If I Sat Where They Sit

“IF I SAT WHERE THEY SIT” EZEKIEL 3:8-15 TEXT VERSE: EZEKIEL 3:15 INTRO: The Lord took the prophet Ezekiel and sat him down right in the middle of an unpleasant situation. The experience of what he saw so touched Ezekiel that it tells us in the latter part of verse 15, “I sat there where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days.” He was overwhelmed with grief for the sins and miseries of his people, and overpowered by the glory of the vision he had seen. (Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary). God put His prophet there for a reason. A young minister just finishing up his seminary training went to the president of the seminary and told him he felt led to go to a certain foreign field. The president knew all about the field. He told the young minister that he needed a little experience before going to that field. He further told the young man that he could get that experience right here. That thrilled the preacher. The older minister told him that he needed to take his family of a wife and two small children and move down into the ghetto of the city. The young man knew the place. He became irate, and started to storm out of the office. The president said: “Just a moment before you leave. That ghetto is nothing compared to the mission field you want to go to.” I want to ask each one here today a question, If God should call us to “sit where they sit” would it make a difference in the way we feel about them? Our world is full of hurting people. What I am asking is this: What would we want people to do for us if we sat where some of them are sitting right now? People all over the world are hurting. Think of the countries that are filled with disease and starvation. People are sick. Hospitals are overflowing with people with all kinds of illnesses. Some of those will never walk, see, or enjoy any measure of health again. Think of the many in burn centers, cancer centers, and mental institutions. All those in nursing homes, jails, homes for unwed mothers, orphanages, and the many single moms trying to keep food on the table for their kids. Our list could go on and on. But I want us to consider that question again, “How would I like to be treated If I had to be in their place?” God put His prophet in this situation so he could identify with the people to whom he was writing. I want us to think for a few moments on “If I Sat Where They Sit,” and consider how we would like to be treated if we were in their situation. IF I SAT WHERE THEY SIT: (1) I WOULD WANT SOMEONE TO PRAY FOR ME JAMES 5:16—“Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” A. PRAYING FOR OTHERS IS COMMANDED. James 5:16 says, “..pray for one another..” This is not an option, but God commands us to do it. James, who penned these words, believed in prayer. In fact, tradition tells us that he spent so much time in prayer that his knees became hard and calloused. God works through prayer, but prayer must come from a clean, dedicated heart (1). One of the greatest and best things you can do for someone is to pray for them. Failing to pray for someone in need of prayer shows too things: 1. Selfishness. The body poorly protects what it does not feel. In the spiritual Body, also, loss of feeling inevitably leads to atrophy and inner deterioration. So much of the sorrow in the world is due to the selfishness of one living organism that simply does not care when another suffers. In Christ's Body we suffer because we do not suffer enough. -- Paul Brand, M.D., Leadership, Vol. 5, no. 4. 2. Sin. 1 Samuel 12:23 tells us, “Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you…” When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, He gave them the model to follow which we call “The Lord’s Prayer.” If you look that model prayer you will see that God intended for us to pray for others. ILLUS: You cannot pray the Lord's Prayer and even once say "I." You cannot pray the Lord's Prayer and even once say "My." Nor can you pray the Lord's Prayer and not pray for one another. And when you ask for daily bread, you must include your brother. For others are included ... in each and every plea, From the beginning to the end of it, it doesn't once say "Me." -- Unknown, Christian Reader, Vol. 32, no. 3. B. PRAYING FOR OTHERS SHOWS COMPASSION. When we truly love others we will pray for them. Someone has said, “Love does not parade the imperfections of others or taunt people for their weaknesses. Rather love seeks to understand others—their imperfections and weaknesses (2). When we sit where they sit, We will try to identify with their pain and hurt. We will intercede for them before the throne of God. Paul seldom asked people to pray that he would be delivered from certain unpleasant and dangerous circumstance, but he asked the saints to pray for him. ILLUS: A minister was praying at the bedside of a dying woman. "Wait a moment," she said, as he started to rise from his knees. "I want to pray for you." Very tenderly she prayed with