Disclaimer:
Due to the large amount of sermons and topics that appear on this site I feel it is necessary to post this disclaimer on all sermons posted. These sermons are original to the author and the leading of the Holy Spirit. While ideas and illustrations are often gleaned from many sources including those at Sermoncentral.com, any similarities and wording including sermon title, that may appear to be the same as any other sermon are purely coincidental. In instances where other minister’s wording is used, due recognition will be given. These sermons are not copyrighted and may be used or preached freely. May God richly bless you as you read these words. It is my sincere desire that all who read them may be enriched. All scriptures quoted in these sermons are copies and quoted from the Authorized King James Version of the Holy Bible.
Portions of this sermon were inspired by a sermon by Rev. Alan Carr. You can read his sermon entitled “Getting In Over Your Head” at this website.
Pastor James May
SWIMMING IN DEEP WATER!
Ezekiel 47:3-5, "And when the man that had the line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the waters were to the ankles. Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through the waters; the waters were to the knees. Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through; the waters were to the loins. Afterward he measured a thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass over: for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over."
Are you living in the center of God’s perfect will in your life right now! Have you reached a level of spiritual maturity and obedience to God’s Word that you feel God wants you to have?
The truth of the matter is, we all have plenty of room for improvement!
That’s what this sermon is all about this evening.
I want us to see what God is telling Ezekiel about wading out into the deep spiritual waters of the Spirit-filled life. What has happened in the modern church is that we have become too afraid to give our all to Jesus Christ. We are afraid because we think that God may require more of us than we are willing to give. We reason within ourselves that, if I don’t commit to the work fully then I won’t be found guilty of failing in my commitment to Christ. We are just afraid of getting in over our head.
The Prophet Ezekiel is given a vision of a river that springs forth from God’s Throne. This river of living water, coming from the Throne of God, is representative of the working of the Holy Spirit in your life.
Ezekiel 47:6-10, "And he said unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen this? Then he brought me, and caused me to return to the brink of the river. Now when I had returned, behold, at the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other. Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed. And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live whither the river cometh. And it shall come to pass, that the fishers shall stand upon it from Engedi even unto Eneglaim; they shall be a place to spread forth nets; their fish shall be according to their kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many."
Ezekiel saw the water as it flowed and became a mighty river that brought life, healing and deliverance to a dry and thirsty land. This land was to be the home of God’s chosen people, Israel. God had such great things in store for his people.
There are many who hear the Gospel and they see what the Spirit can and is doing in the lives of others, yet that is as far as they get! They never really get in. They never respond and surrender their lives to Jesus.
Ezekiel first saw the waters. He could not and did not go into the water alone.
We cannot enter into God’s Kingdom or experience the Holy Ghost in our lives unless we come God’s way. We don’t have the ability to step out without the Lord leading the way. We can’t even come to Him in repentance unless the Holy Spirit deals with us and brings conviction.
God carried Ezekiel out into the water.
When the Holy Spirit deals with the life of a sinner, that sinner must respond, either in repentance or rebellion. If our response is one of repentance, then God saves us and we begin the journey through life with Him.
We step into the water, get our feet wet. At this point in our walk with the Lord we still behave the way we want to. We can behave according to our own thinking. There is very little “resistance” to our steps because we have not yet learned to recognize the Voice of God as He gently leads us into a deeper relationship with Him.
As we grow in the Lord and learn to trust Him, He begins to bring us into a little deeper walk with Him.
The Holy Spirit begins to open doors of ministry for us and leads us to step into a more productive life in Christ. Now we are getting knee deep in obedience to the call of God.
Maybe you feel led to teach a class, or minister to the youth, or do some of the work around the church to help the facilities be better. Whatever you see that needs to be done, you are anxious to get it completed.
I’m not ready to get up in front of people. I don’t know if I’m ready to teach others. We can come up with a lot of excuses but none of them are really as good as we try to make them appear.
Serving God in knee-deep water means that we must work a little harder, study a little more, do a little more than other people and even draw attention to the fact that we are more committed to doing a job that needs to be done.
Just as knee-deep water is a little harder to walk in and hides a lot of things that may cause you to stumble, so does serving the Lord. God will begin the process of strengthening you and building your faith in Him.
But, this is just a knee-deep commitment.
God is saying, Step on out a little further. Let me draw you closer to me.
Ezekiel is carried out into the water until it became waist deep.
Now the going gets tougher. The demands upon your time, energy and commitment now really cuts into your already busy schedule.
Your not just teaching a class or working around the church now. God has now called you into training for leadership within His church. Now you have to read more, study more, pray harder and be concerned for a part of God’s work that He has entrusted you with.
Rest assured that as you try to wade out in water up to your waist that you are going to face some opposition. As the Holy Spirit leads you into a deeper walk with the Lord, there will be obstacles in your path. There will be those who will not commit themselves and will tell you that you are foolish for being so radical for the things of God. There will be those who won’t agree with your conviction or your methods. There will probably be those who will even try to convince you that you can’t do what you feel God is telling you to do.
There will always be those who only wade out ankle deep or who don’t even step into the water at all. These are usually the ones who try to discourage those who will step out further for God.
Finally, Ezekiel was carried out into water that was too deep for him to touch bottom and he had to swim. When you get committed to God enough that even the plans that you make are scary, that’s when you are getting into this deepest walk with the Lord. That’s the place where you must learn to depend upon the leading of the Holy Spirit more than ever because you know you can’t do what God has called you do on your own.
When you are this deep, you have gone beyond your own ability.
