Hello and welcome to the Arise Church Podcast.
We are so glad you're here and want to thank you for joining us
today for the audio version of our Sunday morning message.
We want to invite you to join us in person at our Sunday morning
celebration every Sunday at 10 AM.
We are located on Old Jenks Rd. in Apex, NC.
Well, if you have your Bible, why don't you grab it and go to
the book of Ezekiel, The book of Ezekiel.
And as I've been preparing for today's message, I felt like the
Lord kept drawing me back to something that I just felt like
he was teaching me and walking me through that I believe is
very important for us as a church.
I've really have been praying and I believe it's going to
confirm some things or in Bible language, bear witness, confirm
some things that are in you that God's called you to.
So if you're taking notes this morning, you can just title it
this, The Call of a Watchman, the call of a watchman.
And we're going to let scripture detail some of these things.
Also some other materials that I studied as preparing for this,
that all really just confirm what the Scripture says as well.
But I want to start in Ezekiel chapter 3.
Ezekiel chapter 3, verse 17 says this Son of Man, I have made you
a watchman for the House of Israel.
Therefore hear a word from my mouth and give them warning from
me. Let's read it again.
Son of man, God speaking directly to Ezekiel.
I have made you past tense A watchman for the House of
Israel. Therefore hear a word from my
mouth, present tense, and give them warning from me.
And give them warning from me. I have made you a watchman.
This picture of Watchmen, which
was a very real role that would take place within ancient cities
that would even go through Roman times.
And I think we have different versions of that even today,
even in our police force. But this version of a watchman
was very interesting because Watchmen would be perched up in
a high point of a city. They would be placed there and
their idea was guess what was to watch.
Very easy, right? This is good.
You learn something today.
The watchman's role was to watch.
His role was to watch to watch. And then we could say to warn,
to watch and to warn, to watch and to warn.
But listen how God phrases this with Ezekiel.
I have made you a watchman. So don't keep a lookout for the
House of Israel. Therefore here, therefore here
notice how God said that Ezekiel would be able to fulfill his
role as a watchman was to hear was to hear.
That speaks to us today because probably none of you perch
yourself on top of your house at night time.
If you do, let's have a conversation after church, but
none of us probably appoint other people.
You know, I know at the church we don't appoint people to just
walk the grounds or perch themselves on top of the
building physically to keep a lookout for things.
So I think we would relate to more to how God's talking to
Ezekiel right now. He says, I've made you a
watchman, therefore here. I've made you a watchman,
therefore here. In other words, how to Watchmen
nowadays perform their duties. First of all, you have to hear
from God. What is he saying?
Because the warnings that he's talking about here, they came
from him. He was saying a thing.
He was speaking a thing. He was trying to get a message
out wide and clear to who the assignment for Ezekiel was the
House of Israel, the people of God.
These were covenant people. But yet through this time
already, God described his own people as stiff necked.
You know what stiff necked means?
This is picture. I always get a stiff necked.
In fact, how many of you currently have young kids, about
3-4, five years old? Raise your hand.
OK, Cross the room. How many of you have had kids
who are about that age as well? Yeah.
All right. Have you ever tried to put an
unwilling 3 year old into a high chair?
What happens? They get as about as stiff as a
board. I'm not going to do it.
I'm not going in that seat. And then you have to show them
who's boss. But we'll talk about that on a,
that's a for a parenting class we'll do one day.
But that's the picture where God would try to work a thing with
his people, tell them what to do, and they would stiffen up.
I don't want to do that later. He would call that rebellious.
They were rebellious. And so those, that same group of
people is who Ezekiel's called to minister to.
Can you imagine? I've called you a watchman,
Ezekiel, and I want you to hear a word from me and warn the
people. Well, thanks a lot.
Could you at least have sent me to people who are willing to
hear? Nope.
He was called to be a watchman to rebellious people, an unkind
people. By this time, the Israelites
were not really known for being super nice to prophets.
Nowadays, if you, oh, it's the man of God and you know well,
everyone loves the man of God until they start telling them
something they don't want to hear.
That was very true in the Old Testament.
As long as they would speak good words to them and tickle their
ears, everything was good. As soon as you start to bring
correction, they got stiff necked.
So it was in that environment. I think that's important because
as we start to unpack what God's saying to us, if you're not
careful, you think that God always speaks to us in
idealistic situations. In fact, it's the same Ezekiel
that God by the Spirit took him up to a valley of dry bones and
told him to start prophesying to dead things, dry bones.
And I've heard many people, many ministers, many believers, they
will preach a good word until God by the Spirit takes them to
a dead place. And it's like that's where you
really find out if you are made of some steel inside, some
faith, some real faith is can God put you in a dead place and
trust you to prophesied to the dead things or do you have to
have just it all posh and cush? It's like Lord calling me hooked
to Hawaii. Ki Ha was last here last week.
Oh, how tempting to be like Ki Ha.
