Notes:
The Soul Who Sins
THE SON SHALL NOT BEAR THE GUILT OF THE FATHER
Ezekiel 18:19-20
Intro: So far in Ezekiel 18, we have observed that the exiled Israelites were complaining that their situation was unfair. They were
being punished for the sins of their parents (previous generation) (vv.1-4). God responded to them with three examples (case
studies) of generational faith. There was a righteous grandfather who had a wicked son. That same wicked son produced a righteous
son (vv.5-18). The real-life examples of these hypothetical case studies were Hezekiah – Manasseh – Josiah.
What did we learn?
(1) Every single person stands before the Lord both personally relatable (“I can know Him”) and morally accountable (“I am
responsible to Him”).
(2) A faithful father is no guarantee of a faithful son; neither does a wicked father condemn his son to the same wickedness.
Why is this relevant to the exiles? The point seems to be that if they were asked, they would have imagined themselves to be
generation three – the heirs of wicked parents. They thought they were like King Josiah.
They thought they were suffering for the sins of the previous generation (King Manasseh).
But Ezekiel insisted: “No, you are generation two – suffering the penalty for your own sins. Previous generations may have come
under God’s judgment for their own wickedness, but you are certainly not righteous sons! You’re in captivity for your own sins.”
Ezekiel 18:19 “Yet you say, ‘Why should the son not bear the guilt of the father?’ Because the son has done what is lawful and
right, and has kept all My statutes and observed them, he shall surely live.
Ezekiel 18:20 The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The
righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.
Three questions materialize from this section of Ezekiel 18.
ARE YOU SERIOUS?
“Why should the son not bear the guilt of the father?” (why is your view different from my experience?)
When Ezekiel gives God’s favorable verdict on the grandson (…“he has kept all my statutes…he shall surely live”), the people cry out,
“What?!? Why does your model not have him suffering for the sins of his parents? That’s what is happening to us! That’s the way
life is. Haven’t you heard, ‘Parents eat the grapes, and the kids get the cavities?’”
But Ezekiel stands firm on strictly segregating the generations in God’s moral verdict upon them.
The rewards of righteousness cannot be bequeathed. The punishment for wickedness need not be inherited.
What matters is how each generation responds to God’s law.
If the exiles have come under the death sentence, they need look no further than themselves and cease blaming their ancestors.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY “RIGHTEOUSNESS?”
Righteousness does not mean moral perfection, but it certainly implies moral commitment.
It is the characteristic of the person who takes seriously the command to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, and strength.
Righteousness is a term of allegiance and a term of obligation, not a term of achievement.
2
We recall from last week’s teaching on vv.5-8 that a man shows his righteousness in three areas of his life: his worship, his morality,
and his character.
The Lord paints the profile of a just man in those verses using 10 statements grouped into 5 pairs.
It is significant that God is careful not to define righteousness only using negative terms.
Righteousness is more than what “you don’t do.”
For example, it is not enough simply not to be a robber. A righteous person is actively generous.
Not only does he avoid stealing; he also gives.
It is not enough to say (as in the setting of a funeral), “The departed never did anyone any harm.” The question we are then tempted
to ask is, “Yes, but did he ever do anyone any good?”
By verse 19 Ezekiel has dismantled the unacceptable proverb. He has also carefully demonstrated that every individual is responsible
for his own sins, not the sins of anyone else.
How have his hearers responded?
The prophet has pulled the proverbial rug out from underneath the exiles. He has effectively removed their imaginary safety nets.
They can no longer shrug off their situation with a popular slogan about the general unfairness of life. Nor can they shift the blame
for their punishment on to the previous generation.
They are in captivity in a foreign land because they have ignored the laws of God.
Some will continue to argue with God’s prophet (vv.25, 29).
But there were other (perhaps the first in Ezekiel’s public ministry) who were pierced by the words of the prophet.
Their defenses were breached. Their self-confidence ruptured. God’s truth entered their hardened hearts.
They felt completely crushed by the weight of their sins.
Ezekiel 33:10 “…If our transgressions and our sins lie upon us, and we pine away in them, how can we then live?”
NIV “Our offenses and sins weigh us down, and we are wasting away because of them. How then can we live?”
