Summary of sermon by Erlo Stegen, 02 Aug 2015
Ez 3:16
16 At the end of seven days the word of the Lord came to me: 17 “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the people of Israel; so hear the word I speak and give them warning from me. 18 When I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to save their life, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood.
We read here that it happened after the end of seven days. God speaks at the end. These days we’ve seen how things come to an end for many people. On Friday, a certain specialist doctor, to whom many of us have gone, reversed out of his garage with his car. He didn’t notice that his 2-year old daughter came running and stood behind the car. He ran over her and she died. If you’ve experienced tragedy like that you know what it feels like. She was just 2 years old and came to an end.
Recently a girl at our school met up with a road accident and died. Young people die too, not just old people. You don’t know about your end, which will come like a thief. One Indian gentleman who was worshiping at Pelindaba, died in his sleep and he wasn’t very old. Let each one always be prepared for his or her end. It will surely come. You might presume that it must be an older person and yet the Lord come to fetch you.
God spoke to Ezekiel and appointed him as a watchman over the house of Israel. Do you realise that there is something God has appointed for you too, from before the foundation of the earth. You saw the parents bringing the children to be blessed. God already knows the beginning and end of those children. He knows the exact time a child will be born and die.
God has created you with a mission. There is a reason God made you. He has a plan with your life. Just as an architect designs a building with a blueprint, so God has a blueprint for your life. When we meet with the Lord, God will show you the exact plan that He had for you before He made the world, before Creation and time began. He designed the blueprint for your life, whether you would be male or female, where you will grow up and go to school, your nationality etc. He designed the last minute details of your life. The question though is whether you are following God’s plan for your life or are you doing your own thing? Woe to you if the life you are now living is not in accordance with God’s plan.
When we pray the Lord’s prayer we say, “Father let your will be done on earth as in Heaven” (Matthew 6:9-13). When you pray in the morning you should pray that God’s will be done in your life that day. True, genuine, heart-felt prayer that He would guide you in His will that day. If your life is not in accordance with God’s will you are headed for hell and destruction. You are not headed for heaven.
Do you know God’s will? His will is that you be sanctified, and holy. That you have nothing to do with sin, and your body has nothing to do with sexual immorality and looseness. That you should not be a liar like the devil, since he is the father of liars. The Bible also says that even if you keep the whole law except one you have failed to keep all (James 2:10). The question is whether your life is in accordance with God’s will every day.
There was a boy of 21 years old. His mother would beg him to live for the Lord, and not for the world. He ignored her instruction. He started to smoke, drink and use drugs. His mother cried every day for her boy. (Children don’t realise how hurtful they are to their parents when they are rebellious. If you see a child that the Lord has given you and he doesn’t live for the Lord it is very painful.) But the mother prayed that God would save her son. The boy got seriously ill and it went from bad to worse. The doctor was called. He examined the boy and told them that he was terminally ill and will die. When the doctor had left the mother came and sat close to her son’s bed, and begged him to get right with God, confess his sins and come to the cross with all his sins. He then told his mother that he had had enough of his life of sin and asked her for forgiveness. He told her how guilty he was before God and that his conscience condemns him.
Eventually he got so sick that they couldn’t even have visitors in the bedroom. Then one day his mother entered his bedroom very quietly and heard him say, “lost, lost!” His mother was shocked and asked him why he cried in such a way after he had surrendered his life to Jesus and confessed his sin. He told her it’s not that he doubted God’s forgiveness but is heartbroken for the 21 years he had lost and wasted to the world.
If you repent, God can forgive you, but remember that you have lost those years. You cannot go back to those years and relive them. How many years have your life been controlled by satan 10, 15, 20 years? God will ask you about those years. How many of your years have you given to the devil, instead of to God?
Somebody told me recently how he regretted the years he wasted not serving God, and all the people that could have been helped if he had lived for God. The years God had given you, what have you done with them? Did you waste them living for yourself, or for the devil? In Matthew 7:21 we read, “not everyone who says to Me Lord Lord will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only those who do the will of God”. He also said that many will declare how many works they have done for Him, but He will answer them that He doesn’t know them for they did not do His will. Carefully examine whether your daily life is in accordance with God’s will for your life.
The Lord knows how many days He had appointed for you. Every day your end draws closer, until finally God will fetch you on your last day. Nobody knows how many days are left for them. In Ps 90:12 we read Moses praying, “Lord teach us to number our days that we might gain a heart of wisdom.”
What do you seek in life? Just a good career to earn good money? What’s far more important is the Lord Himself, you asking Him, “Lord what do you want me to do?”
God made you for heaven. He doesn’t want you to go to hell. He wants you in heaven with Him. What do you say to that? Make that decision in your heart to turn to God today. Make right your life with God today.