You Were Made for This

You Were Made for This
Ezekiel 15:1-8
July 12-13, 2026

Welcome, everyone joining us online. We're back in the book of Ezekiel. Would you all open your Bibles to Ezekiel 15:1, title of our message, "You Were Made For This." God has very important word for us through these Scriptures today. Of course, we cover the other verses around this at our midweek, verse-by-verse, chapter-by-chapter service. By the way, thank you for giving us a little time off. We had our grandson here visiting for a couple of weeks, so we got to spend time with him. Of course, our granddaughter is here from college, and she brought her boyfriend. We like him. He's majoring in theology. Yes. Definitely wins point with Grandpa.

Anyway, great to see what God is doing in their lives. Thanks for the time off. Let's pray and receive from God's Word together. Lord, thank you so much for sending your word to reveal to us your heart after us, to bless us, to show us the way of life. God, we open to receive from you today. Pour out your Spirit of life. Meet us in this place, we pray. In Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen.

As I mentioned, now Ezekiel is a prophet to Israel, but in Babylon, in exile, they have come through the tragedy, the fire of seeing their nation destroyed, losing everything they've ever held dear, marched 700 miles to a foreign land, far from the glory of the land of Israel. Yes, they've come through a fire, but what will come of it? How will they respond to it? That is the question. Will they become angry, bitter? Will they blame God for their troubles? Many do when they go through a fire, go through a trouble. It makes them think that God doesn't love them. "If God loved me, then why would He allow me to go through these troubles at all?"

God means to use this trouble and this difficulty for a purpose. He intends to bring a work of transformation in them. That is the great theme of Ezekiel. He intends to put something into them and remove something out of them. That is what spiritual transformation is about. Put something into the soul, and also take something away, and remove that heart of stone that He speaks of. Notice, for example, in Ezekiel 11:19, we read it before. "I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and I will take that heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a new heart." That's what God is doing in us today.

In fact, it's one of the major themes of the book of Ezekiel. All right, here we are in chapter 15, "And the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel--" He gives this word through an illustration, an analogy, you might say, word picture that the people would surely understand. He will speak here using that word picture of one of the most important issues that they would face, and frankly, many people face. He's going to answer one of the most important questions almost every person eventually asks. Why am I here? What is the purpose of my life?

Some people spend years searching for an answer, but here's what we need to see. You were made in the image of God, and the answer to that question comes from the heart of the one who made you in His image. Many people don't look there to find an answer. They look for a successful career, or pursue wealth or adventure, or education, or fame. The person can obtain all of those things and still come right back to the same question. "Why am I here? Is this all there is? Is there something more? Was I made for something greater than simply existing, going through life, just surviving?"

In answering this question, He intends to restore this people to the purpose for why they exist. Something is deeply wrong here. Something is deeply wrong in their hearts. They loved the land, but they forgot the one who gave it. They were religious, but their hearts had become cold. They became meaningless sticks of withered vine wood. That's what He's going to show. Meaningless, empty. God uses, in chapter 15, a word picture of something so ordinary that everyone listening would immediately understand it. He speaks to a grapevine.

I. The Purpose of a Grapevine is to Produce Grapes

Now, first, the illustration might seem so simple. You wonder, why would God devote a prophetic message to a grapevine? That's because most of us don't think of vineyards the way the people of Israel did. Vineyards were everywhere in the world in those days. They knew exactly what a grapevine looked like. They knew how much work it was to cultivate one. They knew how valuable a vineyard could be at the time of harvest. They also knew-- now, most of us rarely stop to consider, that a grapevine has almost no value apart from one thing, grapes. It's wood, the wood of the grapevine is practically useless, which is the point He's going to make.

A. Measure your value by your purpose

God uses the branch, the wood of the grapevine, to make His point. You measure your life against things that have no value. You have missed the purpose of your life entirely. See, this is a good question. How do you measure your life? How do you measure the purpose of your life? Many years ago, we used to use in our men's ministry a book called The Measure of a Man. I love the title of it. How does a man measure his life? How do you measure the value of your life? People measure the value of their life by standards God never used, maybe by career or accomplishment or education, or possession. God measures according to the purpose for which they were made.

