Ezekiel 1, and I'm going to invite you to bow your heads in a silent word of prayer, and each one ask that God would make his word a special blessing in your life this morning. Father in heaven, we are grateful and thankful for this great book of the Bible, and we ask that you would bless it and use it in our lives today, we pray in Christ's name, amen. Now, those of you who were not here last Sunday morning, may I announce to the to you again that last Sunday in our bulletin we included a brief introduction to the book of Ezekiel. I hope that many of you have already read this prior to coming today, because it will give you some background on this great character of the Word of God and of the Old Testament. We find that if you were not here last week, there are some of these on the table out in the narthex. And be sure and pick them up before you leave today and take one along and have it to study and familiarize yourself with this great character of the Old Testament. As I mentioned to you last week that Ezekiel is one of the lesser read and understood books of the Word of God, but I want you to realize that Ezekiel is not the author of this book, but the Holy Spirit is. And the Holy Spirit is here today in the hearts and lives of those of us who are the people of God, and the one who wrote the book is the one who is able to teach the book. And we want to be filled and led of the Holy Spirit of God as we study this book, and we want to have a clear and definite understanding of the great message that is found within it. There are many great prophetic books of the Old Testament. Four of the great prophetic books are the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and Ezekiel. These books are called the major prophets. They are called major not because they are greater in content than the other prophets, such as Jonah, Hosea, Micah, Obadiah, Haggai, Zechariah, Zephaniah, Malachi, and all those that you know, and I didn't say them all just in the right order there. but they're just larger in length, and so we divide them into the major and minor prophets. Of the four major prophets, there are titles that we can give to each of these books. It might be well for you to jot these titles down somewhere in your Bible so that you can remember them. The main theme of the book of Isaiah, for instance, is the salvation of the Lord. That's the main theme of the book of Isaiah, the salvation of the Lord. The main theme of the book of Jeremiah is the judgment of the Lord. Judgment is found throughout the book of Jeremiah. The main theme of the book of Daniel is the coming kingdom of the Lord. as Daniel speaks to us of the kingdom of Israel and that future millennial glory that will be theirs. And then the book of Ezekiel. And oh, in the book of Ezekiel we have the most exciting theme of all. For in the book of Ezekiel we have the story and the revelation of the glory of God. The glory and sovereignty of God. You know, as we study the book of Ezekiel, our hearts are going to be lifted up as we see mention made throughout this book of the fact that God is on the throne. We live in a world today which is troubled, a world of uncertainty, a world where nations are constantly at war and fighting one with another. But you know, the book of Ezekiel reveals to us that there are no nations in the world today that are in existence except they are allowed that existence by the hand of God. The book of Ezekiel reveals to us that God is sovereign in all of the affairs of nations and that nations live and die and exist according to the sovereign will of God. Men are not in control. And the book of Ezekiel will reveal this to us as no other book of the Bible does. Oh, the book of Ezekiel is a fascinating book. The visions of Isaiah are spectacular. The visions of Daniel are interesting and marvelous. The visions of the book of Revelation grip you as you study them. But I believe of all of the prophetic books, the images and visions of the prophet Ezekiel are the most spectacular. Why? Because Ezekiel was given these grand and glorious visions of a sovereign, omnipotent God in action through the history of man. And as we go through the book of Ezekiel, we're going to be lifted up into the very presence of God as He is revealed in all of His glory and might. Most people are not too familiar with the book of Ezekiel. As I said to you last week, it's a good thing we're studying it because when you get to heaven and you meet Him, one of the first questions He's going to ask you is, How did you like my book? And lots of you up to this time perhaps would have to say, Yes, your book. Oh, yes, you're the one who wrote about the wheel. You know, when many people think of Ezekiel, they either think of a wheel in the air, or they think of dry bones with the head connected to you and the neck connected to