Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Ezekiel 3:1-3
Pastor: Pastor Schlicht
Sermon Date:  July 8, 2018

You’ve heard the saying, “You are what you eat.” But did you know that this is literally true? Nutrients from the foods you eat set up the foundation of every cell in your body—skin, muscles, bones, organs, everything. Each and every day, your body is busy building new cells to replace those that have worn out. And how healthy those new cells are is directly determined by how well you’ve been eating. A diet filled with highly processed food that’s low on nutrients doesn’t give your body much to work with, like constructing a house with straw instead of bricks. But a clean, nutrient-rich, eating plan can help you build cells that work better and are less susceptible to disease. Healthy food = healthy cells. You literally are what you eat.

The same thing applies to what you consume mentally. If you watch things that are unwholesome, listen to things that are derogatory, and hang around people that gossip then you’re feeding your brain junk food and you’re going to be unhealthy. Today between television, the internet, smartphones, magazines, radio stations, what-have-you, there’s an enormous amount of information trying to influence us. Now more than ever, we need to be selective about what we feed ourselves.

This morning in Ezekiel, the Lord instructs us to eat his Word. This is a call for each of us to take stock of both the quantity and the quality of what we put in our brains. And above all, it is an urgent command from God to make his Word the paramount portion of our diet.

Let’s turn to Ezekiel. As the book opens we find a man sitting, dejected and hopeless, on the bank of the Kebar River, just outside of Babylon. This is Ezekiel, the would-be priest of Israel, who was deported to Babylon when the southern kingdom went into exile. Now, five years into that exile, in his 30th year, the year he would have been installed as a priest, he sits looking into the river, really just a Babylonian irrigation canal, thinking of the life he left behind. Not only will he not get to minister as a priest in the temple, something he would have waited his entire life to do, but he would never see his homeland again. His whole way of life was gone. He may have thought his life was over, but God still had great plans for him. Chapter 1 begins like this: “In my thirtieth year, in the fourth month on the fifth day, while I was among the exiles by the Kebar River, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.” Ezekiel is suddenly swept up into a vision and commissioned by the Lord to be, not a priest, but a prophet.

The words we will focus on from chapter three are a part of that call.  I don’t have time to go as in-depth as I’d really like, but let’s take a quick look at the structure of Ezekiel’s prophetic call in Eze. 2:1-3:15. These two chapters have what is called a concentric structure, which, as you’ll see, really highlights our verses today. The symmetric pairing of this commission points to and highlights the eating of the scroll as the focal point of Ezekiel’s prophetic call.

Eze 2:1-2 = The Spirit’s Power “As he spoke, the Spirit came into me…”

       Eze 2:3-5 = Commission “Son of man, I am sending you…Say to them…”

               Eze 2:6-8 = Encouragement “Do not be afraid…or be terrified by them…”

                        →Ezekiel 2:9-3:3 = Eating God’s Word  “Son of man, eat this scroll…fill your stomach…”

               Eze 3:4-9 = Encouragement “I make your forehead like adamant…Do not be afraid…”

         Eze 3:10-11 = Commission “Go now to your people and speak to them…”

Eze 3:12-15 = The Spirit’s Power “Then the Spirit lifted me up…”

Now, none of us have been commissioned by the Lord to be a prophet in the same way that Ezekiel was, but Ezekiel’s call is really the paradigm for any Christian’s life of faith. We each take our first and last breath spiritually by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit begins faith in baptism and continues to create, strengthen, and sustain faith through the Word.  Next, we each have received a commision from our Lord to make disciples of every nation. We are asked to be his prophets, those who speak his Word, to the people in our lives. We each also receive God’s personal words of encouragement littered throughout the Scriptures. God tells us over and over again, “Do not be afraid.” And as Jesus says, “I am with you always.” Finally, the beating heart, the very center, the apex of every Christian’s call is the consumption of God’s inspired Word. 

Let’s take a look at what that meant for Ezekiel: And he said to me, “Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll; then go and speak to the people of Israel.” So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat. Then he said to me, “Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it.” So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth (Eze 3:1-3). In this vision, Ezekiel not only eats but, “fills his stomach,” with the scroll. It becomes part of him. God’s Word was not just the message he would preach, but the sermon he would live with his actions. As the Lord says later in 3:10 “Son of man, listen carefully and take to heart the words I speak to you.” The Word is not only to meant to be read but digested, taken to heart, it is supposed to be meditated on. It is supposed to challenge us and change us. It is supposed to become part of us.