HOW CAN WE SURVIVE THIS?
Notice carefully – “our transgressions and sins.”
No longer our parents’ sour grapes, but our own iniquity is what has caused us to waste away in a pagan country not our own.
Ezekiel had made his point. It had entered their souls. It was the first glimmer that they might accept responsibility.
If they accept responsibility, then they might accept guilt. And if they accept guilt, then they might turn back to God.
The ultimate goal is to lead people to a restored relationship with God through the grace of forgiveness.
So much in modern culture militates against people assuming full responsibility for their own choices and their own actions.
We are pressured on every side by attractive alternatives to personal responsibility.
3
The need to find someone or something to blame is matched by a limitless supply of convenient scapegoats: the inadequacy of
parents/schools/employers; the inequity of social status or economic opportunity; the inevitability of our genetics; our personality
profiles; society in general; mental or emotional stress – the list goes on.
Can any or all of these factors influence our lives for good or bad? Of course. If we need an excuse, they are easy to find.
But when we hide behind the negatively influencing factors in our lives that bring difficulty, we lock ourselves into a world where
repentance has no meaning.
“I am not the one who needs to say, ‘I’m sorry,’ others have done much worse.”
“Besides, I’m not even sure there is a supreme being. To whom should I address my overall repentance anyway?”
Ezekiel will show us in the remaining verses of ch.18 that there is no other way out of exile than repentance before the God who put
them there.
Transcript:
Go ahead and find Ezekiel 18 in your bibles again.
Two more messages in this chapter.
It's in the Old Testament, repeated twice in Ezekiel 18 is the soul that sin shall die. And I know it's kind of heavy, but sometimes it's okay to teach like that from the Bible. I'm Trevor Davis, I'm GCC's pastor. I love the month of August. It's like a second January.
It's a reset. And we are back to school. All of that thing, college kids gone. And it's just that time of the year. And so we reset our small group ministry, too.
And I think it's the biggest signup we've ever had. We have about 250 adults signed up for small groups right now, and there's still room for you if you're new or you've been checking us out and you want to get in community with us on your ministry card there, you can just kind of check the box. It says, I want to get to know some people and be in a small group, and we'll get in touch with you this week. And so far in Ezekiel 18, just kind of to recap some things, we've observed that these exiled Israelites were complaining about the misery they were under living in Babylon and not in the nation of Israel. And their complaint was that it was all unfair because they thought they were being punished for the sins of the generation before them, their parents and all their parents friends.
That's what's outlined in verses one through four of Ezekiel 18. And then God responds to them with three examples. We might even call them hypothetical caste studies in verses five through 18. And these were examples of generational faith. There was a righteous grandfather who had a wicked son.
Nobody kind of saw that coming. And then an even more, an even bigger surprise is that that same wicked son produced a righteous son. And so you have a righteous grandfather, wicked son, righteous grandson. All of that in verses five to eight. And then we even said that you can look in the book of two kings and find three real life or first kings, real life examples of these hypothetical case studies.
There was the righteous grandfather, Hezekiah, his wicked son, Manasseh, and Manasseh's righteous son, Josiah. And what do we learn through verses one through 18? Two things stand out. Number one, we learned that everybody that you know, every single person stands before the Lord two ways. We all stand before the Lord, personally relatable.
We can all say, I can know him. And we also stand before the Lord morally accountable, where all of us can declare, I am responsible to him. Well, that was week one. Week two, we learned that a faithful father is no guarantee of a faithful son. And even more direct, neither does a wicked father condemn his son to the same wickedness.
Wickedness. So you might look around and go, best I can tell, I'm the only Christian in my family. My dad didn't believe my grandfathers, didn't believe my mom or whoever. And you can be encouraged from Ezekiel 18 that the legacy that your unbelieving family left doesn't have to carry on through your life and the life of your children. You can break the cycle.
And the question is, why does this even matter to these exiles, the two things I just said? Well, the point seems to be this. They knew about those three generations. Generation one, godly grandfather. Generation two, wicked son.
Generation three, back to a godly grandson. And if you ask them which generation they thought they were, they would say, oh, we're generation three. We are like King Josiah. And it was our parents who were the scoundrels. That was the pride that was in their hearts, and they weren't able to be honest about themselves.