you, and on and on the line it goes. And the dry bones and the wheel in the middle of the air, that's all they think about when they think of Ezekiel. Well, I want to tell you that wheel that Ezekiel saw was a fabulous wheel. Chapter 1 is all about it, and that's what our sermon is next Sunday morning. Our sermon is entitled, Ezekiel Saw the Wheel. I want to tell you it was a fabulous wheel. You know what that wheel was? It wasn't just a wheel that was twirling around in the sky. No, it was a wheel on the great chariot of God. As suddenly Ezekiel saw the heavens open and he saw God riding across the history of the nations with a chariot so majestic and so huge that it reached from earth down to heaven. And the angels of heaven were drawing it across. Oh, that's next Sunday's sermon. Oh, it's going to be great. can hardly wait to get there. Oh, what an exciting thing it would be to have been with Ezekiel on that day and seen such a thing, to have witnessed such a spectacular display of our great God. Who is this man Ezekiel? Where did he come from? You know he's not mentioned in any other books of the Old Testament. One of the amazing things about the Word of God is that God in His sovereignty and God in His will suddenly just seems to reach down into the stream of humanity from time to time, and He puts His finger on someone who has been totally insignificant, and He lifts them up, and He gives to them a great ministry. Elijah! is a tremendous servant of the Lord. But where did he come from? He's a grown man. And the pages of the Word of God are silent. The court of Ahab is turned in horrible apostasy and idolatry away from God. The wickedness under the leadership of Jezebel the queen is beyond description. And in the middle of all of that sin and wickedness, suddenly, From the middle of nowhere, a man from the hill country, rough and rugged, in a shepherd's clothing, suddenly marches into the courtroom in the palace of Ahab the king, and he says, As the Lord liveth and in whose presence I stand, it shall not rain until I say so. And he turns and walks away, and thus begins the ministry of Elijah the Tishbite. Where did he come from? Where had he been? God reached down and put his hand on him and used him for a great work. And on and on it goes. Here is Ezekiel, one of the greatest men of all the Old Testament. Some folks like David. He's great. He was a man after God's heart. Some folks like Samuel. I love him too. But you know, my favorite is Ezekiel. I just really admire this man. What a great man of God he is. What made him great? We'll discover that as we are introduced to him this morning. This morning is not a verse-by-verse exposition. This morning is an introduction to the man behind the book. For when you understand the man, you can appreciate the book and the reason why the book is here. Ezekiel was carried away while he was a man in his late twenties, perhaps, to the land of Babylon by the great king Nebuchadnezzar. We read in verse 1 of chapter 1 that it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw the visions of God. The thirtieth year of what? The thirtieth year of the life of Ezekiel. And so we find that as the story opens, Ezekiel is thirty years of age. Now how does he happen to be in Babylon on the banks of the river Chebar in the city of Tel Aviv? For that's the city that he's living in. What kind of a city is it? And who are the people that live there? And what is this River Chibar? It's a canal that goes into the Euphrates River. It's about 40 miles or so southeast of the ancient city of Babylon. And in this city of Tel Aviv, on the banks of the River Chibar, there has been transposed and transported an entire Jewish community. The city is filled with Jewish people so that you would think you were in Israel if you didn't know for sure that you were over in the land of the Chaldeans and the land of Babylon. And they are carrying on with their religious tradition of a sort. And they are living not as captives and prisoners, but they are a transported community living there in their own houses. But they are under the thumb and domination and control of the Babylonian ruler and empire. And there they are. Ezekiel is not the only prophet who prophesies during this particular time. There are two other men that also prophesy during this same time. Ezekiel in chapter 14 mentions one of them. In chapter 14 and in chapter 28. And his name is Daniel. Daniel is just a little ways away. He's in the city of Babylon. He was transported off before Ezekiel. In another deportation of Jews by the king of Babylon. An earlier deportation of Jews by the king of Babylon. A hundred years or more before Ezekiel and Daniel were transported off, the entire northern kingdoms, the ten northern tribes of Israel, were totally carried off captive by the Assyrians. And