WEBVTT 00:00:06.360 --> 00:00:16.332 Sharon's just typical of many ladies here who were leading this church Somerville Baptist through their talents, their gifts or just their heart. 00:00:16.332 --> 00:00:23.039 And Sharon showed up, like almost two years ago, right after the death of her husband. 00:00:23.039 --> 00:00:28.072 So she was in a place of reevaluation and like what's next? 00:00:28.072 --> 00:00:29.179 What will I do next? 00:00:29.179 --> 00:00:33.200 And so God has used her to impact many here of all ages. 00:00:33.200 --> 00:00:39.661 So I'm just grateful for her being willing to do that and wanted to encourage you a little bit with that. 00:00:39.661 --> 00:00:41.027 So good to see you. 00:00:41.027 --> 00:00:41.810 My name is Randy. 00:00:41.810 --> 00:00:43.035 I'm one of the pastors here. 00:00:43.115 --> 00:00:50.440 Our job on Sundays especially, is to serve you while you're here, so that you'll go out and bless the rest of the community. 00:00:50.440 --> 00:00:59.243 As we say, just go out and be Christ to somebody in a significant way or a small way or whatever, and God will always bear fruit. 00:00:59.243 --> 00:01:01.769 God will always multiply that. 00:01:01.769 --> 00:01:10.479 So out there online so glad that you're here and hope that if this is your first time viewing that, you'll view again. 00:01:10.479 --> 00:01:16.037 You might want to grab a Bible or get your app on your phone or whatever. 00:01:16.037 --> 00:01:23.144 You can keep up, because it's always better to see the Scripture, by the way, for all of you in the room and out there, we're in Ezekiel in the Old Testament. 00:01:23.144 --> 00:01:28.123 Ezekiel 37 probably got a note page on your way in A lot of times. 00:01:28.123 --> 00:01:30.670 Give a shout out to people who are watching Today. 00:01:30.670 --> 00:01:42.114 I want to give a shout out to all that are in the room at each hour, because we have a ton of volunteers who make this place work every single day. 00:01:42.114 --> 00:01:43.958 You saw some parking lot greeters. 00:01:43.958 --> 00:01:47.313 You might have rode the cart in here Earlier hour. 00:01:47.313 --> 00:01:51.599 They might have taken the bus in from an assisted living place to get here. 00:01:51.599 --> 00:01:59.527 There's some great teachers some of you are them who are leading groups either morning, sunday morning or other times. 00:01:59.527 --> 00:02:01.412 Preschool workers. 00:02:01.412 --> 00:02:07.908 We're always grateful for our preschool workers because y'all are, some days, hand-to-hand combat in there, isn't it? 00:02:07.908 --> 00:02:21.718 You know, you've really notyou have really not served the Lord until you've been holding this, like six month old or something, and you're burping her and she spits up and it runs down your back, you know. 00:02:21.718 --> 00:02:26.347 And on the 95 degree day that stays with you a while, doesn't it? 00:02:26.347 --> 00:02:31.055 So we're just grateful for all, for all of you. 00:02:32.942 --> 00:02:34.237 Let's pray before we get started. 00:02:34.237 --> 00:03:11.030 Lord, help us to focus not on the noise going on around us in a culture that's increasingly secular and distant from you Help us to not curse the darkness only and lament all the brokenness, but to, today, shine the spotlight on ourselves because, god, if we are not where we need to be with you, we will have no answers to a broken world. 00:03:11.030 --> 00:03:16.122 Guys, we prayed for our nation last week to send revival. 00:03:16.122 --> 00:03:21.655 We know today revival's got to start with me and us. 00:03:21.655 --> 00:03:31.094 If we're not in revival, we have no way to minister and encourage those who just have no clue. 00:03:31.094 --> 00:03:55.876 So, lord, give us a laser focus today to see you and to see, maybe, if need be, between the lines of your Word, to know that you not only speak to us still today, but that you have a plan for us moving forward as individuals, and then let us apply that to where you have us. 00:03:55.876 --> 00:03:59.605 We give this time to you in Jesus' name. 00:03:59.605 --> 00:04:02.349 Amen, we did that last week. 00:04:02.409 --> 00:04:10.969 Today, actually, to be true to the Scripture, ezekiel, the prophet, is going to share a vision that God has for a whole nation. 00:04:10.969 --> 00:04:21.064 It is a nation of people who has turned away from God and turned away from the Word of God, and they're just out there and they're in a bad place. 00:04:21.064 --> 00:04:26.201 They are very vulnerable but, as I talked about mentioned in the prayer. 00:04:26.201 --> 00:04:44.562 If we read a little bit deeper and I hope we can today in each of the verses of Ezekiel 37, we're going to see us, because the one person on this planet I can control is me, and that's the same with you too. 00:04:44.562 --> 00:04:53.786 If I'm not beginning with me, I have no real shot of being helpful to anybody else, whether you're in the room or out there or wherever. 00:04:53.786 --> 00:04:56.451 So that's the approach today. 00:04:56.451 --> 00:04:58.562 Good news God's always on the move, isn't he? 00:04:59.545 --> 00:05:01.831 Let's go back and review the tape from Genesis. 