Sermon Tone Analysis

Scripture

5 And the Spirit of the LORD fell upon me, and he said to me, “Say, Thus says the LORD: So you think, O house of Israel.

For I know the things that come into your mind.

6 You have multiplied your slain in this city and have filled its streets with the slain.

7 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Your slain whom you have laid in the midst of it, they are the meat, and this city is the cauldron, but you shall be brought out of the midst of it.

8 You have feared the sword, and I will bring the sword upon you, declares the Lord GOD. 9 And I will bring you out of the midst of it, and give you into the hands of foreigners, and execute judgments upon you. 10 You shall fall by the sword.

I will judge you at the border of Israel, and you shall know that I am the LORD.

11 This city shall not be your cauldron, nor shall you be the meat in the midst of it.

I will judge you at the border of Israel, 12 and you shall know that I am the LORD.

For you have not walked in my statutes, nor obeyed my rules, but have acted according to the rules of the nations that are around you.”

13 And it came to pass, while I was prophesying, that Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died.

Then I fell down on my face and cried out with a loud voice and said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Will you make a full end of the remnant of Israel?”

Introduction

Every Pastor faces the difficult task of fulfilling a commission that requires both correction, and compassion.

The Pastor’s prophetic role will sometimes require him to speak a difficult word in difficult times.

My brothers and sisters, I want to shed some light on the Pastor’s vocation but specifically on his assignment as the resident prophet in this Church.

Because if you can understand, respect, and appreciate his role as God’s mouthpiece, you’ll develop a better relationship with the God he’s speaking for.

You cannot appreciate your Pastor until you fully understand the burden that’s sometimes placed on his shoulders.

You can’t really respect your Pastor if you don’t recognize where his authority comes from.

You can’t comprehend your Pastor’s pain unless you get a glimpse of the position the Pastor is placed in when he speaks on Heaven’s behalf.

does exactly that.

It gives us a view of God’s purpose for the prophet, and the prophet’s pain.

The Prophet’s Commission

God’s plan for the Pastor as his mouth piece requires the man of God to speak hard words, to heard-headed people, yet maintain a soft heart.

The Pastor is placed in a tough position.

He’s wedged between a God trying to move his people closer to the cross and a people that have become comfortable where they are.

The Prophet’s commission places him sometimes places him between a God who is angry and a nation who is guilty.

Because he is stuck between two sides that aren’t always on the same side, sometimes his words are controversial.

Sometimes his words hurt.

Sometimes his words will cut sharper than a two edged sword.

But as the people of God don’t fight the Pastor.

Because the Pastor’s words don’t belong to the Pastor, they just come from his mouth.

In Ezekiel Chapter 3 we witness Ezekiel’s commission and instructions from the Lord.

He tells the prophet to fill himself with the scroll.

The scroll in was the scroll that God had given Ezekiel in Chapter 2 that contained the words of God himself.

The prophets words don’t belong to him but they’ve been given to him for him to inhale and then herald to God’s people.

So long as the Pastor is feeding you what he got from God, don’t get mad at the waiter, take it up with the chef.

God clearly commissioned Ezekiel, but not just Ezekiel, to speak a word to the people that come straight from God.

I invite you beloved to be leery of any prophet who’s speaking something you can’t find in the Bible.

It may sound good and it may tickle your ears but if it didn’t come from the Bible it’s not prophetic, it’s a problem.

The Pastor’s role is to ingest and digest everything he can from the sacred scroll and then speak it to the people.

The People’s Condition

This might be a surprise to you all but it’s not a fresh revelation to the Pastor.

What determines the ease or the difficulty of the Pastor’s job as the local prophet is the people.

The biggest challenge for any prophet is the condition of the people.

When God called Ezekiel to be his prophet he warned him that the people would be smart but they would be stubborn.

They would hear your words, but that doesn’t mean they would listen to you.

But then in he says, don’t be dismayed, the reason they won’t listen to you is because they refuse to listen to me.

In other words don’t be surprised if you have some member who refuse to heed to the words that you preach Sunday after Sunday their problem is not with you, they have a problem with the God who sent you and they just don’t know it.

