unique usage in the life of Jesus.
But it's not the same usage when we get to Ezekiel.
Ezekiel is not God who became man.
There is no aspect of deity to his nature.
He is.
As the Lord refers to Ezekiel as son of man, it's not a, you know, reference to the fact that he is the Messiah or anything like that.
It is the fact that he is.
The son of man.
Literally in the Hebrew.
It's Ben Adam.
Ben son of Adam, Ben Adam.
Like you could call me Ben Clyde.
Ben, Adam.
That guy who blew it in the garden, who failed and brought sin nature into all of humanity.
Ezekiel, you're a son of that guy.
You are a son of man.
We could perhaps say it today, average Joe, like as you read through Ezekiel over the next few weeks, maybe just try to substitute that in.
Hey average Joe, stand up.
I want to speak to you, says the Lord.
And it's not some special elevated he's in this exclusive club, he is.
He's a regular person.
He's a human being, a descendant of Adam with a sinful nature.
And God wants to speak with him.
We tend to think of prophets as extra special.
Men and women of God.
But the reality is that these prophets of the Lord understand they were living in a time where the people were rebellious around them.
The reality is that these prophets, they stand out because everybody else was in rebellion, but these prophets themselves were just fulfilling what God intended for every Israelite to be.
God intended for every Israelite to hear from him. God's desire was that every Israelite have the relationship with God that Ezekiel has.
His invitation to all the Israelites was the same as what was given to a zechiel.
Now the specific details of the life and the plan of God for Ezekiel were.
Unique and different.
Because of the circumstances and and his usefulness in the plan of God, but it wasn't because of some.
Special traits or extra abilities or some.
You know, special elevation of Ezekiel other than he was one of those few.
Who sought the Lord?
Who desired to know God to walk with him?
The desire to obey God.
But it was God's desire for all of his. Remember in Jeremiah Chapter 31, we saw under the new covenant, God said it's going to be different because this time around the first cover, the old covenant, everybody living in rebellion, and they're not walking with me. But in the new covenant, I'm going to put my instructions deep within them, all right?
Them on their hearts, I will be their God.
They will be my people.
They won't need to teach their neighbors.
They'll all know the Lord like that's God's desire for each individual to have their own fellowship and relationship and connection to the Lord.
He would be our God, and we would.
Be his people.
But the prophets stand out because they live in a time where the people around them had no desire to have that kind of relationship with God.
But here are these prophets they did and.
So God says great.
You can be my messenger.
You want to know me, you seek me.
I am going to speak through you to the people around you and it's the same.
For us today as Christians.
Every believer in Jesus has the Holy Spirit and is meant to have their own deep and real and vivid.
Relationship with God.
You are to have a strong fellowship to God and to hear his voice and to know him that that you have that potential.
And the invitation is for every one of us.
God wants to speak with you.
He wants to reveal himself to you.
He wants to tell you about himself and about you and about things to come.
And he wants to put you into.
The work of his Kingdom and use you to accomplish things that have eternal value.
It's something that God extends, an invitation that God extends to every Christian.
God wants to speak with you as a believer in Jesus Christ.
You need to know.
Notice whether he told the.
Zechiel I want.
To speak with you.
It wasn't that, you know.
God was a little bit reluctant, and Ezekiel finally persuaded him.
Right.
Notice it's God who's initiating this.
Ezekiel didn't start this.
He didn't put this together.
He didn't make this happen.
God made it happen.
He gave Ezekiel division.
He told the Ezekiel, stand up, I want to speak with you.
God is always reaching out to us.
He's looking at us and he's saying, I want to speak to you.
Will you listen?
Will you?
Will you give me an opportunity?
Will you receive what I have to say?
Ezekiel here is.
This great vision of the throne room of God.
Now stand up.
'cause I want you to hear my voice.
I want you to receive from me. Stand up at the end of chapter one, verse 28. It tells us all around him was a glowing Halo, like a rainbow shining in the clouds on a rainy day.
This is what the glory of the Lord looked like to me.
When I saw it, I fell face.
Down on the ground.
And I heard someone voice speaking to me.
He sees the throne and the glory of God and he says, Yep, that's right.
Yeah, I deserve that.
Show me more glory, God.
Yep, now he falls face down.
It's a posture of humility saying I'm not worthy.
To be in the presence of God.
I'm not worthy to see God, to see his work.
