Hard Words for Hardened Hearts
Notes
Transcript
An article in Preaching Today talks about a Minister named Bill Smith. A portion of it says,
Our former district superintendent, Bill Smith, recalls preaching part-time in a small local church while he was still studying for the ministry. Six months passed and none of his professors had come to hear him. Finally, his faculty advisor agreed to attend one Sunday.
After the service, the advisor shook Bill’s hand and said, “That was a very warm sermon.”
But Bill’s delight was short-lived as he continued. “You know what the definition of warm is, don't you?” he asked.
Before Bill could respond, he answered, “Not so hot.”
Ouch!!
It does bring a very important question though. Not just for preachers and teachers, but for anyone with an important message that they want people to hear. Especially people they love in hard times.
How do you turn up the heat in your message?
How do you communicate it in such a way that people really hear what you have to say?
Well… Believe it or not we can find the answer in the Bible!! If you have your Bibles turn to Ezekiel Chapter 3. Ezekiel 3 where God calls Ezekiel to communicate some hard words to people with hardened hearts.
1 He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you find here. Eat this scroll, then go and speak to the house of Israel.” 2 So I opened my mouth, and he fed me the scroll. 3 “Son of man,” he said to me, “feed your stomach and fill your belly with this scroll I am giving you.” So I ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth.
The Jewish people are in hard times. They have been exiled in Babylon while the Babylonian army is besieging Jerusalem and is about to destroy the temple.
God has given Ezekiel a hard message of judgment to the exiled Jewish people. A message that most would find bitter.
Yet, Ezekiel finds God’s words sweet in his mouth. I’m sure it’s not what he expected. He probably expected a horribly bitter taste that sours the stomach, but God’s Word was sweet nourishment to his soul.
If we want to powerfully communicate God’s word, especially to people with hardened hearts, then we must eat His Word ourself.
Eat God’s Word Yourself
Eat God’s Word Yourself
Now I’m not suggesting you start tearing the pages out of your Bible and begin eating them. However, we must ingest God’s word in another way. A way that makes us a part of what it says.
The Daily Telegraph interviewed actor Anthony Hopkins where he said that when he gets a movie script, he reads through it between 100 and 200 times before production.
He makes notes in the margin, he scribbles and doodles and imagines how it will look on stage or screen. By the time Hopkins is finished, that script is internalized. He knows his character and he knows his, and everyone else’s, lines. He’s able to improvise because he has personified the words in the script.
That’s what it means to eat God’s Word. Start by reading parts of the Bible over and over, maybe even 100 or 200 times. Take notes and imagine what it should look like in your own life.
Do this until God’s word is internalized and you become a personification of God’s Word itself. Then, you’re ready to communicate God’s Word to others. That’s when we speak God’s Word.
Speak God’s Word
Speak God’s Word
We should personify God’s Word so much that we speak God’s Word even if we don’t open our mouths. Whether people listen or not.
4 Then he said to me, “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak my words to them. 5 For you are not being sent to a people of unintelligible speech or a difficult language but to the house of Israel—
6 not to the many peoples of unintelligible speech or a difficult language, whose words you cannot understand. No doubt, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you. 7 But the house of Israel will not want to listen to you because they do not want to listen to me. For the whole house of Israel is hardheaded and hardhearted.
Do you know anyone like that?
God sent Ezekiel to bring His Word to a hardened Israel who will refuse to listen. But God also makes Ezekiel just as hard, I would say even harder than the Israelites.
8 Look, I have made your face as hard as their faces and your forehead as hard as their foreheads. 9 I have made your forehead like a diamond, harder than flint. Don’t be afraid of them or discouraged by the look on their faces, though they are a rebellious house.”
The Hebrew word translated “hard” is the same word that forms part of Ezekiel’s name. It means “God will strengthen or God will harden.” It reminds Ezekiel of God’s promised strength.
God promises us that same strength as we faithfully speak His Word, especially in hard situations. But, we must first soften our hearts to hear and receive God’s Word ourselves.
10 Next he said to me, “Son of man, listen carefully to all my words that I speak to you and take them to heart. 11 Go to your people, the exiles, and speak to them. Tell them, ‘This is what the Lord God says,’ whether they listen or refuse to listen.”
If you want some comfort and confidence, here it is. God doesn’t measure our success by how others respond. Rather, God measures our success by how faithfully we present His Word to people. How we faithfully communicate His message without change or compromise.
Another article in Preaching Today covers a book written by Rosaria Butterfield. It says:
Dr. Rosaria Butterfield, a former tenured professor at the University of Syracuse, was a committed and comfortable lesbian until she had what she described as a “train-wreck conversion” to Christ. At one point in her life, she wrote, “As an unbelieving professor of English, an advocate of postmodernism … and an opponent of all totalizing meta-narratives (like Christianity), I found peace and purpose in my life as a lesbian and the queer community I helped to create.” Today she is married to Pastor Kent Butterfield, and mother of four adopted children and numerous foster children.