You got any positions in Hawaii? I'm just kidding.
But in a way, you know, maybe not physically Hawaii, but I
mean, you got anything that's just like perfectly set up.
It's just all the finances are great.
You know, some of you with your jobs, you might think that where
the grass is always greener over there.
And it's like, Lord, couldn't you have called me to that
business? Couldn't you have called me to
that school? Couldn't you have called me to
that church? They got it so made.
It's so easy over there. So no, he didn't call you there.
He said you all Watchmen over here where they need somebody
who will speak even when it's unpopular.
Oh, I'm going to preach good this morning.
If it's just you and me, Mom, we're going to preach this
thing. Therefore here, therefore here.
HEAR, therefore here. Some of us, we are not
fulfilling our role because we're not hearing.
We're not hearing what blocks us from hearing distractions.
The cares of this world choke out.
The word is what God's Jesus taught in Mark chapter 4.
He said the word is sown. The word is sown.
Therefore hear. What do you hear?
The word? The word is sown, but there are
different kinds of soil that the word is sown on.
And one of the soils that the word can't work in is distracted
soil, Choked out soil where weeds come in and they just
choke it out, choke it out, choke it out, choke it out.
Many of us were distracted. We're distracted with our own
needs. God, I need a new car.
God, I need a new house. God, I got to pay those bills.
And God cares about all of those things.
Matthew chapter 633 says Beseek. First the Kingdom of God.
And all these things will be added unto you.
You know, of course, after all these things, the Gentiles seek
that your heavenly Father knows what you need.
I mean, this it's, it's provided for in Scripture, but you got to
seek first the Kingdom of God. So when was the last time you
heard what is God saying about his Kingdom, the work he's
wanting to do? When was the last time God spoke
to you about what's going on in your business, in your area of
influence? And I'm not talking about you
just griping and complaining about where God chose to put you
or your boss that you have. I mean, what if God set you as a
watchman in that place to see, to be a blessing to your
leaders, to your bosses, to your managers?
What if He sent you there to aid them and to be a part of what
God wants to do in that Kingdom? But if you're distracted by all
the nonsense, all the water cooler talk, then how can you
fulfill your assignment to be a watchman?
Have your ears open, God, what are you saying regarding this?
Regarding my business, regarding my school, regarding my job?
Oh, this is so important. I believe that God set more
Watchmen to be in place than are actually fulfilling their
assignment. I think we have many Watchmen
who fell asleep. They're asleep on the job, and
this is a crucial hour. Can you imagine?
It's just all the Watchmen of this age and this time where we
need to hear from God. We need truth spoken.
We need to know what it is, what's happening.
We need to discern the signs of the times.
What if all the Watchmen just decided to take a nap?
We would be in darkness. We wouldn't be hearing.
It's time to hear. Amen.
Well, let's turn over to Ezekiel 33.
God speaks more to to him about this assignment.
Ezekiel chapter 33 again, the word of the Lord came listen to
this. This is very important because
if you over make it literal when it comes to being a watchman,
you'll think, well, I didn't see anything but most of the current
ways that we're a watchman is we hear things God speaks to us.
So listen to this. This is Ezekiel, and again the
word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, speak to the
children of of your people, and say to them, When I bring the
sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man
from their territory, and make him their Watchmen, When he sees
the sword coming upon land, if he blows the trumpet and warns
the people, verse 4, then whoever hears the sound of the
trumpet, and does not take warning, if the sword comes and
takes him away, his blood shall be on his own head.
He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take
warning. His blood shall be upon himself,
but he who takes warning will save his life.
But watch verse 6. But what if the watchman sees
the sword coming, and does not blow the trumpet, and the people
are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from
among them? He is taken away in his
iniquity, but His blood I will require the watchman's hand.
So you, son of man, I have made you a watchman for the House of
Israel. He repeats himself.
Therefore you shall hear a word from my mouth and warn them for
me. Underline that if you have a
physical Bible, or maybe highlight it in your app, and
warn them for me. Warn them for me, warn them for
me. Well, if I'm going to be warned,
God has to speak to me. Then you are very susceptible to
missing the warning because God will use other people to warn
you. No one wants to say Amen to
that, but it's true. Many times warnings will come
through other people. In fact, most times things you
didn't see or didn't hear, you don't have the position that
they have. You don't have the perspective
they have. You're not hearing what they
hear. So thank God he's speaking to
some other people who He's placed in a different position
than you to warn you. Hello, This is very important
because we live in an age where everyone wants to be same, same.
You know, I watch it, I watch it in church life where everybody
wants to come and be buddy, buddy, buddy buddy with each
other. And sometimes they want to be
buddy buddy with me. And I want to be friends and
friendly. But I also don't want to usurp
my role by sometimes having to hold a different position just
within this context, within the body of a rise church.
So there are times where for me as senior pastor, I'm going to
see things that you don't see. But if you think we're just
same, same, same, you're going to miss sometimes when I warn
you and I speak things that you need to hear, but if you're
like, well, I didn't hear that from him myself, then you'll
miss the warning. Pride will blind us.