They imagined themselves the heirs of wicked parents. They thought that they were suffering for the sins of the previous generation. But Ezekiel insists to them, no, you have it all wrong. You've evaluated poorly. You're not generation three.
You're generation two. You're suffering the penalty for your own sins here in Babylon. You're in captivity because of what you did. And it may be true that previous generations have come under judgment for their own wickedness. But you need to know that you're certainly not righteous sons.
You're in captivity because of your own godlessness. That brings us up to our two verses today. If you're ready, say yes. Verses 19 and 20 of Ezekiel 18 read this way. Yet you say, why should the son not bear the guilt of the father?
Because the son has done what is lawful and right and has kept all my statutes and observed them. He shall surely live. The soul who sins shall die, not the soul who's related to the sinner. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.
Let's briefly bow for prayer together. Father, our prayer is that you would honor the public reading of the scriptures and the believers that are men in this room. God, give us ears to hear if our hearts have become hardened in areas we are unaware. Break through God and give us a heart of flesh again. And I pray that this truth that we're teaching through now will land in good soil, soil the enemy can't steal, and soil that will bear fruit in our lives to show that we belong to Christ.
This is our prayer. In Jesus name. Amen. From those two verses that we've read and from the summary given us so far, three questions materialized from this section of Ezekiel 18. On the lips of the exiles, the ones who are the target audience of the prophet Ezekiel's preaching.
And the first question they ask is, are you serious?
You got to be joking. There's no way you're being honest with us. They say, why should the son not bear the gift? Guilt of the father. If I wanted to put that in modern English, I would say, why is your point of view so different from my personal experience?
You see, when Ezekiel gives God's favorable verdict on the grandson, he does so in verse 19. When he says he's kept all my statutes, he shall surely live. When the people hear that, they cry out in dismay. Belief. What?
He's kept your statutes, and he lives. No way. How does he get to live? How does he not have to suffer for the sins of his parents? Because that's what's happening to us, remember?
Such is life. That's just the way life is. Life's hard and unfair things happen to you. Haven't you heard? Parents eat the grapes, kids get the cavities.
Can't be serious. God. But Ezekiel is unmoved. He stands firm on the strictly segregating the generations in God's moral verdict upon them. In other words, the rewards of righteousness simply can't be bequeathed.
You can't send them to your children in the will. Hey, because I lived for God and because I was a recipient of my kids automatically get that? No. They stand on their own before the Lord. Likewise, the punishment for wickedness need not be inherited.
So you look up and you go, not many Christian. There's not much of a christian legacy in my family. I can't point to godly people up the family tree. This is all new to me and to us here. And I want you to know that's good news.
Because the unbelief in your ancestry doesn't have to be passed down to you. You don't have to inherit it. You see, what matters is how each generation responds to the word of God. So the first question they ask is, are you serious? Can't believe you would say that, Lord.
And the second question they seem to be asking is, well, if the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself. Like verse 20 says, what in the world do you mean by righteousness? Now, I gotta be honest. The word righteous and righteousness, typically a religious word, one you hear at church, if you hear it out in the culture, it's never defined. And I don't want to assume that you know what your Old Testament means from a major prophet like Ezekiel.
When you see the word righteousness so clearly, the exiles didn't understand it, and so let's define it. First thing I want you to know is I want to let you off the hook. Righteousness doesn't mean moral perfection. Well, a person who's righteous just gets it right all the time. The righteous man, he or she is the most consistent christian we know.
That's what it means to be righteous. It's not what it means to be righteous, particularly in Ezekiel 18. It's not moral perfection, but I don't want to let you completely off the hook. It certainly implies a moral commitment. You see, you can't be a righteous person, be irreligious, can't be a righteous person by the Bible standard and just be one of those decent, good neighbor atheists.
You can't achieve or you can't receive the righteousness of God and go, but I. I hate the church. You know, religious people creep me out. And so I want to be one of those that God is pleased with, but he just doesn't participate in organized religion. I hear that every now and then in the culture.