they're here in this community. You see, Ezekiel's ministry is not just to the land of Judah, but Ezekiel's ministry is to the entire refugees of the northern kingdom as well as the southern kingdom. He is ministering to the twelve tribes. here in the land of Babylon. But the southern kingdom, the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, they've stayed on for a hundred years or more. The king who was in power when Ezekiel was born was the king Josiah. Josiah took the throne when he was just a young boy. And he reigned for 31 years. And he was a great king. He loved the Lord. And great revivals and reformations were effected during his ministry. He was the last of the kings of the nation of Judah who served God. And so Ezekiel had the privilege of being born into a kingdom during the time of revival. And he heard and he was taught the Word of God from his earliest years. He was born into a priestly family. And so he was raised in the tradition of the temple. And he was given special education and instruction in the word of God. But there's something different about Ezekiel than all the others. Ezekiel believes it. Ezekiel has accepted and he's a strong servant of the God of Israel. He's a member of the aristocracy. He had access to the king's court. He was not only a priest, but he was a member of the aristocracy among the priesthood. And so he came from a home of wealth and means. But security is not found in wealth or in military arms and might, is it? And so, despite all of his background and privilege, the day came when, because of the sin of Israel under the kings that followed Josiah, Little by little, the judgment of God was brought down upon that nation, until finally, king after king was deposed and thrown out. And finally, an uncle of one of the sons of Josiah has been made king over Judah by Nebuchadnezzar. His name is Zedekiah, but his Babylonian name is Jehoiakim. You see, in those days, when you captured or conquered someone, you always gave them a new name, because that was a symbol of the fact that you were their conqueror. And that's why Daniel was called by another name, Belteshazzar. And that's why Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had such strange names, because they were given new names by their captors. And so Zedekiah, this wicked king, had been placed on the throne of Israel as a puppet king under Nebuchadnezzar. And his name was Jehoiakim. And as the story of Ezekiel begins, we are in the fifth year of the reign of Zedekiah. So the nation of Israel, the kingdom of Judah, they are still in the land. Jerusalem is still functioning as the capital of the nation. And Ezekiel is over here in Babylon as a captive. And the first six years of his prophecy, he's prophesying and warning from God and giving warnings from God to a nation that is about to lose everything that it has. They do not listen to the voice of Ezekiel. And at the end of those six years, Zedekiah is removed from the throne, Nebuchadnezzar comes into the city of Jerusalem, and he totally lowers it to the ground, he destroys the temple, the people are scattered, and the land is left in ruin. But as the prophecy begins, Ezekiel is there in the land of Babylon, Zedekiah is in his fifth year on the throne, that's what it says in verse 2, in the fifth day of the month, which was the fifth year of Jehoiakim's captivity. The word of the Lord came unto me expressly, Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar, and the hand of the Lord was there upon him. Now, all the time that Ezekiel was prophesying to the captives in Babylon, God had another prophet who was prophesying to the people back in the land, and his name was Jeremiah. So Jeremiah, prophesying back in the land during the days of Zedekiah, Josiah, and these others, Ezekiel, ministering to the captives, in the land of Babylon, on the banks of the river Chebar, in the city of Tel Aviv, chapter 3, verse 15. And Daniel prophesying and ministering in the capital city of Babylon. So we have these three prophets of God ministering at the same time, but from different locations. God giving to his people every opportunity to repent. and to turn back to him. Now, as we study the book of Ezekiel, I have an outline for the book that I put on the back of your paper, which you received last week. I think you should be familiar with this outline. You should understand what the book is about. Chapters 1 through 3 comprise the call of Ezekiel. Chapters 4 through 24 speak to us of the Israel of Ezekiel's day. Chapters 25-32 are prophecies about the surrounding nations. Chapters 33-39 deal with the national restoration of Israel. That's when we come to the Valley of the Dry Bones. I preached on that one other time. It was on Mother's Day. It wasn't the most popular sermon I ever preached on Mother's Day. And then chapters 