Shane Willard - Ezekiel's Vision

good good evening everyone how are we all welcome to Heritage Church on a Tuesday night here to hear a wonderful message from Shane here we had a great couple of services with him at the weekend you're in store for a real treat good message for tonight I'm sure law we give his service out to you we here don't praise you were here to worship you first and foremost we're here here to hear a word from you this man is wonderful man you anointed a teacher preach so law we just thank you there is an open heaven over this place just to receive tonight we praise your Holy Name Father the Lord have your way in this place and we thank you in Jesus mighty glorious name everyone said amen I cast my mind to Calvary where Jesus bled and died for me I see his wound his hands his feet my savior round that cuz it tree his body pound and drenched in tears laid him down in Joseph's to the entrance in by heavy stone Messiah sphere and whoa praise the oh praise His name forever bring we will see appraised and he shall return in robes of white the Blazing Sun shall pierce the night and I will rise among the sins my gaze transferred oh Jesus moon and stars they aware mornings I was the Seger ever was for his body on the cross is left out for us the weight of every curse a friend we see we see Oh we see ever he is horrified he is charging snoring softly in a whisper attention we are just so grateful Lord that you've risen you're alive you walk amongst us living amongst us living inside of us below tonight we just come to adore you to worship you to love you for your line of were thee Jesus you're one of a line of worthy Lord what a privilege to be in your presence with a family Lourdes forgets have come from the north for south and east and west to be with us they can join us together as one heart my mind to just worship and adore you hood we thank you as we have given unto you we thank you Lord that you're gonna get back through the Word of God and we ask that a supernatural anointing increase on change life that revelation will begin to flow that Lord you'll take him in his ministry in his preaching to just another awesome different level Lord as has come as your servant we receive it while we received the gift tonight and we think of their hearts are open to receive no barriers woman no preconceived mindsets but I open up hard to be ministered to you through the word by the Holy Spirit we thank you for it all we give you praise in Jesus name everyone said amen well just turn around and just great somebody say hi to them and love on them and say welcome to church hallelujah we give you a prize won't lelou yes you sang hi to everyone and want you to be as you as you sit down you said hi but I want you to we're gonna receive the offering for Shane's ministry also as we do that want you to want to say hi to all those on livestream because we've got people around Australia who know is here and has spoken to me today now they're just it's such a joy to know that we're ministering to people around the nation so I want to give you a little bit of time as you know Shane comes never ask him for anything and we want him dig our way blessed not only here we'll tell you about your resource table out the back but we want to see that totally cleared out and the girls are here too to serve them to wait upon you and that's just ready to hand those of us who said everything that comes in to the Millers in tonight and tomorrow night's offering is purely for his ministry we don't take anything there's nothing for our costs at all it's just such a privilege to have him with us and to be a blessing but the scripture is really clear it said he or Labor's in the word is is feeding us and he's worthy of that honor he's worthy of us knowing our finances into his ministry and into his life amen and so we'll pray over that we're just giving you that opportunity to solve we'll do the same tomorrow night as well and so if you you might be having son tonight but you became tomorrow night and hallelujah just gonna prove that Shane why don't you thank your team that's fine we want to get so I want to give Shane as much time as we can but I want to pray over that that offering when it comes in Thank You team you're such a blessing to us mmm such a blessing we appreciate it and okay come let's pray just stretch your hands out to the offering are we going to ask the Lord to bless the seed so father we thank you for the opportunity to so once again into good soil we believe you for Supernatural increase that we may use those finest and shame will to teach others of their blessed and the good life that he has taught us over this weekend Lord that we are bear blessed to be a blessing as he is to us Lord and we thank you for it we give you praise for every seed song will produce supernatural harvest in Jesus name now what's it amen Shane thank you here we go ezekiel chapter 1 let's get right into this a couple of things before we start one is a resource table so on your way out there it's out there obviously I say this all the time but what we make from that we use to make the world a better place and take care of the poor and the afflicted so please come by and check those things out this one one word on that this place has a reputation for for a group of people who who stay around a long time and chat and I think it's awesome I do I think it's I think it's just fantastic I think I think you guys build a lot of Koinonia and community and and and you do life together I think that's wonderful and you ought to keep doing it here's the thing because my team has quite a far way to drive afterwards I'm asking that we make all of our lives better and if you know you're gonna get something ok no listen if you have no intention of getting anything fine be blessed okay but listen if you know if you just know hey I'm gonna pick something up tonight because I want to help some some orphans in China who were born with a mental disability alright I want to bless myself with some good resources to think about the Bible if you know you're gonna get something here's all this you do ok bye and then check ok so let's say that let's let's say that together so we get that ingrained in us everybody let's try that with some guys to everybody say by an inch net all right let's try to get a little more together this right say bye then chat so what we're gonna do after is is we're gonna buy first and then we're gonna chat right because because that'll help that'll help my team get out of here in a time work cuz they're gonna have an hour drive home and it's going to help them greatly so please please do that that would be awesome also um Sunday night went so well with our recording we're gonna record this tonight because you're such a good audience and it's for a couple reasons one you're such a good audience too your camera quality is fantastic three your light quality is fantastic and this is one of the few buildings that ever speak in with perfect acoustics so you put all of that together and we need to do that all right so we're gonna do that again now that means a couple of different things what we're gonna do tonight it's gonna go all over the world so if your baby screams please take them out do not put them in the sleeper hold do not hurry do not put your hand over their mouths and so doing suffocating the baby do not do that just expediently move the baby out also if you feel the demon manifesting in your stomach please Shawn will take care of it outside right out there in the privacy of one of the offices all right we don't want to do anything that that points us out I also have an online mentoring program up and rolling or once a month I'm in an online classroom teaching people how to see the Bible like my rabbi taught me so if you're sitting that come on in like I said Sunday these are week night meetings so we will be we will be expedient we will be thorough and we will be challenged but there's no reason to have a long meeting just for long meetings sake okay I want you to know I'll honor your time on midweek meetings because you