Ezekiel 8:1-18 (Behold, a hole in the wall.)

The way this message came about:

I was the Superintendent for the Rolloff Home for Men in Corpus Christi, Texas. I was sitting at my desk when one of my lead men in the home knocked at my door. He came in with a trash bag full of something, which he dumped onto my desk, and I was amazed at what he had found. This home is all about helping the men with their addictions in life and trying to help them get their families back. What was in the bag were empty beer cans, cigarette butts, cigarette packages, and empty cans of snuff. I asked him where he had found them, and his answer surprised me.

In each dorm, there were prayer closets. He told me that he went in there to pray and noticed a hole in the ceiling. When he looked in the hole, this is what he found. And we wonder why God does not hear our prayers.

Even in my own life, I would go to the Lord to pray while holding on to unconfessed sin in my life. No wonder I had a sorry prayer life for most of my Christian life and for most of my ministry. Thank you, Jesus, for forgiving me for my weak prayer life.

The robe that Aaron wore in the Holy Place included yarn pomegranates and golden bells, which alternated around the hem of the robe. The people could hear the sound, so they knew the high priest was alive. But if the high priest went into the Holy Place with unconfessed sin, he would die. Of course, this was before the cross. But it shows how serious the Lord is with sin. The Lord hates sin so much that He gave his Son as a sacrifice for our sins.

When I am reminded of the holiness of God, it makes me feel so ungodly, so sorry, and filthy. As Christians, we need to take sin seriously. Our Heavenly Father does.

Introduction

1. What does God think about your unconfessed sins?

All sin is an abomination to God. Abomination means utterly repulsive.

1. What do you think about your unconfessed sin?
2. 1 Peter 1:16 “Because it is written, Be ye holy for I am holy.”

The character of God. The world would say love. The Bible says Holy. Wow!

1 John 1:10 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. What a wonderful verse! Our Heavenly Father is longing for us to get right with him.

As you read this article, follow along with the verses from Ezekiel 8:1-18.

1. Verse 1. “And it came to pass.” This life will soon pass for everyone. Are you in love with this world or Jesus? When this life passes by, will you be sad?
2. Verse 1. “The hand of the Lord fell upon me.” The power of God or direction. We need the power of God in our everyday walk with him. Our preaching and teaching. We need the power of God in our soul-winning. We need the direction of the Holy Spirit and his power more than ever.
3. Verse 2. Have you ever felt the presence of God? When you feel the presence of God, you do not want to leave it. It is so wonderful.
4. Verse 3. When are we going to let God take control of our lives? When you get to this place in your life, there is no telling what God will do with you. Will you ever let him be in control of your life? Your life is no longer yours. This is a wonderful place to be in when he is in total control.
5. Verse 4. “The glory of the God of Israel was there.” There are churches all over the world that, at one time, the glory of God was there. This is so sad.
6. Verse 5. You are bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus. God is a jealous God, and he has the right to be. He gave his only Son, and his Son gave his body for you and me. He is jealous over Israel also.
7. Verse 6. “Son of man, seest thou what they do?” (The Lord called Ezekiel son of man). There were great abominations occurring.
8. Verse 7 and 8. “Behold a hole in the wall.” “Behold a door.” God is showing Ezekiel the sins in the secret chambers. So much ungodliness. Revealing someone else sins.
9. Verse 9. “Behold the wicked abominations that they do here.” Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it?” To God, night is as if it were day. Nothing is hidden from him.
10. Verse 10. “So I went in and saw.” What did Ezekiel see? The list is long, and it is so ungodly. What does God see in your secret chamber? Your mind is your secret chamber.
11. Verse 11. “And there stood before them seventy men.” This was the Sanhedrin Court. Each man had his own secret chamber. These were the leaders and religious rulers of Israel. In public, they were religious, but in private, they were ungodly. God had shown Ezekiel what these men had on their wall. God Almighty will reveal your sin also. Have you ever heard the statement, “Pastor, have you been reading my mail?” It does not matter how good a show you put on at church. God knows everything about you.
12. Verse 12. What they do in the dark. “For they say, The Lord seeth us not.” Psalm 139:11-12 “If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.” I have to ask this question. Why do we try to hide our sins from God?
13. Verse 14. “Women weeping for Tammuz.” This was a Babylonian god. These women in the house of God were weeping to a god that had no ears to hear the women weeping. I just had a thought; how many will go to church this Sunday to the House of the Lord and will be weeping to another god?
14. Verse 16. “twenty-five men with their backs toward the temple of the Lord… and they were worshipping the sun.” How many will be in church this Sunday yet have their backs turned away from the Lord. This is so sad. They could have been worshipping the One who made the sun, and his name is Jesus Christ.
15. Verse 17. They provoked God to anger. Is God mad at you or upset with you? To the lost, it is anger; to the Christian, you are a son or daughter. You will get a chastisement from the Lord. How does the Lord feel towards you and the relationship you have with him? How close is your relationship with your Heavenly Father? If you get right with the Lord, every day you are pleasing to him.
16. Verse 18. “Yet will I not hear them.” Does the Lord hear you? So many years of my life, I would go to the Lord, and because of unconfessed sins, the Lord did not hear me. If you know that, why keep going to him with unconfessed sin? I had to ask myself the same question.