Ezekiel 15 is very short, only eight verses, but the message runs deep and touches the deepest aspects of the soul. Here we are to read it. We're in Ezekiel chapter 15, we begin in verse 1. "Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, how is the wood of the grapevine better than any wood of the branch which is among the trees of the forest? Can wood be taken from it to make anything, or can men even take a peg from it on which to hang a vessel?" Like a kitchen vessel that people hang pots and the little pegs on the wall.

You can't even bring that out of a wood from a grapevine if it's been put into the fire for fuel, and the fire has consumed both of its ends, and even the middle part has been charred. "Is it then useful for anything?" Now, he's using an analogy, a word picture. They've come through fire. They've come through a difficult. They're burnt. They have missed this point. Verse 5 continues, "Behold, while it was intact, it was not made into anything. How much less then when the fire has consumed it and charred it, can it still be made into anything? No. Therefore, thus says the Lord God, as the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest which I have given to fire for fuel, so I have given up the inhabitants of Jerusalem. I have set my face against them. Though they've come through the fire, yet the fire will consume them, and then they will know that I am the Lord when I set my face against them."

He means to stir them up, to bring them to an understanding of their purpose, to bring them back, to transform them. Let's look at these verses and apply them to our lives. Starting with this, the purpose of a grapevine is to produce grapes. I know, I've got a pension for the obvious. One of the things I appreciate about the way Jesus taught is how He would often take the obvious. He would take something that everyone had seen a thousand times and suddenly give eternal significance to it. A farmer sowing seed, a shepherd searching for a lost sheep, a woman kneading bread, or a fisherman casting a net.

These were ordinary scenes from everyday life. Yet once Jesus spoke of them, people can never see them the same way ever again. This is what God is doing here. Every one of these exiles had seen vineyards their entire lives. Many of them had worked vineyards when they were children. Now, I have never worked in a vineyard a day in my life, so I could not relate to the illustration. If He had used picking berries, now I could relate to that. How many people picked berries when they were younger? Kids today missing out on the opportunity for some work.

I remember when I was growing up, we picked berries. In fact, did you know that they used to let school out early? In case the berries arrived early, they would let school out early so all the kids can go out and pick berries. In 1974, I researched this, they passed child labor laws so that kids under 12 can't work out in the fields anymore. I was 14 when they passed that law. When I was growing up, of course, many of you know my story, I grew up in poverty, so we picked berries all summer long.

I know. If you use this illustration, you know how your fingers get stains when you pick berries? Well, I picked berries all summer long. When I went back to school, everybody knew what I did in the summer. I was ashamed. What a picture. It's a picture of stain. It's a picture of shame. If you'd used that analogy, I would have got it. Here, He uses something they understand perfectly well. They knew the rhythm of pruning a vineyard in the winter. They knew about tending the vines in the spring, waiting for the harvest in the fall. Then, in an interesting turn, instead of speaking of grapes, He speaks of the twisted wood of the grapevine. The wood of the grapevine.

"What is the value of the wood of a grapevine?" He asks. Wood. The value of a grapevine is not in its wood. He's exactly right. You have missed the point of the purpose of your life. See, here's the thing. Measure your value by your purpose. They had missed this. They had lost sight. This was the issue. They wanted to be like the world. That's why they pursued the gods of the world. They sought to measure their value by comparing themselves to the nations around them. "Why should they have the gods of the flesh and not us?" Notice verse 2. "Son of man, how is the wood of the grapevine better than any wood of a branch which comes from the trees of a forest?"

The wood from the branch of the tree of a forest got strength. Imagine all the purposeful things you can make from the trees of the forest. The oak, strength. You can make posts and beams and build something with that. With a fir tree, you can make the mast of a ship. With mahogany, you can make the hull of a ship. With oak, or rather with ash, you can make a spear. Israel was weak in comparison. What is the value of the wood when you compare it to the wood of the trees of the forest? No, Israel is weak in comparison. Notice verse 3. "Can wood be taken from him to make anything? Can you even make a peg from which to hang a kitchen vessel?" Can't do anything. There's no value in the wood.