And I go, well, would you prefer disorganized religion? Because I don't think it's the organized or the disorganized that matters to you. I think it's faith commitment that matters. And so righteousness means at least a commitment to this. It's like I want my life to go in a godward direction.
I want to refocus, I want to retool. I turned away from something that wasn't working and didn't get me close to God. I've forsaken that. But now I'm going in a different direction. It's the direction of righteousness.
It's characteristic of the person who takes seriously the greatest command in the law, which is love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strengthen. Let me tell you two things righteousness is and one thing it's not. Righteousness. Number one is a term of allegiance. In the Old Testament, the righteous person has pledged allegiance to the Yahweh flag.
He or she has said, my top priority now is no longer my own will. I want to know what God says, and I'm following after him. So it's a word for allegiance. It's also a tool of obligation because I want to be a righteous person, because I want to know God. I have put myself under his standards that he gets to tell me what to do.
Now I'm obligated to obey him. So righteousness is a term of allegiance. It's a term of obligation, but it is not a term of achievement.
Righteousness is not something that you are because of all the good works that you do in the Old Testament. It's God's going this way and I'm going after him. I've got this moral commitment to him, but I haven't arrived at my destination yet. Now we recall from last week's teaching in verses five, six, seven and eight of Ezekiel 18 that a man shows his righteousness in at least three major categories. Number one, he shows it in his worship.
And so a righteous man worships God. And he says, God, what are the rules? God, how do you want me to come before you and present myself to you? God, how must I consecrate my life? How can my life please you?
His worship matters. And secondly, we said that a righteous man shows his righteousness by his morality. And in verses five, six, seven, Ezekiel was so bold as to say, your marital love, your marriage bed, is expected to honor God and to look differently than the culture around you. You're not an adulterer. You don't bring pornographic and pagan practices into your bedroom and you keep to your own wives.
Because a righteous man, his love life's different from the world. And then the last one was his character. And we said that a righteous person is the kind of neighbor you want to have. A righteous man is the kind of fellow you want to do business with, his company. She's the kind of lady that you want as a client.
They have integrity. And the Lord even paints a profile of the just man or the righteous man or woman. And he uses ten statements, statements grouped into five pairs in verses five, six, seven and eight. Not going to look at all of them, but I am going to give you one example. What's significant to me when I look at that list is that God's careful not to define righteousness using only negative terms.
Have you ever heard somebody say, you know, we need to get back to the church, being known for what we're for and not necessarily what we're against. Ever heard that? It sounds good when you hear it, but I want to say to you, no, you need both. You just don't need to pick one or the other. And so rather than being known for all the things that we're against and rather than being known for all the things that we're for, if you look at verses five, six, seven and eight from Ezekiel 18, you'll see that God says, no, I'm pretty balanced on both.
A righteous person is known by what he avoids and a righteous person is known by what she does. So if that's the case? I'll give you an example. In verse seven of Ezekiel 18, the righteous man has robbed no one by violence, but he's given his bread to the hungry. On the one hand, here's what he doesn't do.
On the other hand, here's what he does. It's not an enough to simply not be a robber. A righteous person is actively generous. Do you see it in the verse? Not only does he avoid stealing, he also gives.
Sometimes I think about this when I'm at a funeral, because at a funeral you may know the person who died. Maybe you didn't know him very well, or maybe you watched their lives and you know, honestly, that person didn't live a life worth a nickel, right? They never darkened the doors of the church. They didn't know the scriptures. They were mean, unkind.
Their reputation is terrible. But at the funeral, it's not the place you review all those things. In fact, everybody goes to heaven at every funeral I've ever been to. And you can chuckle, but it's kind of sad that we don't know the gospel well enough. You might hear somebody say, well, the departed never did anyone any harm.
But the flip side of that is the question that always comes to my mind that I'm tempted to ask, and that's this, yes, but did he ever do anyone any good? Because it's not enough to do no harm. It's what did you do to help? And that brings us to where we are today. By verse 19, Ezekiel has dismantled all of their complaints.
They don't get to use their famous slogan anymore that says, the parents eat the sour grapes and the kids teeth are set on edge. He's carefully demonstrated that every individual is responsible for his own sins. Your parents can't get you any forgiveness. They can't put guilt on you. You're responsible for yours and not the sins of anyone else.