In closing

1 Thessalonians 5:19 “Quench not the Spirit.”

Ephesians 4:30a “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God.” If you go to the Lord in prayer with unconfessed sin in your life, you are doing both of these; you are quenching and grieving the Holy Spirit. Romans 8:26 “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.” When you pray, is the Holy Spirit silent? The number one thing in my prayer life that is important is to get 100% right with my Heavenly Father every day.

The link to this message is below. The Title is Prayer, Part II: God Knows What Is in Your Secret Chamber https://youtu.be/VItPbVN7xPw

I have a ministry Facebook page, 4HIM Online Ministries. I also have a Facebook group page. It is Prayer Warriors 4HIM Online Ministries.

I want to share with you what is on my heart, spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ and this prayer movement.

For the sake of all the lost souls in Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania, I am asking all prayer warriors from around the world to join with us on February 10, 2022, for a day of praying, fasting, and repentance for Rwanda and over 13,447,410 precious souls; Burundi and over 12,442,809 precious souls; Tanzania and over 62,379,020 precious souls.

Heavenly Father, I pray that you will touch the heart of every person who is a prayer warrior that reads this to join with us for the sake of the lost. I am praying that 100,000 prayer warriors will join in with us for this worldwide praying for nations for a day. Coming together united under the blood of Jesus, believing we will move your heart for the harvest of lost souls. In Jesus’ name, Amen!

Keith Watts

Online Missionary to the world

These are some comments for folks or pastors who are involved in a modern or “Woke” Christianity in the belief that they are being cool. The reality is that our times are quite hot where everything is in question and everyone is suspect of something. How can there be substantial church growth when a new philosophy has emerged that proclaims, ‘The only truth is what I believe is true.’ The obvious magna example of this is the Pope’s proclamation that Atheists can also get to heaven. If this were true, what can we say about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ?

This is really an affirmation of the belief that ‘I do not have any sin.’ Obviously, then Jesus was not needed. However, the reality is that we are all born sinners due to mankind’s original turning against God. It also speaks of one of mankind’s terrible inheritances, the banishment into Hell for unforgiven sins. Note that Hell was created for the fallen angels, not for humans who were destined for a heavenly life. Our failure to accept God’s commands for a happy life yielded a Hellish future with the original fallen angels and a demon or two.

This belief of being pure-born also masks the wonderful love of the heavenly Father in sacrificing His Son so that mankind can be redeemed by acceptance of our Lord. Have you ever considered the reverse—what love Jesus has by bringing us to the Father? This really opens the question of who we really are. If you did not answer, “A child of God,” then you don’t really know. John expands this by writing, “The reason the world does not recognize us is that it never recognized the Son” (1 John 3:1). I penciled in my Bible, “Do we recognize ourselves?”

You cannot be ‘Woke’ and think about Hell; ‘wokeness’ is happening worldwide to keep the tithes rolling in. People today do not want to hear about Hell despite everything around them falling apart. Even the magnificent American Constitution has become a political football, something to play with.