worked hard all day and I want you to get something out of this without having to think about how late the night is going okay so I want you to be right here with me and and we're gonna journey through this thing together now Lee is fantastic this the great Lee tester and he tells me he needs a spot to top and tail it so here we go ready all right Ezekiel chapter one if you're the type likes fall along in a Bible if not we're not gonna go anywhere else in the Bible tonight just Ezekiel chapter one I've also prepared slides because here's the thing and I have a I have a a darkness sort of issue that I'm actually ready to talk to you about all right here's let me just let you in on something about my life here's the thing I have no trouble being a person of great faith and being a person whose consciousness of God and his presence in my life is full when things are going good here's the other side of that when I hit bumps or when things don't go so good it is in that moment that often time the right noise in my life makes me wonder where is the presence of God when I hit my bumps in the road when things don't go so well so I have this trouble I have no trouble being a person full of faith and fully conscious to the presence of God where things are going great but often times when things don't go so great when I have that bad week when when I'm worried about this thing it's in those moments when things don't go so great that I worry about what I wonder where the presence of God is in that moment and so I wonder if I've worried if I struggle with things like that I wonder if you do I wonder if you are just like me and you wonder you know what hey I have no trouble seeing God in the center of the winds where I struggle is seeing where the presence of God is in the suffering where am I going with that and here's the good news here's the good news about that the good news is is that we're not the first people to deal with that because if I deal with that and you deal with that then we are not the first people to deal with it and the good thing is is that scripture is full of people who had these moments of great victory and had no trouble giving God the glory in the middle of but you know what else scripture has scripture has people who somehow through a lot of great pain worked out that God is in the center of the suffering as well and oftentimes the only way through that suffering and the only way for God to redeem something in our life is to put us sometimes in situations where it feels like suffering but in the middle of it there sits his presence bringing us right through it and we come out on the other end bigger oh and one such individual is a guy named Ezekiel now what I want to do is I want to read this passage this is not very good preaching actually my preaching professor told me that you should only use one or two scriptures and they should be short and you should expound and tell stories so now I'm not gonna do that partly because I can't do that tonight due to the topic and second is because you're in church on a Tuesday night which means I'm not under a whole lot of pressure to be an evangelist right if you come to church on a Tuesday night you're ready with you but I'm looking out and half the room has notepads out and stuff alright and so I want to take my time and I want to go through this because there's no where to break in reading this and what you're going to see in this passage is one of the most ridiculous unbelievable passages of Scripture it's actually hard to believe it actually made it into the Bible due to just some of the craziness in it right so we're going to talk about that and I want to walk us through it because what you'll see is that the symbolism in this passage ends up swallowing some of the plane meanings of it so what I want to do is I want to read this and then I want to I want to take us through it and ultimately find what it means for us in terms of finding God in some of the not-so-nice places what does this mean for us so here is know here is a sequence chapter 1 verse 1 in the 30th year in the 4th month on the fifth day while I was among the X tiles by the Kivar River the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God now that's very specific right this is a particular day in this guy's life it was on the fifth of the month and it was the fifth year of the Exile of King Jehoiakim right so all of a sudden if you're a serious Bible student you want to start asking certain questions like who was jokin does the Bible talk about joy akin this history talk about joy akin why is this guy sitting at the khabar River what was the khabar River why was he there why are there xl's there what does this King Jehoiakim have to do with exile what's going on here let's keep going and the word of the lord came to ezekiel the priest the son of Busey what a great name Busey imagined that hey I'm gonna be shortened his name to booze hey house booze going by the khabar River in the land of the Babylonians so why is he by the khabar River in the land of the Babylonians what's going on here and there the hand of the Lord was upon him so what you have is you have a Jewish priest finding himself five years into something that doesn't seem so very nice at the hands of a guy named Joe Hoya Ken supposedly and he had something to do with this and now he's finding himself sitting with X I was on the khabar River so there's endless questions we need to be asking to expound upon this but then he has this incredible ridiculously incredible vision watch what happens and I looked and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north an immense cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light the center the fire looked like glowing metal and in the fire was what looked like four living creatures in appearance their form was that of a man but each of them had four faces in four wings just one quick observation on that this is a guy struggling for words right he's having stress having trouble putting words to what he is experiencing and it isn't that true with us especially when it comes with God right have you ever had a spiritual experience that if someone demanded an explanation is sort of hard Blayne it's sort of hard to get words around what you're seeing or what you're feeling because it's something bigger than that but you got some or inert person going no you must explain and you have to go through the agony of the explanation of the whole thing and actually the more you tried to explain it with words the more you cheapen what's going on right and so and so this is a guy struggling for words he says hey I saw four creatures and they look like a man except for the fact that nothing about them was like a man right he says hey they look like a man but except for the four faces and four wings part because how many four faced in four wingman's do you know right so he says okay they were sort of like a man think of him like a man except for nothing about them was a man right so he he's struggling to get the words out they had four faces and four wings and their legs were straight once again nothing like a man and their feet were like those of a cow and gleam like burnished bronze once again a guy struggling for words hey they look like men except for the closer I look they got four faces at four wings and straight legs and calloused feet and but nothing looks like I'm in and under their wings there were four sides they had the hands of a man and all four of them at faces and wings and their wings touch one another and each one went straight ahead and they did not turn as they move so this is getting more and more and more spectacular and in their faces look like this each of the four had the face of a man on the right side and each had the face of a lion and on the left of the face of the ox and on and each also had the face of an eagle so now these faces actually have more than one look so you got a man and an ox a lion and an eagle once again a man struggling with words to describe what he's saying they look like a man except for they had four faces of four wings