And God would not disagree with that sentiment except for God also not just loves to reveal himself, but loves to forgive and restore and lift up those who are humbled before him.
So he says, stand up.
I want to speak to.
You you humble yourself before me.
I I want to.
Bring to you.
My word and puts you into my service.
To be useful in the Kingdom of God.
Commentator Matthew Henry says his lying prostate was a posture of greater reverence, but his standing up would be a posture of greater readiness and fitness for business.
We may expect that God will speak to us.
When we stand ready to do what he commands us, here's a key.
Feature of receiving from God and hearing from God.
We we need to prostrate ourselves, to bow down before God.
There does need to be that approach to God, that humility and and awe of who he is.
Is, but we also need to stand up when we.
Want to hear?
From him indicating we are at the ready.
We're ready to take action, Lord.
You tell me to step and I will step.
You tell me to jump and I'll say how high.
Stand up, Ezekiel.
I want to speak to you.
Show your readiness to move forward, to take steps to do what it is that I call you to do.
God wants to speak with you.
So he looks at us and.
He says he average Joe.
You've believed in Jesus.
You've bowed down before me.
I want to reveal myself to you.
I want to speak to you directly and personally.
And then as we'll see as we.
Go forward. I'm.
Going to use those things that I speak to you to impact others around you.
To make the world different.
Because you've been in contact with me.
Paul tells us in First Corinthians chapter one.
To remember, sometimes we forget this and again, that's why it's so important to go back to these things that.
We lift up.
We elevate.
We have a wrong perspective.
On how God works and the people.
That God uses.
Paul says, remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world, wise or powerful or wealthy, when God called you.
Instead, God chose the things the world considers foolish.
In order to shame those who think they are wise and he chose things that are powerless to shame those that are powerful.
We don't have to be super special.
We don't have to be amazing, because God is amazing, and as we humble ourselves before him, he chooses to use us to speak to us, to reveal himself to us.
And to put.
Us to work for his Kingdom and for his glory.
Well, moving on to verse two of Ezekiel 2, we get point #2 and that is God enables you to listen.
By the spirit.
He begins to speak to Ezekiel, but even though he's speaking to Ezekiel, Ezekiel is not yet ready, not yet able to receive.
What it is that God has to say.
And so in verse two it goes on to say the spirit came into me as he spoke.
And he set me on my feet.
I listened carefully to his words.
God here enabled Ezekiel to listen.
God was speaking.
He was beginning to reveal himself to Ezekiel.
But Ezekiel was not yet fully capable of accepting or receiving or processing what it was that God was delivering to him.
And so now the Holy Spirit comes into Ezekiel.
As he spoke.
The Holy Spirit came into me.
In first Corinthians chapter 2.
Paul talks about the importance of the Holy Spirit in our lives in that way that we must be born again in order to receive from God, to hear from God, because natural man, natural humanity cannot understand the things of God but those who have been born again by the spirit of God.
We have the opportunity to hear from God.
We are able to receive the things that God says.
You might remember at the.
End of Jesus ministry when Jesus had resurrected he.
Goes to the disciples, and he breathes upon them, and he says.
Receive the Holy Spirit.
And it was after that time.
That they were able.
To understand the scriptures and how they spoke of Jesus.
That it was at that time he opened up their understanding too, to be able to dig into the word of God to the scriptures that existed at that time, and and to be able to understand and hear the voice of God through the word of God.
The Holy Spirit came upon them, began to end well in them, and they were able to hear from God.
This is how God works.
God enables you to listen by the Holy Spirit that that there is not.
A just a simply natural way for us to receive from God what he wants to deliver to us.
That the things that God wants to speak to you about cannot be discerned by natural means, and it's not a matter of your intelligence or your, you know, ability to rationalize.
Or your logical faculties it's it's it's about.
You're receiving the Holy Spirit.
And as he is filled with the spirit at this time, it tells us that Ezekiel was set on his feet.
In verse two he set me on my feet.
And that's really interesting, because you combine that with verse one where the Lord tells Ezekiel, stand up.
And then in verse two he set.
Me on my feet.
The vision that as ECHO has of the Lord has him bowed down before God.
He's not capable of standing up on his own.
But as the Holy Spirit comes upon him.
He is enabled.
To stand up.
This is one of those occasions where we are reminded that God's calling is God's enabling.
That when God gives us the command to stand up, or the command to go forth, or the command to speak out.
