Hard Words To Hard People In Hard Times Series

Our former district superintendent, Bill Smith, recalls preaching part-time in a small local church while he was still studying for the ministry. Six months passed and none of his professors had come to hear him. Finally, his faculty advisor agreed to attend one Sunday.

After the service, the advisor shook Bill’s hand and said, “That was a very warm sermon.”

But Bill’s delight was short-lived as he continued. “You know what the definition of warm is, don't you?” he asked.

Before Bill could respond, he answered, “Not so hot” (Bill Smith, "Lite Fare," Christian Reader; www.PreachingToday.com).

Ouch! But it does raise a very important question not only for preachers and teachers, but also for parents and grandparents, or for anyone with an important message they just want people they love to hear especially in hard times.

How do you turn up the heat in your message? How do you communicate in such a way that people really hear what you have to say? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Ezekiel 3, Ezekiel 3, where God calls Ezekiel to communicate hard words to hard people in hard times.

Ezekiel 3:1-3 And he said to me, “Son of man, eat whatever you find here. Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.” So I opened my mouth, and he gave me this scroll to eat. And he said to me, “Son of man, feed your belly with this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it.” Then I ate it, and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey (ESV).

God has given Ezekiel a hard message of judgment to Jewish people in hard times. They are in exile in Babylon while the Babylonian army is besieging their capital city and about to destroy it. Yet Ezekiel finds God’s word sweet in His mouth. It’s not what he expected. Perhaps, he expected a bitter taste that sours the stomach, but God’s Word was sweet nourishment to his soul.

My dear friends, if you want God to powerfully use you to communicate His message to hard people in hard times, you must…

EAT HIS WORDS YOURSELF.

You must ingest God’s message into your own life. You must receive it and make it a part of who you are.

In an interview with The Telegraph, actor Anthony Hopkins said that when he gets a movie script, he reads through it between one hundred and two hundred times before production. He makes notes in the margins. He scribbles and doodles and imagines how it would look on stage or screen. By the time Hopkins is finished, that script is internalized. He knows his character. He knows his (and everyone else's) lines. He's able to improvise, and he's a personification of the script (Sean Macauly, “Anthony Hopkins Interview,” The Telegraph, 1-31-11; www.PreachingToday.com).

That’s what it means to eat God’s Word. It starts with reading parts of it several times—maybe 100 or 200 times. Then take notes, and imagine what it would look like in your own life. Do this until God’s Word is internalized, and you become a personification of the “script” itself. Then, and only then, are you ready to communicate God’s Word to others. First, eat God’s Word. Then…

SPEAK GOD’S WORD.

Faithfully proclaim exactly what God has said, whether people listen or not.

Ezekiel 3:4-7 And he said to me, “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with my words to them. For you are not sent to a people of foreign speech and a hard language, but to the house of Israel— not to many peoples of foreign speech and a hard language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, if I sent you to such, they would listen to you. But the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, for they are not willing to listen to me: because all the house of Israel have a hard forehead and a stubborn heart (ESV).

God asks Ezekiel to bring His Word to a hard people, who will refuse to listen. However, God will make Ezekiel just as hard, if not harder than they.

Ezekiel 3:8-9 Behold, I have made your face as hard as their faces, and your forehead as hard as their foreheads. Like emery harder than flint have I made your forehead. Fear them not, nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house” (ESV).

God will make Ezekiel to be just as hardheaded and persistent in proclaiming God’s Word as the people are hardheaded and persistent in resisting God’s Word. The word for “hard” in the Hebrew is the same word that forms part of Ezekiel’s name, which means “God will strengthen” or “God will harden.” So, when Ezekiel heard his name, it reminded him of God’s promised strength (Charles Dyer, BKC). And God promises you that same strength as you faithfully speak His Word in difficult situations. But first you have to soften your heart to receive His Word for yourself.