Perhaps you have received some criticism and want to return to something deep like moral theology. Do you think anyone cares anymore? The media has kept us so informed about unspeakable things that some clergy have elicited and performed. Some other pastors may want to talk about the lives of different Roman saints. Why not talk about the lives of the saints sitting before you or next to you? Scripture clearly indicates that all believers are called saints, as we imitate Jesus.

Some people will say, “How can I imitate Jesus; He was God, wasn’t He?” The impression is that walking around, Jesus had the God button OFF, and when He worked a miracle, He turned the button ON. For this to be true, He would not have been truly man, and His redemption would have been flawed. How then did He do it, and how are we supposed to follow Him and do the same things? Anyone asking that is not familiar with Paul’s letter to the Philippians where it states that Jesus put His Godhead aside. The simple answer is that He was filled with the Spirit. Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, and afterward, the Holy Spirit came upon Him, as is explained in the third chapter of Matthew’s gospel. Jesus then started to preach and worked His first miracle at the marriage feast in Cana (John Chapter 2).

Scripture shows the relationship of people who only received the baptism of John and were later baptized with the Holy Spirit like Jesus. It is incredible that so many Christians are unknowledgeable about the gifts that are received in the Spirit baptism. How are we supposed to follow Him and do the same things? These gifts enable the believer to work through the Holy Spirit as the gifts are then used to build the kingdom. Paul clarifies this for us when he mentions that “The kingdom of God does not consist in words, but in power” (1 Corinthians 4:20). He also reminds us,” I do not want you to be in ignorance about spiritual gifts” (1 Corinthians 12:1).

Another area a pastor has to deal with is those folks who don’t believe they are good at praying or whether their prayers are heard by God. Tell them of the power of the Holy Spirit in the gift of tongues where the Holy Spirit prays through the person to the Father. In addition, people should be taught that they can pray with people and not just for people. If we are to follow Jesus, we have to be like Him and pray being mindful that there is no such thing as a bad prayer.

One of the older tenets was “to carry your cross,” which came from Jesus saying, “Take up your cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:25). Most of the crosses we carry are crosses (plural) we ourselves have made (wayward spouses, sick children, money for school, or whatever). Have you ever considered that the crosses we try to carry make us so overburdened that our eyes are looking down and not on Jesus?

There seems to be a conflict here as we examine 1 Peter 5:7, which says, “Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you. How can we carry crosses and yet cast our cares on the Lord? There is only one cross Jesus asks us to carry, and it is to trust Him. This trust in God is an ancient scriptural issue: “He who trusts in the living God will prosper” – followed immediately by “He who trusts in himself is a fool” (Proverbs 28:25). “Trust in the Lord forever” (Isaiah 26:4). “We trust in the living God” (1 Timothy 4:10). Only Jesus can handle our everyday problems.

People should be aware that they are worthy, not because of who or what they are, but because of what Jesus has done for us. We have only to accept His redemption and place our trust in Him as He leads us daily to our Father. Our companion and guide is the Holy Spirit, who not only leads us and keeps us on the path, but gives us the gifts to help us and others along the way.

Forget ‘wokery’ or cool evangelism. Enrich lives as people realize who they are, what they are, and the richness of a daily walk with Jesus at our side guiding us to the Father, with the Father’s arm around us guiding us to His Son, and with the Holy Spirit nurturing, inspiring, and empowering us.

Believers today, as always, love their church but are frightened and confused about the pestilences worldwide; Mother Earth talk; Climate control; inflation; abuse; one-world religion, and so on. These are human worries; believers should be conscious that God is aware of everything and that all this everyday nonsense was predicted two thousand years ago. We are just the first generation where many ancient prophecies are being realized, as listed in Matthew 24 and the Book of Revelation. This coming together is called the End Times just before Jesus returns. Are you going to continue being ‘cool’ and suffer the terrible lifestyle in the Tribulation period, or are you going to watch the struggles from a heavenly position after the Rapture when Christ removes His followers?

Believers need to know who they are and the richness of a daily walk with Jesus at our side guiding us to the Father, with the Father’s arm around us guiding us to His Son, and with the Holy Spirit nurturing, inspiring, and empowering us. People need to be loved and realize who they really are, how much they are loved, and how close the Father wants His children to be with Him.

sacranet@aol.com