And now the question is this. How did those who heard the preaching of the prophet Ezekiel in chapter 18 respond to his message? Because what he's done is he's pulled the rug out from underneath the exiles. He's effectively removed their imaginary safety nets. They have nowhere to turn.
They can no longer shrug off their situation and say, our suffering is because of that slogan. And, you know, it's our parents fault and we're just paying the price. Can't do that anymore. They can't shift the blame for their punishment to the previous generation. Now they've learned they're in captivity.
They're suffering in a foreign land because they've ignored the laws of God. So how are they going to respond to the preaching of Ezekiel? Well, I'll be honest with you. Some of them, they're going to continue to argue with the prophet and argue with God. They're going to do it in verse 25, and they're going to argue with him again in verse 29, because, look, you're never about a thousand when you teach God's word.
But there are some. There were others, perhaps the first group in all of Ezekiel's public ministry. There was a collection of people who heard what he said, and they were pierced in their hearts by the words of the prophet. Their defenses were breached. Their self confidence had ruptured.
And, brothers and sisters, that means that God's truth had fought through and entered into their hearts. They felt completely crushed by the weight of their sins. And here's how we know. Ezekiel 33. Several chapters later, they speak up and they say in Ezekiel 33 33 ten, if our transgressions and our sins lie upon us or rest on us and we pine away in them, how can we then live?
That brings us to our third and final question that they ask, and that is, we hear what you're saying, prophet, how can we survive this? You got us. I didn't want to admit it, but I see my error now, and I'm guilty. Am I doomed?
Did you note carefully Ezekiel 33 ten. They say, our transgressions and our sins. They use the personal pronouns, personal possessive pronouns. And they say, it's us. It's no longer our parents sour grapes.
Our own iniquity has caused us to waste away in a pagan country that's not our own. Ladies and gentlemen, Ezekiel has made his point. The sermon landed. It entered into him. And I want you to follow this progression very carefully.
It was the first glimmer that they might have accept responsibility, and if they accept responsibility, then they might accept guilt. And if they accept guilt, then just maybe they'll turn back to God. We call that repentance. Because I want to tell you what the ultimate goal of all the preaching of the truth has ever been. Old Testament, New Testament, present day.
The ultimate goal is to lead people to a restored relationship with God by faith in Christ when they receive the grace of forgiveness. See, this was an Old Testament prophet's take on an evangelistic crusade. I'm trying to get these deceived people who thinks their situation in life is everybody else's fault but their. I'm trying to get them to see that they're responsible, and if they see that, they'll feel the conviction of God and maybe, just maybe, come back to him. And the same goal that Ezekiel had in Ezekiel 18 is my goal for you today.
But can we talk so much? In our modern culture militates against. Against people assuming full responsibility for their own choices and full responsibility for their own actions. It's just everywhere. We're pressured on every side by attractive alternatives to personal responsibility.
We have a limitless supply of convenient scapegoats. Let me list some of them for us.
Hold up the inadequacy of our parents or our schooling or our employers. You know, if I just had a more faithful, more mature mom and dad who had given me a better upbringing, I wouldn't be where I am today. If my schools had just had their act together and they could have shaped my mind better, my thinking would be more mature, and I wouldn't be here. Here. In this situation I'm in.
I wouldn't be in this mess. If my employers cared at least a little bit more for their employees than just the bottom line, I'd have a leg up, and I wouldn't be stuck where I am. We can find these. How about the inequity of social status or economic opportunity? I was born in the wrong culture.
I was born in the wrong economic status. We didn't have enough money. If we just had all of that, I wouldn't be here. Or the inevitability of our genetics. Look, it's just my DNA.
That's the problem. I didn't come from as good of a stock as some of you other people or our personality profiles. Look, I'm just not wired that way. I'm not a happy person or I'm not a serious person. It's just the way I am.
Or we might want to just blame society in general if you've been keeping up with american politics. The news is bad at every turn. But I want to say something to you. As somebody who possesses a United States passport with some stamps in it, can I tell you, it's worse everywhere else. Else.
