Ezekiel | Week 1 | Daniel Goulding | Full Service

I'm excited to get to be with you. Hey, we are starting a brand new series today that we're gonna be in for the next seven weeks. And my argument is that I think this is a book that we often skip over when we're reading through our bibles. It's a book that's in the middle of what's called the prophetic literature.

It's a book named Ezekiel. And it's a really incredible book,

but it's also an incredibly difficult book to understand. Ancient rabbis wouldn't even let young men under the age of 30 read this book because it could be so difficult to understand. And what we'll see is over the next seven weeks, won't have time to go through all 48 chapters in-depth, but we will cover the main themes of it. I would encourage you to be reading through it with us.

Our team has done an incredible job. They've built a resource that you can use to kind of go through it with us. So if you go to Rock Point. You'll see a guide that will kind of help you understand, man, what the heck are we reading in here? Because the book of Ezekiel is one of the most peculiar books out there.

At some point, Ezekiel is literally cooking his food over poop. He at one point lays on his side for a year and a half. He takes a sword, shaves his head and his beard, takes some of the hair, lights it on fire, takes some of it, cuts it with the sword. Like it's just a really bizarre book, but in there,

there is incredible insight that I believe that God wants to speak to us, and what we'll see this morning is I believe that a story that was written some two thousand seven hundred years ago, it actually applies directly to what we are walking through today in America in 2022.

So if you have a Bible, open up to Ezekiel chapter one. We are going to cover the first three chapters kind of high level this morning. As you turn there, I am going to pray for us. Father,

God, I pray that these next few moments that you would do what you do, that this would be a supernatural experience where you speak through one person, but you speak specifically and individually to everybody that's here.

God, however we got here this morning, we are here for a reason, and we ask that you would do And And to

we're that. And

My wife's going little sister has been a server for a lot of our marriage. She's worked at different restaurants and we would always just go to whatever restaurant she was working at for date nights and stuff and she would be our server and we'd go to Buffalo Wild Wings and wherever she was working. Well, at one point, she took a job at Hooters, and I told my wife, I was like, that's the point that I have to bow out. Right? Like that's the point. I'm just not really allowed in that restaurant. And my wife's like, why? It's not that big of a deal. And I'm like, I'm a pastor at church. If I've people walk in and they're like, wait, is that our pastor at Hooters? I'm like, I'm here for the chicken wings. You know, like nobody's gonna believe me.

And so periodically, my wife would be like, come on, like let's just go hang out, let's go see Kayla, and I'm like, I can't do it, like it's not happening. Well, I think it was, I don't know, five or six months after she started working there and please don't hear me, I'm not trying to vilify

Hooters right, it's just it illustrates a point. But after, I don't know, five or six months of being there,

we were going out to dinner somewhere else and I don't remember exactly what happened, think the restaurant was closed, we couldn't get in and we were sitting in the parking lot, we're like, what should we do? My wife is like, Kayla's working tonight. Let's just go to Hooters. And I was like,

fine. Right? I give in. I like put my hood on and put a baseball hat on. I'm like, don't make eye contact with nobody. Like I'm just looking at the floor. Right? I'm here for the wings. And I kid you not, I am not in this restaurant more than fifteen seconds. I'm sitting in this booth and I hear this dude walk up and all I hear behind me is pastor Daniel?

Yep. He goes, what are you doing here?

And I look at my wife and I like, I told you, I told you, it does not fail. No question. The one time I walk into this joint, some dude from the church is going to walk in and ask me what I'm doing there, which I turn around to him and I go, what am I doing here? I'm supporting my sister-in-law. What are you doing here? Right? You don't tell you're not here for those chicken wings. And the part that was really funny and that the reason that I start there is so we can laugh a little bit in church, but also to illustrate this point that I think is really interesting about us as humans. We have the ability to have this duality in us that is

like nothing else out there in that this guy felt extremely comfortable walking up to me talking about some arbitrary law or rule that doesn't allow me as a pastor to walk into Hooters without understanding that if it convicts me, it also convicts him. Right? Like, hey, you're here

as well. And the reason that I start there is this is where we're going to see the nation of Israel where they have become as they've become a nation where they thought the rules of God, the morality of God. It was for those people. It was for people out there, but it didn't apply to them. They somehow had forgotten

that how they lived, who they were, was supposed to be the greatest example to the world that God was real. But they had begun to mistake the grace of God as something that they could just abuse. They thought because God had chosen them and they were his people

that it didn't matter what they did. And friends, the greatest mistake that you and I can make is the people of God, is the people who have raised our hand and said, yes, we are in. We believe that Jesus is who he says that he is. We believe that he came back to life after being crucified and today he's seated at the right hand of the father. One of the most dangerous places that you and I will find ourselves

is sitting inside of church, sitting here not actually allowing God to talk to us about the things in our life believing that the rules are just for people out there.