I've had to watch this over the years.
You know that we had a senior pastor.
I was there for 18 years. I worked with every single one
of his family members. I worked up close and personal
with many of them. I mean literally his brothers,
his wife, his son, his daughter was my assistant first season.
His son-in-law was my assistant first season.
When we moved to the East Coast, I thought, OK, I got a break.
No, I loved them. But you know, you're just like,
I know this whole family and you know, family has family stuff.
So every once in awhile it would be like, I feel like I'm in the
middle of a family conflict. So I thought, oh, I'm going to
come to the East Coast and I get on this staff with our our
denomination and the district. And guess who joins our staff?
His brother, you know, but that level of comfortability,
sometimes I could see it even in California, if I wasn't careful,
I wouldn't hear when I was supposed to be hearing through
him. And I had to hear even if there
was a warning that in that moment, he's not buddy, buddy,
buddy. He's he's a watchman set up and
he's warning us as a body. Usually it wasn't to me
directly. Usually it was just to the
church, and that's very important that we all understand
and respect. There are different roles, there
are different perspectives, there are different places that
each of us hold. And if you'll respect it and
receive from it, it'll help you. It'll help you.
That's why we have a pastoral team, because you know what?
I can't see everything we need to help.
I need help. I need help seeing stuff that I
don't necessarily from my background or my culture or
whatever. I may not see it from the same
angle. So guess what?
I will appoint Watchmen. And in our church there are no
self appointed Watchmen. Well I'm going to preach this
real good in a second. Like self appointed
intercessors. Well God sent me here to
intercede for a rise church. Well I don't even know your name
so how could you be appointed at our church?
And a significant role, well, is that to direct mom, just give me
a no, this is this is important. You know why?
Because stuff gets weird when it gets out of order.
And so people come in and they self appoint themselves as an
apostle. It's like, how are you an
apostle? Or they come in and they self
appoint themselves as as a prophet.
We had someone to come in the church one time here and they
thought they were a prophet here.
And so they thought it was OK that in the middle of their our
service, they'd come and they just lie down on their side in
the front row like they were Isaiah the prophet.
And we had to tell them, stand up and please go back to your
seat. They didn't want to hear what we
had to say. So they left.
And you know what? I was OK with that.
Because if you can't be in order here, if you don't understand
there's order here, then you can't stay here.
And guess what? The rest of the church feels
safe that there's finally somebody who will set boundaries
and not let kookaboo people. That's a word.
Kookaboo. You can just say it.
Kookaboo, people. It's a word, right?
Thank you. It's a softer word than crazy.
Crazy people. Take over what God wants to do.
Come on, wave your hand. If you're listening to me this
morning. This is important.
And people who don't like that, they will leave and that's OK.
So for me, there are appointed places.
There are people who are appointed to intercede here.
There are people who are appointed to be Watchmen here.
We need all of that. And there's an order to it.
There's an order to it, and there's an order to it.
And God set this order here with Ezekiel and God's telling
Ezekiel, you can take this role, but just be warned, This is what
this role means to you, that if I speak to you and you stay
silent, their blood is on your hands.
Now this is important that we understand that lest the New
Testament, it says, let not many among you desire to be teachers
because then on them is a greater judgement because
sometimes, especially when you do have very strange or, you
know, fleshly structures of human power and there's all
these dynamics. And so you do have people vying
for positions and could sometimes be in church, it could
sometimes be in denominations. And everyone thinks that if you
have more power that there's, you know, it's more cush for
you. But God has a way of setting
that straight. He says, oh, no, I'll put you in
an influential place. But if you go in that
influential place and you don't do what I tell you to do, you
got blood on your hands. Just a healthy fear.
God just starts to take root again.
And you're like, oh, OK, lest you get misunderstood about what
pastoral ministry looks like, just remember, if you don't
obey, there's blood. That's real talk.
That's Bible. So I'm painting this context
because I feel the Lord has been pressing me and I believe He'll
press our church into situations where we have to remember who we
answer to. Because culture will press
against this assignment. What's popular will press
against this assignment. Public opinion polls will press
against this assignment, and if you forget that if God tells you
to warn of a thing and you don't warn of a thing, you answer to
Him, and that will be greatly more important to you than
whether public opinion has turned against you.
I'll give you an example just of every time.
Recently I preached on Israel, people leave the church.
That's true. And I and I and I don't like it.
As a pastor, you want to to protect people.
In fact, someone sent me a message who you know, I think is
in my view is either misunderstood what I said or is
deceived themselves, but just sent me two word message free
Palestine. And but that's not unusual.
That's that's popular out there. But I had no my assignment and I
have to stick to my assignment real time.
Every time I stand up in the pulpit, I have to remember who I
answer to. And if I genuinely believe that
God says a thing about a thing and I don't warn you the people
that God's entrusted to me and those who watch us online and I
cower to that kind of pressure. Then there is not just not just
am I relinquishing my responsibility.