and straight legs and cows feet and actually the faces were Eagles and oxes and lions this is just gets odder and odder and such for their faces their wings were spread out upwards in each of the two wings one touching the wing of another creature on the either side and the two wings covering its body and each one went straight ahead wherever the spirit would go they would go wherever they turn they would go so evidently they're moving in tandem their appearance of the living creatures was like burning coals of fire or like torches once again a guy having an experience with God that he's struggling with words do they look like men or torches or fire and the answer is yes so they look like men except for nothing about them as a man they got four faces they have four wings they have straight legs cows feet burnished bronze and now they like fire so they sort of like men like four-faced creature like fire like creatures right and the fire moved back and forth amongst the creatures and it was bright and the lightning flashed out of it and the creature sped back and forth like flashes of lightning and as I looked at the living creatures I saw a wheel on the ground beside each creature with its four phases evidently these creatures are holding wheels and this was the appearance of the structure of the wheels they sparkled like chrysolite and all four looked alike each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel evidently some sort of gear sort of system and as they moved they would go in any of the four directions the creatures face and the wheels did not turn about as the creatures went now this is my favorite verse in the whole thing and their rims were high and awesome I love that because you know what we're all picturing you're picturing the hip hop angels with the 22s right right so you've got the guy with his 22s on that the rims were high and awesome and all four rims were full of eyes all around there this is getting weird and when the living creatures moved the wheels moved beside them and when the living creatures roasts on the ground the wheels also rose and wherever the spirit would go they would go when the wheels would rise along them that but because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels and when the creatures moved they also moved and when the creature stood still they also stood still and when the creatures rose from the ground the wheels Rose along them because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels it spread out amongst the head of the living creatures was what looked like something like a vault sparkling like crystal and awesome so now we got an awesome crystal vault added to this mix and under the vault their wings were stretched out one toward another and each had two wings covering its body and when the creatures moved I heard the sound of their wings like the roar of the rushing waters like the voice of the almighty like the tumult of an army once again a man struggling for words is it the voice of the almighty or is that the rushing sound of water is that the toe mold of an army and the answers yes when they stood still they lowered their wings and then they came a voice from above the vault over their heads and they stood with lowered wings and above the vault over their heads was what looked like a throne of lapis lazuli because you know what that's what we all need Thrones of lapis lazuli and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man and once again he struggling for words and I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal as if full of fire once again he looks like a man except for nothing about him as like a man how many men have you ever seen we're four waist-up they look like fire nun and that from there down he look like fire and brilliant light surrounded him like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day so was the radiance around it this was the appearance of the lightness of the glory of the Lord and when I saw it I fell face down and heard the voice of one speaking no there's a couple of obvious questions involved in this uh one is is this some sort of linear thing or is Ezekiel experiencing the presence of God and it's all happening at once and he's having trouble with words so he's going hey hey look there and there oh and I'm seeing this oh and there's a throne of lapis lazuli and oh and look there's a man but that's not a man it's a fourth face man with wings man wait a minute straight legs cow feet man wait a minute that's not a man at all maybe it's like more like burning fire this is a guy experiencing the glory of God in such a ridiculous magnificent out-there way that he's struggling putting words to to what he is saying my question is this if someone came in here and said hey I'm a prophet from God and I have a word from the Lord and you know what I just had a vision and here was the vision the Lord gave me and if they said that right there if they gave you that vision standing right here my question is this would you believe that what would our initial response be our initial response would be now this children is why we don't do drugs right right let's just be honest there is a frustrating part of this passage it's like come come on of course then the question is is how is it that people who took the Scriptures far more serious than us they included this in their battery of scriptures it is and and how is it that it's inspired and how is it that it still can speak to us today because what happens when we read this passage if you're anything like me and this was my problem with the passage as soon as I started studying the passage the symbolism overwhelms everything in it because there's just so much in it and so you start to think man this could be a 20 part series because you've got the symbolism of all kinds of things this is a list of the symbols I just happen to see in it I'm sure there's more there's wind storms there's lightning surrounded by light there's fire of going metal the fire contains four creatures and the creatures have four phases what in the world is going on there you got straight legs you got bronze calves feet you got straight moving wings that don't waver with movement you have four phases humans oxes lions and eagles you've got fire of burning coals you got speeding back and forth like lightning you've got wheels within wheels it's interesting in in in Hebrew there's only eight thousand words and English as eighty thousand words and so and so the same word in Hebrew has to mean a lot of different things for them to have the same capacity to speak and so the word for wheel and the word for eyeball are the same exact thing awful um right so where we get the word ophthalmology from so it's it's the idea of of an eye or it could be a wheel and it's interesting the word translated rim can be the rim of a wheel or it can be an eyebrow so you don't know if they're holding eyes with high in Awesome eyebrows or if they're holding wheels whose rims are high and awesome for tonight let's go with wheels whose rims are high and awesome in the wheels the wheels in the creature sink their movement um you've got awesome crystal vaults you've got rushing water which somehow equals the voice of the almighty which somehow equals the tumult of an army you got a throne of lapis lazuli and of course you got another man of fire and glowing metal with a halo of color prisms around them and so if you go through that message you go with it I wonder what all that is so you go to the windstorm you go well that could be the Spirit of God you go to this and before you know it you are so overwhelmed with all the symbolism that we actually walk right past the plainest meaning of what is going on in the text the entire sermon the entire application of this passage is found in the first three verses here's a quick history of what is going on in Ezekiel's life number one number one this is the second of three exiled to Babylon so in Jewish history just a quick history lesson there were three exhales to Babylon there was a guy named Nebuchadnezzar who decided to torment the Jews right