The problem is that we are often so full from binging on a thousand other bits of information that we hardly have any appetite left for God’s Word. We take in so much and we don’t have time to reflect on it. If it is garbage we can’t find the time to think about it critically and if it is good we struggle to find the time to meditate on it or think about it creatively. Not only is there too much information vying for our attention, but it is often not quality information. We’d love to say we’re reading Kafka, but more often it’s Kardashian. And we are suffering from it. It’s more than just Instagram envy, or Facebook gossip, it’s much more serious. I’m talking about the boy who ingests copious amounts of video game psychology and grows up to become a very different people than his parents raised him to be. I’m talking about the person who sits every night in front of the news, whose whole psyche and worldview is determined by a broadcast company. I’m talking about the young adult with a rapidly developing brain whose highest moral and spiritual influence is a Youtube star. I’m talking about people who care less about the words of God than they do about some ESPN analyst’s opinion. I’m talking about becoming so desensitized we lose God’s gift of a tender conscience. I’m talking the serious spiritual consequences of being conformed to this world, of being people whose hearts long for the trivial and the toxic. I’m talking about so filled up with garbage that we lose our appetite for the very Bread of Life, Jesus Christ himself.

My friends, God holds out such amazing blessings for us when we read his Word. He promises us forgiveness and grace. He promises us divine wisdom, deep strength, eternal peace, joy even in hardship. He promises to change us through the working of the Holy-Spirit into kinder, wiser, more disciplined, more loving, children of God. And the Devil wants to take that away. He wants to rob us of all the blessings and promises God holds out to those who regularly digest his Word. He will fill up our mental plate with anything, just so long as we aren’t digesting the words of salvation in the Bible. He will offer you a thousand other voices to listen to, and videos to see, and books to read, just as long as it isn’t the Holy Scriptures. He will give us a million different options to gorge on except God’s Word because he knows that if we listen to the Word he will have no power over us. He knows that if we taste it, we will find, as Ezekiel did, that God’s Word tastes sweet.

One part of Ezekiel’s prophetic call I didn’t share yet is the contents of the scroll God gave him to eat. The scroll that was given to Ezekiel was a double-sided scroll of mourning for Israel in exile. And yet, Ezekiel said that it tasted as sweet as honey? How? Because it is God’s Word. Because God’sWord tells us what we need to hear, not just what we want to hear. It tells us the truth that many don’t want to admit. It tells us that there is sin, and exile, and death, and that these things deserve punishment, they need to be stopped. But it also tells us that God cares. It tells us of a Savior. It tells us that no matter what we have put into our brains, no matter what we have absorbed mentally, Jesus’ blood purifies us from all sin. It tells us that Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross has consumed God’s wrath for all our sin and we are forgiven and free. It tells us that “death has been swallowed up in victory!” That’s why it tastes sweet! We know that this Word is our salvation. We know that this Word is the power of God. We know that this Word was written with the blood of our Savior Jesus.  No matter what section you read, whether it is a double-sided scroll of warning or a warm word of encouragement, whether it is a harsh slice of sinful reality or a pearl of wisdom, for the honest believer, God’s Word tastes sweet.

The applications here are clear. Firstly, my friends, eat the scroll that is in front of you. God’s Word is not far from you, it is very near. You can read or listen to your Bible anywhere! Stop putting it off that daily devotion you’ve been meaning to start. Don’t wait another day to enjoy God’s blessings in the Word! Keep gathering here is worship to feast on the Word of God in sermon and sacrament. Let’s continue to digest the Word together in Bible Study and small groups. Remember, this is the most focal point of your commission as a Christian! This is your power and motivation. This Word is living water! Taste it and see that it is sweet.

Secondly, it is clear that we need to be extremely selective with what we feed ourselves. Proverbs 15:14 says “The discerning heart seeks knowledge, but the mouth of a fool feeds on folly.” What do you watch? What do you listen to? Who do you spend your time with? Are these influences healthy for you spiritually? There’s nothing wrong with being entertained, in moderation, but we need to ask ourselves if what we consume is spiritually healthy. There does come a time when we need to listen to our consciences and turn the channel or close the computer. There comes a time out of love for God that we need to distance ourselves from the gossipers or unfollow that certain celebrity or friend on FaceBook. I remember one friend telling me about a movie he liked, and he said, “If you just ignore the sex, the cursing, and the one really nasty torture scene, it’s actually a great movie.” (How much could be left after all that?)  There may be some ok stuff among the garbage, but we need to ask ourselves, “Is it worth it?” If I went out to the garbage dump I could probably find a tiny bit of edible food among all the trash, but that’s not worth it! You are what you eat. If you put in garbage, eventually garbage is going to come back out. If you put in God’s Word, God’s qualities, Christ himself, will shine through.

I’ll finish with the words of David in Psalm 1: Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers. Eat the scroll, fill your stomach with it and you will be blessed.

Amen.