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Ezekiel 2 & 3

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Live from Bremerton. It's Monday night. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that we get to have a bible study here tonight. We commit this time into your hands. We lift up Cheryl's sister Anne with cancer. We pray that you heal her. We lift up her stepdad, that you heal him also. We lift up Thomas Poole, that you will locate his guitar. It's lost, Lord. And he uses that, as you know, Lord, to lead worship all over the place. So help his guitar to show up. And we lift up Gary to court. We pray he heal his cancer. We lift up Brian Olson. We pray he heal his legs and and all that's going on with him, Lord. You know. And Fred, we pray you continue to give Fred strength and that he recover from his illness. Bless them, Lord, and we just commit this night in your hand, Lord. We ask that you bless in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Alright. Thanks. Thank you, Rob. Ezekiel first. Alright. Ezekiel chapter two. Ezekiel chapter two. The prophet Ezekiel. Are we doing two chapters? Lord willing. We'll see how the time goes. Everybody there? Everybody in Ezekiel chapter two? I was. I went somewhere else. Else. Alright. Well, let's pray again. Father, we come before you, Lord, and we ask that you be our teacher tonight that you open the scriptures to our understanding that we would feast upon your word, Lord, that as we've had a physical meal, we pray for the spiritual meal that as we as we feast upon your word, Lord, that you would fulfill us, that you would stimulate our hearts and minds, Lord, and edify, build us up, strengthen us, make us healthy spiritually, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. And he said unto me, son of man, 93 times we're gonna see the Lord refer to Ezekiel as the son of man in this book. And he's a representative of humanity. 88 times in the New Testament, Jesus refers to himself as the son of man, and he's identifying with humanity. And so he didn't come as an angel. He came as the virgin born son of God, fully fully God, fully man, the incarnation. And so of all the different names that he'd be known by, he wanted to identify with us, the son of man. And he said unto me, son of man, stand upon thy feet and I will speak unto thee. And the spirit entered into me when he spoke unto me and set me upon my feet that I had heard him who spoke unto me. And so this is the enabling for the prophet. He's being enabled by the power of the holy spirit. And he said unto me, son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel to a rebellious eight times in chapter two, we're gonna see the term rebellious be used by God. A rebellious nation that has rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me even unto this very day. So there's sin which is missing the mark, there's transgression as Adam did, which is stepping over the line. And the rebellion is the reason why God's gonna have to judge the nation of Israel. So he sent prophets. He instructed them, tried to warn them. The people chose to listen to the false prophets and to reject the true prophets. And all they'd have to do at this point is surrender to Nebuchadnezzar, and they could avoid the destruction of Jerusalem and destruction of their lives and their families and such. But they continue to believe the propaganda that Zedekiah is going to form an alliance with the Egyptian nation, and somehow they're gonna be able to defeat the Babylonians. Jeremiah, we already read that that it didn't work out that way. Ezekiel still not at that point. He's at the River Chebar, which is an offshoot of the Euphrates River and about 200 miles away from the city, north of the city of Babylon. So he's there with the second wave of deportees, those who are deported. That's where his ministry is. And he said unto me, son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me even unto this very day. So no repentance. They don't quit. And he says, for they for they are impudent children and stiff hearted. I do send thee unto them. So a stiff hearted impudent person is a stubborn person, like a mule. And have you ever met someone like that? Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Put your hand up. Alright. These are strong. Alright. Thank you, float away. Alright. Is it a is it one of those gummies? One of those CBD gummies? No. Oh. No. I used to work for a Oh, I've been waiting for my first one. It's menthol. Oh, thank you. It has a, you know, in it. Oh, it's nice. They're supposed to be sucked on them. Yeah. They're just Did you just chew that? What's it matter to you? Matter one. Not a mint. It's a It's not a whether it'll work or not. I don't know. Oh, it feels so good. There you go. Right. In your lungs. Yeah. In your lungs. So rebellious nation, for they are impotent children and stiff hearted. I do send thee unto them and thou shall say unto them, thus saith the Lord God. Thus saith the Lord Adonai Yahweh, 217 times in Ezekiel. Adonai Yahweh. Is there a song, Thomas, about Yahweh? Oh, you don't have to sing it. My friend says Yahweh all the time. And so he's the sovereign God. He's in control. These guys are stiff necked. They're stiff hearted. Jesus said these people do draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. People can be hypocritical, act, you know, play the part, but when it really comes down to it, Jesus says, if you love me, keep my commandments. Let's see your actions. Let's see your character. Let's see you do what I command you to do, which is to love God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, all your strength. Don't love these idols. Don't love your money. Don't love your material stuff. You know, put me first, and we'll see that in chapter eight. And whether they will hear or whether they will forbear for their rebellious house, yet shall know that there has been a prophet among them. And so this calling, again, is a calling like God's placing upon the prophet Ezekiel like with Jeremiah. He's letting you know ahead of time, they're not gonna listen to you. And not only that, but they're an impotent stiff hearted people. So you're not gonna reach them. You're not gonna reach these people with the love of God. But I'm still sending you so that so that there's a witness when I judge them that there's been a prophet among them. Presently, the propaganda and the YouTube prophets and the false prophets are getting away with it. But when judgment comes, then they're gonna know the truth from the air. And what's funny about that is many of them will say, yeah, I knew that. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I thought too. Right now, they don't think that way. But once it's the reality sets in of the collapse of the dollar and things like that in America, and then these guys will say, oh, yeah. I I I thought that too. Well, why'd you listen to all those guys that were saying if you if you vote this Republican guy in that he's gonna fix it all? You know? Why'd why'd you go that way rather than understanding that we're coming under judgment, that God is God is pulling the plug on America. If you can't see that, you don't wanna see it. And so you're gonna put your faith and hope in false prophets, and and yet the Lord always has a remnant of people who believe and trust, and Elisha thought he was the only one left, but the Lord said, have 7,000 that haven't bowed their knee to the prophet, Baal. And pastor Chuck used to talk about, you know, go and make fishers of men, Jesus said. And if you go to a place where people where the fish aren't biting, then leave and find a place where the fish are biting. Nobody likes to fish and not get a nibble, not get a bite. Well, that's exactly the calling of Jeremiah. That's exactly the calling of Ezekiel here. They're not gonna get a nibble. They're not gonna get a bite. It's gonna be frustrating. It's gonna be a horrible, horrible ministry from the standpoint of worldly success. He's not gonna have the success to tell everybody, oh, look how God's blessed me. Look how big the church is. Look at all these people. You know, the it's so good here. The fish are jumping into the boat. They're just jumping into the boat. You know? And I don't even have to hardly say anything. There's such a move of God's spirit in this community. The fish are jumping in the boat. And, boy, would I love to find a place like that, you know? And I've been there. Have you? Yes. Okay. And never leave fish to go find fish. You what? Never leave fish to go find fish. Like, if you're in the fish Yeah. Leave the fish to go find more. Praise the Lord. Alright. So they shall know that there's been a prophet among them. So God wants us to be a witness. Sometimes we're in a certain place simply to ripen a place for judgment that nobody will be able to say to God, well, I didn't know. I never heard that before. Oh, yes, you did. You heard it over and over and over again for forty years. I had Jeremiah the prophet there and he was letting you know. And I had Ezekiel there. You guys should have known. And thou son of man, here we go again, be not afraid three times. What's that sign say? Be not deceived. Be not afraid. So why do you have to say something three times? Because you're afraid. In Acts chapter 18, the Lord Jesus appeared to the Saul, the apostle Paul, and in regard to the church of Corinth, Paul had a hard time in Athens in chapter 17. And prior to that, he got stoned at Lystra. So now he's in this very wicked city at Corinth, and and the Lord Jesus appeared to him and said, I have many people in this city. You know, don't hold back. Don't refrain. And don't be afraid. And so the Lord the Lord reminds us, God hasn't given us the spirit of fear, but of power of love and a sound mind. Fear is the opposite of faith. And Timothy was timid and Paul had to keep encouraging Timothy as he was gonna become the pastor at Ephesus to not be afraid. He was young, so he would be intimidated by older people, older believers. But don't be afraid of their faces. Don't don't allow it to paralyze you. So, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words through briars and thorns be with thee, though briars and thorns be with thee. So if these people come at you with scorpions, if they come at you with briars and thorns, if they come at you with, you know, the ugly face, When I'm playing with my grandkids, I oh, this is my ugly face. This is my mean face. You know? And sometimes people out in the audience when you're a pastor and you're looking out there, you say something and and their their face changes. You know? They get their mean face on. And and then in a few minutes, they get up and they walk out the door. It's like, okay. It goes both ways. But I don't sit there