and that's not uncommon in history so what he did is the Jews were depleted politically and economically and militarily and so what he did is he did three waves of pulling people into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon that's a very far walk the first one was under a guy named Joe Hoya Kim the second one was under a guy named Joe Hoya ken he was the king of Israel when easy when Ezekiel got taken and then the third and final one was the guy named Zedekiah you you might be familiar with a Bible book named Daniel Daniel was taken under Joakim Ezekiel was taken to Babylon under the reign of Jehoiakim so what would happen is his Nebuchadnezzar came in and he swooped down during the reign of Jehoiakim who was the king of Israel and johor akin surrendered to all this stuff and then Nebuchadnezzar took all of these young guys he took them as exile from Jerusalem into Babylon and this is where Ezekiel finds himself this is why he's sitting amongst the exiles in the khabar River he was a part of a gigantic sweeping captivity that Nebuchadnezzar came in and he took all these guys from Jerusalem captive during the reign of Jehoiakim now Ezekiel is a priest and this is Ezekiel 30th year this is interesting because in in Jewish law you could start your ministry at 30 years old if you were a priest and it's his fifth year there so he was taken captive at 25 years old and now he's five years into it he's thirty years old so when he is ready to start his ministry as a priest he starts to have this encounter by the khabar River about the glory of God Ezekiel's dad is also a priest now there's something even more natural going on here I want you to think about this if Nebuchadnezzar comes into Israel and he takes these guys captive right what happens in the ancient world two twenty-five year old males who were taken captive by a foreign King what happens to them well the foreign King what's the younger sort of stronger guy to help him build his empire or to serve his slave somewhere but he doesn't want him procreating in order to make another generation that might rise up and cause a slave rebellion so here's what they did to 25-year old men or men under the age of 30 when when foreign Kings took other people as captive they would castrate these boys okay they would castrate him or more barbarically they would put him through a testicle crushing ceremony right they literally they took two stones and they would hold you down and they would write all right so this was the Ezekiel's world right so here's what happened all right Ezekiel is a priest I've engaged the audience now everybody oh man like like I'm reading Ezekiel everybody's like oh yeah hey testimony if I saw testicle crush a let's do that right um so here's what happens you guys are a weird audience right right like yeah I'm talking about all some crystal vaults and Thrones of lapis lazuli and you're like testicle crushing whoa hey let's sit up and listen alright so so here's what would happen CIN mu condenser comes in and he decides to lay waste to Jerusalem now in Ezekiel's world I want you think about this if he's Eagles a priest Ezekiel he's Ezekiel's world with God is very predictable he would have worked where in the temple and the temple had regulations see priests today are nothing like priests pectin a priest today really our job as priests today is to study the word present something that's challenging partner with Jesus and encourage us to partner with Jesus to bring the kingdom of heaven to this earth that's that's our job today to do some basic counseling back then a priest job was not to motivate or inspire or care for you a priest job back then was actually to be a lawyer you had to be a master of the regulations you had to know every detail of the Torah to know if this happens and this is what God expects and if you do this then we have this regulation to put in place and if you do this then we do this then God is okay here it was very very very predictable it would go something like this okay you've sinned yes you want to make this right with God yes was your sin intentional or unintentional Oh unintentional was anybody harmed here no it was it well so is an unintentional sim where nobody was actually harmed yes well that requires a dove Oh your sin was an intentional sin where someone was harmed we got to get we got to get a bull for this oh oh oh your sin was this and your offence was this well if it was this Plus this that equals the regulations being this and if we do this then God is okay with us and he's okay with you so Ezekiel as a priest let's say this way Ezekiel was a company man he was a master of the regulations he knew exactly he would be like the best lawyer you can imagine if you need law legal advice what makes you feel better on the inside to go to a law office and explain your situation and the lawyer you go oh man I don't really whoo that's a tough I don't really know I'm gonna to check on that get back with you that doesn't make you feel good on the inside right you sit in a law office and you present your situation the lawyer that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside is the one that goes well according to statute B subset six of this sort of law we can do it this way and this way that is what the regulations are and when a lawyer talks like that you feel very very good on the inside priests in those days were lawyers and God operated very predictably if you do this God does that if you do this God does that if you've offended here this is the way back the regulations are very clear so I want you to think about this if you're Ezekiel and Nebuchadnezzar comes in and takes you captive at twenty five and destroys the temple what have you lost well the answer is pretty much everything here's here's here's what he would have lost his job no need for priests for that temple no need for priests where the temples been destroyed he would have lost his temple which was no small thing kids remember in that world God's presence only lived in the temple well if God's presence only lives in the temple and then the temple gets destroyed what has happened to God's presence it's gone it has no place to dwell um is it later in the story he tells you he lost his wife in the process and that would have been horrific they would have walked them in chains from Jerusalem to Babylon that's a long way and along the way these women would have been raped and tortured it would it would have just been horrendous and it wouldn't have been uncommon for women along the way to die under the brutality of the foreign army and Ezekiel doesn't tell us how his wife died he just says his wife died I'm his family his purpose what is a priest without a temple wall so what do you do you given your whole life to master regulations that are no longer relevant and and he would have been castrated which is no small matter right like of all the things it's like let's let's let's keep our Anatomy intact right right if we're gonna if we're gonna lose our testicles what let us let us die right right Ezekiel has Ezekiel's world is falling apart his he's lost his job his purpose his family his presence his temple his position and his testicles they're all gone they're all gone in this story he is sitting he sitting with the other exhales his position in other words his position is less pronounced in ezekiel's world people the common people needed him they needed masters of the regulations you can't go you can't go sort legal things out without somebody who's a master of the law you can't do that common people needed Ezekiel to master the regulations for them so they could know they were ok with God that is a very pronounced position but by the time Ezekiel's written he's sitting on the banks of the Kivar River with other X Isles he he is now amongst the commoners his position in this story is far less pronounced he's lost his position his job his temple he he's lost his wife his family his the presence of God all of this these things have left his life in short this is a disastrous day well if you if you were to say man 2015 