The nation of Israel, if you don't know the Old Testament, the nation of Israel was a group of people that God had chosen primarily to show the rest of the world who he was through them.

But what they had begun to believe is that because God selected them, means they could do whatever they wanted. Israel had become one of the most prideful nations that we see almost anywhere. They thought they were untouchable because God was with them.

And for us to really understand why Ezekiel and the book that we're going to read and start for the next seven series, why it was so important, we really have to have our heads wrapped around what was happening in history, what was happening to the nation of Israel.

And for the nation of Israel, God's people, if their house of pride was was held up by four pillars, there was four essential things

that made Israel become as prideful of a nation as they had become. If you go all the way back to the book of Genesis, God came to a man named Abraham and he told him, he made a covenant with him. And he said that, I will always be with you. You will be my people.

And so they believe that because of that, they could not be touched no matter what they did. And then the second part of this is God had also given them a physical

place to live. They were living in the promised land and therefore that meant to them that God would never allow somebody to attack us. Nobody could ever overthrow us because this is the land that God has promised us. And inside of that land, they had also built the temple, and that is where Zion was. God's presence dwelt in that temple. Inside of the temple, there's a place called the holy Of Holies. It was the one place where God's presence existed on the earth,

and the nation of Israel made the mistake of believing that that was the only place that God was confined to, and that because he was there, there's no way that God would ever allow their nation to be invaded, he would never allow the temple to be destroyed,

because he had to rule the universe from that one physical place. And then the last thing is, is they had been told that through the line of David, they would always have a king that would rule them. And so those four things combined made them feel like they were untouchable.

But they had moved so far away from actually doing and living the way that God had told them to live. Despite all of his warnings, he tried to tell them, guys, you have to repent.

I've made you to be a city on a hill, a light into the darkness, but instead of being a light to your neighboring countries, you're now taking advantage of them. You're now abusing the grace that I've given you. And here's why all this matters for us. God is a patient and loving God.

And he wants us to learn and be corrected in his kindness. Right? It says that it's his kindness that leads to repentance. It's his goodness. It's his long suffering. He wants us to learn from wisdom.

But if we won't learn the lessons there and we continue to settle for second best, you better believe that God is a good enough father that eventually he will allow pain to enter into our lives to teach us a lesson that we could not learn in comfort. And for the nation of Israel, God's

grace and God's mercy with them had run out. And they were about to be taken captive and this is something that they could not even begin to wrap their head around. So where we are in the timeline of history, there's a couple important dates that we'll see that sets up where Ezekiel chapter one starts. In June,

God tells King Nebuchadnezzar, he allows the Babylonian government to come in and they have their first wave of attack against the nation of Israel and they take captive this guy named Daniel. Right? The famous prophet who goes into the lion's den. And it's really interesting how God sets us up because Daniel is a prophet that will live with the king in the palace and it will be God's spokesperson

to the ruling powers of Babylon. But what the nation of Israel who is living in exile in Babylon now, what they don't have is a prophet that is amongst them. And so some eight years later, the second wave of attack happens and it's in that wave in May

that Ezekiel is taken captive and he goes to live in Babylon. He is 25 years old. Where Ezekiel chapter one starts is five years after the second wave of attack of Babylon. Ezekiel is 30 years old. He's been living in exile for thirty

years. What we're going to see over the next seven weeks is that Ezekiel was given a pretty basic assignment, but it is one of the most difficult things to practically

live out. Again, I believe that this is still the assignment that you and I have been given. If you're taking notes, here's what God is going to ask Ezekiel to do. He is going to ask him to share truth with really stubborn people.

But here is the distinction that we have to see. These were stubborn people who had been trained to hear lies as truth. The nation of Israel had all kinds of false prophets come to them and say, there's no way that God will let you stay in captivity. You're his people. He's chosen you. He has to rule from Jerusalem.

You'll be back there. This is gonna be a short lived thing. And the people loved those messages because they were easy. It told them what they wanted to hear. Yet prophets like Jeremiah, prophets like Ezekiel who come in and tell them the truth,

just refuse to listen. We're going to see this morning. God tells Ezekiel from the very beginning, they will never listen to what I tell you to do. Do it anyways. Say it anyways.

