WEBVTT 00:00:01.600 --> 00:00:04.080 Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast. 00:00:04.240 --> 00:00:08.960 We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ. 00:00:09.119 --> 00:00:10.720 Thanks for tuning in. 00:00:11.679 --> 00:00:14.960 I just want to do a a sharing, if you will. 00:00:15.359 --> 00:00:17.280 Not a sermon, a sharing. 00:00:17.760 --> 00:00:23.280 I feel like I'm doing a song and a dance right now, but um just a sharing. 00:00:25.280 --> 00:00:30.079 If you have your Bibles, would you open up to Ezekiel chapter 37 or your phones? 00:00:30.320 --> 00:00:35.039 I just want to give a few things that God ministered to me this week on. 00:00:36.320 --> 00:00:41.280 And I don't know about you, but this week I I got down. 00:00:43.039 --> 00:00:47.679 I we had a vacation two weeks ago, so maybe it was the post-vacation blues. 00:00:49.520 --> 00:00:53.280 Um the whole Delta thing kind of threw me for a loop. 00:00:53.840 --> 00:00:56.640 I'm just like, I'm tired of this stupid pandemic. 00:00:56.799 --> 00:00:58.799 I don't want to go backwards. 00:00:59.119 --> 00:01:02.799 I'm tired of leading through a pandemic, if I'm really honest. 00:01:03.119 --> 00:01:04.959 It's just exhausting. 00:01:05.920 --> 00:01:09.040 I was exhausted post-vacation. 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:10.959 That sucks. 00:01:12.799 --> 00:01:18.159 And I was discouraged and a little bit depressed. 00:01:19.439 --> 00:01:28.239 And there's a passage that I've gone to time and time again since we started awakening that God just meets me in. 00:01:29.280 --> 00:01:34.640 It's what he's up to in this moment, regardless of what's happening in the moment. 00:01:36.640 --> 00:01:49.599 It's actually a vision that the prophet Ezekiel had, it's a dream, it's he's seeing something that God is up to, and we're actually walking in the reality of today as the church. 00:01:49.840 --> 00:01:54.640 And he only gotta see it in advance, but we get to live it today. 00:01:55.280 --> 00:01:57.760 This is the dream that Ezekiel had. 00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:02.799 And Ezekiel was having a bad day, by the way, a bad month, a bad year. 00:02:03.439 --> 00:02:09.280 Israel, the context here, they they had gotten taken into captivity, and Zeke was one of those. 00:02:10.879 --> 00:02:21.039 And and he's trying to figure out how to lead a people that are discouraged, depressed, and not really sure when or if ever they'll return home. 00:02:21.759 --> 00:02:24.560 And God just shows up and gives them this vision. 00:02:24.960 --> 00:02:27.759 Like, this is what I'm up to right now. 00:02:29.599 --> 00:02:40.719 It begins this way, he says, the hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley. 00:02:40.879 --> 00:02:42.719 It was full of bones. 00:02:43.199 --> 00:02:51.280 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 00:02:51.439 --> 00:02:55.120 And he asked me, Son of man, can these bones live? 00:02:55.439 --> 00:02:57.199 That's a weird dream. 00:02:58.080 --> 00:03:00.560 So far, not starting very encouraging either. 00:03:00.719 --> 00:03:04.240 You're like, man, I walked in dry bones, that's how I feel. 00:03:04.400 --> 00:03:08.159 I walked in weary, I walked in tired, I walked in discouraged. 00:03:08.479 --> 00:03:11.680 I feel like I'm in the valley of dry bones myself. 00:03:12.719 --> 00:03:23.280 I just want to just point out something to you here that's just so amazing to me is God's hand was on Ezekiel and he placed him in the valley. 00:03:24.400 --> 00:03:29.759 I think sometimes we think we're in the valley and God's hand's not on us. 00:03:30.159 --> 00:03:34.400 Now, to be sure, there's some people you entered the valley because of bad choices. 