was a rough year for me really I mean maybe but but compared to that did your land just get invaded did you just get ripped from your home were your testicles crushed by foreign armies was your wife repeatedly raped until she died were you forced to walk in chains from Jerusalem to Babylon did everything you've thought your whole life did it just get thrown to dust is is this it this is let's just say this way this is a really bad day ok oh you kid I can I get an amen on that that's it like it's like a this is a flip at that day is he in a priest world God operates very predictably a plus B equals C it's and the word it's in the Bible when they wouldn't call his Bible a D to call the scriptures in Scripture we this Plus this equals this um if spirituality was orientated around geography like God lives their temple on Mount Moriah God lives there occasionally he falls on certain prophets certain priests certain kings a very small minority people ever truly experienced the presence of God and the only way to experience the presence of God was to go to the temple this was a very primitive way to look at God but that's just what they thought back then and they actually still didn't get it in jeez remember in Jesus today there was the lady who said Jesus look you seem pretty progressive listen um we live on Mount Gerizim do we have to walk all the way to Mount Moriah to experience God cuz it's just so far right remember Jesus says he goes what year is it God is spirit worship him wherever you like as long as you worship Him in spirit and in truth right in other words the idea that we could experience the presence of God in Robina Queensland that is common to us but to them God lived there it was orientated around geography now what happens is is let me show you this this is from Leviticus chapter 6 verse 9 and the Lord said to Moses give Aaron and his sons this command these are the regulations for the burnt offerings now this phrase occurs 20 different times in Leviticus alone this is the regulations for burnt offerings this is the regulations for sacrifice this is the regulations for grain offerings this is the regulations for fellowship offerings these are the regulations for this you had to have master lawyers to sort through all the regulations priests were the Masters of those regulations let's say this way they were the rules for how God always acts God is very predictable in this world now here's the problem with that Nebuchadnezzar has decimated all of this so a foreign King a worshipper of Ishtar comes into Jerusalem and decimates the entire land and all of this belief system let me read you an account of it this is from the Book of Kings let me read you an account of this this is says that's at that time the officers of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon advanced on Jerusalem and laid siege to it and Nebuchadnezzar himself came up to the city while his officers were besieging it now this is a bad sign and joe hoya ken the king of judah remember ezekiel says it was in the it was joey Akins exile jehovah ken the king of judah his mother his attendants and his Nobles wen and his officials all surrendered to him in the 8th year of the reign of the king of babylon he took jehovah ken prisoner as the lord had declared nebuchadnezzar removed the treasures from the temple of the lord what and from the royal palace and cut up the gold articles that solomon king of israel had made for the temple of the lord he might see a problem with that i just try to be emotional about this for a second so your 25 year old Ezekiel and there's a lot more like you and your outside the Temple in Jerusalem and you're in ancient handcuffs and the line is growing long but at the end of that line is the testicle crusher the chain maker the guy who's gonna change you to the next guy to the next guy to the next guy and walk you 500 miles to babylon this is a really really bad day then you look over and you see Nebuchadnezzar himself coming in and Nebuchadnezzar says hey we need to really make sure these Jews know we're the boss let's not just decimate their land let's not just take their testicles let's not just chain them and walk them 500 miles I'll tell you what let's do let's prove our superiority over their God let's do that and here's what we're gonna do we're gonna walk into their temple and we're gonna take the furniture out of the Holy of Holies and we're gonna melt it down for money we're gonna prove that we're superior over even him now if you're Ezekiel what are you thinking at that moment like you're in line for the testicle crushing right what do you what are you thinking yeah man that's what you need to do you need to walk in there and prove that you're above our God that's exactly what you need to do you need to walk into the temple and walk into the Holy of Holies and touch the furniture that's exactly what you need to do Nebuchadnezzar come on bro man or mouth go on in there man going in there because why Ezekiel's what Ezekiel's a master of the regulations right in Leviticus what does it say happens to someone who walks it to the Holy of Holies they're dead right have you seen Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade right where they're going in it's like only the penitent man will pass only the penitent man will pass and then the heads are flying out in Ezekiel's imagination this would have happened if Nebuchadnezzar walks in there only the high priest is allowed in there and then only once a year Leviticus clearly says if you walk in there you will die Nebuchadnezzar doesn't know anything about the regulations he just wants to prove his power so he says we're going in there and we're gonna steal the furniture of the holy of holies ezekiel would have been privately going that's exactly what you need to do bro you need that yes that's our way out of this you need to walk in there and then he does and nothing happens now if you're a master of the regulations and you know that Leviticus and Deuteronomy by the way says that if a guy like Nebuchadnezzar walks into the holy of holies he should die what are you thinking like if you're Ezekiel what what are your only conclusions at this point the Bible clearly says if someone walks in there they die Nebuchadnezzar a foreign worshipper of Ishtar has just walked in there and not just walked in there he's decimated the place he's melting down the gold articles what are you thinking what are the only conclusions you could come to well one is that whoever wrote Leviticus missed it like whoever wrote Leviticus thought that was true and it just wasn't that's your first conclusion second possible conclusion is is that the presence of God has left the building the presence of God has abandoned us if God was in there he would be that the penitent man will pass right like it's if God's in there so God must not be in there and if God's not in the temple where is he has God abandoned us whether the foundation of your faith has just been shaken to its core or whether the presence of God has left can we agree that's a bad day so this isn't just about his family and his position and his job and his purpose it isn't just about losing his wife it isn't just about the 500 mile walk in Chains it's not just about the anatomy removal it's not just about that this is about such a far far deeper this is about those moments in our life where something so bad happens that it shakes the foundations of what we always thought was true this is about that do you see why this book has life and breath and energy this 1500 BC or so this book is still speaking to where all of us live now know the khabar River was in the Babylonian Empire which was under the religious rule of Ishtar at the time here's what happened in history in history Nebuchadnezzar took the priests of Jehovah and he forced them service slaves in the temple of Ishtar the khabar River was the river surrounding the temple vistor on here's what would happen in Babylon people would come and pay an offering for the chance to sit and put their feet in the khabar river in order to see the visions of