Being called is awesome. Going when you're not called is a downer. Let's talk about it on this edition of Keylight That's the foghorn for East of Steve Brown. And this is key life Designed to get you home with freedom joy and faithfulness. If that is your desire, stay tuned if Steve opens God's word Thanks Mike. Hope you had a great weekend And I hope your pastor sermon was as great as my pastor's sermon if you guys have your Bible open it to a ZQ if you're driving you keep your eyes on the road We're continuing with our study of the ZQ which is a part of our continuing old Estimate survey. We're doing it book on book three or four weeks in each book rather than line up online and Precept on precept because I don't have that much time to live So I'm just introducing you to each of these books giving you some key Passages and then spending some time in each of the books. We started a ZQ last Monday and we're going to continue with it today And probably in the next week before we study the word. Let's go before the throne Father we're glad that we belong to you We remember where you found us and sometimes we think about home Well, you've been so good and so kind so benevolent and so gentle and so generous We're sometimes overwhelmed when you in your kindness Reveal to us what we're really like and then you show us all that you've done We're overwhelmed. Father we praise you and we thank you for all that you are but also for all that you've done Thank you for giving us your book. Thanks for writing it down Thanks for sending your son to die on a cross on our place and thank you for sending your spirit Which helps us to understand the word that you gave us I'm that you know everybody listening to this broadcast. You know how difficult it is for some You know, there's a man listening who's thinking about giving up the faith He's tried and tried and he feels so tired Come alongside father and give him courage and stamina and keep in trucking and father There's a pastor who's listening who's just plain worn out He'd like to do almost anything than what he's doing Father encourage him and encourage him with your people Father, there's a lot of men who's going through a divorce right now and she feels like she's gonna die Let her know that she won't and keep her trucking and there's a mom who's so worried about our kids Father come alongside her to and let her know that you love her kids more than she loves her kids and She loves them a lot Father, we are people. You know our needs meet our needs at the point Where you desire by defining the needs yourself Father, as we study your word we pray for the one who preaches forgive him his sins for they are many We would see Jesus and him only and we pray in Jesus name. I mean If you're listening last week We went through some exegetical notes about the prophet Ezekiel in his book And then we saw one over a writing Concentration in this particular book we got it from chapters 4 through 24 where Ezekiel afflicts the comfortable and Then chapters 25 through 48 where Ezekiel comforts the afflicted and we saw that's the pattern of God and the pattern of good and godly parents and then we started getting into the text We looked at the first chapter of Ezekiel and we saw the awesome Magnificent Vision that Ezekiel has and I suggested that the problem with a lot of us as Christians is that we have a little view of a little God Doing little things in our lives Well, we need to do instead of going to him with a little tiny things and saying yeah saying could you help me with something a little We need to say God show me yourself. Let me see how big Let me see how awesome you are and then we'll find our prayers growing in direct proportion to how big we know God is And then we took some time and I suggested from that first chapter of Ezekiel that there's a lot of symbolism there But the major point is the awesomeness of the vision and then we did on Thursday looking at a Christophany in verses 26 Through 28 the last few verses of the first chapter of Ezekiel and there we Saw that Jesus is portrayed in the older Testament Sometimes we make a horrible mistake of saying not only God is a little God But as Jesus is we've been gentle little Jesus in his incarnational state and we forget that he's the word That he's the creative word of God and so we need to see not only awesomeness and the bigness of God But the awesomeness and the bigness of the second person of the Trinity if you've never stood before God and been afraid You've never stood before God. If you've never stood before God and been loved you've never stood before God If you've never stood before God and been confused you've never stood before God because god is God and you're not a friend of mine our friend of a Staff member of ours sent me this great Great thing about Moses, Moses and the people were in the desert, but what was he going to do with all those people they had to be fed, and feeding two or three million people requires a whole lot of food. According to the quartermaster general of the army, it's reported that Moses would have had to have fifteen hundred tons of food each day. Do you know that to bring that much food each day, two freight trains each a mile long would be required? Verside you must remember, they were out in the desert so they would have to have firewood to use in cooking the food. This would take four thousand tons of wood, and few more freight trains each mile long just for one day, and just think. They were forty years in trains it, and oh yes, they would