When when he gives us the instruction and sets before us a calling, a ministry and opportunity.
He gives along with that invitation.
Everything that is necessary.
To accomplish it.
Pastor J Vernon McGee says if God has called you to a certain thing to do a certain thing, he'll give you the power to do it.
The best position you can come to is to recognize that you are not able, in your own strength, to do the job the Lord has given to you.
We all need to come to this place that what God has called us to is greater than we can accomplish by ourselves.
And even just receiving the message and the revelation of God that he wants to give to us, we cannot do that.
In our own strength, with our own natural resources.
The reality of being a son of man.
An average Joe is that we have a sinful nature and apart from Christ we have a dead spirit, that spiritually we are dead apart from the Lord.
But we are born again, regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and so we have spiritual life because the Holy Spirit dwells within us.
So I was trying to think about this.
Then I began to picture it kind.
Of like jumper cables.
If I have my car there and the battery is dead, but you come along to help and you hook up your jumper cables, my battery is dead.
But because I've got these two linked now, my battery can come back to life, there can be a regeneration, there can be a born again experience for my car battery.
In that way that those jumper cables give it new life, recharge it and give it the energy that it was lacking.
In a similar way we without Christ, apart from Christ, we are dead spiritually.
And it's a.
Crude example, this idea of jumper cables.
But the Holy Spirit dwells within us and maintains that charge so that we have spiritual life because he continually connects us to the father he continually is causing us to be.
In that condition of revival and have that electricity, that, that connection, that life from God.
And so, as Zechiel is empowered by the Holy Spirit, he's got the jumper cables on, he's been brought back to life spiritually, and he's able to stand up.
He has.
As he goes, set on his feet.
And then notice at the end of verse two it says I listened carefully.
To his words.
And so there is God, who's initiating this whole thing, giving him the vision, calling him to stand up, giving him the ability by the Holy Spirit to stand up.
But then you have the cooperation of Ezekiel.
In that, he listened carefully to his words.
God set him up and gave him everything that he needed.
But also Ezekiel had his part to play and that was OK now I've received.
What you have said, I've received the Holy Spirit, I've been stood up.
I have what I need.
And so now I'm going to listen carefully.
There is the participation of Ezekiel now, the cooperation with the Lord in the work that God desires.
To do and.
This is how God works in our life.
God enables you by the Holy Spirit to listen to God, to hear from God and receive from him.
As well as.
Any other commands or direction or exhortation that?
He gives you.
The apostle Paul in Philippians chapter 2.
Tells the Philippians.
Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you, and now that I'm away, it is even more important.
Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear.
Notice this though verse 13, for God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power.
To do what pleases him.
And so Paul encourages the Philippians.
You guys need to cooperate with God.
You need to work hard to show the results of your salvation.
But also to understand that it's God who's working in you to produce that.
And so it's not your efforts, of course, to bring salvation.
That's a completely other direction that we're not going to get into.
But it's not about works for salvation, but showing the results of your salvation.
You have to work hard.
There is a an effort, there is a participation, a cooperation.
God is working in you with the desire and the ability enabling you.
So take those things that God is giving to you.
The desire and the power, and then work hard with those things.
To do what God has set before you, God enables you.
By the Holy Spirit to listen and to do for his good pleasure.
And so there is a.
Joint effort that's going on here.
It's always God initiating.
It's the Holy Spirit filling and enabling.
In this case, it's Ezekiel listening carefully.
And for you and I, we need.
To do the.
Same and it's the same pattern God initiates with us.
He's always the one reaching out to us and the Holy Spirit is extended to.
Every one of us.
To fill us, to empower us, to enable us.
And so we have every every believer in Jesus has the opportunity to hear from the Lord, to receive from the Lord, to be instructed by the Lord, to have direction and insight from God, and to be set on a mission and a path to go forward for the glory of God.
It's true of every one of us, because God.
Chooses to use.
Human messengers.
Well, let's flip over to Ezekiel Chapter 3 for point #3.
Going to look at verse 10 point #3 is God or let God's word sink deep.
Into your heart.
As equal chapter 3 verse 10 says then he added, son of man, let all my words sink deep into your own heart first.
Listen to them carefully for.
Now of course we're skipping over some things as we jump from Chapter 2 verse two to chapter 3, verse 10.
God still working with Ezekiel, speaking some things to him.