Friends, I believe that you and I are living in a time and culture where people are becoming hardened and more hardened towards the things of God. They are becoming stubborn towards the ways of God and our culture is becoming more and more convinced that things that we know are lies

are now accepted as truth. And when we come with a message of real truth, they go, no, you're the crazy one. Yet God says you and I are called to go and speak into this generation regardless of whether or not they will listen. Our responsibility is not how they respond.

Our responsibility is to be obedient to what God has asked us to do and what to say. Okay. This is why a book that was written two thousand seven hundred years ago matters to us sitting here today. The overarching theme that we're going to see in the book of Ezekiel over the next seven weeks is that God's promise is that He will be with us. If we had to sum up the whole book in one idea, it's that the Lord is there. Okay. God wants the nation of Israel to remember even when you are in a really difficult season, when you look up and you go, how did we get here? None of this makes sense. I don't understand why we are here. God's promise is that He will be there

with you. The end of Ezekiel chapter 48 ends with a blueprint of the future city that the nation of Israel will build after the seventy years of captivity and the city that they will rebuild, the name of it, the final four words in the book of Ezekiel it says, the city will be named the Lord is there.

God's promise to you and I is even in seasons of correction, even in seasons of difficulty where he's teaching us hard lessons,

he will always be with us. He will never leave us or forsake us. So that is the world's longest introduction, but that's where we find ourselves in Ezekiel chapter one. Ezekiel one, are we there?

Here's how the story starts. It says, On July 31 of my thirtieth year, while I was with the Judean exiles besides the Kibar River in Babylon, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God. Okay. One verse into the very first chapter,

we learned that it's July 31. Okay. His birthday is July 31 and he's officially 30 years old today. Here's why that matters and here's why it's significant. The book of numbers tells us that the day that a priest would be commissioned to enter into the priesthood is at 30 years old. Right? Remember Jesus's public ministry, it started when? When he was 30 years old. It's it's a day of arrival. It's a big moment for Ezekiel. And when we go back and look through Ezekiel's history, Ezekiel's lineage can be tracked back and traced back to the very first priest that we see after the temple has been created. Ezekiel's

whole life had been geared towards one thing, to be a priest to minister inside the temple. But here is the problem is you cannot be a priest when you live in Babylon because the temple is over there and you live here. So on the day that he is supposed to be commissioned as a priest,

God shows up to him living next to this river. He has been living in exile for five years and the story starts, it says that he looks up and the skies part and he sees a vision.

And all of chapter one is him trying to explain to you and I what he saw in that vision. And again, this is what makes the book of Ezekiel sometimes hard to wrap our heads around because he's taking something that is supernatural.

He's trying to explain it and then he's trying to give humanity and human words to what he's seeing. And he says, it was like a man like image,

but it had four wings. It had wings on all sides and it was this being that was sitting on a chariot and the chariot had wheels and the wheels were made up of eyes. And it's this really bizarre picture that we learn later in Ezekiel chapter 10. What he's showing us is these are angels. These are cherubim.

And what Ezekiel comes to understand, all of chapter one, the big point of it is that Ezekiel is learning that God's presence is no longer confined to the holy of holies inside of the temple, inside of Jerusalem. And for a priest to have a moment where he goes, wait, God, your presence and your glory is here.

It's in Babylon. It's in exile. This would have been a paradigm shifting worldview changing moment for the prophet Ezekiel. It's literally the equivalent of trying to take a fish and teach him about concept of walking on land. Like it's just something that would have been so far outside of his realm of possibility.

We understand why at the end of chapter one in this revelation, in this vision that he's given,

he just falls on his face. And he understands that he's standing in the presence of God. Why does any of this matter for you and I? If we're going to be people who go, you know what, we're willing to do and be what the church is supposed to be. To be the hope of the world. To be people that go out with a message of hope, a message of truth amongst a culture of people who are convinced that lies are truth.

It has to start from a place that is fueled with vision. You and I have to have a vision of where we're going. I don't think it's ironic. I don't think it's coincidental that Ezekiel's story starts with a powerful vision.

Remember, this is a guy whose whole life thought he was gonna become a priest. A good white collar job. And God says, no, I'm gonna make you a prophet. And now for us, we might go, prophet is cool. They get to do all this stuff. In his culture, this would have been like prophets were nuts. These guys were crazy.

This was not an exciting moment for Ezekiel. Yet God gives him a picture of what he's going to do on the earth. I say all this to say to kind of belabor the point, you and I have to sit down at points and ask, what are we doing? Where are we going? What's the point of all of this? What is the vision for your life?