The problem isn’t with the prophet or his past or who he is, the problem is with the person who has ears to hear but doesn’t hear.

If you leave Church every Sunday and have a problem with the words from the book, don’t ask the Lord to change the prophet, ask him to change your heart.

Ezekiel’s Conflict

Fast forward to and we see that Ezekiel has a situation on his hands that illustrates the troubles we face as preachers in this era.

In Chapter 11 Ezekiel finds himself battling the bad teaching of the political leaders in the community of Jews in Babylon.

The Israelites found themselves in a strange land.

A land that was pagan.

A land that didn’t honor God, and the prophet had to stand up and speak out against the heresy of the political figures of that time, Jaaziniah and Pelatiah.

Sound familiar?

We live in a time where politics and pop culture have become the leading influence on how Christians should live their lives?

People are more likely to take the advice of politicians and pop stars than they are their Pastor.

Ezekiel’s dilemma isn’t too different from the dilemma that we face today.

Pelatiah and Jaazaniah were fooling the people into thinking that they were safe from God’s judgement because of their geographic location.

As long as they lived in the city and did what the people in the city did they were safe because somehow the city offered them protection.

Fooled the people into thinking that city life made them exempt from the punishment of God.

It’s been over 2,000 years since Ezekiel or somebody close to Ezekiel recorded this prophecy but people haven’t changed much.

People can get misled by politics and consumed by the culture and pretty soon they forget who they are and whose they.

God sent the prophet Ezekiel to remind them that you might do what is considered acceptable in the city but when the Lord calls for an answer the city can’t save you.

The city might tell you that it’s okay to keep living the way you’re living but when it’s time to answer to God, the city can’t save you.

So God sends Ezekiel to correct the mindset and the behavior of the people.

He sends the Pastor to instruct and to warn the sheep when they get it wrong and encourage them when they get it right.

The Pastor is faced with a difficult task, but it’s a task that he can’t quit because he’s been commissioned by God, and task he must endure patiently because of his compassion for the people.

I want to give you three clues as to what it’s like to to be a prophet in these times.

The concern that the prophet must have for the people.

The correction that the prophet provides for the people and the compassion that the prophet has for the people.

Concern

Ezekiel

What is it that keeps the prophet propped up?

How does he continue to preach when nobody’s listening?

The desire to stand up week after week and preach what thus said the Lord is fueled by a concern for the spiritual health of the people.

You have to understand that even when his words aren’t pleasing to you, he’s just concerned about you.

What separates a Pastor and a Prophet from a pulpit pimp is his concern.

The pulpiteer or pimp is concerned with his pockets, but the prophet is concerned about his people.

You want to know how you can tell the difference between a preacher that’s concerned about himself and preacher that’s concerned about you?

A preacher that’s concerned about you will tell you what you need to hear.

A preacher that’s only concerned with himself will tell you what you want to hear.

A prophet that’s only concerned about his well being will let the people stay where they are, but a prophet who’s concerned about God’s agenda will lead the people where God told him they should go.

You should be afraid of any preacher who begs you to come as you and tells you it’s okay for you to stay as you are.

A concerned Pastor will try to prepare you for Jesus return and urge you to make the rough places plain and the crooked places straight.

At the heart of everyone of your Pastor’s sermons is some concern for your relationship with the Lord.

Sometimes he’s more concerned about you spiritually than you are.

His concern comes from what is revealed to him by the spirit, and what he has witnessed in the past.

What is it that keeps the prophet propped up?

How does he continue to preach when nobody’s listening?

The desire to stand up week after week and preach what thus said the Lord is fueled by a concern for the spiritual health of the people.

The Spirit

What is the Spirit’s role in leading the prophet?

The Spirit is gives the prophet discernment about his people.

Notice the first clause in verse 5: “And the Spirit of the LORD fell upon me”.

The only way for the Pastor to have a clear sense of what the people need is to have been led by the Spirit.

Since the Spirit of God is as much God as God is God, then the Spirit and God agree.