00:03:34.960 --> 00:03:42.319 And there's a moment here where you recognize, man, I made a bad choice and I'm going down this direction, and you repent and you turn around. 00:03:42.639 --> 00:03:45.759 But nobody made a bad choice when it came to the pandemic. 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:57.120 And some of you are in the valley of a relationship, you're in the valley of discouragement, you're in the valley of depression, you're in the valley of anxiety, you're in the valley of not another time around again. 00:03:57.520 --> 00:04:00.800 And here's just the word of encouragement: God's hands on you. 00:04:01.520 --> 00:04:05.840 Like you can be in the valley and God's hands on you at the same time. 00:04:07.120 --> 00:04:15.840 Think about Psalm 23 where it says, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, but you are with me. 00:04:16.319 --> 00:04:19.120 Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 00:04:20.160 --> 00:04:24.399 God's hand was on Ezekiel and he placed them in the valley. 00:04:24.560 --> 00:04:27.519 And then he there's this little perspective shift here. 00:04:27.680 --> 00:04:30.079 The valley's filled with dry bones. 00:04:30.720 --> 00:04:49.439 And I just wonder if we began to look around and understand that we live in Silicon Valley, the valley of opportunity, the valley of entrepreneurs, the valley of technology, the valley of get rich quick, the valley of hurry, the valley of hustle, the valley of better and bigger, and all those other things. 00:04:49.600 --> 00:04:52.800 And what if we just saw it for what it really was? 00:04:54.480 --> 00:04:56.160 The valley of dry bones. 00:04:57.920 --> 00:05:14.079 What if at your workplace you realize there's people that are running and pursuing and chasing after, they're looking for someone or something to satisfy the deep need and longing of their soul. 00:05:14.319 --> 00:05:17.600 They're walking and they're awake, but they're dead inside. 00:05:18.480 --> 00:05:29.839 We actually live in that valley, and I just wonder what would change for us church if we realize that in this valley, even though you might have walked in discouraged, God's hands on you, and he says, All around you are dry bones. 00:05:29.920 --> 00:05:31.839 And I'm gonna ask you a question. 00:05:33.680 --> 00:05:42.560 God asked a question to Ezekiel, he asked to us today that challenges, that challenges our assumptions and what is actually possible. 00:05:42.639 --> 00:05:43.439 Did you notice that? 00:05:43.519 --> 00:05:44.079 I just read it. 00:05:44.160 --> 00:05:47.279 He said he asked him, Son of man, can these bones live? 00:05:48.879 --> 00:05:49.759 Can they? 00:05:50.720 --> 00:05:52.560 Can you bring life? 00:05:53.920 --> 00:06:00.959 You know, I know so many people that are moving from this area, and they're moving because they feel like this area is just pushing life out of them. 00:06:01.600 --> 00:06:04.160 But can he breathe life even here? 00:06:04.720 --> 00:06:07.040 Even now, even in this moment. 00:06:07.279 --> 00:06:09.120 And I love Ezekiel's response. 00:06:09.279 --> 00:06:14.079 He says, and I said, Sovereign Lord, you alone know. 00:06:15.600 --> 00:06:16.879 I love that. 00:06:18.560 --> 00:06:23.120 Because this is the honest confession of kind of where I walked in this morning. 00:06:24.639 --> 00:06:25.279 Tired. 00:06:26.720 --> 00:06:29.839 I don't know if it was allergies that got to me this last week. 00:06:30.000 --> 00:06:32.399 I'm hopped up on allergy pills, man. 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:34.639 I am. 00:06:35.279 --> 00:06:38.399 It's just itchy eyes, itchy throat, tired. 00:06:40.800 --> 00:06:42.319 Hey, can these bones live? 00:06:42.399 --> 00:06:43.120 Can you do something? 00:06:43.279 --> 00:06:44.480 Can this marriage live? 00:06:44.639 --> 00:06:46.000 Can this relationship live? 00:06:46.160 --> 00:06:54.399 Can can can can you bring life from this depression, life from this anxiety, life from this moment that's just been crippling? 