40 through 48, the future glory of Israel or the Millennium. Say, it's going to be a great book to get into. Now let's talk about the man Ezekiel. We've looked at his historical background. We've looked at his family background. We want to look at his mission. And we find that God called Ezekiel out of the midst of all of his people to be a voice for God in the midst of the nation of Babylon. And God came to Ezekiel and He said, Ezekiel, I want you. Will you be my voice? Ezekiel, will you give me everything that you have? Will you become my spokesman? Now, this was not an easy task. In chapter 3, verse 17, God speaks directly to Ezekiel, and we'll be looking at this later on. He says, Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel. Therefore, hear the word of my mouth, and give them the warning from me. He said, Ezekiel, I need a watchman. I need someone to sound the alarm. He said, Ezekiel, I am calling you to preach to my people. to sound the alarm, to awaken them. You would have thought that of all peoples that these folk who were there in captivity would have been anxious to follow God. But the Bible tells us that just the reverse is true. The Bible tells us that these captives in Babylon had also turned their backs on God And they were taking up the ways of idolatry, and they had accepted the wickedness of the land of Babylon. And God says, Ezekiel, will you speak to them? Will you preach to them? And he said, Ezekiel, it is not going to be a thankful task, but rather it's going to be a thankless ministry. For in chapter 3, verses 5, he says, Thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech. of a hard language, but he said, I'm sending you to the house of Israel, to my people. I'm not sending you to many people of a strange speech, of a hard language, whose words you cannot understand. He said, Ezekiel, I want you to be a missionary to your own people, to the people that you know and live with. I want you to preach to them. But he says, Ezekiel, they won't listen to you. They won't listen to you, Ezekiel, for they won't listen to me," verse 7, for all the house of Israel are impudent and hard-hearted. As we bring our message to a close this morning, I'm not going to stop in five minutes now. Don't get encouraged by that. But I have just three things. Three biographical incidents in the life of Ezekiel that I would draw out this morning to reveal to you why God chose this man. You know, from time to time I run across folks who say, oh, you know, the thing that I'm looking for most of anything and more than anything else in the world is that somehow or another I might have a life with purpose. that I might have a life with meaning. Ah, this is not unusual. This is the age-old need and longing and yearning of the human heart. In the 90th Psalm it closes with these words, O Lord, establish thou the work of our hands. Yea, the work of our hands, establish thou it. The heart of every man reaches out and says, Lord, I want to do something with purpose. I want to make something of my life. I want my life to count. I want to feel like that every day that something is accomplished. Well, dear friends, may I say to you that this is the experience, the joyful, satisfying experience of every believer who lives 100% in total yieldedness to the will of God. For everything you do in the will of God, whether it's your job or whether it's at home or wherever you are, every moment of every day that you spend in yieldedness to God's will for your life is profitable and has purpose and meaning that will stand for all eternity. Everything done in the will of God is important. That's why the Apostle Paul, when he came to the end of his life, he said, I'm satisfied. I've finished my course. I've kept the faith. I've completed things. My life has had meaning. My life has had purpose. I'm ready to go with a joyful, anxious heart and spirit. In the New Testament, we are challenged in the Book of Romans with this very marvelous and wonderful challenge. I beseech you, Christians, by the mercies of God, that every one of you would give to me your bodies as a living sacrifice. Dear Christians, this morning, the testimony of the life of Ezekiel is the testimony of a consecrated body for God. The moment you receive Jesus Christ as your Savior, God has your soul. The moment you receive Jesus Christ as your Savior, you possess eternal life. And God doesn't ask for your soul. He doesn't ask for your life. But God says, there's one thing I want, and that's your body. Will you give it to me? And the question that I give to you this morning is this. Each and every one of you, I ask you to face it clearly and deliberately. Does God have your body? Have you given it to Him? Have you come to the place where you've said, Lord, you can have my body. It's yours to use in whatever way you want