and stop everything and say, oh, god. I lost one. Oh, man. I gotta go run after them. And because everything's gonna fall apart if they leave, you know? And everybody's free to leave or to come back. They can all come back if they want. And thou son of man, be not afraid of them three times, neither be afraid of their words. We we are so addicted to peer pressure of people liking us on Facebook and stuff. Sometimes we can be paralyzed in our ministry simply because somebody has a bad word about us. Sticks and stones will break our bones, but words will never hurt me, you know? And a person a person could just say something bad about you, you're sharing the gospel with them and then they they say, oh, you're a nutcase, you know? And you shut down. You don't ever wanna go share the gospel again. The words hurt you. And you just gotta wipe the dust off your feet and go to the next person, you know. Don't be afraid of their words. And a lot of times the words are condemnation. We know where the condemnation comes, comes from the wicked one, comes from the devil. And so don't be afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though though briar and thorns be with thee, so they might take thorns at you. They might whip you with thorns and briars. And thou I met that woman before with the thorns and the briars. And thou doest well among scorpions. So God's given Ezekiel the reality. This isn't gonna be an easy ministry. And even among the scorpions, you get the sting of a scorpion upon you, the sting of their mouth or gaping upon you. Be not afraid of their words nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house. So, I mean, god, what a what a tough crowd. You know? What a tough crowd they have to minister unto. They're still believing and listening to the lies of the false prophets as, again, the Zedekiah. Zedekiah is gonna try and sneak out of Jerusalem eventually. Right? And he's going to be caught. But before that, he's gonna try and make an alliance with the Egyptians, and the false prophets are all saying, look, the Egyptians are gonna help us, and we're gonna we're gonna stave off Nebuchadnezzar from destroying us. Well, that's what's happening here is is Ezekiel has to minister before the whole Zedekiah thing happens. And when the Chaldeans grab hold of Zedekiah, what do they do? They kill all of his sons, over twenty twenty three of his sons right before his eyes. All he had to do was surrender to Nebuchadnezzar and things would have went well with him. Jehoiachin has already surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar, but Zedekiah is not. And so his sons were killed right before his eyes, and then the last thing he saw was them being killed, and then they plucked out Zedekiah's eyes. There you go. And thou shalt speak my words unto them. Oh, goody. Yeah. Like, that's gonna make that's gonna make them listen more. You know? But you gotta give them those words. Now if I know they're not gonna listen to god's words and I really wanna be successful, what do I do? Put on a dress. Put on a dress. Put in your words. Oh. I could give him my words. I could give him Rick Warren's words. I could give him Freud and Roy's words. I could make it a psychology babble psychobabble message. I could make it a feel good message. I could make it therapeutic. I could tell them they could have their best life now. There's so many things I could tell them with their itchy ears that they wanna hear. Or I could be hated and just give them God's word. Everybody's doing it. Right? Yep. Thou shall speak my words unto them. And then when you do that with the rebellious people, what do they do? Oh, well, that's your interpretation, you know. Well, how do you interpret thou shall not steal, thou shall not commit fornication, thou shall not murder? Tell me how you interpret that. Well, it's just an affair. We're in love. God knows we're in love, and he's a god of love. You know? And so people twisting. You know, we're we're made this way as homosexuals. You know? And God is good and everything was good. And so that means we're good. So you speak my words unto them whether they will hear or whether they will forbear for they are most rebellious. So I have a great security and a great comfort in knowing that if I stay with God's word, regardless of what people think, that I stand a chance. I have a chance of hearing the Lord say one day, well done thou good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over a few things. I'm gonna make you rule over much. So check this out. My audience is an audience of one person. Only person I seek to please is Jesus. Everybody else has to decide whether they, you know, are gonna follow God's word or not follow God's word. But I know for me, that's the objective. That's the calling. That's what God's called me to do. And you're not to be like king Saul, a people pleaser. Samuel the prophet says, what's that bleeding of the sheep I hear in my ears? You know, you're supposed to kill Agag and all this stuff. And he said, well, the people the people convinced him. He's a people pleaser. And secondly, he tried to cover his compromise and his wimping out among the people, much like Aaron did. Aaron Aaron wimped out. He said he lied and he said, we just threw the gold down there in that mold and a calf jumped out, you know? We don't even know how that happened. The golden calf. And but he gave in to the people. He there's pressure, and we call that peer pressure. Mhmm. And many of us are like the dead salmon that just go with the flow of the world. Whichever way the world is flowing, that's where we go. So we as Christians are like the salmon that swim against the stream. And so I would remind you of Romans twelve two. What's Romans twelve two say? Be not conformed to this world. The world wants you to come in conformity. The world wants you to be afraid when they tell you to be afraid. They want you to put your mask on. They want you to stay away six feet. They want to shut everything down. They want you to shut your church down. They want you to not mention Jesus' name anymore. Be not conformed to this world. Don't allow yourself to be patterned or come under the pattern of the world, the fashion of this world. So you wanna be a you wanna be these guys are rebellious. You guys wanna be radical rebels against the world, not against God. You wanna rebel against the world, and you wanna be a revolutionary, you know, against the world. The tragedy when we were teaching on Sunday when Paul said, I become all things and all men that I might save some. For a lot of pastors, that means I'm gonna be more worldly. I'm gonna be like the world so that I can gain a following. That isn't what that means there. You're not to compromise and be like the world. You have to stand against the world. Come out from among them and be separate, sayeth the Lord. Touch not the unclean thing, and I'll receive you. And so we have to be distinctly different. You're going to be a Jesus freak. You're gonna be a weirdo. They're gonna use a lot of different phrases and words to describe you. And Jesus said, if they've hated me, they're gonna hate you. You're never going to get an award from the world if you're living a godly life. All they that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. If you're not being persecuted, if you're not being hated, it means you compromise with the world. And heresy is not so much what pastors say from the pulpit, it's what they won't say. They won't speak up because they're afraid of the faces. They're afraid of what people might say. Oh, they're gonna leave the church. Oh my gosh. They're gonna leave the church. Well, it's his church. It's not your church. And he said, upon this rock, I'll build my church and the gates of hell would not prevail against me. So and thou shall speak my words unto them whether they will hear or whether they will forbear for they are most rebellious. And but thou son of man and so there's a transition here. Verses one, verse four to two, verse seven, it was the theme of a vision that God gave him. Now it's transitioning from verse eight to chapter three, verse 11, his message. God's given him the message that he's to communicate. You have to first receive before you give. Pastors should be students of God's word. Pastors should be disciples and go and make disciples, but you have to first learn. You have to be a student. You have to absorb God's word, feast upon God's word. There's no excuse for a guy to call himself a pastor and say, can't teach the book of Revelation because I I've never read it. I've never studied it. I've never been taught it. Then you shouldn't be a pastor then. Why why are you calling yourself a pastor? Because the bible says, Paul told Timothy, study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Why wouldn't you give the people the full counsel of God? Why do you only give them the dessert, the stuff that tastes good and sweet and and makes what people like to hear? Ezekiel's gonna eat the word of God. He's gonna eat the scroll. In Revelation chapter 10, John was instructed to eat the scroll, the little scroll. And at first, it was like honey, and then it brought bitterness. What's the bitterness? The bitterness is the truth of judgment. Prophecy, when you teach prophecy, people say, I don't wanna hear the doom and gloom. That's the bitterness. They don't wanna hear that. They told Jeremiah, just tell us smooth things. We wanna hear the smooth things. We wanna hear the, you know, the fables, the fairy tales, the doctrines of demons, and your best life now, and that sort of thing. They don't wanna be taught concerning the tribulation period as Jesus taught Matthew 24 that it'd be a time that the world's never seen nor ever see again, and a horrific time. But that that makes a lot of especially young couples, young people with children, it makes them very nervous. You know? It makes a lot of Christians nervous like, well, what's what's gonna happen to us? You know? And that's where faith comes in. When you see these things begin to come to pass, look up for your redemption draws nigh. Your citizenship is in heaven. So we have to have a loose hold on the things of the world. If we hold on, if we try to hold on to the world and get white knuckled, that's where that's where it's gonna be difficult to transition as as times change. So he says, but thou son of man, hear what I say unto thee. So Jesus said to seven churches, he that has an ear to hear, let him hear what the spirit is saying to the churches. Not everybody has faith. Not everybody can hear what the spirit is saying. Do you have ears to hear? Can you hear what the spirit is saying? Or is a lot of your knowledge secondhand knowledge? Are you a person that's getting to know Jesus secondhand, third