It's it's graver than that I have blood on my hands.
This is important, this is important.
I think it's important that you know that I take it that
seriously. And that's just one of many
topics, one of many things that the Bible says that is very
unpopular today. Just to update a family member
that I talked to you about recently that go to a very
popular church in North Carolina who has very popular worship,
who has a very popular preacher goes to that church.
The church followed up with this person who's a family member of
mine who is in a homosexual marriage, told them that, you
know, we don't recognize your marriage, but we don't believe
this very popular evangelical church says, but we don't
believe that your lifestyle impacts your salvation.
So guess what's on their hands. And lest you think I just sat
there, I made a phone call and have yet to receive a phone call
back. And I will follow up with them
again because I'm more concerned, concerned about this
family member soul than I am with that church's feelings.
And there at least hear from one person.
You're wrong. Well, first of all, I will seek
to understand. Did you say that?
And do you mean that? If you do, then you then then we
have a problem. And I feel the the necessity to
correct that. This is called being a watchman.
This is called doing our responsibility.
When it feels very tense, you can, I can feel the tension in a
room right now. Everybody just breathe.
For me, it's not as tense because I already decided this
stuff a long time ago. I already gave myself over to
this type of leadership, this type of pastoring, this type of
of commitment long time ago. But now I'm experiencing it real
time. What I prepared for years ago, I
prepared years ago, but now I have to live it out.
And so yes, I made a phone call to this very popular church and
we'll see how they respond. And if they don't respond, then
Lord lead me to what I do next because I have very big
concerns. Because the Bible says that in
the last days that there will be great deception among people,
that many will fall away, that even some of the elect will fall
away. Put that into your eternal
security Calvinism and smoke it. You know what I'm saying?
Like the Bible says that even some of the elect will be
deceived and fall away. So what becomes the job of
people, ministers, preachers, Watchmen in the last days?
Well, you better not do anything that causes people to fall away,
to turn against God, to be deceived, to go to go into
doctrines of demons, to go into fables.
All of this is New Testament. This is all warnings within the
the New Testament. Apostle Paul would write about
it and others where it was warning us.
This was this will be the time that you will live in.
And I'm telling you right now, we are in those times be do not
be deceived. We are in those times right now.
We're in the time where they call what's right, wrong, What's
wrong, right? I mean, when you look at the
fact that someone could be shot in the neck in front of 3000
young adults and on social media across the world, and then we
debate about it. Unbelievable.
Hello. I mean, I hope there's more
agreement here than online, Yes. So who will stand in these days?
Who will guard their post? Who will hear what it is the
Lord is saying and say that this is an assignment on a Rice
church and it's costly. It'll be costly to be associated
here. It'll be costly because we put
it all online, shut the camera off.
I'm just kidding. No, I've had many times where
real time, I'm remembering this is live streamed and internally
I cannot be swayed. I cannot be swayed.
I have to process real time. And I'm using myself an example
because I want to fortify your own commitment to what would you
do if you were the person. I've had to fortify my own
commitment when I'm preaching that someone would stand up real
time and leave because they don't like what's being
preached. Will you cower when it's
unpopular? Will you draw back because it's
no longer drawing a crowd? Will you draw back because the
family no longer wants to do Thanksgiving at your house?
Will you draw back because not only do they not want to do it
at your house, you're not invited?
Is this to relate to anybody? Some of y'all probably lived
this before people you used to be very close to didn't want to
hear it. But the Bible says that will
happen when you do your role. He's giving not just this
clarity so that Ezekiel would understand you better blow the
trumpet because the blood will be on your hands.
He's giving Ezekiel example that there will be times when you do
your job and they don't listen, and you need to know what to do
with your conscience in those moments so that you know it
wasn't on you. And you're going to need to
choose to stand again and do your job again in the midst of
people who choose not to hear. That takes fortification, that
takes strength, that takes faith.
And we're in the days, we're not just me, but every person who
calls Jesus Lord of their life will have to stand and give
account for this type of stuff. This is where it gets very real.
Very, very real is Isaiah chapter 62, verse 6.
I have set Watchmen on your walls, old Jerusalem.
They shall never hold their peace, day or night.
You who make mention of the Lord, do not keep silent and
give him no rest till he establishes, until he makes
Jerusalem a praise and the earth.
I have set Watchmen on your walls, old Jerusalem, they shall
never, never, never hold their peace.
Listen day or night. You who make mention of the
Lord, do not keep silent. I have a message for something
else. Silence is no longer an option,
and somehow we've gotten lulled into an HR mentality that the
thing that with consumes more than a third of our life about 8
hours of the day. About a third of our life we
give away to HR departments that tell us what you can and cannot
say. There's a problem because will
you speak when God says to speak, even if it's not in the
manual? This is easy questions, by the
way, so far because you're not even, they're not even a test
yet. This is just thinking about it.