00:05:01.831 --> 00:05:09.122 Even creation, the Spirit of God, which really meant the Trinity, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, are hovering over the waters. 00:05:09.122 --> 00:05:18.090 They commence with what we call today creation, everything we see and know, and trillions of things we cannot even see and know about. 00:05:18.090 --> 00:05:21.680 He did all of that, but then he's not through. 00:05:21.680 --> 00:05:29.382 Then he makes the human, he makes Adam, and he puts him in a garden that he had already prepared. 00:05:29.382 --> 00:05:32.591 He makes the garden before he brings Adam into the world. 00:05:32.591 --> 00:05:37.826 He's still not through, he doesn't have a suitable companion. 00:05:37.826 --> 00:05:42.117 So he makes Eve, he puts them together in the garden. 00:05:42.117 --> 00:05:45.305 He gives them their mission for the rest of their life. 00:05:46.869 --> 00:05:51.882 Sadly, though, there's despair and darkness in the very next chapter. 00:05:51.882 --> 00:05:54.406 They fall, they sin. 00:05:54.406 --> 00:05:56.752 He's still not through. 00:05:56.752 --> 00:05:58.737 He comes back into the picture. 00:05:58.737 --> 00:06:00.740 He brings them out. 00:06:00.740 --> 00:06:09.090 There are consequences, but then he reconciles with them, he restores them and he reannounces His mission for the rest of their life. 00:06:09.090 --> 00:06:11.037 They go on their way to do that. 00:06:11.679 --> 00:06:17.009 Sadly, the very next chapter, the next generation falls into despair and darkness. 00:06:17.009 --> 00:06:19.274 A brother kills a sibling. 00:06:19.274 --> 00:06:22.747 God comes down again, he deals with it. 00:06:22.747 --> 00:06:30.252 There's consequences, but he renews and he restores and he announces to this generation His mission and His. 00:06:30.252 --> 00:06:34.807 That's been going on since the beginning of time, right up until today. 00:06:34.807 --> 00:06:38.759 God is on the move, working with every single generation. 00:06:38.759 --> 00:06:59.507 Every single generation is broken and sick, with the affliction of a simple persona and heart, and so the good news, though, is, in all of the despair that comes from our darkness and the ability to get discouraged and the confusion, and there's some days. 00:06:59.788 --> 00:07:02.634 I don't know if you've ever felt like what's the use I have? 00:07:02.634 --> 00:07:04.846 If you ever felt like man. 00:07:04.846 --> 00:07:13.151 It seems like the more I try to do what's right and impact this myself in this world, the worse it gets. 00:07:13.151 --> 00:07:22.537 I've been there, but the Scripture is very clear God gives life to the lifeless, and that's the hope we've been singing about. 00:07:22.537 --> 00:07:25.626 It's never too far gone. 00:07:25.626 --> 00:07:27.110 It is never too dead. 00:07:27.110 --> 00:07:46.711 For those who are already pronouncing judgment on this nation, they may be right, but even if that is right, we also know that God can restore, and that's His heart, every single time, and no matter how far gone, how dead we appear to be, he'll bring it back. 00:07:47.341 --> 00:08:14.948 Everybody in this room and all of you guys out there, this is for you, because, no matter where you are spiritually in your journey or not, this text actually applies to you, because it is for those who are followers of Christ and those who maybe have been but have moved away, but also those who pretty clearly know I don't have a relationship for all of us. 00:08:14.948 --> 00:08:18.319 So I'm pretty fired up to talk about this. 00:08:18.319 --> 00:08:19.262 So is everybody there? 00:08:19.262 --> 00:08:23.252 Y'all were already there in the balcony, weren't you? 00:08:23.252 --> 00:08:27.300 Yeah, I knew, I knew, I knew you were ahead of the game up there. 00:08:27.401 --> 00:08:34.460 So let's, as we typically do, we're going to read a little bit, we're going to talk about what it means to us and, hopefully, praise God because of it. 00:08:34.460 --> 00:08:39.519 So let me start with one group of people, and that is simply the group. 00:08:39.519 --> 00:08:48.148 If you are believers, if you are already Christ followers, this is for you okay, because there's still more for us to do. 00:08:48.148 --> 00:08:54.394 So read verses one and two with me, because the first thing is we got to stay connected to God First order of business. 00:08:54.394 --> 00:08:54.899 Stay connected. 00:08:55.039 --> 00:09:01.072 The hand or the presence of the Lord was upon me and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord. 00:09:01.072 --> 00:09:04.908 Does your translation have a capital S on spirit? 00:09:04.908 --> 00:09:15.830 That's good, it's supposed to, because that means not your spirit but the Holy Spirit, the very spirit of God, and set me in the middle of a valley. 00:09:15.830 --> 00:09:18.465 It was full of bones. 00:09:18.465 --> 00:09:19.707 So he has a vision. 00:09:19.707 --> 00:09:30.089 This is where he's either aware he's awake and he's seeing things in His mind's eye, or he's, like some, gone into a little bit of a trance. 