Ezekiel 3:3
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we live in an age when information is everywhere it's always available it's always buzzing in the background our phones vibrate with notifications our social feeds overflow with opinions news articles contradict one another and everyone it seems has a platform to speak and it's never been easier to know what's happening, but also never harder to know what's true. For many of us, it feels like standing in the middle of a crowded street. You have signs flashing, you have ads everywhere, you have voices that are shouting, and for many of us, we're trying to listen to the conversation across the street, and it's like a whisper. The constant stream of information creates for many a spiritual dizziness. When everything is labeled as urgent, we lose our sense of what's ultimate. When every voice claims authority, we begin to wonder if any voice can
actually be trusted. We nibble at headlines, we scroll past controversies, we consume soundbites, and soon we're full of noise but empty of truth. Our scripture for this evening is Ezekiel 3.3, and it can be found on the front of your bulletin. It reads, And he said to me, So let me set the scene for you.
In the opening chapter of Ezekiel, God calls and commissions him as a prophet. Ezekiel sees a breathtaking vision of God's glory and hears God call him by name and he is told that he will speak to a rebellious people. And in this commissioning, God gives him a scroll to eat, a vivid picture that Ezekiel must take God's word deep in himself before he can speak it to others. Ezekiel was chosen and set apart, much like Paul was in Galatians.
Ezekiel pointed forward to Christ, and Paul proclaimed Christ, both speaking God's message, not man's, as we heard this morning. Now, one thing to note here is we are not called to be prophets like Ezekiel, but we are called to respond to God's word. So tonight, we're going to focus on that word. Its authority, its power to nourish and transform and how it fuels obedience in us today.
So the point I want to draw out of Ezekiel 3.3 is this, is that God's word is meant to be consumed and delighted in until it shapes who we are and how we live. So let me repeat that. God's word is meant to be consumed and delighted in until it shapes who we are and how we live. So this evening, I want to ask two questions for you. I want you to think about these two questions.
Are you truly consuming God's word, taking it in deeply enough that it nourishes and encourages you, It changes you from the inside out. Are you truly consuming God's word? The second question, do you delight in God's word, savoring it with joy until it shapes your desires and draws you closer to him? So question number one, are you truly consuming God's word?
In Ezekiel 3, God tells the prophet to do something unusual, to eat a scroll. God says, son of man, eat what I give you, fill your stomach with this scroll, and then go speak to Israel. So Ezekiel opens his mouth and God feeds him the scroll. This is more than just a strange visual. The deeper reality here is that God's word was always designed to penetrate the innermost being. God's word was meant to be ingested and digested, consumed completely. God doesn't tell Ezekiel to nibble or partially consume it. He tells him to fill his stomach. So now picture Ezekiel receiving this vision, being told this. There's no menu, no choices, just the scroll.
God sets the dish, and that's the first truth we need to see. The authority of Scripture lies in its source, God Himself. We don't get to pick and choose which parts we like. The whole Word is set before us, and it is good. Scripture uses similar metaphoric language of ingestion and digestion over and over again, And we are told that we don't live by bread alone, but by every word from the Lord.
Jeremiah said something very similar to Ezekiel, had an experience, but he said, I ate your words and they became a joy and delight to me. The psalmist calls God's word more desirable than gold and sweeter than honey. Peter calls us to crave the pure milk of the word so that we can grow up into salvation because we have tasted the Lord's goodness. From beginning to end, God invites us to take his word in deeply and find life in it.
Ezekiel didn't have the option to leave the parts out that he did not like. He was told to fill his stomach. And that's what God calls us to as well. To fully consume his word until it becomes a part of who we are. Full consumption calls for full submission. Let me repeat that. Full consumption of God's Word calls for full submission.
So let me ask you, where are you pushing back against God's Word? Questioning it, explaining it away, or ignoring it? When we consume His Word fully, we are called to submit fully. Even to the parts that are uncomfortable, confrontational, and even countercultural. So let me touch on those three categories. Let's start with the uncomfortable parts of God's Word.
And by His grace, Scripture is full of comforting promises. God is with you. God forgives you. God gives you peace. We love those truths. We need those truths. but we often resist the harder ones deny yourself flee temptation forgive others those can feel like a punch in the gut especially if you've been deeply hurt yet we have to face the reality that we often want relief without repentance we often want comfort without correction if we only accept the comforting parts of God's word we are being selective not submissive and sometimes obedience downright feels uncomfortable it also feels confrontational
sometimes we have to sit across from a friend and tell them a hard truth confront gossip or divisiveness as the poison it is, or speak up when sin is being justified, or tell someone their thinking has entered a dangerous territory, even if it risks the relationship that we have. I mean, imagine seeing a friend walking towards a cliff. You know that it's dangerous. You know that they're going to fall, but you don't say anything because you don't want to offend them. That's not loving. Love is grabbing them by the arm before they fall. It means that even if they may not like you in the moment, you're going to do it.
We may have to speak up when someone is justifying sexual sin, cheating at work, or speaking harsh words to their spouse. And sometimes confrontation is not about what we say, but what we must hear. Receiving, at times, even rebuke ourselves with humility instead of defensiveness. This kind of obedience at times is costly. It might strain friendships, risk rejection, or get you labeled. Loving confrontation is not optional. It's part of what it means to care for others. And sometimes the confrontation isn't just with a friend, it's with the entire culture around us. So finally we have to face the the counter-cultural parts of God's Word. And nowhere is this more pressing than in the area of marriage and sexuality.