You can feel, you can feel how hard that is.
But this is important. I remember in California one
time, lady came after I was preaching one day she came up to
me. I'm probably preaching a message
similar to this because I've been in Watchmen for a few years
preaching messages like this for a few years.
So she came up to me and she was working in the Correctional
Facility for the state of California.
She wanted to come up and she was wrestling through the fact
that part of her job as a nurse in this Correctional Facility
was to use taxpayer dollars to facilitate transition surgeries
for inmates. Welcome to California, but
that's California is just one place.
This happens all over. So she's coming and she's
asking, what do I do? What do I do?
You need to hear what God is
saying for you to do. I mean, I could tell her what I
would do, but I told her you need to hear what God's telling
you to do because that's wicked. So will you partner with
wickedness? And she, she understood like she
was coming in a very humble way, but she knew what was in front
of her. Lose your job or do what you're
told. Lose your job or do what you're
told. Later she came and told me that
she she chose to do do what God told her to do and she walked
away from the job on her own accord and she got a better job.
Why? Because I've never seen the
righteous for second forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.
This is where the rubber meets the road y'all.
This is where God starts to hold to account those of us who have
sang all the right worship songs and quoted all the right
scriptures. It's like, OK well now let's do
it. You make mention to the Lord.
Do not keep silent. Do not keep silent.
Do not keep silent, Do not keep
silent. You don't need to wait for your
Co worker to bring up religion for you to share your faith.
Do not keep silent. If we really believe that
Jesus's turn is return is imminent, how could we not just
make sure that those around us have had a chance to make Jesus
Lord of their life? I'll give you an example of how
we're adjusting things. Even our own church.
I talked to Mary Beth. She's a preschool director.
We have a part time preschool that we that we we're in charge
of. It's called rise preschool.
It's on our EIN. We hire all the staff, and Mary
Beth, who's on our church staff, is the director of it.
But you know, we have more than half of the people who come are
of Indian descent. And so most of them from our
vantage point are probably Hindu.
But I told Mary Beth, yes, in the classrooms, we teach the
kids about Jesus and all that's good.
We're planting seeds, all that's good.
But when we do family presentations, guess what we're
going to do now? We're going to preach the
Gospel. And could it mean that they may
not want to come to the preschool?
Yes, but I fear God, like God forbid that we as a church go to
the great white throne room and we realized we had hundreds of
families come through over the years through our preschool in
our care. Literally sit in the seat you're
sitting and to watch a presentation from their children
on the stage that I'm using right now and they never hear
the gospel directly in an invitation to respond to that
gospel. God forbid.
Hello, God forbid it's at risk of our own enrollment, our
finances. There's risk, but you know what
I, I believe the Lord will see to it that all of that is
covered when we do his mission and we do his assignment.
And I believe he'll do that for you.
I believe when you step out of faith, he will cover you.
This is where Psalm 91 comes into great view. 1000 will fall
at your side and 10,000 at your right hand, but it will not come
near you. Hello, Many, many, many
testimonies of people that I've seen over the years.
I've watched it with my own mom in her in the business that
she's a part of, a national conglomerative business.
And I watched the Lord just maneuver her through these
different policies and how she's had to navigate those time after
time after time. And God would just many times
just hide her under his wings. But it came at risk because
usually the hiding came from her obedience, stepping out and
doing a thing that seemed risky at the time against some of the
policies, against some of the HR things, not in rebellion, but as
righteousness and righteousness. I cannot do that thing.
I cannot put my pronouns on my e-mail signature.
Because if I put the pronouns on my e-mail signature, then you'll
think that I think there are more than one there.
There are more than two genders. Or you'll think that I think you
can change your gender. So God forbid that I enable your
deception by giving place to that, Oh God, this is real this
morning. I love this kind of preaching.
This is important because when you're under the sway, that's
again where the Bible says that there would be many under the
sway, Many under the sway of the spirit of this age.
That's how it looks. If it were obvious to us you
would reject it from the beginning, but it creeps in.
It creeps in. It's like, oh, I just want to be
a good employee. It creeps in by miss applying
scripture. The Bible says obey those who
rule over you and be a submissive.
So therefore I just do whatever I told even if it's ungodly.
That's that is not right that miss applies scripture and it
ignores many other scriptures like Daniel who was told don't
pray, open his windows wide and prayed 3 times a day.
Was he ungodly? No, he was standing for
righteousness. He was doing what God told him
to do more than what the authorities told him to do.
That's what it takes to be a watchman.
Isaiah chapter 21, verse 6 For thus says the Lord said to me,
go set a watchman, let him declare what he sees.
Go set a watchman, let him declare what he sees.
I want to read a basically a condensed version of a passage
that I felt like it was really good.
Synopsis of the role of a watchman.
Listen to this. The watchman, stationed on high
vantage points like city walls or towers, observed and alerted
the inhabitants of approaching dangers, including enemy forces,
natural disasters, or other threats.