hand, fourth hand? Or do you have a relationship with Jesus where he speaks to you in your time of prayer and as you study the word, as you do your devotion to God speak to you through his word? Do you have ears to hear? Is he directing you? Is he guiding you? You should be should be developing developing that relationship with him. Samson knew not that the spirit of the Lord had departed. He didn't even know. He'd been so far from the Lord that he didn't know the difference. He'd been so backslidden for so long that when the spirit of the Lord departed, he didn't even know it. He didn't even realize it. So be not thou rebellious like the rebellious house, open thy mouth and eat what I give thee. People are looking for churches that will teach the bible. There's a famine in the land for the word of God. And God wants you to approach church as Lord. I pray for my pastor that he spent some time, and Lord today make him top chef. Make sure that he's got all the veggies and all the potatoes, the starches, and the proteins, and everything that I need spiritually for me and my family to grow. Right? A lot of the restaurants today are not even prepping food anymore. They don't do any preparation, no studying, no getting ready. They just have stuff sent to them in these plastic bags and they throw them into boiling water, pre canned, you know, pre whatever, you know? I like like food that's God's food, God's ingredients, the physical food, and people that actually care preparing it rather than some sort of processed stuff from Bill Gates, synthetic meat and crickets and mealworms and that sort of thing. I don't want that in my physical diet nor do I want heretical teaching and fairy tales and psychology to try and feed me spiritually. It can't feed me spiritually because it's not God's word. Only God's word can feed me spiritually. So the the whole psychobabble, the whole bringing in psychology into the church is a means of dealing with the soul of man, the center of the mind, the will, the emotion. But God's word exceeds that of man. It's a rudimentary understanding of human behavior. But God's word is living and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword, dividing us under soul and spirit and joint and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. I have a confidence in God's word that God's word will not come back void. That if I stay with God's word, it'll do the work that it's supposed to do because it's living. In some people, it ripens them for judgment. They're angry. So don't be angry at me. I'm just the messenger. Right? Take it up with God. This is what his word says. And that's the way you have to be. You have to just say, hey, take it up with God. This is what the Bible says. Well, I don't believe there's a hell. Well, the Bible says there is. Jesus said there is. Well, how could a God of love? Yeah. He's a God of love. He sent his son to the cross to die for you. How could he do that? But he did. And when I look, now remember there's gonna be others out there trying to feed you garbage. So you gotta be discerning like the Bereans and you gotta search the scriptures to see whether those things be so. Right? You gotta be a Berean, Acts seventeen eleven. When you hear a message, you've gotta say, hey, prove this to me. Prove it. Prove it with the word of God. And you don't wanna listen very long when a pastor or somebody is using a lot of I, I, I, I, I, I, I. I got an eye problem like Lucifer did in Isaiah chapter 14. So sometimes we'll preface it and we'll say, well, in my opinion, and that's all it is, it's just your opinion. Alright? And so we'll we'll allow the opinion to come out. But everybody has one. So we wanna hear what God has to say. And when I looked, behold, a hand was sent unto me and lo, a scroll was in it. And the scroll is the word of God. So absorb the word of God. Allow the word of God to permeate you. Job said in Job twenty three twelve, I have esteemed thy words of his mouth more than my necessary food. Now how strong is your appetite for food, real food? I ate a 32 ounce Tomahawk Ribeye yesterday for Father's Day, and I enjoyed every bite, every bite. Right? Is that two pounds? I don't know. It's just glorious. It's glorious. But I didn't wimp out. I ate the whole thing. And and so I had a very strong appetite for some meat, some protein. And what's your appetite for the word of God? How would you compare your appetite for the word of God in comparison to television, movies, entertainment. Can you stay awake for a three hour movie? Uh-uh. Why can't you stay awake for my one and a half hour sermon? I'm just kidding. I'm kidding, Betty. I'm kidding. Only closed my eyes when is one snowing. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. I know that's a long sermon, but but the point being is that the pressure on the pastors today is have twenty minute sermons, fifteen, twenty minute sermons. They want they want music for forty five to an hour with bells and whistles, with smoke machines and all that. Rob and Vicky came through that whole scene with the charismatic movement. I mean, one of the guys I was listening to said that Bill Johnson's Church Bethel, that he knows the very guys that went over to Hobby Lobby. Is it called Hobby Lobby? Is that where you guys went today? Yeah. Yeah. Then Kathy and Tanya went to Hobby Lobby, and they picked up they picked up some glitter because we're gonna put it in the air ducts at the church and let it come down Oh my everybody. Glory glory glitter. Yeah. Glory glitter. And the guy that went over the guy that went over to Hobby Lobby and bought it, you know, confessed that that's what they did, but the leadership was trying to make everybody think it was from God, that God did that. You know? I mean, how stupid are we? You know? God. Get me out of there. People love it. You know? So Well, just make sure that most of it lands on his head. That's right. And so you want the word of god. You don't want fluff. You don't want cotton candy. A lot of a lot of teaching today is cotton candy. A lot of it's like Peter Pan and and fantasy and fairies and fairy tales and doctrines of demons. And a lot of it's geared toward almost like kindergartners. Remember we read last week in Hebrews chapter five, by this time, of you should be teachers, but I can't I can't give you solid food. I have to keep giving you milk. You should be able to discern between good and evil, but because you haven't been taught the word of God and don't have a working knowledge of the word of God, you're easily deceived. Be not deceived. If you know the truth, the truth will keep you free. Right? Amen. So he's gonna take this scroll and eat it and he spread it before me, and it was written within, without, and there was written in it, lamentations, mourning, and woe. And the lamentations, mourning, and woe. In Revelation chapter five verse one, God gave John a scroll. John saw a scroll there. And so, as I said, prophecy today is viewed by the churches as doom and gloom. I think it's 2% of the churches teach prophecy today. Only 2%. 98% won't teach it. That's one third of the Bible they won't teach. They won't teach the most important doctrine of all of history, which is the return of Jesus Christ. They won't teach it. What could be more important than preparing your people for the return of Jesus Christ? Does that mean the people don't want Jesus to return? Does it mean the Laodicean church kicked Jesus out of the church? He's on the outside knocking on the door saying, let me in? He's been kicked out of his church. And the Laodiceans are saying that we're rich, we're increased with goods, we're in need of nothing. And Jesus said, I'd rather you're hot or cold. You're lukewarmy. You make me sick. I'm gonna get sick here. And let me give you a true view of who you are. You're wretched, naked, poor, blind, and miserable. It's who you really are. But and that's his church. He speaks that way to his church. As many as I love, Jesus said, I chase and and rebuke. He doesn't hold back. It's because he loves them. Faith warth the wounds of a friend. The kisses of an enemy are deceitful. And again, my audience is an audience of one. I'm not I'm not a politician. Pastor's not a politician. He's not trying to build a constituency or a following. He just simply ministers unto Jesus. Your ministry is as unto the Lord. Whatsoever you do, do it heartily as unto the Lord and not unto men in Colossians. Right? And so I have a question. No. You can't ask a question right now. Alright. Go ahead. When it says and there it was written there in mourning and woe. Does it mean lamentations this book or what lamentations means? What do you think? Lamentations means the passionate expression of grief or sorrow. So Jeremiah called his book Lamentations because it had grief and sorrow. This here is emphasis upon the grief and the sorrow. Okay. So you're gonna be your message is gonna contain lamentation, grief and sorrow, Ezekiel. Not gonna be easy to sell this. Not gonna be easy to sell a message of mourning. People missing home, missing Jerusalem, And woah, judgment. Not gonna be easy to sell a message of judgment, but it's the truth and somebody needs to say it. And like John the Baptist, you might lose your head for telling the truth, but you gotta tell the truth. You can't be a man pleaser. You gotta decide, am I gonna live to please God or man? And David had a heart after God's own heart, a desire to please God. And so I in vain is the help of man. As soon as you get on the man's good side, the next the next time around, they'll stab you in the back. So, you know, all you need is the Lord's favor. Since God before us, who can be against us? Now we're in chapter three. We're gonna see Ezekiel become God's watchman. He says, moreover, he said unto me, son of man, eat what thou finds. Eat the scroll and go speak unto the house of Israel. So eat, study, preach. I heard about a church in Idaho where the pastor was the pastor was using messages from a book, word for word, and actually trying to have the ethos and the pathos, the stories, make the stories his own also. And then somebody out in the audience said, I heard that phrase before. That phrase is a little peculiar. My pastor doesn't talk like that. Where did he borrow that from? And they began to research. Oh, I know where that came from. They found out for quite a period of time, he was just giving them sermons out of a book. He was plagiarizing somebody. That's the word they use, plagiarizing. Now all of us borrow from somebody, but you gotta give them credit when you do. Mhmm. Alright? And we all are learning. Commentaries for me are teachers. These are people that teach me. Pastor Chuck uses commentaries. We all do. But we all learn and then we sit down. Pastors should sit