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Plainly Speaking
with Karl J. Forehand
The
Watchman
by Karl J. Forehand
**
The majority of this message was taken from 2 messages delivered by Tony
Lambertof Westside Church in Omaha **
His
watchmen are blind, All of them know nothing. All of them are dumb dogs
unable to bark, Dreamers lying down, who love to slumber; And the dogs are greedy, they are not
satisfied. And they are shepherds who have no understanding; They have all
turned to their own way, Each one to his unjust gain, to the last one. "Come," they say, "let us get wine, and let us drink heavily of
strong drink; And tomorrow will be like today, only more so." (Isaiah 56:10-12)
I would prefer to have NO animals in my
house. I think it just adds an extra
hassle to everyday life. My wife and
kids feel different, so I have relented and now we have a dog in our
house. Everyone says, “He’s such a
good dog.” I have a different
opinion. I think he is dumb. I don’t think he is smart enough to do
much. The dogs in this passage are a
different kind of “dumb” – they don’t speak.
The primary purpose of a watchdog is to bark and the primary purpose
of a watchman is to speak when the enemy is coming.
What characterizes the bad watchman?
1. They dulled by laziness.
We would
immediately recoil at that assertion.
We are SO busy, we would lash out at anyone that said we are
lazy. But, I believe we are dulled
into laziness by the hum of our activity.
Our minds are constantly occupied (with T.V., radio, video games,
soccer games, etc.); yet we don’t have time to do the things that
matter. We would never “lay around
dreaming” like these guys; yet we are much more lazy spiritually
In our
business, we don’t have the time, energy or attention span to keep up the
watch.
2. They
are driven by lust
As watchman, we are distracted by the things we desire. We tend to satisfy the things we want
(power, wealth, control, etc.) and ignore the watch. We would never say, “I don’t care about
the things of God,” but we often ignore the very things we should pay
attention to. We do this because our
desires drive us.
3. They are deficient in learning
What
does that mean? It means we don’t
know what to watch for. We let
someone else tells us what we should believe or what is important. This problem is not a lack of intelligence;
rather, it is a lack of diligence to understand. Because we are not diligent to understand, we are not even sure
what we are supposed to be looking for.
What are the responsibilities of the
watchman? Let’s look at Ezekiel 33.
Responsibilities
of the Watchman
1.
Receiving the Word
And
the word of the LORD came to me saying,
"Son of man, speak to the sons of your people, and say to them,
'If I bring a sword upon a land, and the people of the land take one man from
among them and make him their watchman;
"Now as for you, son of man, I have appointed you a watchman for
the house of Israel; so you will hear a message from My mouth, and
give them warning from Me. "When
I say to the wicked, 'O wicked man, you shall surely die,' and you do not
speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his
iniquity, but his blood I will require from your hand. (Ezekiel 33:1-2, 7-8)
Very simply, opening God’s Word opens God’s mouth. He is working to woo and warn us. Before we can take watch, we must hear
from God. It is preliminary to taking
watch.
2. Accepting the Assignment
and
he sees the sword coming upon the land, and he blows on the trumpet and warns
the people, (Ezekiel 33:3)
Sometimes we are hesitant to take the watch because we can’t
see ourselves as watchmen. Ezekiel
felt the same way. He was 13 years
old when he was called to be a prophet of God. Repeatedly, the book of Ezekiel repeats the phrase “son of
man,” meaning humans. God gives us
pastors and other leaders; but he also uses normal people to keep watch.
What do they do? They
see and they sound the warning.
3. Responding to the warning
"Yet
your fellow citizens say, 'The way of the Lord is not right,' when it is
their own way that is not right.
(Ezekiel 33:17)
The hardest part of being a watchman is that people don’t
listen. But, do you listen to the
watchmen that God has placed in your life?
Most of us have orchestrated all leadership and accountability out of
our lives. We have carefully planned
and positioned ourselves where we have as little leadership as possible. Why?
We do this because say what Israel said, “It’s not fair.” We say, “I don’t like the way that
watchman blew the horn.” We say,
“That can’t be right.” If we are question
God, we are the one that is not right.
We need accountability.
When is the last time you asked someone “Is this right – should I do
this?” Do you consistently ask
responsible people “Help me evaluate the struggle I’m having.” Are you accepting the watchman that God
has placed in your life or are you avoiding them?
Do you have anyone that you are accountable to?
More often that not, the watchman duties tend to be the little
things. They are daily decisions I
have to make to respond to the Word God gives. How are you doing?
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