to use it. Wherever you want to use it. I'm willing to suffer in it, Lord. I'm willing to be abused in it. I take my hands completely off of it, Lord. It belongs to you. In order for God to use you, that's the kind of man and that's the kind of purpose of heart that you must have. And everything that you do in that spirit and attitude of heart and mind will have purpose and meaning. You say, Pastor, I don't have much of a body. It's crippled and sore. It's got lots of things wrong with it. Dear friend, God hasn't asked you to evaluate the body. God knows about your body, and God asked you for it anyway. No matter what kind of a body you have, God wants you to give it to Him. And this invitation and this request goes out to believers of every age this morning, whether you're a young person with all of your youth and strength in your life ahead of you, or whether you are an older person who doesn't have the ability and mobility that you once have. God says to each of us, will you give me the body you have? For I have work to do with it. And my work is so important. And so God came to Ezekiel, and he said, Ezekiel, will you give me your body? And Ezekiel lifted his head toward God, and he said, God, here it is. God came to Isaiah, and he said, Isaiah, I need a body, but I don't have anybody to go. Nobody will let me have their body. And Isaiah immediately lifted his eyes toward the Lord, and he said, O Lord, here's mine. Send me. Use me. Daniel gave his body to the Lord. Jeremiah gave his body to the Lord. Dear Christians, God can use people and men and women who are willing, as the Apostle Paul said, to allow themselves to spend and be spent for the ministry and the cause of Jesus Christ. You know, a lot of people say to the Lord, Oh, yes, Lord, I'll let you have my body. And then the first thing that God asks them to do that's difficult, they say, Oh, I didn't think you meant that. And so they reneged. They stepped back. They said, well, I can't do that. I'll hurt. That'll make me suffer. I just don't have the strength to do that, Lord. But you know, one of the things we find here in the life of Ezekiel is this, that when Ezekiel made a commitment to God, it didn't matter what God asked him to do. And the first thing we find is this, that Ezekiel found that the first thing that God wanted him to do was to suffer pain. because we find in chapter 4, verses 4 through 6, that one of the first things that God said to him after He called him, He said, Ezekiel, I have a job for you now. I'm going to use you as an object lesson and an illustration to my people. And Ezekiel said, Well, what is it, Lord? I'll do it. I told you I'd do whatever you wanted. And so the Lord said, Well, Ezekiel, I want you to lay on your left side for 390 days. I can just imagine Ezekiel saying, would you repeat that? I want you to lay on your left side for 390 days. Now, dear friends, it's bad enough to lay in bed for 390 days, but it's even tougher and rougher to lay on your one side for 390 days. And I imagine that in the course of that time, that Ezekiel's legs got kind of stiff and sore, don't you? I imagine there were times when his limbs and his circulation was a little uncomfortable. Some have said, well, I don't think he had to do this all day long. Well, the Bible doesn't say, but even if he only did it for ten hours a day, that would be tough, wouldn't it? How would you like to spend ten hours every day laying on your left side? And the Lord said, and when you get through with that, Ezekiel, I want you to turn over and lay on your right side for forty more. And I'm sure that Ezekiel said to himself, well, this is going to hurt. This is going to cause pain. That's going to be difficult. Why? The obvious reaction would be, well, I can't see anything in this. And so the obvious reaction would be, I don't believe that God would want me to suffer. There must be some mistake. I've gotten the wrong orders. Ah, no, not Ezekiel. You know what the Word of God tells us? The Word of God says that Ezekiel was asked to lie on his side for 390 days. So you know what Ezekiel did? He laid on his side for 390 days. And when he got through with the 390 days, you know what he did? He turned over and laid on his right side for another 40 more. Now I know you're saying, what's that all about? That's another sermon. Today we're just showing you the kind of man that he was. You know, when God asks for your body, folks, He's going to ask sometimes that you be willing to suffer. Let me ask you this. Are you willing to suffer pain for God? Are you willing to go out and walk till you get blisters on your feet? Are you willing to get up and do things for God when your head aches? Or do we have some stipulations that say, Oh, God, I'll serve you if it doesn't hurt me anyway? Lord, you know that I couldn't do that. Why, I've