We live in a world that insists that truth is relative. Your truth is your truth, love is love. We hear phrases like be true to yourself, but we know that God's truth is fixed, it's unchanging, and it's good. From the very beginning, he defined marriage as the covenant union of one man and one woman, and he called it good. He gave clear and loving boundaries for sexuality, Not to restrict joy, but to protect it and direct it towards what is holy.
God's design is like the banks of a river. Without them, the water just floods and destroys. But within the boundaries, it gives life, growth, and beauty. Yet nearly everything in our culture is going to push against this design. The world celebrates what God forbids. To stand with God's word on the issue is costly. It may mean that you're going to be misunderstood at times or mocked.
But faithfulness to Christ means saying yes to his design and no to the lies of the world. And when we do, we discover that God's boundaries, they're not burdens, but they're blessings. They're beautiful and they lead to true life and flourishing. So this is why consuming and delighting in God's word matters. Because it fills us, it shapes who we are and how we live. Even when it stretches us or puts us at odds with culture.
Now again and again I've found that the very part of scripture that a person resists most strongly is often the doorway to their deepest struggle. The Bible is not just one voice of many, it's God's voice. We need it as desperately as our bodies need food. I mean, you can go a day and skip a meal and make it through the day, but if you make that your lifestyle, you'll eventually collapse. So let me ask you, how do you typically respond when Scripture confronts something that you don't want to change? Be honest with yourself. What do you do when you realize that there's an authority that has placed a boundary in your life that says that this is just off limits?
Whose voice carries more weight in your daily decisions? Is it God's word? Is it your feelings? Is it the opinion of others? The world drinks from muddy puddles, but God has revealed where the pure water flows. Do you delight in God's word? That's our second question. Ezekiel writes, Then I ate it, and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey.
The scroll was filled with lamentation, mourning, and woe. This was a message of judgment for Jerusalem and Judah. And yet Ezekiel experiences it as sweet. This was not the expected outcome here. It's like when you bite into something, and you think it's going to be sour, and you find out it's going to be sweet. That moment you bite into it, that exact moment, it causes you to pause.
This is exactly what Ezekiel experienced here when God's word, even when it was filled with this judgment, it tasted sweet. I think that this tells us something very profound about God's word. God's truth is always good, even when it's hard, because it comes from him. And this is where God does some of his deepest work often in us.
Often the sweetest lessons in life come through the bitterest seasons that we experience. Can you remember a time when you expected a bitter taste, a trial, a loss, a moment where you saw no way forward and yet you found unexpected comfort? Those moments train us to crave his voice because we discover that his word sustains us even in the dark.
The unexpected sweetness produces awe, a reverence for the one who can turn lamentation into hope, mourning into worship. So notice also here that Ezekiel doesn't change the scroll to suit his own taste. The scroll changes him. God's word doesn't just sit in your mouth. It works like yeast and dough, solely transforming you from the inside out. To delight, to truly delight in God's word, we must regularly place ourselves under its authority.
So this means letting it confront us, correct us, and shape our desires. We know that if we are left to our own desires, we will not find God's Word beautiful. In fact, we know we will resist it. But when God's Word is given to us, we also know that God has given us His Spirit. He opens our eyes to see its worth. The Spirit makes the Word come alive and plants a new hunger in us to know Him.
And as we read, and as we meditate, and as we pray and memorize Scripture, He satisfies us little by little. And over time, our spiritual taste buds, they change. What used to feel like duty becomes delight. And we begin to come back for more. Not because we have to, but because we get to. Delight is a weapon. When our hearts are captivated by God, the lesser delights of sin start to lose their grip.
It's like cutting out sugar from your diet. Have you ever tried that before for a period of time? At first, you crave it. But eventually, what happens is your taste buds reset. And then over time, you eventually grab something like an apple and you taste it. And you realize, this apple is amazingly sweet. So the more you feed on God's word, the more your heart starts to crave what is good.
And sin begins to lose its appeal. So instead of craving revenge, we start longing for reconciliation. Instead of chasing status, we begin to seek humility. Instead of lusting after what's forbidden, we start desiring purity that honors God. This is the power of a heart reshaped by God's word. Fear says, God has forgotten you. But the word answers, I will never leave you.
Shame says, you are defined by your failures. But the word declares, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Loneliness whispers, you are forgotten, but the scriptures remind us the Lord is near and you are not alone. God's word is the ultimate mental filter. It teaches us how to think clearly again. To delight in God's word ultimately means to delight in the God who speaks, Recognizing that Christ himself is the word made flesh.
Your heart will start to say with the psalmist, Whom have I in heaven but you, and there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. Full consumption calls for full submission, and full submission leads to full joy. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for giving us your word. It's living, it's active, it's full of life and hope.
Help us not just read it, but to take it in deeply until it fills our hearts and shapes our desires. We pray that you would make your truth sweet to us, even the hard parts, and give us boldness to live and speak it faithfully. We pray that you would teach us to hunger for you above all else so that our lives would display the beauty of your word. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.