What is the vision for your marriage? What is the vision for your kids? What is the vision for your professional life? What is your vision of your life while you're here on this earth? The Bible says that it is but a vapor. It is a moment while you're here. And if you don't have a vision of where you're going and what you're doing, the Bible tells us very clearly in Proverbs chapter 29

that without vision, you and I will perish. How do we perish without vision? I believe that it's really simple. If you don't have a clear picture of where you're going and what you're doing and what you're working towards,

you will settle for anything that's right around you. We will unintentionally become the nation of Israel. When God says, I've built into the land, every six years when you're done working it, let it rest for a whole year. You'll go, wait, that means I have a year less of income.

I'm not gonna do that. I'm gonna do whatever I want because we don't have a vision of what God is doing in our lives. For Ezekiel, this was a very supernatural thing. I don't necessarily think it always has to be a supernatural thing for you and I. Can God do that? Will he do that? Yes and amen.

But I think you and I, if we're really going to step up and allow the church to become what the church was always supposed to be again, it has to start with us getting a clear picture of where we're going and what God is doing on this side of heaven. Ezekiel,

after this vision, realizes what God is trying to do. Man, it's so much bigger. God is so much bigger than I thought he was. I thought he was confined to this place and this location and God's like, I want all of it.

I want every single person to know who I am. And Ezekiel chapter one ends with Ezekiel literally laying on his face. He's just prostate before God going, I can't even move. I'm undone in your presence. And this is where we pick up reading in chapter two verse one.

It says, stand up son of man, said the voice. I want to speak with you. Again, we'll see this phrase a lot in the book of Ezekiel. It said here more than anywhere else in the bible. He calls Ezekiel the son of man, which is also a title that we see given to Jesus. That the correlation is very different. This connotation of the son of man is a connection back to Adam saying you are just a human. He's a man. And the good news for you and I is that we can do the same things as Ezekiel. When Jesus is referred to as the son of man, its connection to him, yes being human, but him also being 100%

God. So it's not a direct connection to Jesus, but just for clarity there. Here's what verse two says. It says, then the spirit came into me as he spoke and he set me on my feet and I listened carefully to his words. Don't miss this. This is powerful. Ezekiel's

mission starts. His commissioning as a prophet begins with a powerful vision from heaven. But Ezekiel can't even stand and begin to do anything on his own until he's filled with the Holy Spirit.

The second thing that you and I, if we're gonna be people of courage, if we're gonna be people who go, we're gonna take serious the call of God on our life in the context of our significance in our world, at our jobs, in our homes, in our communities, in our families. You better believe we have a vision of what it looks like.

But then we have to. The only way that it will be sustainable is we have to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

And this is something we don't talk a lot about in church. Right? I kinda grew up in a church context where the Trinity was like God the Father, Jesus the Son, and then the Holy Bible. Like that's the third part of the Trinity. And we leave out

who and what the spirit is. It's not a mystical force. It's not a thing that's out there.

I've always attributed the Holy Spirit to like, okay, that's a New Testament thing. Right? Like that happened after Jesus came back to life, then the Holy Spirit was on the scene. And no, the Holy Spirit has always been. He has always existed. And all the way back in the book of Ezekiel,

he can't even get off of his face until he's filled with this spirit. The part that is mind blowing to me is Jesus after going to the cross,

dying and coming back to life. The book of acts says in chapter one that he lived with his disciples for some forty days. He was amongst them for forty days. He opened their minds to the old testament. He like in a moment made all the connections happen between the old testament prophecies to who he was, so the disciples understood that.

And then it said, did many convincing things to prove to them that he was who he said that he was. And this band of misfits,

the 11 guys left, at this point are willing to run through a brick wall. They're like, this is the guy. We thought he was lying. We thought he was mistaken. They were hiding. And then all of a sudden, they're willing to go and do whatever it takes to build the kingdom of God. They're ready to go.

Yet Jesus tells them, don't go yet. Why would you tell a bunch of guys who are literally ready to run through a brick wall for you to wait? Because Jesus understood the thing that you and I have to understand. Inspiration, passion, excitement, a pump up speech from our pastor on Sunday,

All of it will only last us once we walk out of these doors about two and a half seconds. Because you're in a world that thinks you're crazy.

We're in a world that pushes back against almost anything that we do. And if you and I are truly going to be people who live a counter cultural supernatural life, which I believe the Christian life is supposed to be, we have to understand what Jesus told his disciples. Luke chapter 24.

Here's what Jesus tells them. He says, I know you guys are all excited but I'm now gonna send you the holy spirit. He said, just as my father promised. He said, but stay here in the city until the holy spirit comes and fills you with power

from heaven. Friends, the only way that we can do this and live this life and for the church to become who the church is always supposed to be is we have to be people who are filled with the holy spirit. And I know for a lot of us in the churches we grew up in, it's like, wait, doesn't that mean I have to like speak in another unknown language or something like that? Pray in tongues. That's how it happens. No. That's not what the bible says.