got a bad leg. One of the first things that God said to Ezekiel is this. He said, Listen, you said you'd let me have your body. Okay, here it is. I want you to suffer for me. Why did God do that? That's in there. We'll find out. But the thing that I want you to see this morning is this, that Ezekiel said, Okay, Lord, if you want me to suffer, I'll suffer. You know, one of the most difficult things in the world for us to endure is laughter and scorn. Nobody likes to be the butt of a joke, to be the clown, to be made a fool of. One of the things that's very important to most of us is to be considered sane and acceptable by our fellow human beings, by our peers, isn't that right? There are a few folks that are eccentric, but the average person enjoys being considered sane, normal, and of a sound mind. And so the next thing after Ezekiel completed that task, God said to him, Ezekiel, I'd like you to take a barber's razor and shave your head and your beard. By the way, that's the first time in antiquity anywhere that we find mention made of a barber's razor. Here is the profession of the barber in the Word of God. He says, I want you to take a barber's razor. Now, Ezekiel was a priest, and the priests weren't supposed to cut their face and their hair in this specific way. He said, I want you to shave off all of your hair and your beard. Then I want you to take a little scale with you, and I want you to divide the hair into three portions, equal portions. Now I want you to start a fire and burn up a third of it. And then I want you to throw a third of it up into the air and let it blow around. I want you to get your sword out and chop up the rest of it. Then I want you to grab a little bit and tie it up in the hem of your coat. And then I want you to rip it out and throw it into the fire. And I want you to do this at Forth and Mendocino. Say, Pastor, how'd you get that? Well, look at verse 2 of chapter 5. I want you to do this in the midst of the city. You know what that meant? In the marketplace. Ezekiel said, Lord, if I do that, they'll think I've lost my marbles. Lord, that's crazy! It is, isn't it? You want me to go down to Fort Mendocino, and sit on the corner, and shave all my hair off, and start a fire with it, and chop some of it up with a sword, and throw it up in the air? You know what will happen. Everybody will look at, look at old Zeke. Look what Ezekiel's doing. Look at him. Yes, sometimes God, you give your body to the Lord and sometimes God will want you to do something with it that will cause the world to scorn and laugh. You know, this business of giving your body to the Lord Jesus Christ, can lead to a lot of things that you didn't expect. And that's why so many people say, oh, here it is. And yet, when the first test comes along, they say, oh, Lord, I can't do that. I can't do that. But Ezekiel could. He was willing to be laughed at. And you know what he did? He went down to 4th and Mendocino, and he sat on the street corner, and he did everything God told him to do. And the whole city gathered around, and they laughed at him. They said, what in the world's going wrong with that guy? Ezekiel, you are a nut. Ezekiel said, well, I'll tell you why I'm doing this, because God has given me a message. And then he preached to them, and you know what they did? They laughed. Ha ha. Oh, brother. Ezekiel used to be pretty solid, but he hasn't been. He's had a screw loose ever since he got religion. How many of God's people back up the first time somebody begins to ridicule them and bring some pressure to bear in a scornful way because of what God has given you as your testimony? Oh, dear Christians, may God help us to be men and women like Ezekiel. May God help us to be willing to suffer pain for his work. May God help us to be willing to suffer the scorn and the abuse of the world. for the testimony of Jesus Christ. In chapter 24 we have the last thing that we want to note this morning. It's this. That as you study through the book of Ezekiel, you find that the people turned their backs on Ezekiel. They wouldn't listen to him. They even sought to stifle and squelch his ministry. And in the 24th chapter, The Word of God reveals to us that God gave to this man a test that seems almost too hard to bear. Because in all of the land there was one person that loved Ezekiel and that encouraged him in his work. God had given to Ezekiel a dear and wonderful wife. And the Bible tells us that she was a dear and wonderful woman to this man because the Bible says to us in verse 16 of chapter 24, that she was the desire of his eyes. And he'd go out and he'd preach and the people would laugh and nobody would respond. And he'd come home after a day of doing the work of the Lord and going and enduring the laughter and the jibes and the criticism and all of the problems that he