Ishtar the great star God to see the visions of Ishtar and what the gods have planned for their life it was sort of a straight one sort of it was astrology and so what Nebuchadnezzar did to humiliate the Jewish priests as he said you've been serving in the temple of Jehovah it doesn't exist they work as boh I just melted down all the furniture here's what we're gonna do I'm gonna make you serve as slaves in Ishtar temple this happens again by the way in 70 AD when Titus decimates Jerusalem he took all the Jews that were left alive and he shipped him off to Rome and he made him service slaves in Jupiter's temple this happened several different times in history Ezekiel his finding himself not just he hasn't just lost his job he hasn't just lost his wife he hasn't just lost his family he hasn't just lost his purpose he has it just lost his temple he hasn't just lost part of his Anatomy his entire foundation of his faith is starting to be shaken and now a foreign king is forcing him to be a slave in Ishtar's front yard this is a bad day it's a bad day now a couple of observations about this like so what what do we do with this information for us now a couple of things one sometimes god bypasses our minds and self-imposed limits on God so it's the Ezekiel's world God was limited to the regulations as if the Bible is some sort of self-imposed limits that God puts on himself in Ezekiel's world if it's not in the regulations God must not be in it but what you see in this story is God stepping outside of the regulations and ministering to Ezekiel in Ishtar's front yard that is not supposed to happen God lives on Mount Moriah they are in the khabar they are by the Kivar river in Ishtar's front yard and the glory of God is showing out why because some time to minister to us in great pain God has to bypass our mind and self impose limitations on God but let's say it this way God doesn't explain how this is possible theologically because it would have been outside the boundaries of Torah he just shows up at power he doesn't need God don't need a verse he doesn't need us and all of us have that set you know that one person that no matter what our experience with God is they always want a verse so you say you know I had this powerful experience of God they're like hey where's that in the Bible as if the Bible contains everything flip even the Bible says if everything was written down the world could contain the books are you kidding me yeah where's that in the Bible listen the Bible does not contain all truth are you kidding me don't smoke crack no we're in the Bible pretty good idea right right so you know you know that that one annoying friend that no matter we could have a ridiculous experience with God and we're trying to find words to put around our experience with God and they're going where's that in the Bible right totally invalidating what the Spirit of God has just done in Ezekiel's world God steps outside the boundaries of the regulations outside the boundaries of Leviticus Deuteronomy and all the rest of it and he shows out in Ishtar's front yard and he's like no explanation needed let's just do it in the let's say this way in the face of great suffering our mind has to be bypassed so our heart can be ministered to see Ezekiel's vision sounds crazy until you think about it this way let's do it this way you think his vision sounds crazy until you consider how God has ministered to you in great pain now how many of us have said I have no words but God gave me a picture of this and I had peace I went and saw a friend of mine fixing to undergo chemotherapy and um had some sort of bad cancer I remember what what specific what cancer was but if you've ever seen someone in chemotherapy it's scary because the nurse that puts the chemotherapy in is wearing a spacesuit if you've ever seen it it's like the nurse comes in and they have to wear this suit to touch the plastic bag that the poison is in that they're fixin to shove in your arm that is highly disturbing and I went and saw him and he's sitting in there and the nurse is coming in you know and he just looked okay and I said man you seem okay he said I can't explain it with words man but God gave me a picture of this and I saw this thing like a rushing wave over the top of me and I just knew deep down inside was gonna be okay see sometimes in great pain our mind and self-imposed limits on how God acts has to be bypassed so we can actually be ministered to Ezekiel story is actually very familiar all of a sudden but let's say this way in Ezekiel's world no temple equals no presence in this story Ezekiel's world just got bigger God is just as present in Babylon as he is in Jerusalem and that's bigger Ezekiel's getting a revelation and by the way he was the first person to ever get this revelation that God did not need a temple to be present no that sounds obvious to us but in a world where that's not so obvious that's called radical that's called revolutionary Ezekiel's world seems to be getting smaller but then all of a sudden he realizes what I thought was making my world smaller has just gotten way way way way bigger has that ever happened to you where you thought your world was falling apart only to look at it four years later and realize you know what my world was falling apart I thought but actually I can look back now and see that God was using that and making my world big or her when it appeared to be getting smaller hey hey back back when I lost my job I thought my whole world was falling apart because I lost my job but I look back on it for years now and I realized that losing that job was the motivating factor to get me to start that business he'd been nudging me to do forever and now I make it three times more than I ever did working for anybody else working for myself I thought my world was getting smaller but it just got way way bigger oh man oh oh my maja man my wife left me and Oh flip I'm so devastated it oh oh it seemed like my world was getting so much smaller but now four years on I look back and I realize she was awful and God was giving me a do-over glory to God it it appeared like my world was getting smaller but in fact it was getting way way bigger what is your story of when you thought your world was getting smaller only to work out nah it was God making my world way way way bigger let's say this way ezekiel gets completely surprised by hope outside the normal formulas of leviticus this had to surprise a guy like a guy that dedicated his whole life to mastering leviticus this had to surprise him that every now and then God steps out and operates outside of the regulations and how relieving is that when God demonstrates that he is not limited even to the Bible he is not limited even to the things that we put around him God is God and he does what he likes if he wants to show up at the khabar River in the front yard of Ishtar's temple he's God he could do what he likes and one of the most empowering things we could ever learn in our life is that we serve a great big God that can just do what he wants in this experience God shows up in Ishtar's house this motivates Ezekiel to take on the status quo of many things like if you read Ezekiel easy you just goes nuts really with it he's like God have you ever heard that that that verse quoted be holy as I am holy right have you ever heard a pastor equate that to say they say be holy as I'm holy word says be holy as I am holy so let me tell you what that means quit smoking don't go to our rated movies you know Dave a leave this alone right as if as if that's all God was after right no be holy as I am holy is a quote from Ezekiel and what was the answering the people were saying since there's no temple how do we experience the holy place and Ezekiel says what do you mean you be the holy place you carry the presence of God a later writer said it this way yes the Bible is inspired but he says let your life be the Epistle for all to read we don't need more Bibles everywhere as if people know what to do with that we need people who follow God actually living inspired we need that you don't you