I HOPE YOU DANCE
EZEKIEL 22:1-8, 23-30
FATHER’S DAY JUNE 17, 2001
INTRODUCTION: FATHER’S DAY INTERNET STUFF
LYRICS TO THE SONG, “I HOPE YOU DANCE” BY LEE ANN WOMACK (? spelling, but correct name and title).
TRANSITION THOUGHT: Today’s text speaks to us of the reality of today’s culture. Our text speaks to the reality of the times in which there is no difference shown between what is right and what is wrong. Our text speaks to the reality that there is no one to take a stand for the living God. Our text reminds us that God is looking for a man, one who will stand for what is right and live what is pleasing to God, but our text tells us that God cannot find such a man. When it comes to the dance of life and of service and honor for the living God, and when you get the choice to sit it out or dance, there is no dancing!
THESIS SENTENCE: GOD WANTS MEN TO STAND FOR HIM IN THE GAP BETWEEN MORAL DEGRADATION AND MORAL INTEGRITY!
SO THE QUESTION FOR TODAY, MEN, IS WHY ARE WE NOT DANCING?
I. DANCING COMES WHEN WE ESCAPE THE TRAP OF THIS PRESENT WORLD. (VV. 1-8)
A. World focus…
1. Shedding blood? Personal gain regardless of the cost. Look around the world and what do you see? We live in a violent world and a violent nation. (Kids Kill Kids!) 2. Everything before God instead of God before everything! IDOLITRY! 3. Infamy over fame. I want to be known regardless of how I look (e.g. Jerry Springer). 4. Misuse of Power, because, that’s why you wanted it! (Personal gain!) 5. Treat Mother and Father with Contempt! When was this written? It was the 6th century.
6. Oppress the Alien! It doesn’t matter where they’re from, if they are not like us, oppress them!
7. Mistreat the Fatherless and the Widow. It’s not my problem!
B. God focus… HUGE CONTRAST HERE!!
1. Build, do not tear down!
2. God is looking for builders; “I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall (vs. 30).
ASIDE: The cities of those days were built with walls around them – these high walls formed a defense against the enemy. If part of the wall was broken down the enemy could easily attack the city through that gap.
3. God want men who practice Ephesians 4: 29, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”
4. God saw Jerusalem as a city with her walls broken down, not physically, but spiritually and morally.
5. HOW might God view our nation, our community, our Church, and our Families? ARE THE WALLS BROKEN DOWN??
6. In about 150 years after the date of our text, Nehemiah would come back to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls. BUT, God was looking for Spiritual Leaders, who would do the work of rebuilding the destroyed walls!
ASIDE: CHAPTER 13: 4-5, “Your prophets, O Israel, are like jackals among ruins. You have not gone up to the breaks in the wall to repair it for the house of Israel so that it will stand firm in the battle on the day of the Lord.”
The key thought to all of this is SPIRITUAL not Physical. It speaks of the Day of Christ Return! ARE YOU BUILDING UP THE WALL SO THAT THOSE AROUND YOU WILL BE ABLE TO STAND IN THE DAY OF GOD’S JUDGMENT?
KEY ALSO TO THIS THOUGHT, IT IS POSITIVE, NOT NEGETIVE, NOT A DON’T, BUT A DO! BUILD THE WALL!
ILLUSTRATION: Martin Luther, in the early 1500’s stood alone against the pope, the councils and traditions of the Roman Catholic Church. He pointed out what was wrong with these things, but then he set to work rebuilding the church on the foundation of God’s word!
7. Today our need is for Men, like Martin Luther, who will rebuild the walls of long forgotten morality, who will build walls of hope for the hurting, and who will build strong families. God is looking for a Man. Will you be that kind of Man? WILL YOU REBUILD THE WALL?
AND WHEN YOU GET THE CHOICE TO SIT IT OUT OR DANCE, I HOPE YOU DANCE!
II. DANCING COMES WHEN WE STAND IN THE GAP (VV. 23-30)
A. WHEN THE WALL IS DOWN
1. It is a day of wrath. The enemy has a way in! Satan takes advantage of weak links, of chinks in the armor, of holes in the walls!
2. Conspiracy abounds. The “Nobility” plot for gain. In today’s language we would call this “Inside trading.” (VERSES 25 & 27)
a. People are torn to shreds and “Devoured.”
b. Surely this doesn’t happen in our day. Does it?
c. Widows are made? How do you make a Widow?
3. Morality and the Holy are desecrated!
a. The “religious” Destroy God’s Law.
b. The “religious” profane what is holy.
c. The “religious” cannot distinguish between the holy and the common, between right and wrong, between clean and unclean.
d. The “religious” misuse the Sabbath. They close their eyes to God’s commands!!! e. The “religious” rationalize away all sin and say this is okay with God WHEN GOD HAS NOT SPOKEN!