After her conversion, she describes an encounter with a female counselor who wanted Dr. Butterfield to bend her message about homosexual practice. The woman asked Butterfield to state publicly that homosexual practice is not inherently wrong. Butterfield writes:
When I entered her office, she directed me to a comfortable chair and made one simple request: “Rosaria, I want you to change your message.” I found this a bold and disarming request, and so I told her that I come in the gospel of peace. She said, “Change your message.” Finally, I asked her what I ought to change in my message. She said, “Tell people that it is only IN YOUR OPINION that homosexual practice is a sin.”
Rosaria responded by saying, “ I am not smart enough to have this opinion, but that this is the position the inspired and inerrant Word of God upholds. It comes to me from the historic Christian church… through the pages of Scripture, and so on down to me.” Rosaria told her, “Changing my message would involve denying the plain meaning of Scripture, the testimony of the church, the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and the gospel.”
Now, to the postmodern mind… the counselor’s request seems reasonable enough: just own this position as a personal point of view. But claiming something that is a universal truth to be a mere matter of personal preference is a lie by omission. “This is the Bible's message, and apart from Christ,” Rosaria says, “I am more condemned by it than the woman who made this request.”
Far too many people in our society today more and more harshly demand we soften the language of Scripture. They cunningly persuade far too many in the Church to just fudge a little on the message.
We can’t yield even one iota. We must stand strong in our message whether people hear or refuse to hear. These people remind me of a child sticking their fingers in their ears and yelling la la la I can’t hear you!!
If we want God to use us powerfully in communicating the Gospel to people with hardened hearts we must 1st eat God’s Word, 2nd speak God’s Word without change or compromise and 3rd we must follow God’s Spirit.
Follow God’s Spirit
Follow God’s Spirit
Only go where God’s Spirit leads us. We see that’s exactly what Ezekiel did.
12 The Spirit then lifted me up, and I heard a loud rumbling sound behind me—bless the glory of the Lord in his place!—13 with the sound of the living creatures’ wings brushing against each other and the sound of the wheels beside them, a loud rumbling sound.
14 The Spirit lifted me up and took me away. I left in bitterness and in an angry spirit, and the Lord’s hand was on me powerfully. 15 I came to the exiles at Tel-abib, who were living by the Chebar Canal, and I sat there among them stunned for seven days.
It’s interesting how Ezekiel starts out full of praise until he finds out where the Spirit leads him. Away from Jerusalem to Tel-abib, which literally means “mound of the flood.” It was nothing more than an ancient ruin where God’s exiled people would gather.
When he arrived he was full of bitterness and angry (literally rage). The Hebrew word translated “stunned” means to be devastated some translations say “overwhelmed.”
These were nobodies in a nowhere place and that enraged Ezekiel and left him devastated.
Have you ever felt that way?
Ezekiel 1:1 tells us Ezekiel was 30 years old. According to Numbers 4:2-3 that’s the year he was to start his priestly ministry in the Temple in Jerusalem. Instead he’s whisked away to nowhere with a hard message to people who wouldn’t listen.
We can feel that way at times too, right?
We have our own ideas of what we think God wants us to do. Where He wants us to be, and who we’re supposed to share His message with. Mostly based off our worldly focused point of view.
The Holy Spirit doesn’t always lead us to the places we imagine or desire in our flesh. Sometimes we are led to suffer in hard places where we see little or no response.
Be angry like Ezekiel if you must, but in your anger, do not sin.
26 Be angry and do not sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger,
Ezekiel took 7 days off before he began doing what God asked in the place God sent him. We can take some time off if we need but don’t turn away from God’s leading in our lives. Accept God’s call to the place and people He wants us to serve.
There’s no doubt we’re serving God in some difficult times in a difficult place. The Holy Spirit has guided us here and He will push us through.
Julia Buckley wrote an article for CNN in November 2023. In part it stated:
Just a couple of years ago (November 2023), the jet stream (that is the air current about five miles above the earth’s surface) was stronger than usual. CNN meteorologist Sara Tonks attributed the difference to a burst of cold air, which had increased the difference in temperature between the colder United States and the warmer Atlantic Ocean.
Now, the jet stream has always been a boon to travelers heading west-to-east, but two years ago, it allowed planes to travel at speeds approaching the speed of sound, estimated at about 761 miles per hour.
As a result, several airplanes logged impressive flight times. For example, an American Airlines flight from JFK in New York to Heathrow in London touched down almost an hour early.