Israel was weak. You're comparing yourself to the wrong thing. The nations were greater. You can't compare. Were they not at that very moment defeated by the greater power in Babylon? No, it wasn't for lack of trying. They had been trying to be like the world for the last generation of years. What good are you coming at? They were comparing themselves to the world and come up short, come up wanting.

I wonder if some of us have quietly believed the lie for many years. How do you measure the value of your life? Perhaps you've looked at others who seem to have strength or accomplishment or significance or influence, and then you look at yourself, and you're disappointed. You don't measure up. Therefore, you don't have value. Comparison is the root of discontent. Many assume that those who possess greater abilities must therefore have greater value. I'd say may God overturn this way of thinking. This is not the way of God, and that's not what we see in the Scriptures.

Again and again, you see, He chooses the weak rather than the strong. He chooses the unlikely rather than the impressive. He chooses the shepherd rather than the king, or the fisherman rather than the scholar. Why? Because God's kingdom does not advance through human strength. God's kingdom advances through hearts that are transformed into the image of God's heart in them. Notice these verses out of 1 Corinthians 1:27-29. I love these verses because it speaks to the value of people like us. He says this, "God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things that are strong, and the base things and the despised. God has chosen the things that are not that He might nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God." That's a great verse right there.

Some of the people who've influenced us most profoundly were not necessarily the most gifted. You think back, look back over the spiritual journey of your life. Who first taught you what genuine faith looked like? May have been a Sunday school teacher who never preached a sermon in her life. Or maybe a grandmother who quietly prayed in faithfulness, or a father who's steadfast example, or a mother whose kindness changed your heart. Maybe they never wrote a book or had a large ministry, but somehow, through the ordinary living out of their faith, you saw Jesus. You look back, you realize what changed you wasn't the brilliance of their personality. It was the beauty of Christ that had become visible in them, and it changed you.

B. Don’t be burnt and bitter

When I think about that, I think about my mother. Many of you know my story that my father was an alcoholic and cantankerous and angry, and difficult. Of course, he came to faith later in Christ. Those growing-up years, I think about my mom, who suffered under it all those years, growing up in poverty, enduring this, and yet with great faithfulness. In fact, whenever I would grumble about dad, she would say, "Do you respect your father?" There was that faithfulness. I tell you what, she became my hero. She made sure we got to church. She made sure we heard the word of God. She became my hero. I saw in her living faith. She lived it.

I tell you, what a blessing it was for me because when I became a pastor, it blessed her heart. Now, in fact, I remember many, many years ago when the church was young, we used to provide sermons on cassette tape. If you don't know what a cassette is, ask someone who looks old. People could order a sermon on a form, and then we would mail it out. The church was small and young, and nobody ordered cassette tapes.

One day, I walked by the secretary's desk, and there's an order. Somebody ordered one of my sermons, and a cassette was sitting right there. I was so excited. I said, "Somebody ordered a sermon. Who was it?" She said, "Your mother." "My mom." I got to tell you, it blessed me so much. When she passed-- she lived her life in poverty, obscurity. When she passed, this church was filled to the full of people honoring the legacy of a woman of faith like that. It blessed my heart. Afterwards, we were going through her chest of drawers, and we would find notebook upon notebook upon notebook of handwritten notes that she had written when she was listening to pastors on the radio.

Because she endured, she went through such trouble with such faith. She's a hero. This is the point. Don't be burnt and bitter. They're going through the fire. Israel went through it. Burnt, he brings the point, but bitter? God asked a deep question. Notice verse 4, "If it's been put into the fire for fuel, the fire has consumed both of the ends, even the middle has been charred. Was it useful for anything?" Before, when it was intact, it wasn't made into anything. How much less when the fire has consumed it, is it made into anything?