He's given him a scroll to consume.
On the scroll is written the words of God front and back.
He is to eat that tasted sweet in his mouth, and God is here giving some clarity about his commissioning and what God is calling him too.
But he goes back to this instruction here for Ezekiel in verse 10 and he says.
Here's what you need to do, Ezekiel.
Let all my words sink deep into your own heart first.
And that was really illustrated in verses one through three when when he partook of the scroll that God gave to him, he ate this scroll.
I I like how the new king or the old King James version puts it.
It was a role, not a scroll.
So he ate the roll and so maybe that was, you know, like a Hawaiian bread roll or.
Maybe like a sushi roll, you know?
He he ate the roll and and that picture.
Of partaking of it, chewing on it, swallowing it, and so it goes deep within, and your body is digesting it and processing it.
That that's a visual illustration here that that Ezekiel has now as he goes to verse 10.
Let all my words seek deep into your own heart first.
That that this is how he is to process the word of God.
That it is to not just be.
In one ear.
And out the other.
But he is to bite it, and to chew on it, and to digest it, and receive it unto himself, and and let it take root deep within his own heart.
But but notice the 1st.
Let it sink deep into your own heart first.
That's not going to be the only purpose and usage of the words that he's receiving from the Lord, but but its first priority.
And sometimes we take the word of God in and even as we read it, we're we're reading it for somebody else.
We're reading it for well, yeah, Josh really needs to hear this and Harvey needs to hear that one.
And oh man, I can't wait to share.
That one we're we're looking at, other people were saying, boy they.
Really need this.
But God design and God desire is first our first priority in engaging with God in the scriptures.
Is because we need first to hear this word from God.
So he says, Ezekiel, let it sink deep. No notice the expression there. Let all my words sink deep. There there is again an interaction, a cooperation on Ezekiel's part.
And and how deep those words from God rest in him is somewhat dependent upon Ezekiel allowing God's word to take that effect and that root in his life.
Pastor David Guzik says the eating of the scroll was not just a spiritual experience for Ezekiel, it acted out a spiritual truth.
Ezekiel must receive and internalize and digest the word of God before he could be a messenger of that word to the House of Israel.
He had to receive.
It he had to let it sink deep.
He had to marinate in that word and allow it to affect him to the core.
You know, sometimes we think about prophecy.
We think about, you know, being used by God or prophets of the Lord and and and we picture it inaccurately in our minds, thinking of prophecy primarily happening in the the space of a moment.
That suddenly I'm just overtaken, I say.
Thus says the Lord.
And there is this prophecy that goes for it.
Now, just to be clear, God does do that.
But I would suggest you that is not the primary way that God uses people to prophecy.
The primary way that God uses is to develop that word, that prophecy, deep and slow within us.
And when it's ready, when it's fully processed and internalized, then it can be brought forth.
To say that another way, God uses both the microwave and the slow cooker, and there is those on the spot in the moment prophecies absolutely.
But don't limit your idea and your understanding of prophecy to that.
This morning, in our time of prayer, I encouraged those who were gathered here to be praying for the roles that God has for them in the service today.
But also let's start praying for next Sunday, because there might be some words that God wants to give you today.
Sink down deep and for the next seven days, you're you're marinating on this word from the Lord, so that next Sunday, or two Sundays from now, or four Sundays from now, or maybe two years from now.
You'll be ready.
To deliver that word from the Lord, let God.
's word sink.
Into your heart.
I always remember Pastor Dillon encouraging us back when he was here, before he moved up to Watsonville and began the ministry up there.
But he always encouraged.
Us have a pen and paper ready.
Every time you open up the scriptures.
And sometimes it's easy to just kind of like open and read and move on but but to have something.
I would update that you know that was 30 years ago that exhortation but.
You might have that digitally you need to have.
What is your method of capturing what God has to say to you through his word?
And you need to approach the scriptures in an expectation to hear that.
If I have a pen and paper handy when I open the scriptures, I'm I'm consciously, deliberately saying, God, I'm looking to hear from you.
I'm standing.
Ready to take notes?
To hear what you have to say so that I can receive it fully and complete that I can let it sink down deep.
And how many times do we get something significant from the Lord?
And then it's just kind of washed away in the day, like the sewer is casting out his seed and.
It's on the path.
It's the hard soil.
It doesn't take root.
It just kind of gets flipped around and and it never grows.
