Begin Where You Are! (2)
Notes
Transcript
By: Paul Rees
Eze. 2:1
Eze. 2:1
INTRODUCTION:
God speaks to Ezekiel, “I’ve got a job to do, and I’m going to do it through you. Get on your feet, and I will speak to you!”
“Begin where you are.” What does that mean? Well, I want to suggest, in the light of what Ezekiel shares with us.
I. SOME BASIC RECOGNITIONS
I. SOME BASIC RECOGNITIONS
1. The recognition that anywhere, no matter how unlikely or how unpromising, God speaks to a person, that place becomes excitingly meaningful. Whoever would have thought that a career such as Ezekiel’s could have begun amid the dreary, dismaying, disheartening circumstances in the midst of which he found himself as an exile? And yet it was there that God spoke.
1. The recognition that anywhere, no matter how unlikely or how unpromising, God speaks to a person, that place becomes excitingly meaningful. Whoever would have thought that a career such as Ezekiel’s could have begun amid the dreary, dismaying, disheartening circumstances in the midst of which he found himself as an exile? And yet it was there that God spoke.
2. Another recognition that is suggestive here, is the importance of beginning by tackling yourself. God had no more begun this speaking to Ezekiel, as part of the process by means of which Ezekiel would begin speaking to the people.
2. Another recognition that is suggestive here, is the importance of beginning by tackling yourself. God had no more begun this speaking to Ezekiel, as part of the process by means of which Ezekiel would begin speaking to the people.
II. SOME BOLD RESPONSES
II. SOME BOLD RESPONSES
1. We need to begin to be a listener among the listless. It was not an easy assignment that God gave to Ezekiel, far from it. Begin by being a listener among the listless.
1. We need to begin to be a listener among the listless. It was not an easy assignment that God gave to Ezekiel, far from it. Begin by being a listener among the listless.
2. A speaker among the silent.
2. A speaker among the silent.
3. There does come the moment, there does come the hour, when silence must be broken. And so, “Son of man, stand on your feet and I will speak to you… ” Now on down to the seventh verse, “Thou shalt speak my words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear.”
3. There does come the moment, there does come the hour, when silence must be broken. And so, “Son of man, stand on your feet and I will speak to you… ” Now on down to the seventh verse, “Thou shalt speak my words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear.”
III. SOME BOUNTIFUL RESOURCES
III. SOME BOUNTIFUL RESOURCES
Do you notice what Ezekiel says? The word came to him first, “Son of man, stand upon your feet, and I will speak with you.” And then, “When He spoke to me the Spirit, the Holy Spirit entered into me, and set me upon my feet.” Stand upon feet? Impossible you say. Yes, if you are not reckoning with the Holy Spirit. Quite impossible. But the Holy Spirit entered into him. “The Holy Spirit was released in me as the Spirit of power, and stood me on my feet.”
Rees, P. (1977). Begin Where You Are! Golden Nuggets, 13.