4. All become deluded when the wall is down. Notice the movement in verses 25-29. It begins with the sin of the Princes, moves to that of the priests. Verse 27 speaks about the officials in the land and this is followed up by the sin of the prophets and if this doesn’t seem to cover all the bases, verse 29 includes just the plain old common folk called the “People of the land.”
5. Extortion and robbery abound.
6. Oppression of the poor and needy continues.
7. Foreigners are mistreated.
8. Justice is denied.
B. STAND IN THE GAP
1. If the wall is down, the city needs defending!
2. When the wall is down, God needs men of courage and honor to stand in the breach. God needs men to STAND IN THE GAP!
3. The Prophet Ezekiel was in exile. Jeremiah was in Prison. God looked for someone, God looked for a Man, so that the City would not be destroyed, BUT HE FOUND NO ONE!
ASIDE: DID YOU NOTE WHERE GOD WAS LOOKING? WAS IT IN A FOREIGN LAND? JUST WHERE WOULD THIS MAN BE FOUND IF HE WAS FINDABLE? “I LOOKED FOR A MAN AMONG THEM,
4. Today God is looking for Men, Men who will stand with Jesus in the Gap.
a. God is looking for Men who will side with the Living God and see the difference between right and wrong, between Holy and common, between the Clean and the Unclean.
b. Men who will have their Eyes wide open and not wide shut to the Things of God!
c. Men who will truly discern the Will of GOD!
GOD IS LOOKING FOR A MAN WHO WILL BUILD UP THE WALL AND STAND IN THE GAP. ARE YOU THAT MAN?
AND WHEN YOU GET THE CHOICE TO SIT IT OUT OR DANCE, I HOPE YOU DANCE!
III. DANCING COMES WHEN WE STAND BEFORE THE LORD
A. STANDING IS KNEELING.
1. God was looking for a person to pray for the nation, to intercede for God’s people, to act as a mediator between the two.
2. Just like Abraham prayed for Lot over Sodom. Genesis 18 (fifty righteous all the way down to ten)
3. Just like Moses prayed for the people of Israel after they had made a golden calf and evoked the wrath of God.
PSALM 106:23 “So he said he would destroy them – had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him to keep his wrath from destroying them.”
4. The prophet Samuel followed in suit as well as Daniel.
5. John 17 is the “Great High Priestly Prayer of Jesus” in which HE prayed for his Disciples and for all who would believe.
ILLUSTRATION: In New York in the mid 19th Century, there was a man named Jeremiah Calvin Lamphier. He decided to have a prayer meeting for businessmen on the 23rd of September 1857. The meeting was to last one hour. For the first half- hour, he prayed alone. In the next half-hour another five people joined him. The next week there were 20 and the following week 40. Then they decided to have a daily prayer meeting. That soon went to a hundred and after three months to a 1000. This was the beginning of a great revival in America in which 2 million were saved. It began with the intercession of one man.
6. One Man can make a difference. Just ask Jesus, or Martin Luther, or William Wilberforce or Wesley, or Billy Graham, et cetera.
7. Men, are you willing to stand before the living God in behalf of your wife, your children, your family, your church, your friends, your town, your nation and for your world.
8. Men, WILL YOU STAND ON YOUR KNEES?
B. STANDING IS DANCING.
1. Dancing is not sitting out our responsibility as Men!
2. Dancing is the choice to get involved!
3. Dancing is enjoying the Power of the HOLY SPIRIT when we walk in obedience. 4. Dancing is being a real man in a real world serving a real God whom we will face on a real day.
5. Dancing is the Joy of the Lord.
6. Dancing is the call of the Psalmist.
7. Dancing is living.
8. Dancing is the Celebration of the Men of God: “David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the Lord with all his might, while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets (II Samuel 6: 14). When David returned home to bless his household, Michal daughter of Saul came out to meet him and said, "How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!” David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone form his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel – I will celebrate before the Lord (VV. 20-21).”
AND WHEN YOU GET THE CHOICE TO SIT IT OUT OR DANCE, I HOPE YOU DANCE!
CONCLUSION: WILL YOU SIT IT OUT OR DANCE? WILL YOU BUILD UP OR TEAR DOWN? WILL YOU STAND IN THE GAP, OR LET THE ENEMY IN? WILL YOU STAND ON YOUR KNEES, OR WILL YOU LET THE TIDE SIN AND SELF HAVE ITS WAY?
GOD WAS LOOKED FOR A MAN AMONG THEM WHO WOULD BUILD UP THE WALL AND STAND BEFORE HIM IN THE GAP ON BEHALF OF THE LAND SO HE WOULD NOT HAVE TO DESTROY IT, BUT HE FOUND NONE.
WILL THIS BE TRUE OF US TODAY?