00:09:30.089 --> 00:09:34.149 That's not the real important thing of how the vision happened. 00:09:34.149 --> 00:09:58.932 There are theologians, too, who believe he was walking in an actual valley there that's mentioned in Ezekiel 3, 32, where an actual battle happened years and years earlier, and he's actually seeing some bleached bones that have been there for decade and decade and decade just sticking up out of the sand, and God uses that to remindthat's not the deal either. 00:09:58.932 --> 00:10:07.534 What he's talkingwhat he's using this as is an example of no matter how lifeless, god never gives up. 00:10:07.639 --> 00:10:08.100 Verse 2,. 00:10:08.100 --> 00:10:14.322 He led me back and forth among them and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were what? 00:10:14.322 --> 00:10:16.125 Very dry. 00:10:16.125 --> 00:10:20.374 That's just a time orientation to say they've been there a long time. 00:10:20.374 --> 00:10:26.853 Not only are all these bones dead people from a long time, it's been a long time. 00:10:27.860 --> 00:10:31.139 So what does it mean to stay connected to God, the spiritlet me remind you something. 00:10:31.139 --> 00:10:33.424 This is another good news, brief here. 00:10:33.424 --> 00:10:37.714 The Spirit of God always works out of love. 00:10:37.714 --> 00:10:46.361 The Spirit will tell me and you the truth, whether it hurts or not, but he's never out to condemn us and to reject us. 00:10:46.361 --> 00:10:52.874 The Spirit of God always comes to me and you with knowledge or revelation for our own good. 00:10:52.874 --> 00:10:57.385 He always has no message of His own. 00:10:57.385 --> 00:11:01.060 He's always going to speak to you what God has given Him to. 00:11:01.060 --> 00:11:03.126 So what does that mean? 00:11:03.126 --> 00:11:04.350 That means we can trust it. 00:11:04.350 --> 00:11:06.637 It's always true. 00:11:06.637 --> 00:11:08.360 That's why we're so big on the Scripture. 00:11:09.022 --> 00:11:15.695 The number one way to grow spiritually for all of us is to read this like every day. 00:11:15.695 --> 00:11:21.611 I'm going to spend time reading it, I'm going to think on it, I'm going to pray over it. 00:11:21.611 --> 00:11:37.991 Through it, however, I'm going to ask for the Holy Spirit to reveal to me whatand if you are already a believer, if you're already a Christ follower, you have a little higher understanding level than people who read it without that orientation. 00:11:37.991 --> 00:11:38.594 You know why? 00:11:38.594 --> 00:11:54.539 Because you have the Spirit of the living God in you, and a person who does not trust God yet does not have that you starthere's the advantage you start to see the world in your own life from God's perspective, not yours. 00:11:54.539 --> 00:12:22.943 If we're going to pattern our lives and our philosophies after every scroll on the screen, after every social media post, after every random comment on TikTok, after what the news networks are feeding us and some of that junk out there, we will all be horribly confused and every time it gets a little dark we're going to give up. 00:12:22.943 --> 00:12:27.993 That is not your call to be in this world. 00:12:27.993 --> 00:12:36.994 Your call is to be informed, but to know this and to operate out of God's perspective and not your own. 00:12:40.100 --> 00:12:57.553 Can I be so bold as to say this If you're not connecting with Jesus as a Christ follower, if something's happened and you've just gotten lazy, or adversities kind of made you frustrated with God or whatever that is, and you're not connecting with Him, you're sinning. 00:12:57.553 --> 00:13:01.182 There is no neutral ground. 00:13:01.182 --> 00:13:02.426 There's no gray area. 00:13:02.426 --> 00:13:03.427 I wish there was. 00:13:03.427 --> 00:13:18.688 I used to believe that I'm either here, where I'm supposed to be, or I'm out of fellowship with them, and that's why this meeting regularly is so important. 00:13:18.688 --> 00:13:24.070 Some of you are back for the first time in a long time, and I celebrate that. 00:13:24.070 --> 00:13:26.980 There's no judgment, there's no condemnation here. 00:13:26.980 --> 00:13:29.644 We just want you to be connected. 00:13:30.927 --> 00:13:38.808 Those of you who are doing your studying at home and you're reading it and you're like I don't understand all of this yet. 00:13:38.808 --> 00:13:40.493 I don't even understand half of it yet. 00:13:40.493 --> 00:13:41.882 Keep at it. 00:13:41.882 --> 00:13:44.649 The best way to study the Scriptureyou know how. 00:13:44.649 --> 00:13:47.642 The best way to study Scripture is Study the Scripture. 00:13:47.642 --> 00:13:57.709 You know how the best way to pray is Start praying and leave the rest of the Holy Spirit. 00:13:57.709 --> 00:14:06.187 He's got people around us too, in this room or out there, that can help us with those interpretations and everything. 00:14:07.330 --> 00:14:18.561 This word spirit, by the way, was a word in the Hebrew pronounced rurach, and rurach meant spirit, but it also meant wind or breath. 00:14:18.561 --> 00:14:25.974 So let's put this together when you speak, it takes breath, right, it takes your wind. 00:14:25.974 --> 00:14:33.211 When God speaks, his Word is what changes our lives when we allow it to. 00:14:33.211 --> 00:14:41.397 That's the breath of God, the spirit of God, and so that's what we need to be deeply in tune with. 00:14:41.397 --> 00:14:49.358 The second thing is we're going to stay connected as best we can as humans, but we also need to trust Him. 00:14:49.697 --> 00:14:51.714 Now, some of you just clicked off on me. 00:14:51.714 --> 00:14:57.490 Please come back into the conversation because I'm going to go a little further with trust. 00:14:57.490 --> 00:15:00.234 You're like, well, duh, of course weyou know if we don't trust Him. 00:15:00.234 --> 00:15:01.581 Let's read verse 3. 00:15:01.581 --> 00:15:04.808 He asked me, son of man, can these bones live? 00:15:04.808 --> 00:15:05.770 What a question. 00:15:05.770 --> 00:15:18.124 I said oh, sovereign or all-knowing God, lord, you alone know that God loves to train us and to grow us with questions, doesn't he? 00:15:18.124 --> 00:15:23.058 He's fired some of you I bet he certainly has me All. 00:15:23.079 --> 00:15:26.110 Through the Bible we get this Mention Adam and Eve. 00:15:26.110 --> 00:15:27.976 Adam and Eve sinned and he comes down. 00:15:27.976 --> 00:15:28.759 And what's he doing? 00:15:28.759 --> 00:15:30.062 Wherewhat have you done? 00:15:30.062 --> 00:15:33.349 Don't you think he knew what they had done? 00:15:33.349 --> 00:15:40.930 He's looking for confession from them to turn around their trust level that had been lost at that point. 00:15:40.930 --> 00:15:44.085 Next generation, cain's done hidden. 00:15:44.085 --> 00:15:45.951 He's killed his brother. 00:15:45.951 --> 00:15:47.235 He's buried him, he's hidden him. 00:15:47.235 --> 00:15:48.259 God comes down. 00:15:48.259 --> 00:15:51.027 Remember what he says Where's your brother? 00:15:51.027 --> 00:15:54.436 And he says my brother's keeper? 00:15:54.436 --> 00:15:58.345 And then he kind of goes to the real meat of the issue, jesus. 00:15:58.345 --> 00:16:02.491 The same way, jesus fires questions at the group. 00:16:02.832 --> 00:16:04.743 Sometimes he fires individual questions. 00:16:04.743 --> 00:16:12.471 One of them was they're sitting there, the 12 of them and him, and he said so what's the word out on the street, who are people saying that I am? 00:16:12.471 --> 00:16:14.662 And they get all the opinions right. 00:16:14.662 --> 00:16:22.441 And then remember what his follow-up question was who do youthat you is plural to the whole group? 00:16:22.441 --> 00:16:26.668 Who do all of youwho do all y'all say that I am? 00:16:26.668 --> 00:16:29.592 And guess who speaks up? 00:16:29.592 --> 00:16:31.522 Peter, peter. 00:16:31.522 --> 00:16:32.484 And Peter nailed it. 00:16:32.484 --> 00:16:33.245 He got it right. 00:16:34.548 --> 00:16:36.793 Later there's another conversation with Peter. 00:16:36.793 --> 00:16:50.514 It's after the resurrection and Peter has denied him and he's blown it and he thinks he's like out of the race forever and he's fishing and Jesus has prepared a breakfast farm on the shore. 00:16:50.514 --> 00:16:53.471 They come in and he asks him three questions. 00:16:53.471 --> 00:16:55.799 Remember those questions, they're all the same. 00:16:55.799 --> 00:16:59.004 He's like hey, peter, do you love me? 00:16:59.004 --> 00:17:02.070 Do you love me? 00:17:02.070 --> 00:17:07.623 But then in all three cases he re-orients his mission. 00:17:07.623 --> 00:17:11.349 You're not lost, you're not lifeless. 00:17:11.349 --> 00:17:19.631 Just start following my spirit now and I'll keep you busy serving me the rest of your life. 00:17:19.871 --> 00:17:22.900 That's what trust is all about. 00:17:22.900 --> 00:17:28.435 When you're trusting God, you are being tested, y'all listening. 00:17:28.435 --> 00:17:34.213 When you trust the Lord, especially when it's a little bit difficult or inconvenient. 00:17:34.213 --> 00:17:39.387 You're being tested as to the degree of your humanity. 00:17:39.387 --> 00:17:43.478 It's not about whether you trust His power. 00:17:43.478 --> 00:17:44.339 We've got to get there later. 00:17:44.339 --> 00:17:50.936 The first order is do I trust that I can move out of my own humanity here? 00:17:50.936 --> 00:18:00.041 Then, once you do, we'll tackle the trusting, the power of God, because that never goes away, that is never diminished. 00:18:00.041 --> 00:18:07.865 The third thing y'all still with me is we're going to obey Him, even when he gives us some strange directions. 00:18:07.865 --> 00:18:24.810 Some of you are grinning I'm seeing a couple in the middle of the room been to Bolivia two or three times and y'all are probably thinking the first time you want us to go where and you did it, and that is what is celebrated today. 00:18:24.851 --> 00:18:26.413 Look at verses 4 through 7. 