her hands upon his head. "For ten years, ever since you became my pastor, I have offered that prayer for you every morning and night," she told him. The minister went away with tears in his eyes and a strange warmth in his heart. He had known that this woman was sweet-spirited and true, but he had never guessed that he had a place in her prayers day and night. "I wonder how many of my six hundred members pray for me," he asked himself. Let us remember others in our prayers even as we want others to remember us. If I SAT WHERE THEY SIT I would want someone praying for me. IF I SAT WHERE THEY SIT… (2) I WOULD WANT SOMEONE TO CARE ABOUT ME *Sometimes those who find themselves in painful, trying and distressful situations feel like David when he was fleeing for his life from Saul, “No man cared for my soul.” (Psalm 142:4b). Notice two things about Caring: A. CARING IS AN ATTITUDE. It is a choice we can either make or not make. But when we choose to care it will have an impact on the person we choose to care about! ILLUS: Some years ago, the University of Illinois conducted an experiment in which two pens of pigs were weaned and reared in different environments. One pen of pigs received no handling except for feeding, watering, and pen cleaning. The pigs in the second pen were treated much better. They were played with and petted for at least 15 minutes each day by their caretakers. The end result of the experiment? The pigs who received the tender, loving care of their handlers thrived much better than those who were ignored. Caring attention, even in the life of a hog, does make a difference!- The Deacon, July, August, September 1994, p. 47 Just a little reminder that “I care” means more than we’ll ever know. Until you have been there you can’t imagine what it means to a person who is hurting to have someone care enough to let them know. B. CARING IS AN ACTION. Caring reaches out to others. It doesn’t merely speak the words, but it acts on another’s behalf. 1 John 3:18 tells us, “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.” Others will not care how much we know until they know how much we care. As one authority puts it: If I just do my thing and you do yours, we stand in danger of losing each other and ourselves…we are fully ourselves only in relation to each other; the I detached from a Thou disintegrates. I do not find you by chance; I find you by an active life of reaching out.—Walter Tubbs, “Beyond Pearls,” Journal of Humanistic Psychology (3). “It is a fair rule of thumb that only the love of neighbor which can also draw people to Christ is truly a reflection of that love for God which is its source.”—Jeremy C. Jackson, No Other Foundation (4). Isaiah 41:6- 7 says, “They helped every one his neighbor; and every one said to his brother, Be of good courage. So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smoothed with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It is ready for the sodering: and he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved.” IF I SAT WHERE THEY SIT, I WOULD WANT SOMEONE TO PRAY FOR ME and I WOULD WANT SOMEONE TO CARE ABOUT ME, and also… (3) I WOULD WANT SOMEONE TO SHOW ME MERCY AND FORGIVENESS WHEN I HAD SINNED EPHESIANS 4:32—“And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” *Charles Spurgeon said, “Let us go to Calvary to learn how we may be forgiven. And then let us linger there to learn how to forgive (5). Ephesians 4:32 teaches us what forgiveness is all about. Spurgeon says of this verse: Does he say, “forgiving another”? No, that is not the text. It is “forgiving one another.” That means that if you have to forgive today, it is very likely that you will yourself need to be forgiven tomorrow, for it is “forgiving one another.” (6). *Note: A. THE PATTERN OF FORGIVENESS. “…even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” As God, showing himself kind and tenderhearted in the highest degree, hath forgiven you (Wesley’s Explanatory Notes). He is our pattern in forgiving others. How much hath He forgiven us “for Christ’s sake”? ALL! How much should we forgive others? ALL! ILLUS: When a person forgives another, he is promising to do three things about the intended wrongdoing: not to use it against the wrongdoer in the future; not to talk about it to others; and not to dwell on it himself.—Jay Adams (7) Is this not the pattern of forgiveness that God practices with us? As Hebrews 10:17 tells us, “And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more,” the Lord says. B. THE PURPOSE OF FORGIVENESS. “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another..” Is not showing mercy the aim of forgiveness? Be ye kind one to another. This sets forth the principle of love in the heart, and the outward expression of it, in a humble, courteous behaviour. Mark how God's forgiveness causes us to forgive. God forgives us, though we had no cause to sin against him. We must forgive, as he has forgiven us (Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary).

