And the Academy Award Goes too...

Introduction:

15 million people, including my grandmother on May 16, 1995 tuned in to watch the series finale of “In the Heat of the Night”, 44 million on April 30th, 1992 tuned in to watch the series finale on the Cosby Show, and most recently 19.3 million people gathered around viewing devices all over the world to watch the series of finale of “Dem Thrones” as we call it, or Game of Thrones. Nonetheless these shows had quite the viewership because people related to the characters, they could insert themselves in the story, and they could talk about it amongst friends and family and critically think and carried out conversations as if it was a real live scenario.

Family, did you know that we are staring in our own Drama Series, we are the main actor, we have the lead role in this film called life. Some people’s lives like certain shows end with a lot of celebration and fanfare and expected ending to a beautiful series. Some people’s lives end abruptly, similar to shows like Homeboy’s in Outer space. We turn the TV on at the expected time and it’s no longer there. Some people’s lives end tragically with unexpected sadness, no one expects it, but unfortunately that is how life goes.

Ezekiel is in Act II of “What on Earth is Wrong With Israel”, all humor aside God can’t get their attention through judges, kings, famine, disease, or destruction. So God enlist Prophet Ezekiel to act out the message rather than just preach it. It’s a testament to the fact that our lives should be similar. Speaking of my grandmother, she would say like may other people have heard “the best sermon you will ever preach is with your life”. As a preacher I hear references to sermons all the time, but do you know what I hear more? How memorable the kindness, the faith, the love, the hospitality was that they showed. In this case it is a serious attempt to warn and encourage people to repent. Similar to many other times in the bible in which God sends a messenger to spread a word about his promises and prophecies coming to fruition. The most memorable message probably preached by Noah was building the ark once the rain began to fall, the most memorable message Abraham probably preached was obeying God in effort that He believed that he might have to sacrifice his son. The most memorable lesson I believe Jesus preached was with His life. The sermon that His life was on the cross, in the grave and during His Resurrection.

People are motivated by a number of things, but often times they are motivated by many of the things that they see. When they see your resilience, when they witness your faith, when they witness our ability to stand strong and be disciplined. Everything is not a lecture sometimes the adage rings true, “actions speak louder than words”.

Obedience and Faith

When we see obedience in this text, trial is imminent. “Therefore, son of man, prepare your belongings for captivity, and go into captivity by day in their sight”. It’s one thing to be obedient when times are good, but it’s a different game when we need to be obedient when life is in shambles.

Obedient when no one is listening

Ezekiel was obedient during captivity, during rebellion, during a time in which God was getting rid of people due to their sin.

It’s deeper than just doing the right thing. Can you be faithfully obedient when the bank account is negative. Can you be faithfully obedient when you and your spouse aren’t seeing eye to eye. Can you be faithfully obedient when this is the 3rd interview and you are still searching!

Faith and Obedience have to work hand in hand for the Christian. Ephesians 2:8-10 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

If we lack obedience and faith or simply become spiritually blind and deaf, God will use unorthodox ways to get our attention.

We remember in Ezekiel 4:3 “Moreover take for yourself an iron plate, and set it as an iron wall between you and the city. Set your face against it, and it shall be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel.”

Ezekiel preached two action sermons to warn them that judgement was at hand. Ezekiel was living the message he was declaring.

We, too can live the message we want to declare. We can’t verbally preach kindness and we are out here treating people like trash.

You can’t uplift women, in which it is Women’s History Month, shout out to all the sisters holding it down, and disrespect your own spouse.

I can’t preach on financial stewardship when I lack financial discipline. Our life through faith and obedience

Obedience is a foundational tenet of following God. When things look bleak, when life has a proverbial dark cloud over it still have the faith to stay true to the covenant that God has made with us.

No matter what is going on between us and our problems God expects us to be obedient.

What were the commands:

Pretend you are going into exile.

Do this right in front of the people so they can see you.

If God cannot get your attention through His word, He will get our attention through people.

I’m not arrogant because I choose to obey God no matter the circumstance.

Dig a hole through the wall while they are watching and go out through it. This was not only a sign to the people but a sign to the leaders as well.

It’s similar to what Paul told Timothy: I Timothy 4:12 “Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.”

Ezekiel 12:11 “Say, ‘I am a sign to you. As I have done, so shall it be done to them; they shall be carried away into captivity.’”

God is also doing this to expose leaders who fall victim to political pressure that ends up harming his people. God had given commands and Zedekiah refused to enforce them. It’s the expectation of us no matter our position in society to listen to God.

The bible says Zedekiah would do just as Ezekiel enacted. He would cover his face, but God would capture him and bring him into captivity and he would die in captivity of the Babylonians.

His name meant “Yahweh is Righteous” and God shows his justice by holding this unruly leader according to his deeds!

Sometimes the sermon that people see from our lives is how not to live. So, not only should we pay attention to the lives of those who are doing right but we should also take heed how God deals with those who do not obey Him.

Obedience and Faith should ensure that we never make concessions for anything outside of the will of God. We have seen this consistently in the text. There was a man by the name of Pilate that fell victim to political pressures instead of standing up for those who were vulnerable to the evil deeds of society.

A Sense of Urgency

Our life should show a sense of urgency as it pertains to the return of Jesus. In this text we see another sermon enacted.

New Living Translation (Chapter 12)

17 Then this message came to me from the LORD: 18 “Son of man, tremble as you eat your food. Shake with fear as you drink your water. 19 Tell the people, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says concerning those living in Israel and Jerusalem: They will eat their food with trembling and sip their water in despair, for their land will be stripped bare because of their violence. 20 The cities will be destroyed and the farmland made desolate. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’ 

This sense of urgency causes people in the book of Ezekiel and Jeremiah were doomsayers and that their predictions would not occur but do not lose heart because God’s word never fails.

Romans 13:11 “And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.”

We do not know when Jesus will return! But understand it’s better to be ready than to have to scramble to get ready. You have to ask yourself, how are you catching people’s attention! How are you getting the attention of those who are blind and deaf to God’s truth. Everybody is not going to listen to the scriptures you quote, everybody isn’t reading their bible, sometimes the best scripture they can read it the one that they read as it pertains to how you live your life.

Jesus was obedient through all things! It may have been seen as obscure and sometimes extreme but God keeps His promises and our faith and obedience should reflect.

Sure the sermon on the mount was powerful, but one of the most remarkable parts of this sermon was the people He healed before he climbed the mountain.

Sure the sacrifice on the cross was one of the greatest blessings we have but remember the sermon that was preached as Jesus forgave the thief that repented on the cross.

Sure the prison and pastoral epistles are the great letters of encouragement and accountability but one of the best sermons Paul ever preached was the sermon of repentance, confession and surrender on the road to Damascus.

Some of our greatest sermons won’t be the bible class we teach, or the sermon we preach some of the best sermons we preach will be the way we treat our spouse, or who we help in the community. Sometimes our greatest sermon won’t be a gospel meeting or a youth explosion but the way we talk to people, the people we serve or the time we give to ministry!

What will your sermon be when you are no longer on this earth? Will it be a sermon filled with faithful actions, and loving kindness!

We never know where death is, we never know where captivity is, we never know when it will be our one and only time to share a sermon of actions with someone that might just save their life!