By the way, as I talk, I want you to listen through the lens.
What is God saying to you? What?
How would He have you apply this to your own life?
So they're perched high, they observe, and they alert the
inhabitants of approaching dangers, enemy forces, natural
disasters, or other threats. Their primary duty was as an
early warning sign and system with a clearview of the
surrounding landscape, including roads, approaching armies, and
potential dangers. Constant vigilance.
Catch that constant vigilance allowed them to promptly
identify and report any signs of trouble.
In case of a threat, they sounded alarms or signals to
alert the city's inhabitants, enabling them to take defensive
measures or seek refuge. Watchmen also facilitated
communication and coordination within the city, relaying
information about threats to military commanders and other
relevant personnel for informed decision making and strategic
responses. Preventing surprise attacks was
crucial. Watchmen detected enemy
movements at a distance, giving defenders time to prepare.
Time to prepare Beyond security, They meant monitored trade and
commerce, observing caravans, traders, and travelers, ensuring
legitimate business while keeping an eye out for
suspicious activities. Suspicious activities.
Watchmen monitored military threats and natural disasters,
alerting city dwellers to take precautions or evacuate.
Their presence on city walls. Symbolize authority and
preparedness, conveying the city's vigilance and readiness
to defend itself. The demanding role of Watchmen
required constant attention, especially during heightened
tension or conflict. They were chosen for their sharp
eyesight, keen observation, observation skills, and ability
to remain alert for extended periods.
This is very important because some of us, where God has placed
you, you have dropped your vigilance.
And one of the key responsibilities of why even God
put you where he's placed you is for you to stay vigilant, to
case, to stay constantly aware. And so some of us, I think where
the Lord would be pressing on you is to up your consistency.
Maybe you come in waves. Maybe it's like you have a
couple seasons a year, or if you go to a good conference or if
you hear a good message or if you have a great conversation,
now all of a sudden you're aware or maybe something breached your
house or breached your own life and maybe it startled you and it
got you paying attention again. That's not good enough for
Watchmen. For Watchmen, we need to be
consistent, constantly alert, knowing constantly what is
happening on the landscape, where are we, what's coming up
ahead? In fact, there are a few
examples that I won't take the time to read, but where literal
Watchmen came and they would warn or they would tell of who's
coming up ahead on the road. And sometimes they would, they
would yell out. They said is it peace?
And they, their job was to discern is the, is the person or
the group coming towards us of peace or the enemies?
Well, that's part of our role as well, paying attention, paying
attention to who's coming into proximity to your family.
Not everybody who seems to be good is good.
Hello. Some people are wolves in.
So who looks out for that? Who watches?
Who makes sure that we're not being lulled into something that
we're not supposed to be lulled into?
A family relationship, a family partnership, a business
partnership. There's a way that seems right
to a man, but in the end, it leads to destruction.
We need to have watchfulness. We need to be consistent about
that because you know the enemy, he's watchful and he will wait
until you fall asleep. In fact, he will help you fall
asleep. Some of the distractions that
come toward you, they're not from you and they're not just
life. Well, that's just life.
No, not all of that. Just like some of that's demonic
and it was sent to distract you, sent to divert your attention.
If you could look that way, you'll miss that He's actually
coming in another way. This is very important.
You know, as a pastor, there's been many times where I have
felt the clarity that there would be something of a tussle
going on over in the area. But I'll know just by the Holy
Spirit, even more Ezekiel, you know, he said hear a word, hear
a word. So I'll hear the Lord said me.
That's not the real issue. Don't pay attention to that
because my inclination is want to go over there and run and fix
it. Don't want that to happen here.
We need to fix. But I'll know if I look that way
and spend my time over there. He's really working on this
thing over here. Very, very important for us to
know the difference, to hear from Him, to know what our role
is. You know, one of the things that
I was studying about Watchmen, their role wasn't to then slide
over and then to be king of the city.
Their job was just to relay the message.
And what the king or the leaders of that area did with it was not
their job anymore. You say what you need to say and
then you'd go back about your business to do your job up top.
And if you get your rolls twisted, you're going to
disqualify yourself. Because your job isn't to go to
the business tomorrow and be like, God spoke to me and you
know, you're unrighteous. You know what I'm saying?
But you could go and you could warn of them, say, hey, boss, I
see some things that could make our business vulnerable.
Can I share them with you? And he may or she may say, yes,
please share them with me. And then once you share them,
your job is not to follow up a week later and say, did you
implement what I told you to come on, Some of you, some of
you control freaks, that's going to be a little tough for you.
You want to do it, You want to do it all.
But you know what? Do your job, deliver the message
and then roll out. It's their job.
Because if you're not careful, you'll get yourself in trouble
by stepping in areas that weren't yours to step into.
I know even within church life, within our denomination, there's
been times through the gods given me instruction to deliver
a hard word to some of the leaders within the denomination.