faced. And he'd come home and his wife would say, honey, how did it go? And Ezekiel would say, well, it was rough today. And she'd say, well, honey, I would just wish you'd preach that to me. She said, I just read your, I love your sermons. Here's a nice meal. Sit down here on the chair and be comfortable." She was a joy and a delight to this dear prophet of God. But on this particular morning, perhaps she'd been sick, I don't know, but God spoke to him in the morning and he said, Ezekiel, today your wife is going to die. I'm going to take away from you this morning the desire of your eyes And he said, Ezekiel, I don't want you to cry. I don't want you to even act like you're sad. I don't want you to show any grief whatsoever. But I want you to go out and preach to the people because I want to use you as an object lesson in her death. Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke, yet neither shalt thou mourn or weep, neither shall thy tears run down. Forbear to cry, make no mourning for the dead, but bind your turban on your head, put on your shoes upon your feet, don't cover your lips, and eat not the bread of man. Verse 18 says, So I spoke unto the people in the morning, And in the evening my wife died, and I did in the morning as I was commanded." Oh, praise God that there are men like this, that there are men who are willing to say, God, whatever you do, I accept it. Whatever you do, whatever you ask, I'll obey. You see why I say he's such a great servant of God? What a tremendous man, and what a blessing it's going to be to read the book that the Spirit of God wrote through the ministry of such a man as this. I know the question in your hearts and minds is, why would God do something like that? God had a reason. We'll learn that reason when we get to chapter 24. You can read ahead and find it if you'd like. Oh, listen, dear Christians. My heart is challenged by the life of this man. My heart is challenged this morning to say, Oh, God, I'm going to give you my body. I want to be whatever you want me to be. Lord, I want to be a man like Ezekiel. I'm willing to suffer. I'm willing to be laughed at. I'm willing, Lord, to have you take everything you want. Can you say that this morning, Christian? Is that your testimony? Shall we pray? With our heads bowed and our eyes closed, I'm going to ask you to review again this morning the commitment of your body to the Lord Jesus Christ and his service and his ministry. I'm going to ask you this question, dear Christian. Do you belong to him for whatever he wants in your life? While our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed before God this morning, I wish that each one of us as believers would quietly face this issue, and dear Christians, if we have to face the fact that we've made a commitment but we haven't lived up to it, or if we've never even made the commitment, I hope that God will help us in these moments to say, Lord Jesus Christ, I want you to have full control of my body, and I'm willing to bear in it and to use it in any way that you would ask or require. Would you pray that and make that commitment to Him right now? If you've made it before and you've taken it back, would you renew your commitment? Oh, may God move and work in our lives as believers today. While our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed in silent prayer, I wonder if there might be some Christians who would be willing to say, Pastor, God has challenged me this morning with the life and testimony of Ezekiel. And I realize that I've been holding back on the use of my body. And today, God has challenged me to make a new commitment to him. And I'd like you to know it, Pastor. I'd appreciate you praying for me, that God would give me the courage to carry this commitment through. Would you just slip your hand up just where you are? Any Christians whose God has touched their lives today? Yes. Yes. My, there's so many hands this morning. Yes. Others are being raised. God bless you. Others. Yes. God bless you, folks. Anyone else? My, there's been so many this morning that God has touched. Father, we thank you for your word. Oh God, bless us as we study the book of Ezekiel. Open this book up to us, Lord, and oh God, may it just be a book that will live before us, that we might be endued with the same dedication and consecration that you gave to this man, that we might be lifted up in the testimony of his life and his ministry. We pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Amen. This message has been brought to you by the Santa Rosa Bible Church. Our mission is to see the lost reached and believers transformed by Jesus. You can find out more information about us at our website at srbible.org. Or you can visit us in person at 4575 Badger Road in Santa Rosa, California. You can also reach us by phone at 707-538-2385.