In fact, there's a whole eastern hemisphere of planet Earth that'll trade their citizenship for your citizenship right now, trade places with you. So we can blame society in general. People do it all the time. We can blame our mental stress, our emotional stress. The list goes on and on and on.
Well, pastor, am I misunderstanding you? Are you telling me those things you just lifted, that you just listed, are you telling us that those things don't influence our lives for good or bad? Of course I'm not saying that the point I'm making is if we need an excuse, they're easy to find.
And Ezekiel is looking at these suffering exiles and going, you can use all the excuses as you want, but at the end of the day, the soul whose sins will die and you're going to be accountable for you, not anybody else.
When we hide behind these negatively influencing factors in our everyday life, that's just normal to people. The danger is we lock ourselves into a world where repentance has no meaning. Ezekiel is going to show the rest of the chapter and I'll get to survey that next week, that there's no other way out of exile than repentance before the God who put you there. Now I want to tell you one story and I'll be done. A true story.
A true story that happened in January 1951, just a few years after Jesus rose from the dead. It seems like it's so long ago. Rt. Kendall wrote this. It happened to him, he said, doctor Wm.
Tidwell was an 80 year old noted holiness preacher and he spoke in a church that 16 year old Rt. Kendall attended. He was present that day for this sermon. And at the close of the service, Doctor Tidwell said, and I quote, someone here is getting their last call to be saved.
The atmosphere in the room immediately chilled, became quiet and serious. Doctor Tidwell then turned and announced to the host, pastor of the church, I'm not going to close this service. You close it. However, in an even longer awkward, awkward moment, the pastor refused to close the meeting. He was thinking about the word, someone here is getting their last call to be saved.
And there was this long, awkward silence. And then one by one, family by family, people slowly rose from their seats and they went home that day, that Sunday morning, without receiving a formal benediction or a prayer or a hey, we're dismissed. The next day, when Rt. Kendall came home after delivering newspapers on his paper route. And yes, that used to be a thing, kids.
He found his mother crying and through her sobs she said, have you heard about Patsy? Rt replied, what happened? She was killed on her way home from school. Kendall then recalled that his mother said that she had sat next to Patsy Branham at church the previous day, feeling very troubled over the way Patsy was mocking what was going on. During the close of Doctor Tidwell's sermon, Rt.
Kendall said, I. And he wrote, I never got over that tragedy. Every time my wife and I visit my childhood home there in Ashland, Kentucky, the memories of that Sunday come back to me. You see, at 25th and Montgomery, avenue. Two cars collided and Patsy was killed.
I knew her very well. And then he wrote, was that a warning for the congregation? Was it a warning for Patsy? Was it a warning for me? The only thing I can say for sure, writes rta Kendall, is that this incident had cemented in me a keen sense of the fear and judgment of God.
Ezekiel 1820. The soul whose sins shall die, the son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him himself and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. Let's bow for prayer and close out this part of our service.
Father. I pray for the Patsy Branhams in the room and the Rt. Kendalls and the Trevor Davises. Just the regular people and God. I pray.
I pray that your truth, like some of those exiles that it will pierce the defenses we have in our hearts. And you would show us ourselves before you God. And we would see the bad news and we would be desperate to hear the good news. And we'd put on Jesus and the righteousness of Christ and we would call out to him to save us from destruction. And I judgment and hell and being separated from you, Lord Jesus saves souls because you're risen from the dead and Lord of all.
Amen.
Now leading this church for a little while has made me see things that I think is important. One of the things that's important to me is that you can come here on a Sunday and the sermon may not be tailor made for your needs at that moment. It might be good, you might enjoy it. But you might say, I can't really apply that right to my situation. And you know what?
That happens. Or you might come and you go, you know, our band's really good, but I'm just kind of. I just kind of wasn't into the music today and I just kind of wanted to. I kind of just missed it. Or you go, I'm not even participating in the offering this week.
It's just. Times are tough and tough. You might come here and go. None of it felt like it was for me today. And I get that.
It's human nature. Here's what I want you to always know. That if you come to church and you have a need, there will be gracious, loving believers ready, prepared and willing to pray for you so that you can always be prayed for, even if nothing else helped you out that day. And so this is why every third Sunday we have prophetic ministry Sunday. And normally I put a graphic up on the screen.