To be filled with the holy spirit, the greatest evidence that you and I have been filled with the holy spirit, I believe it just means that we're willing to take steps of obedience even when it makes no sense.

We're continuing to walk down a path even though everybody goes, you're crazy, but we know that we know that we know that God has asked us to do this and to go here and to say this and to give this and to talk about this

even though everybody around us says we're crazy. Here's the part that is baffling to me is I almost guarantee you right now. If I sat here and I asked you, what is the one thing in your life that God has been speaking to you about that you need to stop doing?

Or what is the one thing in your life that you need to start doing that you've been avoiding? I think almost all of us in this room know exactly what that thing is right now. We don't even have to think about it. But here's the truth of what I've learned of walking with Jesus for a number of years now, is my my faith,

it it only goes as far as my willingness to be obedient to what God is telling me to do. And there has been very key seasons of my life where God said, let's deal with this. Let's address this. Let's go here. And I'm like, no, no, no. God, let's talk about this over here. Like, you bless this? Can we talk about this? And every time I sit down, every time I read my bible, every time I sit down to pray, all God reminds me of is this.

And then when I deal with this and I say, yes, and I step in, then God begins to reveal to me what's next. I say all this to say, I know that this message can seem like it's this mystical supernatural thing. You've got to have this vision and be filled with the Holy Spirit. I believe that if you're here and you've placed your life in Jesus,

you've given your heart and your life over to him. The Bible says that you've been given the spirit that rose Jesus from the grave. It's alive and active in you. Will you heed your desires and will to his? Because that's what the world is desperate, is for the church to become who we've always supposed to be.

If the prophet Ezekiel couldn't even get off of his face until he was filled with the spirit, how much more do you and I need to be filled with the spirit

as well? This doesn't have to be a weird bizarre thing. It's just a desire to go, God, would you continue to fill me? I don't think being filled with the Holy Spirit, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, I don't think it's something that happens in one instance. I think it's a continual life pursuit of being filled with the Holy Spirit, but do we even desire it?

Because the Bible says that if we do and if we pursue it, we can access a power source that comes directly from heaven. And if we don't and we try to do this on our own, we won't make it very long. Here's how Ezekiel story continues

in chapter two verse three. Says, Son of man, he said, I'm sending you to the nation of Israel. It's a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me. They and their ancestors have been rebelling against me to this very day. He says, they are a stubborn and hard hearted people.

But I'm sending you to say to them, this is what the sovereign Lord says. And whether they listen or refuse to listen, remember, they are rebels. But at least they will know they had a prophet amongst them. If I'm Ezekiel at this point, I am not fired up on what God is asking me to do.

You're like, wait, nobody is going to listen to me. They're like this terrible group of people, but I'm just supposed to do it anyways. Yes. Why? So that they can remember that God was with them. Ezekiel's

presence proves the promises of God are still real in their life. And this is the part of the nature of God that completely baffles me as a human. Is Israel in their rebellion, in their running away from God, God was still in pursuit of them.

If you're here this morning and you feel like everything you've done in your life up until this point is to get you as far away from God as possible and you've made more mistakes than you can count, the good news of the gospel is that God has been in desperate pursuit of you.

He has been running after you trying to remind you of who you always have been, which is a son or daughter of His. He has been on a reckless mission to restore you back into the family of God. And the part that's wild to me as I read this,

he's talking about them being rebels and they're not gonna listen and they're stubborn and they're hard hearted. If you know the old testament, there's another prophet in the bible where this story, this task that Ezekiel is being given, it sounds very similar to the task that another famous prophet was given. There's a guy named Jonah. Right? Really famous prophet. He's a guy that lived in the belly of a whale. Well, God had told him to go to a very rebellious, horrible nation. These people that were barbarians,

they were called the Ninevites. He said, go to Nineveh and preach the gospel. This would be the equivalent of going to the middle of like the craziest terrorist organization you could think of. He says, go to the middle of their camp, stand up and tell them they're going to hell if they don't receive Jesus. You're like, no, not me. Somebody else has got to do that. Right?

And Jonah tries to run. It's why God has to literally put him in the belly of a whale and spin him up on the city. And then Jonah gets up and he preaches one of the worst sermons we see anywhere in the Bible. It's eight words in total. He goes, Repent or you're going to hell. And revival

breaks out. It's wild that the king repents.