How much do we?
Receive from God that just ends up.
On this hard path.
That we need to deliberately, consciously prepare ourselves to accept catch that football.
I don't know all the terms.
Fully. I'll tell you afterwards.
But cradle it, right?
And like, you got a receipt you gotta deliberately create.
You know, like, take it, accept it.
And you, you should have a process.
Plus for that, like you should know how God wants you to do that in your life, and maybe it is a pen and paper and so you have your journal and you have your notebook.
Maybe it is, you know, an app that you use to take notes with.
Maybe it is some other method.
Or maybe you're just that one amazing human being that never needs to write anything down, and you perfectly receive.
And never forget what God says to you.
Then praise the Lord you can teach next Sunday instead of me.
OK, that would.
Be great but.
But you need to have a way, a method, a means of here's how I interact with God and here's how I take God's word and meditate on it so I don't forget.
Yet so these things sink deep down into my heart.
At the beginning.
Of his leadership of the Nation of Israel, God spoke to Joshua and Joshua, Chapter one, and told him to study this book of instruction continually, to meditate on it day and night, so you will be sure to obey everything written in it.
Only then will you prosper and succeed.
And all you do, Joshua.
You can't just take your favorite parts.
You can't just take a couple verses here or there.
You can't just come back to this one.
Week everyday, day and night, meditate on these things to make sure that you obey everything written in it.
Are you sure that you are obeying everything that God has spoken to you this week?
Are you sure?
As God has been reaching out to you and speaking to you and initiating conversations with you, Are you sure?
That you are putting those things into practice, that you are receiving them and you're able to meditate on them and put them into practice in your life.
It's something we need to learn how to be sure of, to receive and and to let God's word.
Seek down deep.
The psalmist says in Psalm Chapter 10 the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join with mockers, but they delight in the law of the Lord, meditating on it day and night.
They're like trees planted by the riverbank bearing fruit each season.
Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do because the word of God.
Has a profound effect upon our spiritual life, member.
The word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit.
It's one of the means and the methods that God gives us life by the spirit and speaks to us through his word.
And so let God's word seeing deep into your heart. God chooses to use human messengers, and so far we're just really looking at the messenger part of it in points 1/2 and three, right?
It's it's about us receiving and and what we need to receive from God and have from God his Holy Spirit.
And his word meditating in our hearts, marinating deep within us so that we are listening carefully and able to receive what he has to say.
But then finally we're prepared. Verse 11 gives us point #4. Then go tell others what God says verse 11 says. Then go to your people in exile and say to them.
This is what the sovereign Lord says.
Do this whether they listen to you or not.
God gives Ezekiel specific order here.
Hear from God.
And let God's word go deep down within you to impact you to the core by the power of the Holy Spirit.
And then, only then, Are you ready.
To go to your people in exile and say this is what the sovereign Lord.
There's there's this order that is important and essential.
And we need to be very careful.
As we counsel people, instruct people, talk to people, share our thoughts and opinions about everything that they share about their lives to us.
We need to be very careful.
That we do not just kind of shoot from the hip and speak our mind and share our opinions and our ideas and our thoughts and what we think is wise, or what cousin Judy said, or, you know, what, what what things the world has taught us, our experience has taught us.
Desire for his servants.
Is for us to hear from the Lord.
To receive it in.
A way that it impacts us.
And then we're ready to share with others what God has said.
Remember, in Matthew Chapter 7, Jesus said, don't be foolish, take the plank out of your eye before you can help somebody else with the speck in theirs.
And we all have planks in our eyes because we're humans.
We are a son of man where average Joe.
Or Josephine.
And we.
God's work in our lives.
So let it sink in and then.
In verse 15, the Holy Spirit takes him back to the people in captivity.
He finishes the vision, but then he sits for seven days.
In verse 14 it tells us this seven days he sat.
Is the captives.
Before he began to speak, it took him that seven days to let all of these things seek deep within him.
Most of what we share.
In the name of the Lord on.
Behalf of the Lord most of what we share.
Should be personal testimony.
It should be personal testimony.
The word of God changing us.
And let me tell you how God has been speaking.
To me, let me tell you how God has been developing this thought and this idea in me.
Let me tell you where this message originated from.
This is how God has worked in me, Paul tells us in Second Corinthians chapter one that comfort, our comfort comes from God and he comforts us so that we can comfort others with the comfort that God has given to us.