But where I overstep is if I start to try to make them do
what I told them instead of just deliver the word and butt out.
That's good right there. I encourage myself because I
have the temptation just like anybody to overstep the
overstep. And so it's good to clarify the
lanes. Listen to what Ellen White said.
And I, I wrestled whether to share this this because she was
the Co founder of the 7th day Adventist.
By the way, in researching this, she's the most translated author
in the world and she has some really, I think interesting
points of view. And especially on this.
I thought it was worthy of us talking about because 1 of it is
about the role of pastors being a watchman.
Listen to this. It is the privilege of the
Watchmen on the walls of Zion to live so near to God and to be
susceptible to the impressions of His Spirit that He can work
through them to tell men and women of their peril and point
them to the place of safety. Faithfully are they to warn them
of the sure result of transgression, and faithfully
are they to safeguard the interests of the Church.
At no time may they relax their vigilance.
Theirs is a work requiring the exercise of every faculty of the
being. In trumpet tones their voices
are to be lifted, and never are they to sound one wavering,
uncertain note. Not for wages are they to labor,
but because they cannot do otherwise, because they realize
that there is a woe upon them if they fail to preach the gospel
chosen of God, sealed with the blood of consecration, they are
to rescue men and women from impending destruction.
Listen to what she wrote about the church and our role as a
whole as the watchman. God has appointed the church as
a watchman to have a jealous care over the youth and
children, and as a Sentinel to see the approach of the enemy
and give warning of danger. But the church does not realize
the situation. She is sleeping on guard in this
time of peril. She was writing this in the late
1800s. In this time of peril, fathers
and mothers must arouse and work As for life, or many of the
youth will be forever lost. She saw that the role of the
watchman was for the sake of the next generation.
She saw that the role of the church being a watchman was to
make sure the next generation stayed the track of the Lord.
And she was calling the church even at this time to arise, to
arise, arise, wake up. And about two months ago in
prayer and a Wednesday night, just like the Spirit of the Lord
took me and it was like all I could pray was wake up, wake up,
wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up.
We're in the in the spirit, just praying that the alarm bells
would go off, that the alarms would go off.
So when I read this, I'm like, oh, that's what it was.
It was a call of Watchmen. It was a call of being awake in
the hour where it's easy to be asleep.
And here she's calling for the why I didn't put two and two
together, but yet here we are. Even on a day where we're
celebrating some things going on our kids ministry and the Lord
would be saying, wake up, wake up, wake up, wake up.
Last week on Sunday night, during the same time as our
youth service, we gather the parents together.
And as parents, what are we? What were we doing?
We're sitting around talking about different ways that we
need to be vigilant, ways that we need to be alert, ways that
we can encourage one another. Why?
Because we're Watchmen for our house.
The church isn't a watchman for my children.
I'm the watchman for my children.
And the church could partner with me and the church can help
me. But the primary watchman for my
kids is me and Lilia. And if you have children, you're
the primary watchman for them as well.
So we just, we've seen this. The responsibility of Watchmen
is to warn of attacks, discern between threat and peace, to
know the appropriate sounds for the moments to blow the trumpet
when there is a threat, to stay awake through the night when
others are asleep, and it is to not be distracted.
I believe prophetically God is setting up Watchmen and families
and businesses and churches, including right here as at
Arise, that our church is a watchman in cities and states in
the United States of America. Interestingly, part of the
assignment on my life has been this and will continue to be
this. But when I was a youth, you know
what I played as an instrument, a trumpet.
And I took on playing trumpet when I was in 6th grade.
God wasn't, I mean, he probably was speaking to me, but I was.
I don't know why I picked trumpet at the time, honestly.
Maybe you remember why I picked. I just, she said, no, I don't
remember. I just remember I picked up
trumpet and then from 6th to 12th grade I played trumpet.
It wasn't till many years later that I realized, Oh my goodness,
God was literally putting in front of me what my spiritual
role would be throughout the rest of my life.
I didn't know that even my propensity towards this
instrument and my propensity to be a part of learning how to
play and how to make these certain sounds and what that
would take. I had no clue that that would
one day translate over where God would say I've sent you a
watchman. You need to know when to blow
the trumpet, You need to know how to make certain sounds.
You need to know how to be confident in it.
Had no idea that for six years he would be training me of how
to do that in his Kingdom. Some of you I pray that the Lord
connect dots of even how he is used other things to train you
prepare you that you would know that it was for this hour.
It's not wasted. It's not like something that
well that was cool. I just you know, I don't know
why I did that. I pray you do know why you did
that. I pray that he connects those
dots for you in Jesus name. I wrote this down and I believe
it was under the unction of the Holy Spirit.
God is called Arise Church. Rob, will you come as well?
God is called Arise church as a watchman in our city state and
for the country for this time. Let me say that again, God has
called, God has called Arise Church as a watchman in Apex
and, and, and I would say the triangle, but specifically Apex,
a watchman in Apex and in North Carolina.