In 2019, a Virgin Atlantic plane from Los Angeles to London achieved a speed of 801 mph while flying over the state of Pennsylvania. Afterward, Virgin founder Richard Branson described it as flying “faster than any other commercial non-supersonic plane in history.”
When we have the wind at our backs we can do amazing things. The “wind” we have at our back, is the Holy Spirit. Trust Him and we will see miracles happen as He pushes us through the hard times and hard places in our lives.
If we want God to powerfully use us to communicate His message to people with hardened hearts we must 1st eat God’s Word, 2nd speak God’s Word without change or compromise, 3rd follow God’s Spirit and 4th warn God’s people.
Warn God’s People
Warn God’s People
The church is falling away. They’re turning away from God. When we are led by the Spirit and that opportunity presents itself we should Admonish them to turn from their sin.
16 Now at the end of seven days the word of the Lord came to me: 17 “Son of man, I have made you a watchman over the house of Israel. When you hear a word from my mouth, give them a warning from me.
Watchmen were placed in towers on hilltops and surrounding areas and atop the city walls. If an enemy were approaching they would send signals, could be fires, could be horns, or other ways of communicating to the city the danger.
God sent Ezekiel to warn the wicked of their impending judgement.
18 If I say to the wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ but you do not warn him—you don’t speak out to warn him about his wicked way in order to save his life—that wicked person will die for his iniquity. Yet I will hold you responsible for his blood. 19 But if you warn a wicked person and he does not turn from his wickedness or his wicked way, he will die for his iniquity, but you will have rescued yourself.
Ezekiel was called to warn the wicked of their impending judgment, but he was also called to warn the righteous of the consequences for their sins.
20 Now if a righteous person turns from his righteousness and acts unjustly, and I put a stumbling block in front of him, he will die. If you did not warn him, he will die because of his sin, and the righteous acts he did will not be remembered. Yet I will hold you responsible for his blood. 21 But if you warn the righteous person that he should not sin, and he does not sin, he will indeed live because he listened to your warning, and you will have rescued yourself.”
Note the warnings to Ezekiel as well as to the wicked and the righteous. If God sent Ezekiel to warn a person and Ezekiel didn’t follow through, then the blood of that person was on Ezekiel’s hands. However, God wouldn’t hold Ezekiel responsible for the person’s response.
It can be scary to go out and share the gospel. We might fear how others will react. We might get yelled at, or we might even lose our jobs. But I’m here to tell you I’d rather have any kind of temporal earthly punishment than whatever it might mean to my eternal presence in heaven.
We are to warn the wicked, non-believers, when God calls them into our lives. I don’t mean every person walking down the street.
We need to learn to hear when the Spirit is prompting us and pushing us. We need to learn to see God moving in our lives around us. Then we will see the people He calls us to be a witness.
We are also called at times to warn other believers who are walking away from God. Sometimes they are people claiming to be Christians and we are called to present the truth.
In his book Building a Church of Small Groups, Bill Donahue tells a story from his time as a part-time youth pastor while attending seminary. He was visiting a farm where two of his students lived, and their father Tom decided to teach Bill a lesson:
He asked if Bill could help call in the sheep. Bill enthusiastically agreed. Sheep-calling was like preaching. So they stood at the pasture fence, watching 25 sheep graze.
“Go ahead,” Tom dared Bill. “Call them in.”
“What do you say?” Bill asked.
Tom replied, “I just say, ‘Hey, sheep! C'mon in!’”
No sweat, Bill thought. A city kid with a bad back and hay fever could do this. He began in a normal speaking voice, but Tom interrupted. “You are 75 yards away, down wind, and they have their backs to you. Yell! Use your diaphragm, like they teach you in preaching class.”
So Bill took a deep breath and put every inch of stomach muscle into a yell that revival preachers around the world would envy: “Hey, sheep! C'mon in!” The blessed creatures didn't move an inch. None even turned an ear.
Tom smiled sarcastically. “Do they teach you the Bible in that seminary? Have you ever read, ‘My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me'?’ Raising his voice only slightly, he said: “Hey, sheep! C'mon in!” All 25 sheep turned and ambled toward them. Tom seized this teachable moment.
“Now, don't you ever forget,” he said. “You are the shepherd to my kids.”
God’s sheep won’t respond to our voice. They only respond to the voice of Jesus. The only way we can have any impact in our ever increasingly hardened society full of hardened people is if we are so saturated with God’s Word the it Jesus they hear in us.
We must eat His Word so much that we are the personification of Jesus Himself. So much that everything we say and do present Jesus to the world.
Follow the Spirit’s guidance to those whom God wants us to be a witness and then be the uncompromising Word of God. That’s how we make an impact in our communities, in our society and in the world.