00:06:54.720 --> 00:06:56.160 Can this happen? 00:06:57.199 --> 00:07:00.879 And his response was, Sovereign Lord, only you know. 00:07:00.959 --> 00:07:05.519 Here's what he's saying: it's too big for me, but it's not too big for you. 00:07:05.920 --> 00:07:07.600 What if that was your confession? 00:07:07.759 --> 00:07:11.040 I don't know what you're walking through this morning, where he said, you know what? 00:07:11.279 --> 00:07:14.720 Whatever I'm walking through today, it's too big for me. 00:07:15.040 --> 00:07:16.800 It's just too big. 00:07:18.639 --> 00:07:26.560 Sovereign, all powerful, almighty, all control. 00:07:27.199 --> 00:07:31.199 He has it all, he, you are the sovereign one. 00:07:31.360 --> 00:07:36.319 It is too big for me, but it's not too big. 00:07:37.680 --> 00:07:40.160 So then here's what God commands Ezekiel to do. 00:07:40.319 --> 00:07:42.800 He commands him to speak life to that which is dead. 00:07:43.040 --> 00:07:44.319 Notice what he says. 00:07:44.480 --> 00:07:51.519 I then he, speaking of God, said to me, Prophesy to these bones and say to them, Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 00:07:51.680 --> 00:07:54.319 This is what the sovereign Lord says to these bones. 00:07:54.560 --> 00:07:58.319 I will make breath enter you and you will come to life. 00:07:59.120 --> 00:08:04.000 I'll attach attendance to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin. 00:08:04.160 --> 00:08:06.720 I'll put breath in you and you will come to life. 00:08:06.879 --> 00:08:08.879 Then you will know that I am the Lord. 00:08:09.120 --> 00:08:13.439 He commands Ezekiel to preach life to that what is dead. 00:08:13.600 --> 00:08:15.759 Think about how weird that was for him. 00:08:16.399 --> 00:08:21.120 He's standing in the middle, this vision, this dream, there's dry bones everywhere. 00:08:21.199 --> 00:08:23.920 That's creepy, it's like a whore film all of a sudden. 00:08:24.000 --> 00:08:26.240 He's like, No, no, no, preach life. 00:08:27.920 --> 00:08:35.679 Think about what would change in your life if instead of just proclaiming the death around you, you just began to speak life. 00:08:37.279 --> 00:08:49.440 Imagine what would happen if Jesus' followers online, on Instagram, on Twitter, instead of just condemning and critical and complaining, we began to speak life. 00:08:50.320 --> 00:08:53.360 That we speak life to that which is dead. 00:08:53.840 --> 00:08:57.039 We'd call forth the truth of what God's doing. 00:08:57.120 --> 00:09:01.360 And notice that Ezekiel didn't speak his opinion. 00:09:02.960 --> 00:09:06.240 He didn't speak, well, I think this is you know a good idea. 00:09:06.480 --> 00:09:09.840 He proclaims he's called to speak the word of God. 00:09:11.200 --> 00:09:17.600 Where we just began to go, man, the word of God is powerful and effective, sharper than any double-edged sword. 00:09:18.399 --> 00:09:21.360 The word of God is living and active. 00:09:23.200 --> 00:09:27.519 Spirit breathe, and we just began to be a people that spoke life. 00:09:27.600 --> 00:09:38.240 And the death around you, the death of anxiety, the death of relationship, the death of a friendship, you just begin to speak life and you speak life and you speak life and you speak life and you speak life. 00:09:38.720 --> 00:09:43.200 Oh, that we'd be a church, we'd be a people that speak life. 00:09:44.720 --> 00:09:47.279 I mean, I wrote this in my notes years ago. 00:09:47.759 --> 00:09:53.039 God is in the business of making dead things come to life. 00:09:54.159 --> 00:09:56.480 It's what he's in the business of doing. 00:09:56.799 --> 00:10:00.960 And you and I get to cooperate with him. 00:10:02.799 --> 00:10:07.039 So, so Ezekiel obeys the command of God. 00:10:10.399 --> 00:10:12.159 He just he simply obeys. 00:10:12.320 --> 00:10:15.200 Notice, so I prophesied as I was commanded. 00:10:15.360 --> 00:10:17.360 He obeys the command of God. 00:10:17.519 --> 00:10:20.159 The wild, the weird, the awkward. 00:10:22.159 --> 00:10:29.519 You know, for the last year with COVID, I spoke to a whatever those things, camera. 00:10:33.519 --> 00:10:36.159 The most awkward thing ever, guys. 00:10:36.799 --> 00:10:37.919 I mean, I love this. 00:10:38.080 --> 00:10:39.039 I love being together. 00:10:39.200 --> 00:10:42.159 I love seeing your faces, I love interacting. 00:10:43.200 --> 00:10:44.639 I mean, think about Ezeke. 00:10:44.720 --> 00:10:46.639 He's he's speaking not even to a camera. 00:10:46.799 --> 00:10:49.840 He's got a he's got a he's got a valley filled with bones. 00:10:49.919 --> 00:10:50.960 He's like, just speak life. 00:10:51.039 --> 00:10:54.879 He's like, that's impossible, but only you know, so I'll just do what you said. 00:10:55.039 --> 00:11:03.679 I'm just wondering if there's some things that God has shown you that he's spoken to you that just seemed like, no, that that's just a little too beyond me, or that's just a little too weird. 00:11:03.840 --> 00:11:13.039 I would never, you know, I I just feel awkward, maybe sharing with my coworker, or, or, or you know what, just starting to pray in my marriage, or it just would be so weird. 00:11:13.120 --> 00:11:13.759 I've never done that. 00:11:13.840 --> 00:11:16.639 And you just begin to obey what God says. 00:11:17.279 --> 00:11:18.320 I love what C.S. 00:11:18.399 --> 00:11:20.159 Lewis said about obedience. 00:11:20.399 --> 00:11:23.600 He said, obedience is the key that opens every door. 00:11:24.960 --> 00:11:29.840 That would be a people that we'd be a church that just say, God, we'll do whatever you said. 00:11:31.600 --> 00:11:33.919 We'll follow wherever you lead. 00:11:34.399 --> 00:11:38.320 It's too big for me, but it's not too big for you. 00:11:38.559 --> 00:11:41.519 And so, if in the valley your hands on me, then I'm going. 00:11:41.679 --> 00:11:44.960 If you're if in the valley your hand's on me, I'm preaching. 00:11:45.279 --> 00:11:51.279 If in the valley your hands on me, I'm gonna speak life to that which is dead. 00:11:51.840 --> 00:11:57.039 And when he did this, I just want you to notice one little deal that transformation was a process. 00:11:57.840 --> 00:12:05.919 In our world of instant, in our world of wanted tomorrow to see change overnight, even in his vision, transformation was a process. 00:12:06.080 --> 00:12:06.879 Take a look at this. 00:12:07.039 --> 00:12:12.879 He says, as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 00:12:13.039 --> 00:12:20.000 I looked, and the tendons and flesh appeared on them, and skin covered them, and there was no breath in them. 00:12:20.320 --> 00:12:32.799 Then he said to me, Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and it's and say to it, This is what the sovereign Lord says, Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into the slain that they may live. 00:12:32.960 --> 00:12:37.759 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breathed breath entered them. 00:12:37.840 --> 00:12:41.919 They came to life and stood upon their feet a vast army. 00:12:43.120 --> 00:12:54.080 Like what Ezekiel saying and seeing is what was fulfilled when the Spirit of God came on Pentecost, by the way, and breathed life. 00:12:54.639 --> 00:13:01.600 You can go back and look at Ezekiel 36 of the new covenants pouring his spirit in us. 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:08.799 But I just want you to know that there was this process, and in your life, you're in the process of God. 00:13:09.679 --> 00:13:15.919 The first stage you saw the physical come, and then he had to prophesy again, and then the spirit entered. 