down and then put the message together that the Lord's impressing upon your heart. And and so, men eat what thou finds, eat the scroll and go speak unto the house of Israel. So eat, study, preach. So why did that pastor do that? Didn't he wanna study? Didn't he wanna spend time studying? Studying is a glorious thing. You wanna be prepared. Mhmm. You wanna be ready. You don't wanna be caught, you know, off guard. So be ready in season, out of season. I mean, you could be at the gym. You could be eating your dinner and Rob and Vicky will call you and say, hey, let's do a podcast. And you you what? What? Now? You mean an hour? What what what's the topic? Oh, okay. You know? And I think they think I have the Bible memorized. But so on my way over here, when they did that to me, they wanted to do Revelation chapter eight. Right? Do I have Revelation eight memorized? Yes. We hope. So I've got an hour to get ready, and we're gonna do Revelation chapter eight, and we're gonna tie it in with, what, global warming. Mhmm. So what am I to do? No time of preparation. So I took pastor Chuck's app, the word for today. Now and I went to chapter eight, and I listened to chapter eight while I continued to kill it at the gym and while I was driving in the car over here. So why is that? Because I gotta be humble enough to know that I still need to be taught. I need to be refreshed. I need to study. I don't want somebody asking me a question about Revelation chapter eight and I can't answer it. Right? I don't I don't have it all memorized. Right? So I'm constantly studying. I'm constantly studying. I'm constantly today, was listening to Ezekiel chapter two and three. I'm being taught. I'm constantly learning, reminding myself. Peter said, I'm gonna remind you of these things though you already know them. Much of learning is repetition. Much of learning is reminding others of what they already been taught. Why? Because we forget so much. All of us forget. And I like when the Holy Spirit kicks in in our lives, and the Holy Spirit starts bringing all this scripture to remembrance. And it's like a flood of scripture starts to come out of you. But you gotta do your part. You gotta do your part to study and allow the scripture to come into your life. And then when it's time to come out, the Holy Spirit will anoint and help you remember, you know, when you're witnessing to people, when you're sharing with people, when you're teaching with people. But you have to some people, they mistakenly think they call it extemporaneous preaching. Do you know what extemporaneous preaching is? You get up to the pulpit, you have no clue what you're gonna say, and you get up there, and typically, it's worship leaders that do this. They're not pastors. And they get up there and they just start telling stories, jokes and stories. And, alright, we're gonna teach on first Timothy. And they get up there and they haven't studied and they read it and extemporaneously somehow they're gonna they're gonna come up with what it means and, you know, and all that. So in in first Corinthians chapter 14, when we get there, the prophet, those who prophesied, those who speak forth God's word, they they speak forth God's word, a balanced sermon, a balanced meal. First Corinthians chapter 14 verse three, the prophet speaks to edification, exhortation, and comfort. So every time you hear me speak at Calvary Chapel, whatever it is the Lord's given me, there should be some milk, some veggies, some meat that edifies you, which means it's gonna build you up. Gonna build you up in your in your faith. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. Exhortation is gonna be to motivate you to not to not be a selective hearer and act like it doesn't pertain to you and not be what pastor Romaine used to call a yeah but. You know what a yeah but is? Yeah but. Yeah but. Yeah Yeah Yeah but. Yeah but. You're you're taught the truth, and then it doesn't pertain to you. Yeah. But. Yeah. But. No. No. Yeah. But. It means what it says. The Lord held the mirror up to your face. Don't make excuses. That's the exhortation to do something about it. And then the comfort is we always bring in the cross. We always bring the cross into the message. God's love for us, is forgiveness of sin, and we appeal to people to receive Christ. And so his message here is coming. The Lord's gonna give it to him. So eat, study, preach. All scriptures given by inspiration to God is profitable for doctrine. What's doctrine? Sound doctrine. It's the body of God's word. It's the body of truth, a systematic theology. I'm I'm amazed at at how many of us as Christians and even pastors can get off track and teach something that's not sound doctrine. It's scary. I hope it doesn't happen to me. And if it does, I hope it I hope you guys confront me so I can get back right with God because I don't wanna be espousing something that's not accurate with God's word. I don't care. I I don't desire to be known by men. I I want I want God I I want I want God to have the favor of God upon my life. So there's a lot of what we call pseudo intellectualism today, where people run around acting like they're smarter than everybody in Christian circles, and it's a pseudo intellectualism. They really aren't very smart. But because they know a few Greek or Hebrew words, all of a sudden, they're smarter than everybody else, and people think, oh, wow. How'd they come up with that? One of the ones that really deeply bothered me, and you can get sued, is Jonathan Cahn. I have to keep my mouth shut on a lot of this stuff because there's so much false prophet stuff going on, people, blood red moons, and all this stuff going on, the eclipse that just happened. Everybody had the rapture peg. They had rapture city, rapture this, rapture that, Zion, all these different cities where it was gonna go over. Nothing happened. Nobody's come back to retract or say they're sorry. But I gotta sit there and listen to all that, and blood red moons, you know. Well, maybe it's a blood red moon because the smoke of the volcano is going off, you know. Maybe the light diffusing through the smoke. You know? And these blood red moons have happened throughout history. You know? So, anyway, they make a lot of money off these books, and I might as well be a flat earther, you know, because it really doesn't matter anymore. But it's a dome. And, you know, they find they find a sign. What's the sign? I found a sign at at 09:11, you know, at ground zero about America, judgment upon America. No, you didn't. No. You didn't. You just wrote a book about it, and people are gravitating toward that. I'll give you a sign. The sign is in Isaiah chapter seven. The virgin shall conceive and bear a son to call his name Emmanuel. That's the sign. Amen. Right? So you quit trying to find a sign in Isaiah seven, in Isaiah nine, and tie it in with nine eleven. Now it's real clear. Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. There's your sign in the context of what's being said. But because people don't have a working knowledge of the scripture, the charlatans, the false prophets can come through and get away with a whole lot today. And so eat, study, preach. And you guys wanna read some verses? I always eat. You said always. Okay. So how about four Timothy first Timothy four fifteen and sixteen? First Timothy. And first Timothy four six, and then first Timothy four fifteen and sixteen. So the same person will do that because they're in that section. Second Timothy two fifteen. These are these are passages you want to That one. These are passages you wanna highlight and write in your bible. Okay? These are passages you need to memorize. Second Timothy three sixteen and seventeen. All scripture is given by inspiration of god and is profitable for doctrine and reproof, for correction, for instruction of righteous. I said second Timothy two fifteen. I'm thinking that Second Timothy three sixteen and seventeen. What was first Timothy? First Timothy four six. First Timothy four fifteen and sixteen. Four fifteen. Oh, forget it. I'll read it myself, you guys. Good lord. You got it. Mediate upon these things. Meditate. How about that? Meditate. You're a good girl. Okay. I'll take a chill pill here. You want me to read it? How about I'm giving out some more verses. Jeremiah fifteen sixteen. Job twenty three twelve. Psalm 19 verse 10. I'll take it. Okay. First Peter two verse two. I'm not gonna say it again. Get there. I'll get there. There. There. Two. First Peter five verse two. I'll take that. Okay. Lindsay. Alright. Now first Peter two verse two and first Peter five verse two. Lindsay will do that. And acts two twenty eight. John twenty one fifteen through 17. 15 through 17? Yeah. John one? No. 21. 21. 15 through 17. And the last one, Revelation ten nine through 11. Ten nine Through 11. I'm doing that one. Alright. Here we go. We're off. Yeah. The first one is first Timothy four verse six. Four verse six. Good. So we're focusing upon eating the word of god, studying the word of god, absorbing the word of god. I'll do second Timothy. Okay. First Timothy four verse six. If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ. Timothy? He's telling Timothy. Put them in remembrance of these things that even though they know them like Peter says. I'm gonna remind you these things. First Timothy four fifteen and sixteen. That's me. All day. Mediate upon these things. Give them Meditate. Meditate. Are you sure? So meditate is Psalm one. Bless his man. Meditate. Meditate. That's your homework. What does what does it mean to meditate upon the word of God? Study. Think think about it. First Timothy four fifteen and sixteen. Meditate. Meditate upon these things. Give thyself wholly to them that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed onto thyself and onto the doctrine. Continue in them, or in doing this, thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. So a teacher has to first receive from the Lord and meditation, not like Eastern religions and all, but it's getting away from distractions. Get rid of your phone. Get rid of the telephone, everything that's gonna distract. And we talk about an attention span. What is your attention span? How quickly does God have to communicate to you before you lose interest, you know? So meditation is a means of waiting upon the Lord. Praying, waiting, reading, waiting, and allowing the Lord to speak and allow the ideas to come into your head where the Lord begins to cause the scriptures to illumine your heart and mind, and maybe even the application. You have the interpretation. Now what's the application, Lord? How do we apply this today? What's this mean? Alright. Second Timothy two fifteen. Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. And so for new believers, they're disciples, they're learners, and you encourage them to come to bible study. You encourage them to get apps and tapes. It used to be tapes, cassette tapes, and and turn the radio on when we had k wave where there's bible studies all day long. And so you're studying as you're driving your car. So if you've got a commute of three hour commute and you're just in your car, you can you can have a a radio seminary. You can be I spent years and years driving in Orange County, maybe ten years, more than that. And I would always have my radio on bible study teaching. And and I would get all different kinds of Calvary Chapel pastors teaching the bible. Gotta get the bible in you. And then even still today, all these years later, I still need to meditate upon God's word. I still listen to pastor Chuck on that Word For Today app with my earbuds in at the gym or in the car when I'm driving. And and I I forget a lot. We forget a lot, so I need to be reminded. Okay. Jeremiah fifteen sixteen. Thy words were found, and I did eat them. Mhmm. And thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart. So I am called by thy name, o Lord God of hosts. So the these are these are people that are so excited to hear the word of god. Do you guys remember when Ezra the priest, when Nehemiah rebuilt the walls? These guys are gonna be down here seven years. When they go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple, Nehemiah is there to rebuild the walls. But Ezra the priest is there, and they found a scroll. And when they began to read it, the people began to weep because they hadn't heard the word of God in so long. They just began to weep. It meant a lot to them. Psalm 19 verse 10. Verse 10. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. So the word the word of God is greater than all the silver and gold and sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Alright. First Peter two verse two. As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may groan that ye may grow thereby. So as a new babe in Christ, it's it's it's important that you have a diet of milk just like a baby would. And we we lead people to John chapter one, read the gospel of John and get to know Jesus, feast upon the milk of God's word. In first Peter five verse two. Had a note next to that that said spiritual growth is practicing what the spirit of God wants you to do. Amen. Oh. First Peter five verse two? That's me. Okay. I was just going. Five verse two is feed the flock of God, which is among you, taking the oversight of not by constraint, but willingly, not by filthy is it loose Filthy lucre. Okay. But of a ready mind. Ready mind and heart. So Peter it's funny. Peter's exhorting the other pastors to feed the flock of God. Now Jesus said that to Peter earlier, which we're gonna read. Right? John 21. Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep. Feed my lambs. Tend my lambs. Now Peter's exhorting him. Do it, but don't do it with the motive of for filthy lucre. Alright. Are we at Acts twenty twenty eight? John twenty one fifteen through 17? So then they had dined Jesus, Simon excuse me. Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, loveth thou more than these? He had said unto him, yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He had said it unto him, Feed thy excuse me, Feed my lambs. He said to him again, the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He said unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He said unto him, then feed my sheep. He said to him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he had said unto him the third time, lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus said unto him, then feed my sheep. Amen. So do you see this theme over and over and over and over again? God's saying, feed my sheep, Feed them. Study. Eat it. Absorb it. And yet, very few in the church today have a working knowledge of the scriptures. Yep. There's a famine in the land for the word of god. We would call it being biblically illiterate because for over twenty years, twenty five years, the vast majority of churches did not teach the word of God. That's why we have no discernment in America anymore. People don't know good from evil, right from wrong. Acts twenty twenty eight. Take heed therefore unto yourselves into all the flock over which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to feed the children of God, which he has purchased with his own blood. So don't tell me about a pastor that has not prepared himself to teach the word of God. It's incumbent upon him. It's not it's not somebody else's fault. He either is or he isn't. He's either a student of the word or he's not. And if he if he's gonna be a pastor, he has to be first and foremost a student, a disciple of Jesus. And alright. So verse three. And he said unto me, son of man, eat and fill thy stomach with the scroll that I give thee, then did I eat it, and it was in my mouth like honey for sweetness. And Revelation ten nine eleven? And I took the little book out of the angel's hand and ate it up, and it was in my mouth sweet as honey. And as soon you said ten and eleven. Sorry. Yeah. And as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. And he said unto me, thou must prophesize again before many people and nations and tongues and kings. And so the same the same thing's happening with Ezekiel. We as pastors, we love when we come to a passage of scripture. That's the sweet part of the word of God. God's love for you. We love those passages. But when we come to passages about judgment, hell, and these kind of things, We know that it's gonna be hard to swallow for a lot of people, and we know that it's gonna be bitter in people's mouth and in their stomach when we talk about prophecy and the end of America, the end of the world. But it's gonna be sweet when they let go of America and they realize that Jesus is coming again to set up his kingdom. And so a lot of pastors will shy away from prophecy because much of the prophecy is speaking of the second coming of Christ, which comes with Armageddon, which comes with famine, pestilence, wars, rumors of wars. And that's the bitter pill, the bitter part that people don't wanna hear. But you gotta get past that and look to the rapture of the church. Look to we're not subject unto his wrath. And so when he said unto me, son of man, go. In verse 11, go. In verse 22, go. In verse 24, go. In verse 25, go. What don't we understand about the word go? Green light. It takes some effort. So is it the great commission or is it the great omission? Go into all the world. What did Jesus say? Go into all the world Mhmm. And make disciples of all nations, teaching them whatsoever I commanded you. Right? Baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, the holy spirit along with you always even the end of the age. Right? That's called the great commission. How are we fulfilling the great commission in our Jerusalem, our Judea, our Samaria, our outermost? Kathy told me that some of these messages are going to Italy and other places, you know, beyond Bremerton. So that's part of the way we do it is that we invest in the word of God. And Rob and Vicky and and Kathy and Brian and everybody gets together and and we record it and then we send it out and then you send it out to your friends and family and people. So the word of God is going out. And hopefully, we're fulfilling the great commission as best we can as little Calvary Bremerton. So go, get thee under the house of Israel and speak with my words unto them. So keep it simple. Keep keep it simple, stupid. That's the best way to go. You know, simply we we receive, simply we give, and don't have to complicate it. God brings the word of God down to an eighth grade level. The King James Bible is written at an eighth grade level. I don't know. Mediation was pretty hard. Meditation. Meditation. It's alright. You've got fifteen months sobriety. It'll get better. There's a lot of brain cells reconnecting. Fifteen months. You burned a lot of brain cells. They're dead. Yeah. They're not God will transform you. He'll transform you. And if you didn't have an English class and a spelling class and all those other things, when you become a Christian, you start reading the Bible, guess what? Your spelling gets better. Mhmm. Your grammar gets better. You start to learn. It's like you're in class again. You're in school again. Some of that stuff that you previously learned, you know, comes to comes to remembrance. The first the first time I read it, I did the New Living Translation. And then I started going to bible study. You guys said it. I had to get King James, so I got King James. And now King James is all I wanna listen to. Mhmm. I don't wanna listen to the other stuff. That well, if it's Alexander Scorby, I mean, he's got the accent. Is that the name of that guy? Or does he have an accent? Anyway, let's go. For thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech, so you're it's not the missionary way out there in Africa and of a hard language, but to the house of Israel. You're being sent to your own people. The apostle Paul had a hard time. He wanted to minister to the Pharisees, to his own people, and God told them they're not gonna listen to you. Jesus spoke of, you know, Jonah went to the Ninevites and they listened to him. The queen of Sheba came all the way from Africa to hear the wisdom of Solomon, but you guys are greater than Solomon's here, and you won't even listen to me. You know what mean? Aw. You remember that? Jesus said you guys won't listen. I listen, but I No. I know. I'm not talking to you. It's the people he was talking to. It's It takes about five seconds. K. You got two ears on one mouth. What's that tell you? Alright. Here you go. Alright. For thou art not sent to a people of strange speech out of a hard language but to the house of Israel. That is your target. There's your objective. That's your target. Not too many people of a strange speech or of a hard language whose words thou cannot understand. Surely had I sent thee to them, they would have hearkened unto thee. So if I'd have sent you to the Gentiles, they would have listened to you. Ascended you to my own house, my own people, they're not gonna listen to you. Their hearts are so hard. So you and I in the church age, that blindness apart has happened unto Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in, which means some Jews have ears to hear and are coming to Christ. Messianic Jews, they're part of the church. But by and large, this dispensation, it's predominantly Gentiles, Gentile nations that are responding to the gospel. But we don't replace Israel. We just know that Israel's past election, Israel's present rejection, and chapter 11 in Romans is Israel's future restoration. And the rapture