have had to have water if they only had enough to drink and wash a few dishes, it would take eleven million gallons of water each day, and a freight train with tank cars eighteen hundred miles long just to bring the water. And then another thing, they had to get across the Red Sea at night. Now, if they went on a narrow path, double-file the line would be eight hundred miles long, it would require thirty five days and nights to get through, so there had to be a space in the Red Sea three miles wide so they could walk five thousand abreast to get over in one night. But then there's another problem, each time they camped at the end of the day, a campground two-thirds decides that the state of Rhode Island was required, or a total of 750 square miles long. Think of it, the space just for camping. Do you think Moses figured all this out before he left Egypt, I think, God? You see, Moses believed in God, God took care of these things for him. Now do you think God has any problem taking care of all your needs? And then he wrote, I ask the Lord to bless you as I pray for you today to guide you and protect you. Isn't that good? If you have a view of a God, and it's really, really big, then there is nothing little to that God. And so we suggested that your God ought to be awesome and that Jesus, the second person of the Trinity ought to be awesome too. All right, let's go to some brand new material. I want you to note the five aspects of the calling of Ezekiel into the service of God. Now I'm going to read some of this, but I'm not going to do all of it. But in Ezekiel two, one through ten, Ezekiel's call to be a prophet. In Ezekiel three, one through nine, he's called to be a denouncer. In Ezekiel three, ten through fifteen, he's called to be a mouthpiece to exile. In Ezekiel three, sixteen through twenty-seven, he's called to be a watchman over Israel. And then in Ezekiel three, twenty-two through twenty-seven, he's called to be a faithful hero. Now a prophet that a house of Israel, God's people, means that he speaks for God. We have this idea that a prophet is somebody that predicts future events. But in the Bible a prophet is simply one who speaks for God. And to be a denouncer, man that he was going to have to say some really harsh things, but God told him to say him so it was okay. Then he became a mouthpiece for God, bringing comfort and help to God's people. Then he was called to be a watchman. He sits on the wall and he watches to make sure that nothing bad happens to God's people. Then he becomes a herald, he blows the trumpet, he is the trumpet. Now let me tell you something, and I don't want to take some time to read some of it. Well maybe I won't have time today, but let me tell you something really important. We'll read it tomorrow. Being called is awesome. I know I've been there. Do you think I decided to do what I do? Are you crazy? Nobody would decide to do this. I sometimes tell my students when they're going through the difficulty. What are you doing? This is crazy. Nobody wants this job. You guys are spending three or four years in a graduate school in something that is incredibly rigorous academically. And you're trying to get a job that nobody in his or her right mind would want. But you know they don't leave, they stay, they take the exams. They study under PhDs from Harvard and Cambridge and Duke and me who has a doctorate as phony. I'm not even a nurse. And they take the exams and they go and it costs a lot physically and emotionally and financially. You know why they do that? Because God told them to do that. They have a call and the call is from God. And you're called by God to do anything, witness to a friend. Talk to a neighbor, type, be faithful in your church, be a good parent. When you're called to do that, you do it and he'll give you what you need to do, what he told you to do and I see it every day of my life. The problem with a lot of Christians, they try to do stuff God never called them to do. They decided it's a problem. God calls me to it. I got to be faithful and God didn't call you to that. If God didn't call you and you go anyway. You're on your own. You think about that. I'm in. Hey, listen, if you don't have the book that we're offering, how to believe this booklet deals with doubt and how Jesus meets them as we deal with a doubt of Thomas. Maybe you'd like this or you have a friend who would like to have it. Just ask me. We'll send it to you. Absolutely free. And I really mean that. You got to let us know. You can call 1-800-keylife-24-hours-a-day or you can write key life post office box 5,000-Maitland Florida-327-94 or you can write key life Canada-post office box 321-5-0 Cambridge, Ontario. In 3-H5-M3 or you can email us at Steve at keylife.org with your regular mailing address and ask for how to believe. When I say it's free, I really mean that. But if you could help us financially, oh man, I would appreciate that so much. We give out so much free material that this is a very expensive ministry and some of you guys are called by God to be a champion. If you're one of the cold ones, pray about it. Ask how much and be as generous as possible. You enjoy it on your Mastercard, Visa, Discover Guard, included in your envelope. And for any contribution of any size when you request it, I'll send this my thank you as long as supplies last and that includes for everything, five facets of God's love. The gift of God's love is absolutely awesome. Hey guys, I gotta go but first, key life is a listener supported production of key life network.