Israel's come through the fire. Burnt, both ends burnt, middle's charred. It wasn't a useful wooden thing. It wasn't useful before it was burnt, and now it surely isn't useful because here's what God is saying to Israel, "You missed the entire point." See, the tragedy in Ezekiel 15 is not that the wood was weak. It was always weak. No, the tragedy is that it had ceased producing the very thing for which it was planted. That's what made it worthless. It wasn't burnt in the fire because it was useless wood. It was burnt in the fire because it produced no grapes.

That was its purpose. This is what Jesus says. Interestingly, He brings up the exact same word picture in John 15. Notice verse 6. "If anyone does not abide in Me, he's thrown away as a branch and dries up." Means the branch of the wood of the grapevine. "They gather them and cast them into the fire, and they're burnt." Now they've been through the fire, will they then become bitter? How do you respond when troubles come? How do you respond to storms and difficulties? God can use trouble and tragedy to transform. There are deep lessons of faith that can come out of times of trouble, but not in the heart that's burnt and bitter. It prevents that which God is doing.

It closes off that transformation of what God is doing in the midst of the trouble. Notice Hebrews 12:15. See to it that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, for by it many are defiled. They're angry, they're bitter, and it prevents that which God desires to do in it. Troubles and fire can either turn your heart away from God, like in those who become burnt and bitter, or it can turn your heart toward God. It has everything to do with your heart in seeing God's desire to do something in it. Here's what He's trying to show them. The fruit here is the image of God's heart.

II. The Fruit is the Image of God’s Heart

You were made in the image of God, and the fruit that God desires comes from the heart of the one who made you in His image. Some hear the word fruit, and they immediately think, "Oh, it refers to good works, the good things we do in this earthly life." No, that's not what He means here. Now, yes, God delights when we do good things, of course, but that's not what God is drawing them to understand. You were made in the image of God, and the fruit that God desires comes from the heart of the one who made you in His image.

A. Abiding is the key to bearing fruit

In other words, it's about the abiding in it. Abiding is the key to the point of the purpose. Abiding is the key to bearing fruit. That's the theme that the Lord used in John 15, the very same word picture. Notice verses 4 to 5. He says, "Abide in Me and I in you." There is this abiding, key to the understanding. "As the branch--," He means here the wood of the grapevine, "cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine. Neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit. Apart from Me, separated from Me, you can do nothing."

In other words, when you are abiding in Him, you are receiving. You're being filled. He's pouring into you. You need that life. You need that strength, that presence of God in your soul, abiding in you. Let me just add emphatically that it is a beautiful abiding. Notice John 15:9 & 11. You'll see it here. Jesus says, "Just as the Father has loved Me, I also love you. Abide therefore in My love." This is the key to it. It's a beautiful abiding. "Abide in My love." Then He says, "And these things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be made full."

God is pouring into the heart that's open. Doesn't pour into the hard heart, the stony heart. It rolls right off. The heart that's open, He pours into. Notice, for example, He says something similar in John 7:37-38. "Jesus stood and cried out saying, 'If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink the fill of the river of God's delight.'" What a beautiful picture from the Psalms. I like it. Then He adds, "And from his innermost being then will flow rivers of living water." Notice that it flows also out of you. From your innermost being, He says, you drink your fill from the river of God's delight. Then from your innermost being flows out of you rivers of living water. Notice the word 'river'.

Not a little brook, not a trickle, not a creek, a river. In other words, not a little, a lot. It's a beautiful picture that you drink your fill of the river of His delight. He says river. I'm sure you know that almost all of a grape is made of water. If that grape doesn't receive water, it will remain just a little piece of sour, puckering, face-melting bitterness. If it was filled with water and it abides and ripens and fills, what a blessing it is. In other words, it's a blessing to you to be filled with the river of God's delight. To drink your fill, abiding in Him, means that you are drinking your fill of the river of His delight.

