The Gift Of Thick Skin Series

THAT'S A SURPRISE: Sometimes God needs His people to be hardheaded.

- Ezekiel 3:8-9.

- This passage continues the ideas we discussed in the last sermon about God’s messengers. It had a warning from God that the Israelites claimed to be God’s people but they weren’t listening to what God had to say. This passage continues that idea but takes it up a notch.

- Verses 4-7 have more of the language of the stubbornness of God’s people. But then vv. 8-9 introduce a dramatic new image: God’s prophet with a forehead like hardened stone.

- This speaks to an idea we talked about last time: sometimes there will not be a great response. But this image gives us some further places to take this.

WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THIS UNUSUAL PASSAGE?

1. WITNESSING CAN FEEL LIKE BEATING YOUR HEAD AGAINST A WALL.

- We all love the witnessing stories where a Christian’s bold witness is greeted with a ready heart and tears of repentance. And we should rejoice when that happens because it’s wonderful.

- But there are other stories that are also true:

a. The wife who asks her husband each Saturday night if he’d like to go to church with her in the morning and he has said no for 30 years.

b. The atheist co-worker to whom you’ve shared stories at lunch of God answering your prayers but if anything his confidence in atheism only seems to grow.

c. The alcoholic uncle who laughs you off when you try to even mention the name of God.

- Those are not encouraging truths, but they are reality. Sometimes witnessing is like that. Sometimes it’s like banging your head against a wall.

- One good thing about sharing this truth is that it lets us know that when we experience something like this that doesn’t necessarily mean that we are doing it wrong. It doesn’t mean that we are a failure.

- It’s just the way witnessing it sometimes.

2. GOD NEVER PROMISED ALL EASY WINS.

- Tied closely to the first truth is a corollary truth. God never promised that things would be different than they are when it comes to witnessing.

- The evidence is obvious:

a. He has given everyone free will.

b. Jesus warned of persecution.

c. The original twelve disciples paid with their lives for their stance for Christ.

d. It’s a narrow way, not a turnpike.

e. This world is one of spiritual warfare.

- The prevalence of the “easy gospel” can cause us to forget or ignore these truths, but they remain true.

3. OFTEN, THEY'RE NOT REJECTING YOU - THEY'RE REJECTING GOD.

- It’s easy to take it personally when someone shuns your witnessing effort. You want it so badly for them and they aren’t interested.

- It’s important to recognize that even the most esteemed and powerful witnesses in Scripture (including Jesus) had many reject their message.

- Why? Because they don’t want God in their lives.

- A certain amount of respect needs to be given to that rejection.

- We too often dumb down the gospel to just saying “yes” to Jesus but it is supposed to be a life-changing decision. It’s putting God on the throne of your life instead of you. It’s submitting your will to His plan. It’s a big deal.

- We don’t want them to say “yes” to appease us in that moment but then go on living their lives as before. This is one reason Jesus told people they needed to “count the cost.” This is big commitment.

- When you add all this up, we need to know that often they are rejecting God, not us. It’s not that we didn’t present it well or that we are hypocritical vessels. It’s just that they don’t want that in their lives.

- Now, before I leave this subject, it is worth expressing that it isn’t always God they are rejecting. Sometimes we’ve been a terrible witness because our lives don’t match our words. That’s a problem and we need to face up to it when we find ourselves with that feedback.

4. CHRISTIANS SHOULD BE DIFFICULT TO OFFEND.

- One important point as we are talking about this is that Christians should have thick skin.

- Too often today we see Christians having the thinnest of skin. Everything offends us. Everything bothers us. Toughen up!

- Skye Jethani asked the great Christian thinker Dalls Willard what the sign of a mature Christian was. Dallas replied that one of the biggest signs is that a mature Christian is almost impossible to offend. Wow – that’s it worth thinking about.

- I don’t mean that we shouldn’t care. We should care. But I do mean that we shouldn’t be whiny about everyone who says something that doesn’t match what we like.