They're so in awe of who God is and understand their need of grace that they take the animals that are in Nineveh and they start wrapping them in sackcloth to show the deep level of mourning that they have. This is what's crazy. The people out there, the bad people who don't follow God in a message of hope, they're willing to actually hear receive it, and change their life. But God tells Ezekiel, you know who won't hear it?

You know who's become so stubborn, so hard hearted, so set in their way, so convinced that they're right that they will not change? The church. He says, Ezekiel, the harshest criticism is against the people who walk in the doors every day and raise their hand and say, I'm in. And

friends, this is what we have to hear as the church. You have to realize the harshest criticism that Jesus gave to any group of people. It was the insiders.

It was the church people. It was the religious people who had become so accustomed to checking the boxes and going through the religious duties. But the truth was is once they walked out of these doors and they went back out there, their life didn't look any different.

In fact, they actually started to abuse the grace of God. And I'm telling you right now, one of the most dangerous places that you and I will ever find ourselves is we have one foot in with God, one foot in with the whole church thing, and one foot in the world.

And the hard part about Christianity is in America, we have been sold a bill of goods that says, you can have enough of God to kinda check the box and make sure you get to heaven one day.

But you don't want so much of God that you're like that weird guy that puts his hands up during worship and stuff and that begins to affect how you live out there. Like you still wanna be able to go through, you know, and have fun with your friends and do all the things out there. And I'm telling you, one foot in the world, one foot in the church,

Because you'll have enough of an understanding of God that you'll feel really guilty and convicted when you're out on Friday nights and you'll walk into church on Sundays and you'll go, man, I don't feel anything that's happening here.

You don't understand what the presence of God is supposed to be. The reason that the church is on the in decline in America is because we've been selling a lie from almost the beginning to the Western world. This is not in dip your toe in the water kind of faith.

The invitation of Jesus to you and I is one to death. And if you're willing, if you're at a place where you're willing to die to yourself, take the reins of your life and say, I'm no longer the king or queen of my life, Jesus, I hand it to you. The Bible says it's in that moment

that you will begin to experience what's called abundant living. The irony of what Caleb talked about last week is the invitation to an abundant life is one that comes on the other end of giving up control of your life, but not the parts that you're comfortable giving up control.

Jesus wants every single part of who you are. And I wonder what would happen to the church in America if we begin to be people that go, you know what, we're all in.

We're done playing church, we're done going through the motions, we are pushing our chips in. We are betting the farm. We are risking it all. We are willing to do whatever it takes.

What does it look like in your context to go all in? What are the parts of your life that you've been holding back from God, believing that he's confined to this little box over here and he's trying to blow it all up saying, no, no, no.

I have a plan for your life that is a thousand times bigger than the plan that you would conjure up for your life. The part that's crazy for me, when I was new Christian and if you're Baptist in the room, I'm about to freak you out a little bit. When I was newly saved and in church,

again, I was as far from somebody raised in churches you could come from.

And I would sit in church as a new Christian and worship would start and I would have these literal out of body experiences and I would have visions that I was standing on the stage in that room preaching a message. And I was like, what is happening right now? Like this is like an after effect of all the drugs that I did? Like what what is taking place right now?

I didn't understand it. It wasn't like, oh, I get it God, you're gonna have me preach on this stage, but for months, every time I sat in church during worship, would have this vision.

And the wild part was it was some five or six years later that that the fulfillment of that vision took place. And I remember when I walked out on the stage, was like this full circle moment where God said, look at what I put in your heart.

And what began to happen is with a vision, started to realize, okay, I wanna go to law school. My dad's a lawyer. That's the path I've always wanted to go down, but God is asking me to do this. It doesn't make sense. I don't get it.

But I'll say yes to the next step of obedience that's in front of me. I'm not saying that to say that all of us should teach messages, and that is not all of our calling. But what I do know is that God has a platform for you.

The influence that you have, He wants to leverage for the kingdom of God. If that's in your classroom, if that's in your conference room, if that's in your home, wherever it is, you have a voice and you have to use it. The world is desperate to hear. Here's how the story in Ezekiel continues.

It says in verse six, he says, Son of man,

don't fear them. Right? Again, this is the church. He says, Don't fear them. Right? Don't be afraid even though their threats sound like nettles and briars and stinging scorpions. Like the church is gonna threaten them. They're so mad about it. He says, don't be dismayed by their dark scows even though they're rebels.

You must give them my messages whether they listen or not, But they won't listen for they are completely rebellious. Son of man, listen to what I say to you. Do not join them in their rebellion. The greatest temptation for Ezekiel was to water down the message that God had given him because

it just would have been more comfortable for people to hear. God said the temptation for you Ezekiel is that you will just want to join them. Cause it's gonna be tough to be the voice that is dissenting against the group that's all saying the same thing. It's gonna be hard to live differently amongst a world

that's all living the same way. Friends, we have to understand the real Christian life, the invitation of faith is one that is so counter cultural. It is one that people should look at and go, man, what is different with these weirdos? Right? Like they stay married. They seem happy.