Ezekiel had gone so far from the shore that he could no longer walk back. Wherever the river flowed, that was where Ezekiel was going. The current was so strong and the volume of water was so great that Ezekiel was in over his head. Still God was carrying him and there was no danger of the Prophet drowning. God was still in control of the water and of the life of the prophet.
Most Christians will never experience the joy, fulfillment, trust and love for God that comes with this kind of commitment because they love the safety of the shore too much.
They refuse to leave their comfort zone. They refuse to stretch and grow beyond what they can see.
Their faith is never exercised to the point that they have complete peace no matter what the world throws at them.
If someone is to reach the deep relationship and commitment to the Lord that this represents he has moved beyond himself and has placed himself under the hand of God in complete obedience and trust.
This is what true spiritual maturity is all about!
It is about coming to the end of ourselves and realizing just how big God really is, and that there is no way that we could ever do it on our own.
When Ezekiel got in this deep his will was surrendered to the will of the river. He was going to go where the river took him.
God wants us to loose sight of ourselves, our goals, our ambitions, our dreams and He wants us to be totally, 100% surrendered to Him and His will for our lives.
Do you know what the secret to real revival is?
It‘s God’s people to getting to the place where they are as committed to Jesus and to the call of God upon their lives as they can get!
Revival isn’t for the ankle-deep people, because they will never catch the vision for what God wants to do. They will never have complete trust and faith in God to accomplish those things that seem so impossible. They will only sit by and grumble because the church isn’t growing or because they don’t “feel anything” as though it was God’s fault or the Preacher’s fault.
Revival isn’t even for those who will get knee-deep in God’s work. They may sense that God wants to accomplish something great in their lives. They may even catch a glimpse of the vision that God has for their ministry if only they would be committed. But they will never experience the real power of the dream that the Holy Ghost will bestow upon the one who completely surrenders to the will of God.
The church will experience revival and the individual Christian will only become all that God has intended for them to become when they give up to God in total surrender and commit their lives to Him without reservation. They must put their faith in God’s ability to keep them, God’s provision for every part of life and God’s faithfulness to do what He has promised.
Ezekiel says about God that, "He brought me through the waters."
Maybe you find yourself holding back on total commitment to the Lord because you are afraid that if you fully sell out to Him that you will drown.
God will not fail you. He is faithful and well able to take care of you. He is Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord that provides. His provision is for your success in ministry, your needs in every aspect of life and for your protection and safe journey in the course of your life in Him.
One thing that many Christians never realize is that a deeper commitment, wading deeper and deeper into a strong relationship with Jesus and allowing the Holy Spirit to have complete control of their lives, helps them to stay close to God. They will be less likely to “fall off the wagon” in their spiritual walk if they get in deep water.
Walking in water that is only ankle deep requires little effort. The force of the water against your steps is minimal and you can easily get in or out at will. It’s also easy for some outside force like wind or the push of a friend to knock you out of the water.
Since a lot of people never get more than ankle deep in their commitment to Christ, you can see why so many live such shallow lives and are so easily carried about by every little “wind of doctrine” that blows their way. These dear people rarely hear the true voice of God. Instead, they listen to every voice that says what they want to hear that makes them feel good and justifies their shallow walk with the Lord. My concern is that many of these “shallow Christians” aren’t really Christians at all and will not go in the Rapture of the church.
Walking in water that is up to your knees does require a little more effort and a deeper commitment. Even so, it is still fairly easy to be knocked out of the water by the same circumstances as those who are up to their ankles.
I believe that Jesus is referring to these first two categories as “lukewarm”. These are the ones that He will “spew out of His mouth”.
In my mind these two categories of people, who are non-committal and compromising with the world, are the type of people that President Teddy Roosevelt was speaking of when he made this statement:
"Far better it is to fail in the attempt of great things than to take rank with the weak, timid souls who know neither the glory of victory or the agony of defeat."
It is only those who will get at least waist deep and ultimately “over their heads” in a deep commitment to Jesus that will ever really experience the glory of victory in Christ.
Any good work for the Lord will accomplish great results only after someone dives into the depths of a strong relationship with God and makes a real commitment to do whatever it takes for as long as it takes under the leading of the Holy Spirit.
I do not remember who said it but I believe the statement, “It remains to be seen what God will do and can do through someone that will commit totally unto the Lord and have absolute trust in Him!”
That’s the kind of commitment that Jesus is looking for. Sadly, those who will make such a commitment are few by comparison with those who won’t.
What about you right now? Are you still in the shallow water? What are you going to do with your commitment to the Lord?
Some of you still haven’t stepped into the water at all. Some are in every stage of this sermon. Jesus is looking for a full commitment. Let the river carry you wherever the Holy Spirit leads. Allow Jesus to have the complete Lordship of your life and there is no telling what great victories lie ahead.
Will you surrender all – or continue to walk in the shallow water? The choice is yours and Jesus is waiting for your answer.
There is a song that says this:
"Step into the water, wade out a little bit deeper, wet your feet in the water of His love. Step into the water, wade out a little bit deeper, come join angels singing praise to the Lamb of God."
The angels know the true glory of God because of their love and commitment to Him. I don’t believe that anyone can experience the fullness of God’s glory until they also have developed their love and commitment to God to its greatest measure.
Step into the water; get out into the deep. Don’t worry about the sharks, the jellyfish or the waves that may come. Jesus will let you walk on the deep water if you keep your eyes on Him just as He did for Peter on the Sea of Galilee.