of the church is gonna take place when the fullness of the Gentiles become in, Romans 11 verse 25. But the house of Israel will not hearken, and you can tie that will, that word will, tie it into John chapter three. You will not believe. Why won't you believe? It's not that you can't believe. You will not believe because your deeds are evil. Because you love darkness rather than light. So you've determined you will not repent of your sin because you like your sin. So these guys, it's not a matter of intellect. It's not a matter of they don't understand the truth. They could be in denial. They could listen to false prophets. But the real objective is the will. They will not. But the house of Israel will not hearken unto me, for they will not hearken unto me, for all the house of Israel are impotent and hard hearted. They're stubborn, stubborn people. Behold, I have made thy face strong against their face and thy forehead strong against their forehead. So it's it's nonnegotiable. We're not here to negotiate terms of surrender with the world. The emperor of Japan, general Douglas MacArthur, you know, after World War two and and Hiroshima Nagasaki wiped out, we gave them, you know, terms of surrender. And that's what Jesus he's given terms of surrender, complete absolute surrender. Unconditional. Unconditional. There you go. That's a good word. Thank you. Nonnegotiable. Like an adamant harder than flint. So like a diamond, something really hard. Like an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead. So God's saying, Rick, Kathy, you're gonna need to wear a helmet. You're gonna you're gonna be like a billy goat, button heads with people. You're gonna constantly be button heads with people, but I've given you a hard forehead. You're a knucklehead. You're a hardhead. And don't don't, don't give in to them because of fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house. And so I have to be defiant. I have to be like just you can't believe the leverage that people put upon a pastor, a small church pastor, the way they leverage us, the way they tell us if we don't cooperate, if we don't do this, then they're gonna this, and we're gonna leave, and we'll throw you into jail, and we'll lock your kids up, and, you know, without me, all you got's a boombox. They're just always, always trying to leverage. And we have to walk by faith. We have to say, well, here I stand like Martin Luther. I can do no other. You know? Doesn't always work out real well, you know? I mean, in the short run. In the long run, it will because you've you've been proven that you're not a false prophet, that you're not gonna compromise the word of God. And that's why COVID was such a grievous thing for me within my spirit, because I saw compromise. I saw people throwing Jesus under the bus. I saw people willing to believe the lies and to shut the churches down and not sing and and it was very sad to watch people obey men that told them you're not allowed to worship Jesus. It it deeply grieved me. And you gotta be you gotta be hard headed. You gotta be tougher than that. We talk about having the height of a raw anoceros. Right? Your skin. You gotta have tough skin. Gotta let it just flow right off like off a duck. Right? Because they're gonna come with their words and their accusations. And I've we've had people tell Kathy that she's crazy. You know, we've had people turn against us and say, well, you're crazy. You need to go into a mental institution, you know, things like that. Because we told them no. Yeah. That's the key is that right there. Do you hear that? Do you hear that? Said no because we said no. If you say no in a church, oh my lord. They go ballistic. As but typically when you're in a building project and you're starting to, you know, accumulate assets and build things and do things, Whole lot of people come forward with power struggles and wanting to take control like Cora, Dathan, and Abiram, you know, and the ground opened up and swallowed them. Right? So moreover he said unto me, son of man, there it is again, all my words that I shall and all means all. Right? All my words that I shall speak unto thee, receive in thine heart and hear with thine ears. That's what you want. You wanna have ears to hear, and you want the word of God to travel 18 inches from your ears to your heart. Thy word have I hid in my heart. Psalm a 119, the psalmist declared that what? I will not sin against God. Amen. Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee. You've sown the word of God. You know the right way, the wrong way. You're walking the narrow way. Is it really 18 inches? Well, I don't know. You wanna measure? I'm just Kinda. Maybe it's nine. Maybe it's Oh, you guessed. That's only my opinion. That's not the word of God. It's illustration. I'm taking it very Did you understand it, though? Yes. And when we say heart, do you really think it's gonna go in your heart that's beating? It's the seed of your being. These guys will even talk about your stomach being a location where where you feel your gut. Listen to your gut. That's where it comes from. But we talk about our heart. It's the center of our of our being. It's it's the place where the Lord where we're expressing our love and our submission under the Lord. Because the demons, you say you believe in God, you do well, the demons also believe and tremble. So an intellectual consent to these truths is not saving faith. It needs to become a part of you to the point you submit you've in submission to the word of God. So it's gotta come take hold of your will, the surrender of your will, not just your head. Alright? What are you fighting against? Alright. Here we go. Where am I fighting? How many times I start and stop with this now? It's alright. How many ears I tell you have? I have two and one mouth. Alright. Alright. They're laughing out there. They're laughing out there. I know a laugh clap. Alright. So like an adamant, harder than flint, have I made your forehead. So you need to be equipped. These are rebellious people. So it's not for the timid. That's why Paul told Timothy, he hasn't given us the spirit of fear, but a power of love and a sound mind. Don't wimp out with these people. And, you know, ministry can get so ugly. I don't like ugly. I don't like confrontation. I don't want to confront. That's why if you know somebody that's in the church and they're not married and they're having sex, don't tell me about it. I don't wanna know. I don't wanna know. I just wanna teach the word of God and let them get convicted. You know? The last thing I wanna do is is I don't know. You did ask if anybody was a fornicator one. I do that all the time. It was, like, five weeks ago. I do that all the time. It's like, you think they're really gonna raise their hand and say, yeah. Right here? Paula does. Paula did. Paula's Paula's the best. I know. Paula's the best, man. Good. She's got her baby there. Cute. Didn't I ask her that yesterday? Yeah. Yeah. I'm a fornicator, she says. Yep. Go call them. Go call them. Not married yet. Not married yet. But getting closer to Jesus. Right? Yeah. Getting closer to Jesus. Love on him. And she wants to marry. We need truth in the inward parts. That's all we're after. God will work on Paula. But if she's a liar, then it stops right there. Right? If you lie to yourself. Though they are a rebellious, rebellious, so they're gonna be defiant. Moreover, he said unto me, son of man, all my words that I shall speak unto thee receive in your heart and hear with your ears and go get thee to them of the captivity under the children of my people and speak unto them and tell them, thus saith the Lord God, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear. So this is the call of God upon you. He's given the message and this is the calling. I'm gonna send you to the house of Israel. And this is God's call to ministry for for Ezekiel. Do you know your call to the ministry? What your ministry is? We all have at least one ministry that God's called us. Do you know what your message is? Because you're a herald. You're an ambassador. You're a proclaimer of good news. The gospel is good news. Then the spirit lifted me up and I heard behind me a voice of a great rushing saying, blessed be the glory of the Lord from his place. So the Shekinah glory of God, this he's getting a rush, like mighty waterfall, the noise. I heard also the noise of the wings of the living creatures. There you go, what we learned about in chapter one. Cherubim. The cherubim that touched one another and the noise of the wheels beside them and noise of a great rushing. So there's a huge moving of the angels now. And so the spirit lifted me up. And you remember Revelation chapter four, John was lifted up, you know, to heaven and he saw things. Right? See, he was caught up in the spirit on the Lord's day. Right? And so the spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness in the heat of my spirit. So there's anguish there, there's power that God's given him for ministry, and there's an anguish within his heart. There's like a righteous indignation that's welling up welling up within him. And this speaks of the preparation for ministry. Hand of the Lord was strong upon me. We can't go with the message until we receive the empowering of the Holy Spirit. So you gotta wait for the empowering of the Holy Spirit, and we're gonna see that the Holy Spirit ministers to Ezekiel over and over. So that's where we remind ourselves as Ephesians five verse 18, be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be being filled with the holy spirit. The Greek tense there is be being. So constantly being filled with the holy spirit because we're leaky vessels. So the the rush that you had yesterday, the joy, the blessing, the being filled with the Holy Spirit yesterday kinda leaks out of you. Now tonight, the Lord's refilling you. And tomorrow when you have your devotions and in the word, he'll refill you again. And so it's when we think in this terms, Jesus probably never leave us nor forsake us. So the Holy Spirit's within us, but the Epi experience, be being, is the Holy Spirit like a a flow. In John chapter seven, if any man thirst, so there's a thirst for the things of the spirit, your appetite. If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believes in me out of his belly shall flow flow torrents of living water. So you want a constant flow of the word of God in and through your life to empower you. So going to work in the morning, you need the empowering of the Holy Spirit to deal with those demons that you're gonna see that morning. Right? You're gonna you're gonna confront demons out in public. Right? You work with demons. You work with demons, and and you can't do it in the arm of the flesh. So you need the help and the power