God's Chosen Place

I would much rather give you messages of love, grace and mercy all the time. I’d much rather make you feel good about yourself every time you come to church. If I could do that we would probably have several hundred members by now. But that’s not the message God wants to hear, so I have to speak what He says and leave the growth of the church up to him.

Ezekiel 3:4-5, "And he said unto me, Son of man, go, get thee unto the house of Israel, and speak with my words unto them. For thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech and of an hard language, but to the house of Israel;"

Like Ezekiel, I know that my calling is to preach to the church; and to those who are supposed to be Christians already. My calling is as a pastor, not as an evangelist or apostle. Pastors tend to the flock that God puts in their care.

Because of God’s warning to Ezekiel, I also know that sometimes the sheep want to bite back too. But God didn’t send me to a place where they couldn’t understand what I was saying, or to people who I couldn’t understand either. I am here; we are here; in our own country; among our own people; in our own families; in the midst of the church; and here is where we are set in place to minister for the Lord.

The hand of God was strong upon Ezekiel. He was sent to a people who were hard-headed, rebellious and stiff-necked; people who didn’t want to hear his message from the Lord. God knew that Ezekiel was going to face some pretty rough times of ministry so he prepared him for it.

Ezekiel 3:8-9, "Behold, I have made thy face strong against their faces, and thy forehead strong against their foreheads. As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead: fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house."

God made Ezekiel even more hard-headed than the rebellious crowd around him. He gave Ezekiel a holy boldness to preach the message of repentance no matter what any of them said. That’s what God does for you and I too.

I’ve been accused at times of being hard-headed; uncompromising; intolerant and old-fashioned. All I can say is, “It’s God’s fault”. He made me that way so that the truth of the gospel could go forth. Some of you are just as hard headed as me and I thank God for you.

In spite of all that God could do to reach out to them, including sending a hard headed prophet named Ezekiel, God already knew that the Jews would reject the message and continue on their path to destruction. But God loved them so much; he had to give them every chance to change.

There may be someone hearing this message who has been fighting against God’s call to repentance. There may be someone who is hard headed; loves the life of rebellion against God, and who has continually refused to surrender your life to Jesus. God is not giving up on you. He sent me with a message for you today. He has called me, this church, these people to preach to our own community the message of the gospel.