Go through all eight of those or whatever it is. It looks like this. Can you pull that up, gang? And it looks like that. And I'd go through all those and read some verses.
I'm just going to do two or three right now. It's that second one. Prophecies commanded and favored. This is why we do this. We're not trying to be awesome.
We're not trying to be novel. We're not trying to go, hey, look what we do that no one else does. We just want to obey the scriptures. And in one corinthians 14 one, there's a command, and the command is pursue love. And so we think it's loving to pray for people and to kind of try to hear from God on their behalf and see what God might have to say to encourage them.
So we want to pursue love. And one of the ways we do that is we desire spiritual gifts that the spirit gives us. And then he says, especially that you may prophesy. And so, so, you know what's interesting to me? That's one corinthians 14 one.
That command was written to the corinthian church, the first letter. And you know what we know about the corinthian church? It was immature. It was a wreck, a mess. They were divided.
There was a party spirit there, and they were, they welcomed all sorts of unrepentant sin into their midst. It was not the church you'd want to be member of. But you know what God doesn't do? He doesn't look at that wreck of a church and say, I'll tell you what, if you guys will get your act together, then later on you can hear my voice and prophesy and encourage people. Instead, he said, the way out of the mess is to pray and hear my voice.
And so he tells that immature church to desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy. And then here's why we do it. Verse, verse three, the gift of prophecies for the benefit of others. First corinthians 14 three. One of my favorite verses in all the Bible, the one who prophesies, speaks three things to men and women.
Edification. That means you say words that you hear from God that build people up, exhortation. You speak words from God that encourage people and comfort. You speak words from the Lord that console people in their dark, difficult days. Now, at the end of the first service, there's lots of prayer team members.
There were long lines. There were people weeping and in joy and heartbreak. And there was the love of God that you could just watch happening up here. It was awesome because God honors his word. People were built up, they were encouraged, and they were comforted.
One other thing next to the last prophecy is not on the same level scripture. You see, when we have prophetic ministry, it's a time to hear from God for others. But when we hear it and we deliver words, they're not to be considered equal with scripture. They're supposed to be tested, and we're supposed to hold on to the good and throw out what is not helpful. And so the apostle Paul says, if anybody thinks himself to be a prophet or spiritual, if you think you hear from goddess, he says, then the first thing you do is you acknowledge that the words that I write are the commandments of the Lord.
In other words, there's a difference between your ministry and the scriptures. And so we make that very plain and clear. We don't say words to people about who they're supposed to marry. We don't speak to people and say it's from God about they're going to have a baby or anything like that. We're just trying to encourage folks and that's how that goes.
So never make a decision about a direct action to take in life based only on a prophetic word. That prophetic word needs to point you to the scriptures and you confirm it in the Bible. So here's what we're going to do. We have a prophetic ministry team, and one of our elders, Billy Egnor, leads it. And Billy and I meet every month, and we talk just about every day or at least two or three times a week about what God has been speaking and how he's been doing these things.
And this month, Billy. Billy has two or three encouraging words. A couple of them are specific. One is more general in nature, and he's going to come deliver those to the church. And look, then you get to judge them and evaluate them.
You get to say, hey, was that for me? Or you get to go, that may not be for me today, or you get to hear that and go, do I need prayer today? And so Billy's going to come and share that. It's going to be good. Then we're going to pray for some people after we adjourned.
All right. Good morning, everybody. Like Trevor said, I'm Billy. I'm one of the elders here, and here's what I have to share. The first word is for someone who has pain in their right tibialis.
If you don't know what that is, that's the muscle right here. In the front, so it's kind of opposite your calf. So if you have pain in your right tibialis, I believe that God has a heart to give healing for that today. So if that's you, come. I'll be right here for prayer.
So come find me. Another word is I get a sense that there's a woman, a female wearing red. That, and maybe your name starts with r. I'm not sure about that. But I get a sense that you want to give your life to Christ today, and there's been something that has kept you from doing it.
I don't know what that is, but we would love for you to come and do that. Give your life to Christ today. You can, and we would rejoice with you. We would pray for you and praise God that he welcomes you to him. So definitely come find one of us on the prayer team for that as well.