of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God who freely gives. And so then I came to the captivity of Tel Habib that dwelt by the River Chebar, which is 200 miles north of Babylon. And I sat where they sat and remained there overwhelmed among them seven days. So why do you think he would sit where they're seated before he even mentions anything? Just sit where they're seated. You ever heard somebody say, why don't you walk a mile in my shoes? Right? So we we need understanding. We need understanding of where the people are, of how they think. And I've been trying to figure out Kitsap County for thirty years. I still can't figure it out. I still don't understand. It's beyond me. It's beyond my scope of understanding. But as best as I can, I try? I try, and I stay with the word of God, but it's some would say people are the same all over the world. Well, no. Every single person goes through different things. So somebody that goes through a divorce, sit with them. Somebody that loses a loved one, sit with them. You don't have to start talking right away. Just sit with them. And when you lose a loved one, you're gonna be prepared to sit with somebody else that also has lost a loved one. And so as time goes on, life experiences prepare us for even a broader and a broader ministry. Pastor Chuck likes to point out that when his mother died, she died a slow death of cancer, and that prepared him and helped him with people, hospital calls and visitation and prayer when they go through things like that. He also experienced a quick death when his dad and his brother died with a plane crash. So he's experienced both and it helped him prepare him the emotions that he felt to be able to minister to those who go through very similar things. So and Kathy and I, we've gone through a lot of different things just like you guys have. God doesn't take us and say, alright. You're insulated from everything that the people that you ministered to are going through because you're so spiritual. I'm gonna bless you more than everybody else. And they're gonna think that if they do things the way that you tell them to do it, that they'll be blessed too and all those bad things will quit happening to them. That doesn't happen to us. But that is a way a lot of people look at pastors, especially in Southern California. And then what you've what you see is when they finally have a a son or a daughter or a calamity, something happened to them, they're not prepared for it because they've been so insulated from everyday life. They've been so pampered and so celebrity they've been made celebrities that they have a difficult time in dealing with the common person in everyday life. And Jesus wasn't like that. He left the splendor of heaven to come down and become the son of man, and he didn't pick the most lavish lifestyle. He was born in a manger, in a barn. He lived in Nazareth. Can anything good come out of Nazareth? So he's the son of a poor carpenter and Mary and Joseph having siblings, you know, brothers and sisters and all. So he wasn't insulated living in a palace and having no comprehension of what the common folk, you know, are going through. So it came to pass at the end of seven days that the word of the Lord came unto me. So he's waited. Sometimes we gotta wait upon the Lord for the word to come. Sometimes when you're praying, in Daniel chapter 10, how many days did Daniel pray before he received a word from the Lord? Twenty days. Twenty one days. Right? And Michael, the archangel came and said, Daniel, beloved of God, from the very first moment that you began to pray to the present, you know, I've been wanting to come to you, but I've been battling with the prince of Persia. Who's the prince of Persia? The leader, the host of demons who are over Cyrus and Darius because we fight not against flesh and blood, but against spirits and principalities of the air in Ephesians six. So all these human governments, the little g god of this world influences all these human governments. So as Daniel's praying Mediating. Intercessory. You learn another word. What? Just burst out of you, doesn't it? I don't see It's hard to keep that in, isn't it? Intercessory. Jesus ever lives to make intercession for you. Alright. So son of man, all my words that I shall speak shall receive in your heart and heareth my words so with no selective hearing. We don't just receive some things and not the other. Well, Lord, I'm not gonna speak on this because it's not popular, and they won't like me if I have to speak on this, you know? You don't pick and choose. You just go through the Bible, and as you go through the Bible, you teach each week. And if you wanna know what I'm gonna teach on Sunday, guess what? Where do you think I'm gonna be in the Bible? Corinthians. Corinthians. 10? Chapter 10. Yep. Yeah. That's where we're gonna be on Sunday. Mhmm. Because that's where we left off, the past Sunday. So I don't have a secret, you know, a secret word from the Lord or I don't go to pastors.com and get my marching orders from those guys. I just stay with the word of God. If the Lord impressed upon my heart, like if if New York City got nuked, you know, the Lord might have me on Sunday speak on something that pertained to, you know, a cataclysmic event or whatever, but that's that's not hasn't happened very often. All right, so, Moab said unto me, son of man, all, verse 11, and go get thee to them the captivity under the children of the people and speak unto them and tell them, thus saith the Lord God, whether they will hear or whether they will forbear. The spirit lifted me up and I heard behind me a voice of rushing saying blessed be the glory, the glory of this place. I heard also the noise of the wings of the living creatures that touched one another and the noise of the wheels beside them and the noise of a great rushing. So the spirit lifted me up and took me away and I went in bitterness and the heat and the spirit, but the hand of the Lord was strong upon me. Boy, do you want that? Then I came to them of the captivity of Tel Aviv and dwelt by the river at Chebar, and I sat where they sat and remained there overwhelmed among them seven days. And it came to pass at the end of seven days that the word of the Lord came unto me saying, Son of man, I have made thee a watchman. A watchman. So what is a watchman? Are you a watchman? Watches people? Warns people. Warns people? Rob says warns people. So if you've got a fort, if you've got a city, you would have these watchmen that stand up on by the gate, you know, on the walls, and they're looking on the horizon. And they've got with them, they've got a big horn. And if they see an enemy approaching, they wanna warn everybody that's sleeping, if they're asleep. Right? And they wanna be able to blow the horn, blow the trumpet in Zion. And so I've made you a watchman, which means you're going to bring warning. You're gonna bring warning to people. And if you look here from verse 17, you've got warning in 17, you've got warning in 18, you got warn in 18, you got warn in verse 19, you got warning in verse 20, you got warned in verse 21, you got warned, warned, past tense, in verse 21. So you're gonna have to warn. Now people that don't warn, the blood of the people's gonna be upon them. But if you warn them so Paul used this in Acts chapter 20, this passage here in chapter three, we'll see it again in chapter 33 of Ezekiel, that of providing the full counsel of God, of warning people. Once you warn a person, then their blood's upon their head. They're responsible. But if you don't warn the wicked person, even the righteous person that strays, then that responsibility is upon you. And son of man, I've made thee a watchman under the house of Israel. Therefore, hear the word at my mouth and give them warning from me. So watch and warn. Then I say unto the wicked, so the responsibility of ministry, we saw the preparation of ministry. Now the responsibility of ministry, we have a responsibility to say the hard things that people don't wanna hear and many pastors don't wanna say. And give them warning on me. When I say unto the wicked, thou shalt surely die and thou gives him not warning nor speaks to warn the wicked from his wicked way to save his life, the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at your hand. So you gotta be alert. You gotta be responsible. You gotta know what time it is. And part of what's happening here is the false prophets are saying Nebbe's not coming. Nebbe's not gonna destroy the city. So you as a watchman, Ezekiel, need to let them know that Nebbe is coming. Judgment's coming. It's appointed on all men once to die and then the judgment. We need to warn people that judgment's coming. And we need to let them know that God's made provision for their sin at the cross of Calvary. And if they reject the good news, if they reject God's love, then God respects their choice because nobody goes to hell being sent to hell. They go to hell because they choose to go to hell by rejecting Jesus Christ. And so our hands are clean when we warn the wicked. And in this in this immediate context, it would mean that you're not gonna die at the hands of the Chaldeans and the Babylonians if you submit, if you obey what I'm telling you, surrender to them. But if you disobey and you continue to fight against them, then you're all gonna be wiped out. The false prophets were telling the people what they wanna hear. And it was leaning toward a slaughter, a complete slaughter. But his blood will I require at thy hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked and he turns not from his wickedness nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity, but thou has delivered thy soul. So you're not responsible. Paul did the same thing in Acts chapter 20 verse 17 through 36 when he was leaving the city of Ephesus after three years of ministry there. He said, I'm innocent of the blood of every person here because for the space of three years, night and day, with tears, I ceased not to bring forth the full counsel of God. Brought forth the word of God. People are responsible for the word of God. You bring forth the word and let the chips fall where they may. And he told the Ephesian elders who are the pastors, take heed over the flock which he has purchased with his own blood. If you don't have a sense of seriousness as a shepherd and hearing that, that these are blood bought sheep that belong to the Lord, you guys be, you know, you know, be careful because wolves are gonna come in, grievous wolves, some from within and some from without after I leave, Paul said. And that's what the devil does. And and so he says, and when a righteous man does turn from his righteousness, so a guy backslides, a guy apostasizes, he turns from his righteous stance before the Lord, and commits iniquity and I lay a stumbling block before him. He shall die because thou has not given him warning and he shall die in his sin and his righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered, but his blood will I require at thy hand. And so I told you that I don't like confrontation, but I'm commanded to confront. So if the Lord tells me to confront, I'm gonna have to confront. So Matthew 18, we're taught how to confront. If somebody sins, we go to them privately. If they don't listen, we bring a witness. If they still don't listen, we bring it before the leadership of the church. If we're in first Corinthians five and there's a man that has his father's wife with him, his stepmom, and they're committing fornication within the church and then parading it, we'll use the word parade. It's gay pride month, and the church is just allowing it, sloppy agape saying it's love that allows us, tolerates that evil. No. That's not love. We all have a responsibility to confront that evil. Little leaven leavens the whole lump. So we've gotta take a week gotta surgically cut it out and allow the immune system within the body of Christ to bring healing. If we allow this wickedness, it will permeate the entire body. It'll affect our children, our families, our homes, everything. It's by tolerating evil. So we speak the truth in love, faithful to wounds of a friend, the kiss of an enemy or deceitful. The objective is Galatians six one. If any man be overtaken in a fall, you who are spiritual restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, lest you also be tempted. So we go in meekness, reminding ourselves that we too are capable of the same kind of sin And we don't parade it, and we don't pronounce it, we don't gossip about it, we try to nip it in the bud because it's a shame to the body of Christ to even mention much, you know, much of of what goes on. So we do damage control. And and the objective is a godly sorrow that would lead to repentance. That when we confront like a Nathan, David, you're the man, there would be the right response in David. The false response in King Saul was the blame game, blaming the people. The good response in David is, I've sinned. And that's that's where we need to bring him. And so God in his grace and mercy stopped David from suffering any longer as David tried to cover his own sin and sent somebody to, in a loving way, confront him and say, David, you're the man. And so this righteous guy, because thou has not given him warning, he shall die in his sins, and his righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered, but his blood shall I require at thy hand. And so whether they're wicked or righteous, they need to be warned because the objective is to bring them to repentance. Nevertheless, if thou if thou warn the righteous man that that the righteous man sin not and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he is warned and thou has delivered thy soul. And the hand of the Lord was there upon me and he said unto me, arise, go forth into the plain and I will talk with thee. So he's gonna go into the valley in the little getaway with the Lord. You and I need times away with the Lord. We need place. Some the Bible would call it the prayer closet. Right? Go into your prayer closet, pray in secret, and your father who sees in secret shall reward thee openly. Kathy, in raising the kids, she had a very difficult time with all of her responsibilities as a young mother to have her devotions in the morning. Couldn't find a place of quiet. So what'd she do? She waited till she put the girls down at night and when I'd go to sleep or I'd be gone, and she'd have her devotions at night. So you find a time, you find a place, you find what works for you with your schedule and you prioritize and make sure that you're spending time with the Lord. You're getting alone with the Lord. Then I rose and went forth into the plain and behold, the glory of the Lord stood there like the glory which I saw by the River Of Chebar. Wouldn't that be great? Isn't it gonna be great when we see the Lord Jesus coming in the clouds of glory, and we're with him. We're coming back with Jesus. The Lord stood there like the glory which I saw by the River Chebar, and I fell on my face. That's always the response. People that are closest to the Lord, you know how do you know they're close to the Lord? They're humble. Prideful people, puffed up, celebrity type people, they're far from the Lord. How do we know that? God resists the proud and he gives grace to the humble. And every time we see in the Bible somebody encounter the Lord, their first response is their face to the ground. Peter said, away from me from a sinful man, when he saw the Lord Jesus do a miracle of causing those fish to go into those nets and all. And Isaiah, he was blown away. He said, I'm a man of unclean lips among a people of unclean lips. So the spirit entered into me and set me upon my feet. So again, over and over again, the holy spirit, the work of the holy spirit. Remember the tragedy of Samson, he knew not that the Holy Spirit had departed. He's so far from God that he couldn't even discern that the Holy Spirit departed. He thought he could reach back into the well and he could that he'd have that power to snuff out the guys that Delilah allowed in, but he was as weak as any other man without the help of the Holy Spirit. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten, Jesus said in Revelation three nineteen. So he set me at my feet and spake with me and said unto me, shut thyself within thy house. So get alone with God. But thou, oh son of man, behold, they shall put cords upon thee and shall bind thee with them and thou shall not go out among them. So no contact. Not gonna be any they're not gonna have any contact. They're gonna bind you. And I'll make thy tongue cling to the roof of your mouth. So God's gonna say, I'm you're you're not gonna even be able to speak to these guys. Cling to the roof of your mouth that thou shalt be dumb. And so you think of Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist. He doubted Elizabeth was gonna have a baby and Zechariah, the priest doubted and so God made him dumb. He couldn't speak. Right? Get him a get him a tablet. What's what's his name called? What are we gonna call him? And the people were gonna call him Zechariah after the dad, and and Zechariah finally could speak. His name is John. Right? And the dumb donkey spake. Balaam's donkey was able to speak. Right? That thou shalt be dumb and shall not be to them a reprover for they are a rebellious house. And so God's has them in a place here of no communication. Hold back. Wipe the dust off your feet. Move to a different place. But when I speak with thee, so there's a time to speak and a time not to speak. Is that getting through to you? Well, I'm a little confused. Alright. Well, afterwards, you can talk all you want. Okay. Just on '25 and '26. So is he saying he he wanted them to tell all these people everything, but now he's gonna make him not be able to tell me? He's doing both. He's saying there's a time to get along with me, and you're not gonna say anything for a time. Oh, okay. And then I'm gonna give you words to say, and you're gonna go out there and let it let it rip. Okay. Thank But see the but there? But but god but when I speak with thee, I will open your mouth and thou shall say unto them, saith the lord god. Anytime you hear a preacher, anybody say, thus saith the Lord in the first person, watch out. Mhmm. It better happen or they're a false prophet. Right? Wait, watch and warn, and then win. So I speak to thee, so you gotta wait. You gotta watch. You gotta warn. But when I speak with thee, I will open your mouth and thou shalt say unto them, thus saith the Lord God, he that hears, let him hear, and he that forbears, let him forbear, for they are a rebellious house. I can't save anybody. I can't save them. You can't save anybody. But we go forth in obedience, bringing the glorious gospel, the good news of Jesus, share his love, the ball's in their court of whether they're going to receive or whether they're gonna reject. If they reject, then we intercede in prayer. We intercede on their behalf. We ask God to soften their heart. We ask God to illumine their heart and mind. We ask God to take the scales off their eyes. We know it's a spiritual battle, but we can't force them, can't coerce them, can't make it happen. Only God can. Salvation's a miracle of God. So no compromise with the wicked. I don't want false converts. I don't want people coming to church writing checks, saying they're members of the church, living in sin because I'm afraid to tell them the truth. That's compromise. And that doesn't serve them because they have a false sense of security, and they're gonna hear one day the Lord Jesus say, away from me, I never knew you, you that practice iniquity. Much better to warn, to tell the truth, allow the Holy Spirit to convict. Let them get mad at me. I don't care. Let them get mad at Kathy, whoever they want to get mad at. Storm out of there. But you know what? They're gonna be haunted. They're gonna be tormented till they surrender to Jesus. And so tell the truth. Keep telling the truth. It's like We're in a war for truth. We are in a war for truth. It's like alcoholics and drug addicts. You can throw them in a rehab, but if they don't wanna quit Right. They're not going to. Right. They have to make the decision. That's a good point. That's right. Alright. Let's pray. You guys wanna keep going? Father, we thank you for the sweet time that we can spend in your word, Lord. And we ask that you would help us to feast upon your word, to enjoy it, to meditate upon your word. And Lord, we pray that you edify and build us up, strengthen us, strengthen our families, our homes, our community. Give us open doors that no man can shut to share the glorious good news. Help us to be watchmen on the wall like like Ezekiel here where we blow the trumpet, we warn people of what's coming. And Lord, if they don't want to hear Lord, then that's up to them. Help us not to compromise. Help us not to give in to false hopes that people are clamoring toward. Help us to stand firm and stand tall in your word, Lord. Build your church. Build your church, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

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About This Podcast

Calvary Chapel Bremerton - Home Bible Study

Listen to Rick Beaudry, Pastor of Calvary Chapel Bremerton, lead our home Bible Study session in worship and teaching the Word of God. Be edified and built up in your faith with solid Bible teaching. New episodes released on Tuesdays in the Pacific Standard Timezone.

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