It's not only a blessing to you, and it surely is, to be filled with it. Let my joy be in you, that your joy be made full. That's a blessing to you. If you've got a fullness of joy, that's a blessing. If the presence of God brings such a fullness of love, that's a blessing. If your heart is full of joy and your heart is full of love, you are blessed. Do you have a heart like that? You go about your life filled with the love of God and the joy of the Lord, and the peace that passes understanding, you are blessed. It's not just a blessing for you, it's a blessing for everybody around you because it flows out of you.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if somebody could refer to you as the one who blessed their life? Abiding is the key to the fruit. The key is the word abiding. Abiding means you stay there and you continually receive. It's the key to the maturing of the fruit. Young grapes have yet to produce the maturity of the fruit. It comes from the abiding. You mature as you abide in it. I was thinking of an illustration when our firstborn daughter, Nicole, was young, really, really small. Oh, we had such fun together, just dad and daughter hanging out together.

One of the things she loved when she was really small is that I could throw her up in the air, as far as I could throw her, and she would just squeal in delight. Like, "Do it again, Daddy, do it again." I would just take her like this and just launch her with my legs, just launch her like this, and then just catch her and say, "Do it again, Daddy." I'll throw her up again. She got to the point where she didn't want me to do that anymore. We matured into something else. We went camping, just the two of us. She loved to spend hours in the tent with the crayons.

We're like, "Don't you want to go?" "No, I'll just stand here and color, Daddy." She got to the point where she didn't want to do that anymore. We moved on to riding bikes together. Always abiding, but always maturing. Always abiding, but always maturing. Then to the point that, in fact, the night before she was killed, she died on a Tuesday, the Monday night before we were at Starbucks, it was a hot August night, sat outside drinking something cold, talking about God, life, love, just abiding. It's the key. To understand your purpose. You were made for this. In other words, he's saying, don't waste your life. Ezekiel 15 is describing a tragedy. They miss the point of their life. They miss the point of their existence entirely. You were made for this. A lighthouse is an architectural wonder, an amazement of construction and design. The purpose of a lighthouse is light. It's what-- produce light that comes from it. Its purpose is fulfilled when it lights the way to safe harbor for weary sailors trying to find their way home in a storm.

B. Don’t waste your life

A violin is a beautiful handiwork of craftsmanship, but its purpose is not you hang on a wall and be admired. No, its purpose is to fill the heart with the beauty of the notes that come from the master's hand. What is your purpose? You were made to abide in the vine of the one who made you in His image. That's why this passage is so searching. It gently asks every one of us the same question. If God were to examine the vineyard of your life today, what kind of fruit would He find? Not what accomplishments, not what titles, not what possessions. Fruit. What kind of fruit?

Is love evident in the way that you treat the people in your life? Is this peace becoming evident in the way you respond to uncertainty? Is this patience more visible as you go through the irritations of life? Is this kindness shaping your words? Is this faithfulness becoming the steadiness of how you walk? These are the questions that matter because these are the things that God is producing when you're abiding. Fruit is the nature of God's heart, and when you abide in His love, that's when you're transformed. That's when the soul is changed because of what it receives. The fruit that God desires then will be seen.

It's the purpose for which you were made. your very existence is connected to your heart, and that which God is pouring in to your soul. Let's pray. Lord, we are so thankful for how beautiful is your heart after us to show us that when we abide there, and we see from the one who made us in His image, and the heart of your heart is poured into us, that we could drink from the river of your delights and that from us, from our innermost being, will flow rivers of living water.

Church, as we're praying before the Lord, how many would say that to the Lord today? "Oh, fill me with the river of your delights. I want that your joy would be made full in my life. I want that your love would be seen in my heart. I want that rivers of living water from my innermost being would flow to those around me in my life. God, transform me. Transform me. Transform me. I want to abide. I want to abide in You. I want to abide in your love."

Church, is that your desire? Would you just raise your hand to the Lord as a way of just saying that to God? "I want this in my heart. Lord, I want to abide in You." God, thank you for everyone who is stirred, called, and desires more of God in their life. We praise You and honor You for it now. In Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen.