Can these dry bones live?

Can these dry bones live? In this sermon we look at Ezekiel 37:1-14 and how to navigate life's valleys with obedience to the Word.

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Transcript

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Speaker 1 0:01

Good morning. I'm Dick Jacob. I'm one of the elders. We have two passages of scripture this morning. The first is from Ezekiel 37 one through four. The hand of the Lord was upon me and he brought me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the Valley. It was full of bones and he led me around among them. And behold, there were very many on the surface of the Valley. And behold, they were very dry and he said to me, son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, Oh Lord God, you know. Then he said to me, prophesy over these bones and say to them, Oh, dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. The second passage is from first Thessalonians five verses 15 through 18 see that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone rejoice always pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God and Christ Jesus for you.

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Good morning. Good morning. I know my hands on my throat and you didn't hear me the first time and I didn't know. Well, I am , um , it is my honor , uh , to be here this morning. Um, enforces a second time. I'm pressing this message and the , the first service that, you know, that's a wild bunch. Uh, they were really, really, really , uh, excited and I think one of the things that , um, got me excited was, you know, calling, calling into this week is really understanding this , this entire process , um, uh, preparing for this message as well. But this is , um, and I, and I didn't mention this earlier, but this is October, which is , um, breast cancer awareness market . And you know, there are a lot of survivors , uh, in the room. Uh, my wife being one of them , um, you know, a survivor of breast cancer for the last 11 years. So I wanted to , um, just recognize any survivors and or family members who you may have as survivors. Uh , if you could just stand please , um, the people that had been affected by breast cancer as well.

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[inaudible] God bless everyone here .

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Well, my name is Andrea Jones and I am one of your elders here. And you know, it says it right here on my badge. It says elder. And I, I've , uh , come to love this band because I can't get rid of it. You know, we've, we've tried to pull it off trying to throw it away and it keeps coming back. Just pause right there on my chest. And it's one of those things that when you're called by God to do something, you can't get rid of it. Every one of us here under the sound of my voice, if you walk into this building, you've been called to do something, it's not because you're an elder. It not because you're a pastor is because you are a believer and you've been called to do several things. We're going to talk about a few things today that you've been called to do the most important one and hear this. The most important one is

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prayer.

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I'm going to give you a little bit of history about myself. Just a few of the big nuggets. I was born and raised in the panhandle of Florida. Uh, I was a medical specialists in the air force , uh , were also went to school. I served in several operations, including a desert storm and operation just cause, and I lived in Texas for over 20 years. I've been married to my beautiful wife Lillian for over 23 years. Um, we've been born again believers for over 20 years. We moved to Memphis in 2009 where , um, you know, I worked for Macy's and I've been working for Macy's for about 22 years. I just retired from Macy's about three months ago and it's one of those things that , um, uh, it was hard for me to do , uh, to leave something I've been doing for a long time, but it's also being obedient to the word of God. Now I'm having fun working at the Memphis zoo and it's been a joy. Um, and also , um, I just started a seminary , uh, last month. Um, there's been a major change in a , in a shakeup in my life and it started when I accepted the call

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to be an elder.

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I can tell you that, you know, I'm probably going to step on a few toes this morning, but I want to apologize in advance. It won't hurt very long. It'll just be a couple of little squeaks it , I promise you it won't hurt as bad. Bad. Okay. These are Whitney. Okay. Just making sure. Now you , you came into service this morning in and a lot of you said, how are you, you said something now someone, he said, how are you and you know, everybody gives that same response, that typical comfortable response. I'm good. He lied. You've been out there in the world all week long. You've been catching a lot of stuff. You've been holding onto some stuff. So you came to church. This place where it's safe to discuss some of these things. You go through different valleys in life. I think for , for all of us, we, we, we are in different points in our lives. Even in a church where sometimes when in church and it's a great place to be. Everything is working great. I mean, look at it . This, this beautiful picture up here is less just green. It's almost postcard. Look, everything looked good. How are you? It looks good. Things change. They start to getting better. Things look really good. You go from one mountain top to the next and you're , you're going through these different valleys, these different places in your life and it feels

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good and then [inaudible]

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God drops you into another Valley. One that doesn't feel so good. We talk about it. I'm reminded of a song, the 23rd Psalm. It says, yay , do our walk through the Valley of the shadow debt . You know, there's times in our lives where we go through some tough times. There are times in our lives where we have to examine ourselves and God calls us to do that, but he's taken us through that. He takes us through these valleys and is eco 37 it tells us and God asked the question, can these dry bones live 13 times prior to his equal 37 13 times? God was preparing as Elan and actually had him prophesied 13 times prior. To that point. Just get them ready for this impossible task and we'll get to is ego 37 it says, the hand of the Lord was on me. He brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of the Valley. It was full of bones. He led me back and forth among

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the bones.

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He wanted them to be really good at good picture of what he was in. He wanted him to understand that this is an impossible situation and he, I saw a great many bones on the floor and the bones were very dry. He asked, son of man, can these dry bones live? And I said, sovereign Lord, you alone know I can't imagine God asking me that question. Having not brought me through a situation. Sometimes he brings you into a situation where you think this is an impossible task, sickness, pain, whatever it may be. This is an impossible situation that I really can't deal with. And on the surface, this doesn't feel like a message of hope,

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but it is

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three things jump out about the vision that God gave his equal . God had placed him in a Valley that was covered with bones. This is a low, low, low place. It's a Valley. This is a low place that was devoid of life, devoid of hope, a very hopeless situation. The second thing, when God ass is equal, he says, can these dry bones live? He just wanted to prove a point to his ego. He says, even though the situation looks impossible for you and I as as human beings, as people, nothing is impossible for God. God required is equal to do something. You notice this bag when I walked up here? Uh, you know when I drop it on the stage, who came here to receive something today? I'm sure it's sore hands. Put them up high . If you came here to receive something today, show me. All right . So if you didn't come here to receive something, that means you came to give something. You know, here's a give and take situation. Now we, and I have some things here in my bag. My bag goes everywhere where I go, you know, because we all had bags, we, all of us do. The third thing is equal said, I'm , I'm gonna go back up a minute. Charles Spurgeon said it best. He says, God, God did not ask this question for his own information, but for the profits , the Lord wanted him to realize the difficulties of the work, which he was called, that he might be driven to more completely rely on and not upon himself. You see, God needed a ZKO to understand that he was in control and was working through his ego . I'm going to tell you a quick little story. A little over two years ago, and while working for Macy's, I got promoted to a store manager at Wolf chase and shortly after myself and the store manager at Dillard's, you know , we're , we're competitors. You know, we , we kind of had a , a beef with each other disagreement, a difference, and he had a very negative reputation and people knew my reputation. I knew I was a Christian. I knew I , I, I didn't lose my temper and so forth, but we decided that we need to have a conversation. So let's, we met, we said we're going to meet over lunch and just have a conversation and talk about a few things, get some things straight. So we went to lunch and as I'm sitting there waiting for our food, you know, the tension is growing, the tension is high and I'm starting to give him my store manager look of displeasure. He's given me his look of displeasure and then the food comes and we say, let's pray. Both of us say it almost simultaneously. First I thought he was trying to mess with me. I thought he was trying to manipulate the situation because he knew Chris and he's like, Oh, this how he's trying to play me. Okay, I'm not having it. So we pray and then he starts to tell me about what God is doing in his life.

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[inaudible]

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no , I'm like, this conversation is not going the way I thought it was going to go. I'm supposed to be giving you a piece of my mind right now.

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[inaudible]

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and then I explained to him what God was doing in my life. Turns out he was a deacon at Bellevue.

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[inaudible]

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like what? And you act like this. Okay , speed forward. Two years later we prayed with each other from time to time. Encourage one another from time to time. He called me up, send me a text every now and then, two years later, Sheldon is his name. He's , he's now a missionary in Mexico. Sold everything he had including the suits and that's when I knew it was real cause soda suits and moved his entire family to Mexico and become a missionary. And two years later, I stand before you here. No longer store manager at Macy's. What's your elder? I look at transformations like this because this is being obedient to the word of God and the call on our lives. Sometimes things don't go the way that we planned on them going, I did not plan on standing up here on a Sunday morning and preaching to you as an elder at this stage in my life. I had these other plans, but God had some different ones. But we all have to be obedient because I'll tell you , I , I did not want to give up that money. I just being real with you. I didn't want to give up the money. And so it took me a while before I could say yes. You know, some of the elder elders that , that came to me and asked , will you do it? I was , well , I don't know . I really don't know because I don't have the time. I remember standing up in front of, in front of you guys in the cafeteria. We were , we're having a , a dinner one night and I told you I didn't have the time. I needed more time, but God said, I'll give you some time. I didn't know he was going to have me quit my job. And remember that, that whole phrase of how are you and we talked about , um , those lies that we tell from time to time. You know, sometimes we get pastor Dan to help me up here on stage. Sometimes we have to be obedient to what God is telling us. You know, we walk around out in the world picking up things and carrying baggage that you really don't want to carry, but you just got and then you come into church. This is where kind of stepping on some toes. I'm sorry. You come to church and somebody says, Hey Andrea , how are you doing? I'm good, I'm good. Are you sure you look , you look a little weighted down. You look a little weary .

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I got it man. I got up. I'm good. I'm just a , it looks like you're carrying some wheat though. Is that something that you want to talk about? Can I, can I help you? I got it. You know, it just added,

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you know , you know

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I got it . I'm good. I'm good. Are you sure? It really looks like it's weighing you down. We could pray about that now and I'll go first . Somebody else. I got this man and you know we're good. I'm good. Okay. Love you. Okay.

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But that's usually what we do. That's kind of how it plays out.

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But all week long I've been picking up stuff.

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Hey Andre , how you doing? Oh, I'm good. How are you, are you sure you look a little weary today? You look, you look like you're weighted down with some things. I , uh, you know, share with me, share with me. I'm concerned about you . You want to pray with you. I , uh, I love that. You know, I love that. Um, what's, what's weighing you down?

Speaker 3 18:18

Yeah. Well, you know what, my dog bit me , um, one , um,

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and you know, I , I had an accident and my car and you know, it's been a lot of things that had been weighing on me, you know, some financial issues and , uh, there's been a few other things. I just, I , I do need your prayer. Yeah. Can we, can we confidentially talk about what's burdening you and , and I can pray for you. So what's burdening you with things that are , that are happening in my life and I just want to be able to kinda unpack a few things. Um, and I think one, you know, I've, I've been experiencing a lot of different feelings and you know, these feelings had been coming upon me all week long and you know, I've been getting into some even struggling with bitterness. Yeah , yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I , and I, I've been feeling a little bit fearful of what I might do. I might say to people, it's definitely be something we can pray about. Yeah. You know, I , and I, and I'm feeling an anger a little bit and struggling with anger. I am, let's take that to the Lord. I, you know, first Peter five and seven tells us that pastor , doesn't it say, you know, cast your cares under him because he cares for us. Yeah. Yeah. And shame. Shame always follows. Yeah. We definitely can bring that before the Lord. Yeah. And I think for me, I have a lot of things that I just want to pull out and I need to talk about. There are some things that are just, I'm feeling that are just problems that I need to, to Carrie and I, and I know I have some other things that pass from , I'll be honest with you. Um, there's some things that I don't know if I'm ready to deal with them yet. I mean, there's some things that I got some skeletons that, that I need to deal with. We sure do. And what the word tells us, the Catholic hears .

Speaker 3 20:14

Yeah.

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Well let's , let's do this. Let me pray for you now and then I make a commitment that I will continue to pray for you. Absolutely. We'll bring you regularly before the Lord in prayer. Let's , let's take, take these burdens to the Lord in prayer right now. Thank you. And that's what we should do.

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But we don't, we don't

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every week, and I'm being honest with you guys, every week

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we have a call for

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prayer and this alter is empty. God requires something of us and he requires us to pray . We have an obligation to be obedient to the word of God, just like his ego. He was obedient in that process. I think when we get real with each other, the word says my grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect and weakness. My power is made perfect. When in weakness, when you're weak , that's when he shows up. He and you think about in his ego , when those dry bones, that was a time, but he's going to show up when all hope is lost. It kinda reminds me of um, something that we've been going through for the last few years. There's been some hopeless situations. We felt kind of hopeless. Be real with you. A lot of people left the church, but we didn't pray. We have to pray. Now I'm going to play a quick little video and I want you to take notice of a few things that are said here in this video. That scene punched me in the gut. It was one line there says your identity will be tied to whatever you give your heart to, okay ? To whatever you give your heart to. That punched me right here. You got to remember, we're called to do certain things and number one we're called to pray, but how are you? How are you going to deal with disappointments in your life? How are you going to allow God to use you? How are you gonna make that next tough decision? I love acronyms and one I love that heard last week was Bible basic instructions before leaving earth.