don't need a holy place you be the holy place you do that he taken Ezekiel 18 he takes on generational court curses is equal 18 he's like look I know you thought your whole life that if your dad's sin the sin passed on to you but that's not really true he says I've got a new revelation from God and every generation stands on their own two feet before God and everyday every generation that stands on its own two feet well God the generation that does the right thing will live and the generation that chooses outside of God will die but it has nothing to do with what the generation did before you because God is better than that well well you think you'll just gets on this empowering trip like he goes any what happened in in Jewish history he died why they killed him why because sometimes when you're taking a step that's too far for people they'll destroy you Jesus addresses at Matthew 23 he's like hey you who stoned the prophets right in other words anytime someone shows up and they've got a picture of God that's further where you're too much too far from where you're willing to accept you just instead of just embracing it or instead of just politely disagreeing you wanted to kill them and by the way I'm that guy and you're gonna kill me so just put me in the list this is what's going on Ezekiel actually this radically changes Ezekiel so we live in 2016 in Robina so what so what so shane nice history lesson fairly funny so what let's let's maybe apply it a couple of different ways um let's say this way disasters are not meant to destroy you but to reveal a part of God you haven't known yet maybe when we go through an exile or a desert time or something maybe it's not meant to destroy us and maybe it's not in that moment that God has left us maybe it's in that moment that God is actually more present than we ever imagined before he is revealing a part of God that we haven't known yet and probably can't learn without the problem let's say this way in this story God is present in the most unexpected place there is no more unexpected place than Ishtar's front yard where else do we see that pattern happening where else does God show up in the most unexpected place all the time Christmas is a celebration of the birth of a baby boy to a peasant day laboring carpenter family that didn't have enough room in a hotel for him so he was born in a barn and yet this was the baby boy that was threatening the mighty Roman Empire in the reign of King Herod sometimes God shows up in the most unexpected place if we draw our pictures and say you know what if it's this then it's not God we will sometimes miss some of the greatest things God will ever ever do maybe we can apply it this way where have we drawn lines around God that excludes where we are right now in our language do we ever exclude God from our present so we say things like this all Shane I'm just a delivery driver all Shane I'm just a corporate executive all Shane I'm just a cashier all Shane I'm just a teacher O'Shea and so what we do is we separate our life that God is here in church but but he's not really with me in in my present because we sometimes slip back into this ancient primitive thought that God is there and I am here but Ezekiel was the first person to start revealing actually God is with you wherever you go even if you're on the banks of the khabar river in Ishtar's front yard that how you treat that coworker is just as spiritual as you singing and lifting your hands in here how you treat your husband when he leaves his underwear on the floor for the $18.00 a time just as spiritual is what you do in here how you treat your wife when she falls asleep too early for your liking not just as spiritual as what you're doing in here how you treat how you treat those first graders that you deal with five days a week just as spiritual as what you do in here how you treat the person who cut you off in traffic in the road that they still haven't completed yet how you do that how you do that it's just a spiritual we cannot exclude God from our now my one point message for us tonight is simply this God is present in whatever circumstance you find yourself in if you're here today and you're saying you know what I am living in the middle of victory amen and God is right in the middle of that with you but if you're here tonight and you know what you say you know what I'm going through a bit of a rough patch I am here to affirm that the presence of God is at work in the middle of that as well the writer of Ephesians said it this way it is the spirit of him who raised Christ from the dead who is filling everything in all ways God is in the middle right there if you even have doubts that God even exists and you're going through that process in your life I'm here to affirm that God is in the middle of wherever you are right now if you're sitting on the banks of the carb our river in Ishtar's front yard God is in the middle of what you are in right now he's at work in you and he is committed to complete that work that he began in you let's say this way where do we need to be surprised by hope and develop a deep understanding that God is present in mine now wherever I am right now single its present married present teacher present cashier present delivery driver its present he's present school chaplain present present janitor present he's right here plumber right he's present in my know in the victory he's present in the pain he's present he's right here with me see sometimes I've heard people say with great victory I said what happened and they say Oh as a god thing and I know what they mean by that but come on hey it's a good when we only say it's a god thing in the victory it sort of excludes the fact that God is present even when we don't seem to be walking in the victory at that moment and sometimes what we'd be what we need to be reminded of is even in the suffering even in the divorce even in the job loss even in that medical diagnosis even in this thing you might have to walk through even in this transition period even in that it is the presence of God in those moments that need to be more real than ever before maybe we say this way in Ezekiel's experience God can survive even the religion that supports him getting burned to the ground so you say here's what I have a see his world the religion that supported God got burnt to the ground and somehow God survived imagine that let's say this way where have we where we limited God to our words theology view of the Bible denomination of philosophy ministry let's say this way do we really believe that God is God even when our language theology view of the Bible or philosophy Ministry gets holes in it when someone challenges something or do we have to fight fight for what people sometimes say huh che if that happens Christianity as we know it will cease to exist I'm thinking oh no how would God ever cope you mean to tell me the religion that holds God up if it ceased to exist what would happen to God poor God he needs us to hold him up shake if this happens Christianity as we know it will cease to exist maybe that's good like if you look at Christianity in the 1600s and compare it to Christianity today does it even look the same at all no the only thing that's that stood the test of time is Jesus as the Christ he was crucified the resurrection story that's it everything else has been changed and operated we learn more and we evolve and that's a good thing in 400 years from now well Christianity 400 years from now look like it does today absolutely not if that be would that be a good thing yes because God is at work completing his redemptive work in this world and sometimes that takes moving and changing and grasping the next thing and not holding on to the old picture if Christianity as we know it burned to the ground tomorrow let me give you a relieving revelation if Christianity as we know it burned to the ground tomorrow God would live on the whole religion that was holding God up got burned to the ground by a foreign worship of Ishtar and the next thing you know this God whose religion just got burned to the