00:18:26.413 --> 00:18:38.785 Then he said to me prophesy or testify or preach to these bones and say to them dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 00:18:38.785 --> 00:18:45.124 This is what the sovereign Lord says to these bones I will make breath enter you and you will come to life. 00:18:45.124 --> 00:18:55.017 Verse 6, I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come to you and cover you with skin and I will put breath in you and you will come to life. 00:18:55.017 --> 00:18:59.044 And then you'll know what I am. 00:18:59.044 --> 00:18:59.765 The Lord. 00:19:01.188 --> 00:19:16.672 The pattern of God is, whether it's a strange request or a strange belief, or totally irrational or illogical, or like there's no way in the world that can happen, or there's 10,000 of us and one of me, it's all lost. 00:19:16.672 --> 00:19:40.952 He always starts with let me remind you who I am, and I don't know who needs to hear that today, but whatever the battle you're fighting, or the cause or whatever, he's going to always first announce here's who I am, and that'll cover the potential of whether or not I can restore life or correct the situation or whatever. 00:19:40.952 --> 00:19:44.846 That is great news. 00:19:44.846 --> 00:19:47.289 So I prophesied as I was commanded. 00:19:47.430 --> 00:19:49.473 As I was prophesying, there was a noise. 00:19:49.473 --> 00:19:53.767 While he's still talking or preaching or whatever, there's a noise. 00:19:53.767 --> 00:19:54.327 What is it? 00:19:54.327 --> 00:20:02.974 It says it's a rattling sound because these bones are coming together, bone to bone. 00:20:02.974 --> 00:20:04.400 What a sight that must have been. 00:20:04.400 --> 00:20:09.229 These bones are just coming out of the sand and blump, blump. 00:20:09.229 --> 00:20:12.742 Hence the invention of the skeleton dance in the song. 00:20:12.742 --> 00:20:16.134 Remember that the thigh bones connected to the hip bone. 00:20:16.134 --> 00:20:19.442 I think that's where this came from. 00:20:19.723 --> 00:20:21.568 What a strange request, though. 00:20:21.568 --> 00:20:27.324 Hey, stand over these bones and start talking to them like they're still living. 00:20:27.324 --> 00:20:36.406 Tell them who I am, and as he's doing it, these bones just start to come together. 00:20:36.406 --> 00:20:44.512 The strange request how are we able to do the strange things? 00:20:44.512 --> 00:20:48.250 First of all, review your notes, or what we've been talking about. 00:20:48.250 --> 00:20:49.845 This involves all three of these. 00:20:49.845 --> 00:21:01.161 It involves a trust, it involves obedience Well, you said it, I'm going to try to do it but it really involves how connected we are to the Lord that we've just been talking about this. 00:21:03.259 --> 00:21:12.228 If we are willing to stay in all three of those regions, we will be doing, asked to do some strange things, and God will do it. 00:21:12.228 --> 00:21:13.484 How are you so confident? 00:21:13.484 --> 00:21:16.387 Because we are under a covenant agreement. 00:21:16.387 --> 00:21:25.265 Jesus says I've come to make a new covenant, and after the resurrection, that means the Holy Spirit of God that raised him from the dead is in you. 00:21:25.265 --> 00:21:27.786 I think that's enough power to do anything. 00:21:27.786 --> 00:21:38.089 The covenant in the Old Testament was different, but the same, because in the covenant of the Old Testament that he was under, god says I'll make a deal. 00:21:38.519 --> 00:21:40.185 Me and you are in a relationship. 00:21:40.185 --> 00:21:42.365 That means you're human. 00:21:42.365 --> 00:21:43.189 You're going to blow it. 00:21:43.189 --> 00:21:44.538 You're going to move away from me. 00:21:44.538 --> 00:21:46.507 You're going to really, really grieve my heart. 00:21:46.507 --> 00:21:49.508 My promise to you, though, is I ain't going anywhere. 00:21:49.508 --> 00:21:53.203 I'm going to be here, I'm going to know everything. 00:21:53.203 --> 00:21:57.854 I'm going to be over and when you let me, I will bring life to you. 00:21:57.854 --> 00:22:01.146 And, if need be, I'll bring life to you a second time. 00:22:01.146 --> 00:22:07.467 It's a covenant You're covered if you are a Christ follower. 00:22:07.467 --> 00:22:12.248 So which direction your life is going to? 00:22:12.248 --> 00:22:20.702 You're not too late, you're not too far gone, you're not too old, You're not too young, you're not too uneducated, you're not too sinful. 00:22:20.702 --> 00:22:25.145 He's going to bring life if you let him bring life. 00:22:26.409 --> 00:22:27.760 How you know the word? 00:22:27.760 --> 00:22:29.169 John 6.37. 00:22:29.169 --> 00:22:31.948 Grab your Bible, turn to John 6.37. 00:22:31.948 --> 00:22:34.263 I love this verse. 00:22:34.263 --> 00:22:37.587 John 6.37 is Jesus speaking. 00:22:37.587 --> 00:22:45.551 Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never, never cast out. 00:22:45.551 --> 00:23:02.903 You see that Everyone, everybody that comes to know Jesus, he's going to accept you, become a son or daughter of God and then, from then on, no matter what happens, he, if you move away from Him, that's not Him, that's you. 00:23:02.903 --> 00:23:06.046 He will never disown you. 00:23:06.046 --> 00:23:07.230 God, the Father won't. 00:23:07.230 --> 00:23:13.251 The Son will never throw you out and say you're too far gone. 00:23:14.019 --> 00:23:14.942 So what do we do with this? 00:23:14.942 --> 00:23:21.006 Obeying, even when it's strange or difficult or like I can't figure this out doesn't make sense to me. 00:23:21.006 --> 00:23:23.203 Here's a self-analysis. 