And then this third one, like Trevor said, this one is more general. And we want to have a time of corporate prayer for this. I think there's probably some people in here who have some weariness of soul, and that may be a confusing phrase. So what I don't mean by that is, I don't mean that you're having a bad day or like you woke up and you're tired still, or you got into an argument on the way here. I'm referring to something.
Something that is chronic, ongoing, something that there's really the only way that you can get out of it is through God. So if that's something that you are experiencing, if you have that weariness of soul, can I ask you to stand to your feet? And we'll have some people come gather around you and pray for you. Does that hit for anybody today?
If not, praise God. Okay, we've got. We've got one. At least come form a family around our sister. Yeah.
Can people gather around Sabrina? We just want to pray for you. You don't have to tell us what's going on. We just want to pray. Yeah.
Anybody else? Any others? Sabrina's going to feel the love of God. Anybody else? Just stand where you are.
Pray with you. Okay. And before we do that, though, I do have a passage that I want to read. It's two corinthians 4811. And then I'll pray.
And then you all there standing around Sabrina can pray for her as well. But Paul writes, we are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed. Perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not abandoned. Struck down, but nothing destroyed.
We always carry around in our body, the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus sake so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. So all right, I'm going to pray. And if you all around Sabrina would pray for her as well. That would be great.
Father, we come to you and we know that we go through different seasons of life. We go through stretches that don't seem to make sense to us. But we trust you, God, and we know that you are with us. Jesus can relate to us. Jesus suffered for our sake and so you know exactly what we are experiencing.
God, you know that you can provide comfort and healing. And we ask that, Lord, that you would give that comfort and healing now, that you would provide a sense of joy where there is despair. That you would provide a sense of relief where there seems to be hopelessness. Jesus, would you just come and do that for your glory? Amen.
Well, Sabrina is still being prayed for. If our prayer team will come forward, get ready for dismissal. If you're on the prayer team, come forward.
Kind of get in place. We want to pray for you today after we adjourned to one more second here.
You don't have to be a member of our church. Anybody can receive prayer and we'll be praying for folks after we adjourn. Let's stand together. Father, spend a good day in your house with your people. And Lord, you're worthy of our praise.
And I pray that this week we walk with Christ, bear fruit and show others the good news in Jesus name. And the faithful church said, amen. Adios.
Come and join us this Sunday at the Great Commission Church for a truly remarkable and uplifting experience. Great Commission Church is not just any ordinary place of worship; it's a vibrant community where faith comes alive, hearts are filled with love, and lives are transformed. Our doors are wide open, ready to welcome you into the warm embrace of our congregation, where you'll discover the true essence of fellowship and spirituality. At Great Commission Church, we are more than just a congregation; we are a family united by a common mission – to follow the teachings of Christ and spread His love to the world. As you step inside Great Commission Church, you'll find a sanctuary that nurtures your faith and encourages you to be part of something greater than yourself.
We believe in the power of coming together as a community to worship, learn, and serve. Whether you're a long-time believer or just starting your spiritual journey, Great Commission Church welcomes people from all walks of life. Our vibrant services are filled with inspiring messages, beautiful music, and heartfelt prayers that will uplift your soul. Every Sunday at Great Commission Church is an opportunity to deepen your relationship with God and connect with others who share your faith and values.
At Great Commission Church, we believe that faith is not just a solitary endeavor but a shared experience that strengthens and enriches us all. Our church is a place where you can find purpose, belonging, and the encouragement to live a life in accordance with Christ's teachings. Join us this Sunday at Great Commission Church and experience the transformative power of faith in action. Be part of a loving and supportive community that is committed to making a positive impact in our world. Together, we strive to fulfill the great commission to go forth and make disciples of all nations. We look forward to having you with us at Great Commission Church this Sunday, where faith, love, and community intersect in a truly amazing way.
Great Commission Church is a non-denominational Christian church located in Olive Branch, Mississippi. We are a short drive from Germantown, Southaven, Collierville, Horn Lake, Memphis, Fairhaven, Mineral Wells, Pleasant Hill, Handy Corner, Lewisburg and Baylia.
See you Sunday at Great Commission Church!