ILLUS: Recently, a frail black woman rose slowly to her feet in a South African courtroom. She was 70-something, the years deeply etched on her face. Facing her from across the room were several white security police officers. One, a Mr. van der Broek, had just been found guilty of murdering the woman's son and her husband. The man had come to the woman's home a number of years earlier. He had taken her son, shot him at pointblank range, and then burned his body while he and some other officers reveled in the act. Several years later, van der Broek had returned to take away her husband as well. For two years, she could learn nothing of what happened to him. Then, van der Broek came back for the woman herself. She was led to a place beside a river. There, she saw her husband bound and beaten, lying on a pile of wood. The last words she heard from his lips as the officers poured gasoline over his body and set him aflame were, "Father, forgive them." But not long ago, justice caught up with Mr. van der Broek. He had been found guilty, and it was time to determine his sentence. And as the woman stood, the presiding official of the court asked, "So, what do you want? How should justice be done to this man who has so brutally destroyed your family?" In reply, the woman said, "I want three things. I want first to be taken to the place where my husband's body was burned so that I can gather up the dust and give his remains a decent burial." She pauses, then continues. "My husband and son were my only family. I want, secondly, therefore, for Mr. van der Broek to become my son. I would like for him to come twice a month to the ghetto and spend a day with me so that I can pour out on him whatever love I still have remaining within me." "And, finally," she says, "I want a third thing. I would like Mr. Van der Broek to know that I offer him my forgiveness because Jesus Christ died to forgive. This was also the wish of my husband. And so, I would kindly ask someone to come to my side and lead me across the courtroom so that I can take Mr. van der Broek in my arms, embrace him and let him know that he is truly forgiven." As the court assistants led the elderly woman across the courtroom, Mr. van der Broek, overwhelmed by what he heard, fainted. Then quietly, from those in the courtroom, friends, family, and neighbors – all victims of similar oppression and injustice – began to sing "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found. ‘Twas blind, but now I see. IF I SAT WHERE THEY SIT, I WOULD WANT SOMEONE TO PRAY FOR ME, I WOULD WANT SOMEONE TO CARE ABOUT ME, I WOULD WANT SOMEONE TO SHOW ME MERCY AND FORGIVENESS and … (4) I WOULD WANT SOMEONE TO LOVE ME HEBREWS 13:1-2—“Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”

1 Peter 4:8—“And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.” A. LOVE IS NEEDED. Some of the saddest faces I have ever looked upon were the faces of people who said, “Nobody loves me.” Some find themselves in situations where they believe that no one loves them. ILLUS: There were two boys who were so wicked that everybody hated them except their dear widowed mother. At the funeral of that dear mother one of those boys turned to the other and said, “We don’t have a friend in the world now that mamma is gone.” Many are like that in this world. Will you be the one that God can show His love through? ILLUS: A man and his wife visited an orphanage where they hoped to adopt a child. In an interview with the boy they wanted, they told him in glowing terms about the many things they could give him. To their amazement, the little fellow said, "If you have nothing to offer except a good home, clothes, toys, and the other things that most kids have - why - I would just as soon stay here." "What on earth could you want besides those things?" the woman asked. "I just want someone to love me." said the little boy." Even little boys know that you are not suppose to live by bread alone! - Billy Graham B. LOVE KNOWS NO LIMITS. True love knows no boundaries. It loves people no matter who they are or where they are. True love loves people no matter what they do or do not do. "People need loving the most when they deserve it the least." - Mary Crowley IF I SAT WHERE THEY SIT I WOULD WANT SOMEONE TO LOVE ME. CLOSING: If I sat where they sit I would want someone to pray for me, to care about me, to show me mercy and forgiveness, and to love me. Will you be that kind of person? I was hungry and you formed a humanities club and you discussed my hunger. Thank you. I was imprisoned and you crept off quietly to your chapel in the cellar to pray for my release. I was naked and in your mind you debated the morality of my appearance. I was sick and you knelt and thanked God for you health. I was homeless and you preached to me of the spiritual shelter of the love of God. I was lonely and you left me alone to pray for me. You seem so holy; so close to God. But I’m still very hungry and lonely and cold. So where have your prayers gone? What have they done? What does it profit a man to page through his book of prayers when the rest of the world is crying for help?—M. Lunn, 1,500 Inspirational Quotes and Illustrations (8).

Let us try and “sit where they sit” so we can be minister to all the hurting people in our world today! NOTES: 1. Warren W. Wiersbe. Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines on the New Testament. p. 735. 2. Albert M. Wells, Jr. Inspiring Quotations-Contemporary & Classical. p. 121. 3. Charles R. Swindoll. The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart and 1,501 Other Stories. p. 105. 4. Swindoll. p. 106. 5. Wells. p. 74. 6. Charles H. Spurgeon. 2200 Quotations from the Writings of Charles H. Spurgeon. p. 341. 7. Wells. p. 74. 8. Swindoll. p. 113.