00:23:23.203 --> 00:23:24.804 You've all done this. 00:23:24.804 --> 00:23:26.104 I do it all the time. 00:23:26.104 --> 00:23:31.330 How many of those times do you tell yourself I should go do this? 00:23:31.330 --> 00:23:33.984 I should stop doing this? 00:23:33.984 --> 00:23:36.382 I should. 00:23:36.382 --> 00:23:37.664 For you it may be. 00:23:37.664 --> 00:23:38.948 I should clean up my language. 00:23:38.948 --> 00:23:43.969 I should quit that social media post there. 00:23:43.969 --> 00:23:47.846 I should watch stop watching that program. 00:23:47.846 --> 00:23:52.488 I should stop saying this to my spouse. 00:23:52.488 --> 00:23:54.563 I don't know what that is. 00:23:54.563 --> 00:23:54.984 You know? 00:23:54.984 --> 00:23:59.370 When is that going to stop being a should and becomes a will? 00:23:59.370 --> 00:24:00.564 I will do this. 00:24:00.564 --> 00:24:02.564 I will not do this. 00:24:02.564 --> 00:24:11.701 That is the one thing everybody in this room and everybody out there can begin with today start taking care of. 00:24:11.701 --> 00:24:17.012 Stop procrastinating, stop saying I should and start saying I will. 00:24:17.012 --> 00:24:27.926 And then next Sunday, the goal is going to be how much of us could come in here and, before God, say then I am doing that, I am not doing that anymore. 00:24:27.926 --> 00:24:30.452 That is huge. 00:24:30.452 --> 00:24:34.186 That is a huge spiritual development process. 00:24:36.660 --> 00:24:45.950 Somebody I can't give them credit, I can't remember who wrote it Somebody said there's two levels of the Christian life there is impossible and there is already done. 00:24:45.950 --> 00:24:46.822 Isn't that great? 00:24:46.822 --> 00:24:51.243 Because God stands in the gap. 00:24:51.243 --> 00:24:55.426 So that's for all of you who are believers. 00:24:55.426 --> 00:25:00.008 You are already Christ followers, ready to finish out with number two group. 00:25:00.008 --> 00:25:02.425 The number two group is if you are the dry bones. 00:25:02.425 --> 00:25:10.846 Now that means if you don't know Christ, you know you don't know Christ, you know you are at various stages of belief and all like that. 00:25:10.846 --> 00:25:19.912 Or if I like, oh, I have accepted Jesus, I have asked Jesus to come into my life, but right now you couldn't tell it. 00:25:19.912 --> 00:25:31.006 Or I am doing the behavior of a Christian, but there is no joy, there is no heart in it, there is no spirit of motivation in it. 00:25:31.006 --> 00:25:35.204 I am stale, it is dry. 00:25:35.660 --> 00:25:37.867 I used to love to read the Word. 00:25:37.867 --> 00:25:41.190 I used to love, I used to connect with God in prayer. 00:25:41.190 --> 00:25:46.309 I can't tell you the last time I felt anything in my bones. 00:25:46.309 --> 00:25:50.208 That's you that I am talking to now. 00:25:50.208 --> 00:25:51.524 So the first what am I going to do? 00:25:51.524 --> 00:25:56.128 Because God wants to restore everybody in this room and everybody out there. 00:25:56.920 --> 00:25:59.709 First thing is simply this know your status. 00:25:59.709 --> 00:26:03.525 He gives life to the lifeless, so you got to know your status. 00:26:03.525 --> 00:26:11.153 I technically belong to the family, you may say, but it's for every intensive purpose. 00:26:11.153 --> 00:26:12.776 I don't. 00:26:12.776 --> 00:26:14.144 I broke my fellowship. 00:26:14.144 --> 00:26:16.223 You've not lost your salvation. 00:26:16.223 --> 00:26:18.790 It just means you are not in fellowship with Him. 00:26:18.790 --> 00:26:21.728 You are that family member that nobody ever hears from. 00:26:21.728 --> 00:26:27.210 You are that family member that only calls your family when you need something. 00:26:27.210 --> 00:26:36.126 You're here by name in the family, but not in your life. 00:26:36.126 --> 00:26:39.760 Purpose 2 Corinthians 13-5,. 00:26:39.881 --> 00:26:41.164 Examine yourselves. 00:26:41.164 --> 00:26:43.381 You know what that does not say. 00:26:43.381 --> 00:26:48.404 It doesn't say examine yourselves and quit criticizing everybody else. 00:26:48.404 --> 00:26:53.006 Examine yourselves and compare yourselves to other people. 00:26:53.006 --> 00:26:59.707 You won't find that, because that only deepens our lack of fellowship with God. 00:26:59.707 --> 00:27:02.462 To see whether you are in the faith, test yourselves. 00:27:02.462 --> 00:27:07.701 Do you realize that Christ Jesus is in you, unless, of course, you failed to test? 00:27:07.701 --> 00:27:09.279 What's this test business? 00:27:10.355 --> 00:27:13.544 There's a couple of ways from the Scripture, not opinion or feeling. 