I believe that the Lord is calling us and we'll place us in
positions where we're to be a watchman for this state.
Many things come through the legislature.
That's just 15 minutes down the road that we need to be a
watchman about. Who's paying attention to this?
Who's watchful of it? Who's seeing what's being
pressed in, even through demonic spirits, to try to infiltrate
their way into our state? Who's paying attention of what's
happening in the Board of Education, both for our state
but also for Wake County? Who's watchful of the curriculum
that our children is being taught day in, day out?
God's called us to do that. That's why He placed us here.
That's why he called us a Rice church.
That's why He's caused some of you to move from other parts of
the country. And you're like, I don't really
know why I'm here. I'm telling you why you're here
right now. Clarity received.
Remember, I throw it, you catch it.
Some of you, you need to be catching right now because
you've been asking why am I here?
Why am I at a rise church? I'm giving you clarity right now
because our church is called as a watchman.
As some of you, you already have this propensity, you're
watchful. I love, you know, it's so funny.
Mary Beth, our preschool director, she is like an
investigator and anybody who knows about her, if you need to
know anything about anything, she will find it out.
She will research it, she will look it up and she will let us
know what's going on. You know why?
Because God put the spirit of a watchman inside of her, that
propensity towards it, and because you could just dismiss
it as well, that's just who she is.
But God chose that. He put that and He placed it
right here. I think about Francesca, that
there were many times at the Rock in California, in our
previous church where someone would walk in the door and we
would know they ain't right. And we don't know everything
about them. We just know they ain't right.
And we just catch eyes. And then just a few of us, Yoli
was part of that and we were Watchmen and we just would go to
prayer. And then somehow, you know,
either that person got ministered to or they had to go.
So there's a reason why we're all here at this time and in
this place. So I am prophesying over us,
Arise Church, that God will be setting us up together and
unique individuals as Watchmen, which will at the appointed time
speak up and speak out for all to hear, elected leaders, policy
makers and others from the Apex City Hall to the Raleigh
Legislature and the Governor's House to the White House.
I will prophecy it today. You can mark it in the calendar
on October, whatever it is today.
Is it 11th, 12th. Praise the Lord, October the
12th, 2025. This is the day where we
acknowledge it and we say, yes, Lord, we will play our part in
this and the way we may at this moment be small.
We are mighty and we are obedient.
And I believe that He will use obedience more than size every
day of the week. And so He will use even your
obedience. You may say, you know what?
I'm I'm just a stay at home mom. I don't do that much.
I don't have that much blah, blah, blah.
And all these excuses that might make you feel like you discount
yourself. And yet God will choose all of
that and he'll set you in a high place because you were obedient.
You obeyed Him when he told you how to parent those children.
You obeyed him when he told you what to do in your workplace or
in your job or in your career. And because you obeyed him, he
will set you high above all the others around you.
Are you all hearing me this morning?
I feel this so strongly. I feel this so strongly.
Like the Lord is calling people up and he's saying who will
watch for me? Who will watch over their
family? Who will watch over this city?
Who will watch over Apex? Who will do the research?
Who will look it up? Who will find out what laws are
they pressing? What are they allowing down into
Main Street? What events are they allowing?
Are they going to allow these drag Queens to go and teach our
preschoolers in the middle of our city?
No. And just for it to slide under
our watch? No.
Will they allow this craziness to be taught into our schools?
Will they allow the the the laws to be passed without prayers
being lifted or legislators being confronted?
No. If it if it's in our sphere that
God's called us to, it'll be addressed in Jesus name.
It will be addressed in Jesus name.
It'll be addressed in prayer. It'll be addressed in phone
calls or emails. But you will hear what thus
saith the Lord to this region in Jesus name, some of you whom God
is sending out. And maybe this isn't your
forever landing place. Maybe he'll send you somewhere
else. Remember this message when
you're sent there, that with that assignment comes this
message. He's sending you with clarity.
He's sending you with his word. He's sending you with this
assignment in Jesus name. We're in the times where this
matters more than ever. We're in the times where you
can't go anymore off of someone to saying that this a Christian
Church, you better go and if you're listening to people
online, you better understand. Are they saying what the Bible
says or they saying what's culturally appropriate or they
saying what will get them more views or who knows the motives,
but what are what are they saying?
This is an important hour. So will you please stand to your
feet and if this resonates with you and you're willing to yet
again commit yourself to the Lord to be the watchman for
where he's called you to. Would you lift your hands, lift
your hands and as you lift them, just begin to tell the Lord
Lord, here I am. Send me.
We want to thank you again for joining us for the Arise Church
podcast. We hope you were encouraged by
what you heard today. You can find
us.online@arisechurchn-c.com and on Instagram at Arise Church NC.
If you need prayer or support or are interested in learning more
about Arise Church, we encourage you to connect with us online or
in person at our Sunday morning service.
Thank you and God bless.