Jesse Nelsen The Call of the Watchman

What Does God Want Us to Know: Our job is not to convert people but to be God’s watchman What Does God Want us to Do: He wants us to tell people about the coming of Jesus

Sticky Statement:

ME: (Introduce the topic) An review of the series and why we started this Journey… 1. We Looked at What Evangelism is and that is to tell the Good news of Jesus 2. Evangelism is best through relationships, with God and with the world around us 3. There is no cookie cutter way toward evangelism, we have to be able to reach our culture that we currently live in, we have to be able to reach our families, and even our own church family 4. We looked at several different examples of Evangelism in scripture and also the example of our own youth here in Lenoir City WE: (An Emotional Common Ground) I pray that emphasizing this in our preaching and teach has at least made you more aware of what evangelism is and how serious of a job it really is…it is the mission of the church.

Question: Who here thinks they have done a good job at evangelism this year? 1. How many friends have you invited? 2. How many neighbors did you talk with? 3. How many bible studies have resulted from your work?

I want to say this and I have heard it from at least 3 different people over the past 6 months. One person said it like this, “Because of Evangelism being our focus, I have seen more and more people talk with their family and co-workers than I ever had. This individual also said she has seen more people here visiting that was actually from an invite that he/she can remember” I want to give the church here one more last “call” to conclude this years evangelism theme, but it is not a call I am giving it is a call given by God, first to Ezekiel and secondly to You! Jesse Nelsen GOD: (Text, God’s Word on the Matter) Ezekiel 33 Context: Ezekiel is one of the most interesting prophets to read; not only did he get his first vision on his 30th birthday, when he should have been taken his place as a priest in Jerusalem, instead he is in Babylon where he will never return to Jerusalem, but Ezekiel is know for preaching through “sign acts” 1. He built a tiny model of Jerusalem and staged an attack on it 2. HE shaved off all of his hair and then chopped it up with a sword 3. or his most famous one was to be that of the scape goat. He tied himself up and laid on his side for over a year and ate food cooked over poop. Ezekiel is seeing the message of Moses all come to pass that one day the people of God would reject Him to the point of exile and so the fist 11 chapters tell the story of Ezekiel’s ministry and the sins of the people that lead them to captivity. Finally at the end of the those 11 chapters, Ezekiel gets a vision of the temple and sees the glory of God leaving the temple and going to Babylon…what Ezekiel saw as abandonment God tells him that He is leaving to go with the people to Babylon and God would keep a remnant of his people safe and a promise of restoration. 12-32 has been God of Israel and the nations and 33 will be on the city of Jerusalem itself. This is Ezekiel’s last “word of the Lord” before the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple TEXT: Ezekiel 33:7-9 This defines the watchman (really every Christians) call to those who God is going to bring judgement upon. Whether this be in the church or outside the church (Ezekiel preached to both Israel and the surrounding nations) Ezekiel 33:10-11 This is the Message we are to preach Ezekiel 33:14-16 The Lord just told us how our own self-righteousness will not save us but only practicing justice and righteousness…which we realize are only found in Christ Jesus Ezekiel 33:30-33 Ezekiel hears about the destruction of the city/temple and tells of the discipline of God Unfortunately for Ezekiel people wanted to “listen” and even get excited for the word of the Lord but at the end of the day, they would live the life Ezekiel is calling them to live. Jesse Nelsen YOU: (Application) We are called, just like Ezekiel to be watchman for God. We need to let people know that God is faithful and wants the wicked to turn from their sins but we cannot preach a “transform-less” gospel. We know that the Lord is coming like a thief in the night and we must warn of the impending doom that will befall every person but our message would be more equivalent to Ezekiel’s message in 34- the end of the book. God is coming to restore all things and to come and dwell with His people He is restoring what was lost in the garden of Eden but even bringing life to dead bones, causing the dead sea to produce life and making new transformed people through the power of His anointed king of the New Jerusalem, Jesus Christ.

WE: (Visionary Statement of what our lives, the church, and even the entire world would look like of they would apply this truth)