00:27:13.544 --> 00:27:26.045 If you're not sure and a lot of us are not really sure day to day and I want to acknowledge that and honor that this is the greatest thing you can deal with right now. 00:27:26.045 --> 00:27:44.863 This is the most important issue of life Is if there's a level of doubt and you're like I need to find out whether I have the secure relationship or whether I've been playing church or using routines or programs to get me there. 00:27:44.863 --> 00:27:48.402 One is from Galatians, chapter 5. 00:27:48.402 --> 00:27:50.442 There's a list of the fruit of the Spirit. 00:27:50.442 --> 00:27:57.147 Other people, by the fruit of the Spirit, can look at you and say, oh, you know, she's like that's an O'Branner. 00:27:57.147 --> 00:27:59.041 Of course she's a Christfather. 00:27:59.041 --> 00:28:04.460 She wouldn't be like that if she didn't have God in her, and you know it through that too. 00:28:04.460 --> 00:28:15.640 If those are like golly there's no way I'm the opposite of many of those Then the second level, one is more external fruit of the Spirit, the other is internal. 00:28:15.795 --> 00:28:17.099 It's Romans 8.16. 00:28:17.099 --> 00:28:20.682 So write those two down Galatians 5 and Romans 8.16. 00:28:20.682 --> 00:28:28.607 Romans 8.16 says the Spirit testifies to our Spirit, that we are children of God. 00:28:28.607 --> 00:28:31.876 That is only you can know Y'all. 00:28:31.876 --> 00:28:39.305 That could be like the worst day you've had in the last 10 years and you finally go to bed and you're laying down, your head spinning. 00:28:39.305 --> 00:28:51.923 You're tired, the world has fallen apart, but you start to feel this incredible peace and well-being and comfort, and there's no reason for it. 00:28:51.923 --> 00:28:53.478 You know who that is. 00:28:53.478 --> 00:28:55.623 It's the Holy Spirit. 00:28:55.623 --> 00:29:08.381 And the Holy Spirit is reminding you one thing has not changed your mind you belong to me, which means you're not going to be alone. 00:29:08.381 --> 00:29:14.163 You are going to struggle, maybe, but you're not going to struggle alone. 00:29:14.163 --> 00:29:17.185 That is knowing your status. 00:29:17.185 --> 00:29:25.503 That is knowing your status, and God speaks to people and directs them like that, all through the Bible. 00:29:29.699 --> 00:29:34.606 Well, can I kind ofsometimes I can sketch something better and I can say it out loud. 00:29:34.606 --> 00:29:37.461 There's three elements of me and you. 00:29:37.461 --> 00:29:47.083 We are pretty complicated beings and you know that Ladies are much more complicated than guys, I believe. 00:29:47.083 --> 00:29:48.086 But I'm not going there. 00:29:48.086 --> 00:29:49.578 We don't have time for that right now. 00:29:49.578 --> 00:30:00.087 Okay, there's three levels of everybody's life in this room. 00:30:00.087 --> 00:30:03.962 We're all composed this way by a magnificent holy God. 00:30:06.015 --> 00:30:08.162 The outer area is the physical. 00:30:08.162 --> 00:30:12.704 We spend the majority of our time working on the physical, don't we? 00:30:12.704 --> 00:30:15.030 And I mean we should. 00:30:15.030 --> 00:30:19.422 We should take care of ourselves, we should eat right, we should sleep, we should get rest and do all that. 00:30:19.422 --> 00:30:26.527 But we settle so many times for just existing in the physical. 00:30:26.527 --> 00:30:30.022 The base needs, the base desires that we have. 00:30:30.022 --> 00:30:40.461 The other thing that we don't realize we do is whether it's rejection, hardships, emotional stuff going on in us, fear what not? 00:30:40.461 --> 00:30:50.227 We'll build this physical to such a hard shell that we are defending ourselves from letting anybody get in on the inside of us. 00:30:50.227 --> 00:30:52.883 I don't want you knowing stuff in here. 00:30:52.883 --> 00:30:56.904 I don't want you hurting me at the level in here. 00:30:56.904 --> 00:31:00.644 So I'm going to be nice to everybody, but you're not going to get to know me. 00:31:00.644 --> 00:31:02.862 Am I speaking to anybody here today like that? 00:31:02.862 --> 00:31:06.884 That hard outer shell does not do any of us any good. 00:31:06.884 --> 00:31:10.281 I spent 33 years just like that. 00:31:11.355 --> 00:31:14.883 The second level is the soul. 00:31:14.883 --> 00:31:17.400 What's the soul? 00:31:17.400 --> 00:31:23.686 That is the mental makeup, your brain, but it's also the emotions that come with that. 00:31:23.686 --> 00:31:33.605 Ladies, for instance, are coming primarily out of a different cortex of your brain, which makes you more intuitively sensitive to other people. 00:31:33.605 --> 00:31:40.007 You can sense whether somebody is struggling or not, and you haven't even talked to them yet. 00:31:40.007 --> 00:31:41.778 I just can't understand that. 00:31:41.778 --> 00:31:43.435 It's just. 00:31:43.435 --> 00:31:44.921 That just makes no sense to me. 00:31:44.921 --> 00:31:55.186 But you have that ability, but what I'm saying is how you feel about things and your brain power is coming out of there. 00:31:55.186 --> 00:32:02.623 If you're living totally in that region without the third level, boy, you're up and down all over the place. 00:32:03.176 --> 00:32:17.913 One more time, ladies and gentlemen, because God gave us these areas to accentuate what's inside of us, at the core of our existence, and separates us from the animal kingdom, and that is the Spirit. 