Before we get into today’s message, please read Ezekiel 3:15-19.

This message is being spoken to every born-again child of God. During this life, God will bring some people to us and He will require us to witness to them somehow. But to be able to witness to these people, there is something very important we must do. Unless we sit where others sit, such as in this passage of Ezekiel, then we cannot fully understand or know that person’s situation and pain.

We have a generation wanting to build a ministry.

But this generation wants power without pain, testimonies without tests, victories without battles. They want to see healings, but don’t want to experience sickness. They want to have peace without pressure. This generation of ministries wants to win the lost, but they don’t want to love them or touch their hearts.

However, to reach this generation, we need more than a suit, a tie, and a microphone.

To touch this generation, we have to do as Ezekiel did and sit where they sit and experience their pain. We have to feel their hurts and understand each other’s storms and victories. We cannot be untouchable and be effective in ministry, change lives, and see broken hearts mend. If we are interested in doing anything for God, we have to be able to be touched and moved by situations.

So, here’s a question I’m sure we all have at some point in our Christian walk: “Why me?”

Why are we hurting so badly? Why is our family suffering? Why is our load so heavy, and why are we crying all the time? Let me answer these questions for you. You are going though these things because you are touchable. God is not going to allow things to break you, but He will make it possible for life to touch you.

After all, how can we help anyone if we’ve never cried or been broken before? How can we help someone if our lives have never been tested? To be an effective vessel in these end times, we have to be touched by pain, hate, the voice of God and the silence of God. We will have to be touched by reality.

I’ve been in many situations that allowed me to have sat where other people sit now. I know what it’s like to cry over loved ones bound by addiction. I know what it feels like to wake up and hear the voice of God telling me which way to go, but I also know what it’s like to wake up with a burden so heavy that I just wanted to stay in bed and cover my head up. I know the pain of losing someone I love to cancer. I know the fears and pressures of doctor’s reports. I know what it’s like to pray and get answers, and I also know what it’s like to pray and hear nothing. I know what it’s like to feel forgotten, used, and thrown away.  I have sat where others sit.

But I am still here.

Yes, I cried and felt fear and worry. But I got my fight back. I started fasting and praying. I made it through and still loved the Lord. Bitterness and hatred didn’t take over my life. God moved for me. And the very same God that moved in my times of trial will move for you in your situations!

God has trusted you to sit where others sit.

You have experienced healing because you have experienced sickness. You’ve known peace and pain, deliverance and discouragement, victory and disappointment, blessings and burdens, strength and stress, happiness and hate. God will not waste any of it. Because you have sat where others sit, and because you are still here, how much more of a witness can you be to those who think they won’t make it through their trials? God has chosen you for such a time as this!

I want to leave you with this poem I found.

I was hungry
And you formed a humanity club to discuss my hunger.
Thank you.
I was in prison
And you crept off quietly to your chapel to pray for my release.
Thank you.
I was naked
And in your mind you debated the morality of my appearance.
I was sick
And you knelt and you thanked God for your own health.
I was homeless
And you preached to me of the spiritual shelter of the love of God.
I was lonely
And you left me alone to pray for me.
You seem so holy
So close to God.
But I’m still hungry
And lonely
And cold.
So where have the prayers gone?
What have they done?
What does it profit a man to page through his book of prayers
When the rest of the world
Is crying for his help?

How can we help others if we do not become a vessel for the Lord to work through us? How can we help them if we do not sit where they sit and understand their pain and pressure? When we go through trials and remain faithful to the Lord, we become a witness of God’s love, compassion, and His faithfulness to us. Other people can know and understand that He who kept us through trials can and will keep them through their situations as well.

Thank you for reading, and God bless you, Dear Friend!

Pastor Anthony Wynn