ground is showing out in Ishtar's front yard God survived he did on the other side to stay this way on the other side of devastation can we still embrace the one whose rims are high and awesome he remains when all else is burned to the ground so you've had an abortion you thought you'd get through it but you haven't I want you to know that even in that pain there is one whose rims are high and awesome and he's ready to be ever-present with you to move you through all of that so you lost your job there is one his rims are high and awesome and he's right there in the middle of it it's right there in the middle of it so you lost your family right there is one whose rims are high and awesome and even when everything you think you know to be true even when that gets shaken to its core there is a God whose rims are high and awesome and he is fully present even in devastation can we embrace the one whose rims are high in awesome because he is fully present let's say this way some things you can only learn in Excel what is your story of how your world got bigger when it appeared to get smaller and let me add to that when's the last time you told it someone needs to hear your story all of us have a story where we look like our life was getting smaller only to look at it later and go you know what God was faithful and my life got bigger even though it appeared to be getting smaller and when someone comes to us in devastation or in pain sometimes our initial response is to find a verse and you know that's not wrong but sometimes that's not what they need they don't need another verse that's blindly quoted to them what they need is an emotional rendition of your story maybe it's in that moment that your life could be the Epistle for them to read maybe it's in that moment that you can tell your story of how you embrace the one whose rims were high in awesome somehow you got through that thing maybe we say it this way if God is in the business of surprising people with hope and suffering shouldn't we be where have we done that recently was the last time we found someone and we're like you know what ah yesterday you didn't have enough food and that's not acceptable but today is your day and here's why it's not because I have a verse it's because I am filled with the one whose rims are high and awesome and I'm gonna commit to making your life better you didn't have food yesterday sweetie but your tomorrow does not have to be a repeat of your yesterday you will have food now oh you didn't have a coat yesterday how was your yesterday cuz I got five spare coats and my life is filled with the one whose rims are high and awesome and your tomorrow will not be a repeat of your yesterday because I just walked in your life it's in those moments you never know who's in the Gold Coast sitting on the banks of the khabar River in exile wondering why God has abandoned their life and maybe they'll never have a vision like Ezekiel maybe Ezekiel's vision for them is me and you taking seriously the call of God to love people in that situation maybe what we're called to be is to be the one whose rims are high and awesome to them maybe we're called to be the ones going hey I am here to encourage you your tomorrow is not necessarily a repeat of your yesterday why because the spirit of the one who fills all things in every way according to Ephesians he's with me now and he's walking you through your life right now and I affirm his presence in your life and here's what we're gonna do we're gonna meet your needs when that happens we have a community of people who've stepped outside the limits of the regulations and embrace what the Spirit of God is doing in this world may we be people who live like that let me pray for you Lord we love you we honor you we proclaim your king there's none like you Lord would you give us the courage to see things different the irresistible urge to respond to what we see why don't you right now right where you're sitting why don't you pray this prayer under your breath give me the courage to see things different Lord and the irresistible urge to respond to what I see once you pray a third prayer Lord would you bring to my mind somebody somewhere who's struggling believing their world's getting smaller maybe I need to be the presence of God for them maybe they need to hear my story maybe they need their needs met but I'm gonna commit to meeting that need why don't you just ask the Lord to bring something to your mind like that and then commit to doing something about it if you're here tonight and maybe you're listening to this and you're going you know what I'm not sure about God I don't know about all this here's what I do now here's here's and I don't even explain it but I could tell that there is a spirit of compassion and a spirit of love and it is compelling my heart to join in with that and if that's you I would invite you to receive what's been true about you since before the foundation of the world may tonight be your night for that you can you can respond to Jesus right now and if you need words to say you could say something like this Lord Jesus I'm choosing to put my faith in your version of my story instead of my own I'd love to partner with you and you teach me how to live I'd love to be a part of what you're doing in this world I'd love to be connected to your love if that's you you could just respond to Jesus right now and I want to invite you to do so I would invite you to make that moment to where you know you really make that line in the sand where you draw that line and say as for me I will serve the Lord I will connect myself with with this spirit of love with this person Jesus Christ with the the power of him who raised him from the dead I acknowledge that the Spirit of God is working in me and I want to respond to them we can just do that now and maybe you're here tonight and you're the Exile at the khabar River you you say Shane you don't understand if you knew what I was going through this is like my story I have lost everything my world is literally falling apart or it feels like it is and I want to affirm that I believe God is at work to make it bigger that the Spirit of God is present even in that and I just need you to say a prayer for me Shane I need you to to pray for me that I'll come to know that that the consciousness of that will rise inside of me if you're here tonight and you've got that sort of issue would you just raise your hand I'd love to pray for you I'm not gonna call you up hear anything if you just raise your hand quickly quick quick quick quick good good good good good yep yep yep yep yep yep so Lord we release our faith towards these say Lord would you show out as the one whose rims are high in Awesome we affirm the presence of him who fills everything in every way we affirm that over these one's life may you be ever present and make their world bigger in Jesus name amen amen thanks so much for that hang on oh sorry thanks so much lately be a part of your night I hope you were blessed by that I hope you're moved and changed tomorrow night we'll just uh thanks tomorrow night we'll just keep churning brand new brand new message I can't wait to share it cannot wait sometimes you preach because it's time to preach sometimes you preach because you actually have something to say tomorrow night I actually have something to say come on back one last night I promise you you'll be changed till I see you tomorrow night grace of peace amen awesome tomorrow night same time seven o'clock but as you're going out clear out his resource table before you get your coffee and before you chat as we said he'll be going outside his staff or out there well welcome you to have some fellowship with us but as they said just give the staff a chance to get home before 10:00 or 11:00 tonight god bless we'll see you tomorrow night thanks guys see your smile across your face still to found you see the nasty

Channel: Heritage of Faith Church Gold Coast

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Length: 82min 43sec (4963 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 09 2016