And it's a great word of caution.
Don't try to comfort others when God hasn't comforted you.
Because your comfort is not going to be comforting.
And I think we've all experienced comfort that is not comforting by people who have not been.
Comforted from God, right?
We we need to be comforted by God, to take our issues, to take our hurts and our failures to God, and receive from God those comforts so.
That we can.
Then turn around and share those with others.
Then go and tell others what God says is heal.
Then you'll be ready 'cause you've heard from me, you've received my word, you've been comforted by me to the core.
So now you're ready to share.
Now you're ready to speak on my behalf.
Now he gives a little bit of word of warning here in verse 11.
He says do this whether they listen to you or not.
Heads up, Ezekiel.
They're not going to listen to you.
But that doesn't mean you shouldn't speak.
That doesn't mean it's not worthwhile.
It's still necessary that they hear the message, even if you know in advance they're not going to receive it or accept it.
The message needs to be delivered, and so go tell others what God says.
Even if you know I already know what they're going to say, I already know they're going to reject it.
God says that doesn't matter.
When I put that person in your path, when I put them on your heart, it's because they need to hear the message, whether or not they like it or want it.
Or accept it or receive it.
But God, couldn't you just break through, you know, speak through them in their bedroom and just like blow their minds with how big you are?
And how amazing.
Yes, I could do that.
But instead I've chosen to send you.
And we have this treasure in earthen vessels.
The glory of God, the word of God, the message of the Lord to deliver to the world around us.
God wants to speak with you.
He enables you to listen.
It's not your smarts, your ability, your reading level, your comprehension level.
The Holy Spirit who enables you to hear from God what he.
Has to say to you.
And you got to cooperate. You got to work with him. Let God's word sink deep.
Into your heart.
Meditate on it.
Refer back to it frequently.
Continue to call out to the Lord Lord.
What does this mean?
And and what is it saying to me?
And what do you want to speak to me about these things?
Let it impact you?
And transform you.
Go tell others.
What God says.
This is a similar pattern to what God gave to Saul of Tarsus on the road to Damascus.
As he transforms into the apostle Paul later on. But at the beginning God spoke to him and as Paul recounts that and acts Chapter 26, he says this.
He says.
Who are you, Lord?
I asked, and the Lord replied, I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting.
Now get to your feet.
For I have appeared to you to appoint you as my.
Servants and witness.
Tell people that you have seen me.
And tell them what I will show you.
In the future.
The Lord told the apostle Paul, stand up.
The Lord told Ezekiel, stand up.
And here at living water, Jerry says to you, stand up.
I'm serious.
Stand up.
Let's stand up.
'cause God has appointed you, and he has called you.
To be his messenger.
To your friends.
To your family, to your coworkers, to.
The world around you.
First and foremost, you need to receive his word for yourself and let it sink deep into your hearts.
You need to dive in.
But every one of you is fully capable.
Of being an ambassador for the Lord, a shining light, a lighthouse unto the Lord, every one of you is as capable and more capable than I will ever be at reaching those groups that God has sent you to.
Every one of us were commissioned by God.
He chooses to use us human messengers.
So get to your feet.
He's appeared to you for a purpose.
Now go tell them what you have experienced in the Lord.
Lord, I pray for each one of us that you would fill us with.
Your Holy Spirit enable loskot.
To hear your voice, to recognize when you're speaking to us, Lord, I pray that you would enable us to tune out the things of this life in this world that keep us, Lord, all those distractions that keep us from receiving your word deep.
Within our hearts.
But may your word made the seed sown.
Go down deep and take root, and begin to produce life and transform us from the inside out.
Lord, that we might not have.
A shallow testimony, a shallow story, a shallow word to share.
With the world around us.
Or but that we would have the depth.
Of a secure and vibrant and real connection to and relationship with you.
Lord, that we would be able to share with all genuineness.
The reality of your transformation with all certainty, God of your capability to work and speak and move and deliver.
Because you have done it first in us.
The Lord, we can't do it on ourselves.
We can't receive it even in our own strength.
So what we ask you now?
Would you fill us with your Holy Spirit, enable us to listen, and we stand at the ready?
To go into action.
To dive into your word.
To seek you further, to receive from you more.
That we might be equipped and enabled and ready.
To share with those that you put around us, may we be your messengers empowered by you.
We pray this in Jesus name.