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Love that,

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but here's another acronym how we're going to start with that. How are you? The H stands for here. Here are the word. Romans 10 and 17 tells us that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, the amplify kind of breaks it down even even further it says, so faith comes from hearing what is told and what is heard comes by the preaching of the message concerning Christ, the O, the O in how is for obey. We've been talking about this series of obedience for the next three weeks. I love that last scripture there because this is the one that kind of helps us steer me. Second Timothy 22 and 22 it says to flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart, flee youthful passions. I had some youthful passions, but I had to flee, but you have to obey as a follower of Christ. That's what we're called to do and the w is for walk. Walk in the word first Peter five and seven. These are the most important ones I want you to get today. First Peter five and seven says to cast all your care upon him, for he cares for you. And in first Thessalonians, you heard in the beginning, in first Thessalonians, it says to pray without ceasing, pray without ceasing. That is the most important thing that we can do as followers of Christ. We have to pray. You have to pray, you have to pray. Even you have to pray. You definitely have the prey just messing with you. But we all have to. What? [inaudible] let's try that . We're getting here . One . We all have to. What? Okay. Without ceasing. Ooh, that was, that came from an elder back there. I heard that we have to pray and when we're walking into word, we also have to remind ourselves

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[inaudible]

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just as God reminded as equal candies , dry bones live.

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[inaudible]

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he was just reminding him, cause you know what I'm getting ready to do, I'm about to show you is equal new . It pleases God only . You know I've been dealing with this less for several years now. Only you know

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[inaudible]

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but you got to remind yourself

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[inaudible]

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that God isn't in control. He is the one that is bringing you through this next place and to get back to the prayer that you, you have to pray. You have to pray and understand that James four and eight tells us to come near to God and he will come near to you. When you come near to God, he's going to draw near to you. When you come to the altar , he is going to come near to you. You know, every, every week. I mentioned it before that we are praying. There's a big sign over here. It says prayer.

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[inaudible]

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in the back it says prayer. This is a house of prayer. Today, we make sure we all understand that this is a house of prayer and we're going to turn that into a house of prayer. If I can get all my prayer warriors to come forward just really quickly because understand something

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[inaudible] .

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If we don't do what the word of God tells us to do, we're like everybody else and we're not like everybody else. You're far from it. It's two things I want you to get. There's going to be a video. It's going to play during that time. I want you to be able to come up for prayer. Whatever it is, you can come pray about it. We've got people out here who want to pray with you about it. Maybe

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[inaudible]

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you're not a Christian yet. We would love to honor to pray with you about that. Maybe you want to rededicate yourself. We can pray about that too. Pastor Dan is over here in a corner. Maybe you want to pray a special blessing over him for what he's been doing for the last two years at our church.

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We can do that too.

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This is when we encourage each other. This is where bone meets bone. This is where we come together as bodies at the body of Christ. And we do what we're supposed to do as you were walking away through exits. Also also up at stage, there are some little momentous little bones that are here. There's no magic in these bones is just a little piece of plastic, but it's just to remind you that today day

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we're changing. Today.

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It's a new day at central. While people continue to pray, I'm gonna speak a blessing over all of you and Chris. Chris is going to sing a song. So, but I want to thank you guys for coming this morning. And again , uh , as you do , uh , leave, there are some momentous bones. These aren't, these aren't , there's no power in these. Just say, point of contact so that we understand that today is a day of change. The days that they would change our culture. So let's pray. Father, we thank you for today. We thank you for your word. We thank you that every person in the sound of my voice as they leave here are protected. Raise up a head ,

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the protection around them. We know the enemy's plans are evil and we thank you that they have been chosen and appointed to bear fruit, that they are the salt and light of the earth. We thank you for for energy and strength, for the abundance that you will continue to pour into them. We thank you that they are members of the body of Christ and they can do all things through you strength . We thank you for all that you do and for this new coming week, the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.