Right? Like they give money to a church and they seem like they're joyful to do it. Like there's a part of this existence that goes, what are they doing? But the truth is, is it is hard to do if we're trying to do it in our own power.

And we will be tempted to just cave in and lower our voices and shelter the message and make it more palatable.

And the reason that I know it's true is because it wasn't just prophesied in the book of Ezekiel. It was also talked about Paul was telling a young pastor named Timothy the same exact thing was going to be his temptation. Here's what Paul says in second Timothy.

It says, you have to understand that a time is coming. And friends, I believe here today in America in 2022,

we are here. The time is not coming. The time is now where people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and they will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. He says, you will be really tempted

to go to a church that just tells you what you want to hear and affirms how you feel when the truth is that the bible says that your feelings, your heart, it is the most wicked part of you and it will lead you down paths that will take you to places you never thought you would go.

And here's the thing we have to understand, God never asked us to stop doing something because he's trying to keep joy or happiness or meaning from our lives. What the purpose, what the plan of God, the entire reason that God gave his moral laws to you and I is because we are not built to carry shame

and guilt and condemnation and judgment which is what happens when we step into those things. He's trying to protect us from that. But the message that we wanna hear is that how I feel is real.

It is my truth and I'm gonna live it out no matter how I feel. I wanna come into church and have you tell me that I'm right and that's good and that's better. And the truth is, his friends, is the world is actually desperate for a truth that is unchanging. Truth is not subjective. It is objective.

And the beautiful part about what God asked Ezekiel to do, it is very freeing for me and I think it should be freeing for you. Our responsibility is not people's response. God doesn't ask us to deal with the outcome. He asked us to be obedient to what he's asked us to do and to say. The outcome

is his. He says, even if they won't listen, say it anyways.

But if you try to do this in your own power, I'm telling you eventually, you will just cave in. It's why we need a vision. It's why we need to continue to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And here's where it gets really practical here at the end. This is where the story that we're gonna look at today kind of wraps up. He says, open your mouth

and eat what I give you. Okay. He's now getting another vision. He's about to see another vision. He said, then I looked and I saw a hand reaching out for me. It held a scroll which he unrolled. And I saw that both sides were covered with funeral songs, words of sorrows,

and pronouncements of doom. So he gets another vision as God's telling him his instructions of what to do and he's commissioning him as his new prophet. He sees a scroll and notice what's written on the scroll, it's really interesting. The scroll is written I'm sorry, go back one verse.

On it are funeral songs, words of sorrow, and pronouncements of doom. Right? It's not wedding songs, and joyful hymns, and pronouncements of joy. This is a hard message

to Palette. It is a hard one to wrap your head around, but look at what he says in the next verse.

In the next verse. So I opened my mouth and he fed me the scroll. And look what happens in verse three. It's gonna happen. Promise. Just fill your stomach with this, he said. And when I ate it, it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth.

Here's the part that's really interesting to that. All of this is before his ego has been asked to do a single thing or say a single thing. God started with a powerful vision. He showed him what he was gonna do, and he began to align his heart to the heart of God with where he was going in the world. He then filled him with his holy spirit. And then he gives him what I believe is the most practical piece of this entire thing if we're really going to live a life that is supernatural.

He says, you have to take the scroll. You have to take the word of God and you have to digest it. Right? This is not literal. He's not actually eating a scroll, he's saying him metaphorically,

you and I as the people of God, we have to actually digest the word of God. Even the difficult parts of it. The parts that are not fun to talk about. The parts that aren't exciting to go out there and share with people. He says, you have to consume it. You have to devour it. And when you do, it will be as sweet

as honey. What is he saying? I believe that you and I as the people of God, if we're really gonna do this, yes, we have to be fueled with a vision, we have to be filled with the spirit, but we also have to be fed by the word of God. It is not enough to just superficially know the word of God. We have to actually consume it, digest it, allow it to get into the very fabric and DNA of who we are. Because what will happen when we do that is the Bible tells us that out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth will speak.

But it's only when you have an abundance of it in your heart that your mouth will just be able to naturally speak.

And I'm not saying this is easy. I'm not saying this is something that's simple to do, but if the prophet Ezekiel before he was ever asked to do a single thing was given very specific instructions of what to do,

how do you and I believe will make any impact for the kingdom of God in this side of eternity without doing the exact same thing? The very next verse, Ezekiel is then told, after doing these things, now son of man, go to the people of Israel and give them my message.

Before he says or does a single thing, God takes him through a process of going, here's how I will sustain you. Vision,

holy spirit, being fed with the word. This friends is the simple equation that I believe leads to the life and the people who are willing to have courage to speak the truth into a culture that has been convinced that lies are real.

I believe right now, why does this matter? Why should any of us even pay attention? There is a study that I came across that I think signifies and simplifies what's going on, and I know it's hard for you to see from there, but there is a church

organization out there that does a study of people in America who would identify as being Christian. They started in 1972. In 1972, it said 90% of Americans who responded said that they were Christian. 90%. In 2022 living today, it says that there's 64% of people would say that they're Christian.

Now, here's the wild part. They say based on the current trends and projections by 2070, it'll be about 34% of people in America say that they're Christian. And now the part that's really interesting to me in this is when you dive into what the study is saying and what it's not saying,

I would assume that people are leaving Christianity, people of faith, right, they're going, oh, okay, like this Jesus thing wasn't true, wasn't real, and they're going to the real truth. So like Buddhism must be growing or Islam must be popping off or something, but the wild part is they aren't switching religions.

People are just simply rejecting the claims of Christ and becoming what's called a none. N o n e. They're just going, I don't believe in any of it. This is all random. We just ended up here on accident. There was a big bang. We're all headed towards nothingness. That's what we're doing.

And the part that's really interesting is I think that this is a cleansing that God is doing to really get the church to wake up and remember who we are. And to stop selling half truths of the gospel.

Is the invitation of Jesus the greatest message the world has ever heard that you can't make your way to God? That he did it all. That Jesus paid the price and he's given him he's given you and I his righteousness and you now because of what Jesus has done. If you accept him into your life, the Bible says you are credited

righteousness and you can stand before God whole and clean. And even more than that, even more than getting to heaven one day, He will give you a mission and a purpose and meaning on this side of eternity. But you have to go all in. You have to jump into the deep end and say, I am 100% in.

The part that I love about the millennial generation and generation z is done are the days of what past generations have done. You know the churches

retention strategy for young families? We understand that when you graduate high school and go to college, most people are gonna take a little hiatus from their faith. But we also know that when you get married again and have a couple kids, you go, oh, you know what, we should raise those kids in church. So you will reattach to the church typically at about 25 to 26 years old when you have your first kid.

The wild part is that the millennial generation is the first generation in history that is not reattaching to the church. They're not just walking back in the doors and so the church is really being challenged to go, what are we gonna do? And I don't think this solution is overly complicated.

As I sit with young people who are going through the process of deconstructing their faith, I go, you're not really deconstructing anything because you never actually had a faith that was constructed. You didn't really understand what the Bible says, what grace is, what mercy is, what the invitation of faith is.

You had a kind of surface level understanding of what you've been sold in church, that God wants to make you a better version of you and make you prosperous and healthy and happy. And the truth is that is far from what the Bible says.

Is this the greatest exchange that you could ever make handing your life over to Jesus? Yes and amen. But it will also be the most expensive thing that you ever did. It will cost you everything. It might cost you your career. It might cost you your savings account. It is a dangerous face.

Oh, but friends, what is plan B? There is no other option for us.

So what I'm here feeling like, the reason that I believe that God prompted us to walk through the book of Ezekiel is we're going to see, right, the the famous story in Ezekiel is when he cries out to a valley of dry bones and the dry bones begin to come alive.

I believe that is a picture of what God is trying to do in his church today, to wake us up, to be his church again. Amen? So father, God I ask that Lord right now in this room,

our people, God that have real things going on, and it doesn't matter where we are. That God, I pray right now that you would give us one practical step of obedience that we can walk out of this room and do.

That God, whether we need to get a vision from you, whether we need to be filled with your spirit, we need to begin to consume your word. God, I pray that you would wake us up. I pray that you would shake us and not just let us keep going through the motions. That we would become all in or all out, but the lukewarm

in the middle. God, is detestable to you. Would it be detestable to us? God, our heart and our prayers that we are open vessels and if nobody is willing to go, send us. God, shake us from the core so that we can go and share with the world the greatest message they have ever heard, that you are alive

and you have a life for us beyond our wildest dreams if we surrender our hearts to you. It is in the mighty name of Jesus. Everybody said, amen. Hey, you guys are amazing.

I hope you join us for the next couple weeks. Thanks for joining us online this weekend. Let us know if we can help you in any way. Make sure to follow us on social media and connect with us on rockpoint.io for prayer and everything happening here at Rock Point.