00:13:16.639 --> 00:13:22.559 Some of you are frustrated in the process, you're wrestling in the process. 00:13:25.440 --> 00:13:26.480 Good news. 00:13:27.360 --> 00:13:29.039 You're in the process. 00:13:30.639 --> 00:13:31.519 Great news. 00:13:31.679 --> 00:13:33.440 You're like I tripped up again. 00:13:33.840 --> 00:13:35.440 You're in the process. 00:13:37.600 --> 00:13:45.759 God is actively working in your life to create and form in you the very life of Christ. 00:13:46.080 --> 00:13:52.559 To breathe life, that you might bring life everywhere you go. 00:13:54.559 --> 00:13:58.720 You know, one of the coolest things is our perspective. 00:14:00.480 --> 00:14:06.080 Ezekiel in the valley just saw dry bones, and what God saw was a vast army. 00:14:08.480 --> 00:14:14.559 I think in this season, a lot of us would say we just came in dry. 00:14:15.200 --> 00:14:16.960 We've been living dry. 00:14:19.600 --> 00:14:22.240 There's no army to be found here. 00:14:25.120 --> 00:14:25.840 And guess what? 00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:28.559 God's looking around, he's gone, there's an army. 00:14:28.879 --> 00:14:30.720 There's an army before me. 00:14:33.039 --> 00:14:40.879 There is the army of life and hope and love that's bringing hope to the world. 00:14:41.279 --> 00:14:44.559 My friend Judy once said this to me. 00:14:45.600 --> 00:14:54.559 She said, the church needs the preaching of God's word and the working of the Holy Spirit, and then a vast army will appear. 00:14:56.639 --> 00:15:11.440 And for us, in this moment, it's censoring and getting back to what God is actively doing in your life, in the process. 00:15:23.200 --> 00:15:28.159 But I think part of what we want God to do is to resuscitate our old life. 00:15:30.080 --> 00:15:33.679 If I could just get my old life back, then I would be. 00:15:35.039 --> 00:15:40.399 But remember, God is fundamentally in the business of bringing dead things back to life. 00:15:40.639 --> 00:15:48.159 That's why Jesus said John chapter 11, I am the resurrection and the life. 00:15:48.559 --> 00:15:57.919 Jesus doesn't want to resuscitate your old life, he wants to resurrect a brand new life, and that's the opportunity. 00:15:59.600 --> 00:16:04.879 That's what we remind ourselves when we take communion. 00:16:07.840 --> 00:16:13.440 That we have a God that didn't say to the valley of dry bones, just even come to life. 00:16:13.519 --> 00:16:16.720 We have a God who came into the valley. 00:16:17.360 --> 00:16:50.639 We have a God who suffered at his own creation's hand, climbed the hill of Golgotha, allowed those he created to beat him, put stakes through his wrist, to take on death and weariness and pain and evil itself. 00:16:54.240 --> 00:16:55.679 All of yours. 00:16:57.360 --> 00:17:10.400 All of mine, all the darkness, all the thoughts that have you've been even scared to utter to someone else because you're like, I should never have had that thought. 00:17:10.480 --> 00:17:12.000 I can't believe that thought came into my mind. 00:17:12.160 --> 00:17:14.960 He says, I died for that, I take that. 00:17:18.000 --> 00:17:20.960 And he wants to breathe life into your life. 00:17:22.160 --> 00:17:23.839 He wants to meet you. 00:17:26.319 --> 00:17:33.839 He wants to take the dry and weariness at the foot of the cross. 00:17:35.680 --> 00:17:43.039 And breathe the spirit into your life that you might then be life to those around you. 00:17:44.079 --> 00:17:46.480 We hope you are blessed by this message. 00:17:46.720 --> 00:17:51.680 Please subscribe to our podcast for access to every episode as they're uploaded. 00:17:51.920 --> 00:17:54.160 And hey, we'd love to connect with you. 00:17:54.400 --> 00:18:00.559 Take a next step by filling out our virtual connection card at awakeningchurch.comslash cards.