00:32:17.913 --> 00:32:34.810 You have a Spirit, god's Spirit, at the inception of your relationship, where you surrender your life to Him, comes in and lives with your Spirit, and Jesus said this one time. 00:32:34.810 --> 00:32:43.557 He says you know, it's not what comes into a man, what we take in is not what corrupts us, it's what comes out of us that corrupts us. 00:32:43.557 --> 00:33:01.518 Back to the heart, outer shell, if we don't let Him penetrate us to the very core and own our stuff and acknowledge it and take responsibility for it and start living from the inside out. 00:33:01.518 --> 00:33:07.461 If we keep living from the outside in, we will never greatly change. 00:33:07.461 --> 00:33:23.815 Only we'll get a little bit further and further and further away from a holy, loving God the rest of our lives and we will die, maybe doing some great things, but none of it will be acknowledged in heaven from our Creator because we're too busy. 00:33:24.184 --> 00:33:27.732 John 12, jesus even said he told a story about. 00:33:27.732 --> 00:33:39.336 You know, it's like a kernel of wheat that hard outer husk has to fall to the ground and die and split open so the meat on the inside can grow up to the stalk, to the wheat that feeds its bread. 00:33:39.336 --> 00:33:44.036 We're all going to starve unless that hard outer shell pops open. 00:33:44.036 --> 00:34:03.143 You're going to starve spiritually unless you let Him pry open that hard exterior that you have built up over time and let Him come in and minister and heal your insides, where you really live, and then when you start living out of that, it feels weird. 00:34:03.143 --> 00:34:04.567 It feels more vulnerable. 00:34:04.567 --> 00:34:07.154 It's at times very scary. 00:34:07.154 --> 00:34:13.911 But let me tell you this when you speak, people listen and when you minister to them, it changes lives. 00:34:13.911 --> 00:34:21.590 Not because it's you, it's your spirit coming out of you, which came from somewhere else. 00:34:21.590 --> 00:34:24.276 Adam and Eve and us are the same. 00:34:24.276 --> 00:34:29.113 There is no life unless it comes from outside of us into us. 00:34:29.113 --> 00:34:32.807 That's never been disturbed. 00:34:32.807 --> 00:34:34.892 The outside part, he's still there. 00:34:34.892 --> 00:34:39.347 We're the ones that get broken. 00:34:39.347 --> 00:34:46.308 So that's the choice. 00:34:46.308 --> 00:34:49.329 We all have that choice. 00:34:49.484 --> 00:34:52.153 Let me read 8 verse through 10 and finish this off. 00:34:52.153 --> 00:34:58.956 I looked in tendons and flesh appeared and skin covered them and there was no breath in them. 00:34:58.956 --> 00:34:59.497 Here we go. 00:34:59.497 --> 00:35:13.971 Then he said prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to it this is what the sovereign Lord says come from the four winds of breath and breathe into these slain that were in battle that they may live. 00:35:13.971 --> 00:35:21.985 Somebody's got to come from the outside of you and me and restore life Verse 10,. 00:35:21.985 --> 00:35:46.868 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them and they came to and they stood up and they composed a vast army, one man standing in the plane with a bunch of dead bones around him and the next thing he knows, somebody came from outside in and reanimates flesh and bones onto those, breathes life into them. 00:35:46.868 --> 00:35:59.011 Next thing you know we've got an army of God and that's the invitation for me and you is to be a part of the army of God. 00:35:59.011 --> 00:36:06.305 Can I recreate a little scenario to maybe help Moses Burning Bush? 00:36:06.787 --> 00:36:07.791 Most of you know that story. 00:36:07.791 --> 00:36:10.553 You know he's out there shepherding burning bush. 00:36:10.553 --> 00:36:12.018 He walks over to see what is. 00:36:12.018 --> 00:36:13.584 It's called a theophany. 00:36:13.584 --> 00:36:16.656 It's the presence of God inside something visible. 00:36:16.656 --> 00:36:18.142 The bush speaks to him. 00:36:18.142 --> 00:36:20.110 It's burning, but it's not being burned up. 00:36:20.110 --> 00:36:21.688 He thinks that's kind of peculiar. 00:36:21.688 --> 00:36:24.916 When he goes over there, god says hey, take your sandals off. 00:36:24.916 --> 00:36:25.056 Why? 00:36:25.056 --> 00:36:31.116 Because I am who I am, I'm holy and you're not, and so reverence me. 00:36:31.116 --> 00:36:31.757 He does it. 00:36:31.757 --> 00:36:34.692 Then he gives him his marching orders for the rest of his life. 00:36:34.692 --> 00:36:36.255 And what does Moses do? 00:36:36.255 --> 00:36:37.568 He gladly accepts it. 00:36:37.568 --> 00:36:42.453 Right, he's back peddling as fast as he can. 00:36:42.644 --> 00:36:43.608 He's given his reasons. 00:36:43.608 --> 00:36:45.048 What was his main reason? 00:36:45.048 --> 00:36:45.389 Remember? 00:36:45.389 --> 00:36:47.588 Not a good public speaker. 00:36:47.588 --> 00:36:50.689 You know you're looking for the wrong guy here. 00:36:50.689 --> 00:36:51.211