THE RATTLE
Ezekiel 37: 1-9 NIV
1 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; it was full of bones.
2. 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.
3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”
4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!
5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath [a] enter you, and you will come to life.
6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone.
8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them, and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’”
HOW?
In Verse 5, God says, I will make breath enter you, and you will come back to life.
You may ask this morning, But how, God? How can you put breath into these dead bones and bring them back to life?
And I will answer, He’s the one that put the breath in them the first time; why can’t he now?
Remember, in Genesis 2 and 7, God put breath into him; this is how he says it.
Genesis 2:7
Then the Lord God formed a man [a] from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
THE VALLEY OF DRY BONES
God told Ezekiel to prophesy life into the valley of dry bones.
You know something must be dead for a long time to be able to decompose and turn into dry bones.
What I’m saying is that these bones bear a resemblance to something that died a long time ago.
But when you put God in the picture, when you put the one whose love is unconditional and who cares for every sheep and every soul, he turns dry bones into army’s
Let me tell you this morning that you may have been dead for a long time, but I feel as if the Lord is saying
Wake up, child, wake up, get all the lost you can, for I’m coming back for my church.
I’m coming back to those who accepted me.
WAKE UP
You know Satan is going to try every way to kill you.
He will put every obstacle in your way to separate you.
-Lies
-Hurt
-Church hurt
-Divorce
-Empty bank accounts
All of this is to separate and kill you, but he can’t because nothing can separate you from the blood that Jesus shed on the cross.
He will also tempt you in every way if you turn from God.
He tempts you with
Drugs
Money
Alcohol
Sex
Whatever you want, Satan will try to get you to turn from God, but let me tell you this morning:
Everything that he gives is a counterfeit for the glory of
Everything that Satan gives you is a DEAD end.
But what God is trying to give you is his life, and life more abundantly.
God’s Got Us
When we are at our lowest of lows, God has got us.
When you feel like there’s no turning back because you went too far
I see that when Peter took his eyes off the Lord and focused on the unstable water he was walking on, he fell in, but the second he fell in, Jesus put his hand in the water.
And all it took was for Peter to grab his hand and say, It’s yours, Lord. I don’t want to die, but I want to live eternally.
I see that you think you’re drowning, but God’s saying, I’ve got you. Just give me your hand, and as I did with Peter,
I’ll pull you out.
Because God’s got us
We as a church and as Christians all over the world need to get into prayer, and we need to get into our Bible.
Because there’s nothing greater, there’s this book Paul Dehaan sent me, and in it it says:
The people of God used to record his word, saying The Word OF God is:
*In Ezekiel 3, honey is in my mouth.
*In Job 23, spiritual food for the hungry
*In Colossians 3, dwelling in me richly
*Psalms 119: A lamp for my feet
*Jeremiah 15 is a joy and delight in my heart.
*Jeremiah 20:20: A fire shut up in my bones, and it goes on.
Because the word of God is important, you can’t survive without
Prayerless Christians and wordless Christians are dead Christians, but when you begin to pick up the word of God, there begins to be a rattle.
And those dry bones heard the word of the Lord, and they began to rattle.
When you hear the voice of Satan lie to you and say you can’t go back, you’ve got to tell him to flee, for you can’t speak truth but only lies.
It brings to mind the prodigal son, who left home with everything his father had to offer, continued on, and eventually ran out of things, became bankrupt, and had nothing. He said, “Surely I can’t go back to my father,” but something persuaded him to, and when he did, his father welcomed him home, told him to get the best he had, hugged him, and said, “My beloved son came back.”
Isn’t that how we are? We say, “God, I don’t need you any more, and we begin to leave him, and as my uncle Ben would say, When you stop hanging with Jesus, you begin to hang with the devil.
And slowly but surely, Satan will strip you of everything you have, and you will say, I miss how it was. When you turn back to God, he raps you in his arms and says, You came back.
ALTAR CALL THE RATTLE
Ezekiel 37: 1-9 NIV
1 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; it was full of bones.
2. 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.
3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”
4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!
5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath [a] enter you, and you will come to life.
6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”
7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone.
8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them, and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’”
HOW?
In Verse 5, God says, I will make breath enter you, and you will come back to life.
You may ask this morning, But how, God? How can you put breath into these dead bones and bring them back to life?
And I will answer, He’s the one that put the breath in them the first time; why can’t he now?
Remember, in Genesis 2 and 7, God put breath into him; this is how he says it.
Genesis 2:7
Then the Lord God formed a man [a] from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
THE VALLEY OF DRY BONES
God told Ezekiel to prophesy life into the valley of dry bones.
You know something must be dead for a long time to be able to decompose and turn into dry bones.
What I’m saying is that these bones bear a resemblance to something that died a long time ago.
But when you put God in the picture, when you put the one whose love is unconditional and who cares for every sheep and every soul, he turns dry bones into army’s
Let me tell you this morning that you may have been dead for a long time, but I feel as if the Lord is saying
Wake up, child, wake up, get all the lost you can, for I’m coming back for my church.
I’m coming back to those who accepted me.
WAKE UP
You know Satan is going to try every way to kill you.
He will put every obstacle in your way to separate you.
-Lies
-Hurt
-Church hurt
-Divorce
-Empty bank accounts
All of this is to separate and kill you, but he can’t because nothing can separate you from the blood that Jesus shed on the cross.
He will also tempt you in every way if you turn from God.
He tempts you with
Drugs
Money
Alcohol
Sex
Whatever you want, Satan will try to get you to turn from God, but let me tell you this morning:
Everything that he gives is a counterfeit for the glory of
Everything that Satan gives you is a DEAD end.
But what God is trying to give you is his life, and life more abundantly.
God’s Got Us
When we are at our lowest of lows, God has got us.
When you feel like there’s no turning back because you went too far
I see that when Peter took his eyes off the Lord and focused on the unstable water he was walking on, he fell in, but the second he fell in, Jesus put his hand in the water.
And all it took was for Peter to grab his hand and say, It’s yours, Lord. I don’t want to die, but I want to live eternally.
I see that you think you’re drowning, but God’s saying, I’ve got you. Just give me your hand, and as I did with Peter,
I’ll pull you out.
Because God’s got us
We as a church and as Christians all over the world need to get into prayer, and we need to get into our Bible.
Because there’s nothing greater, there’s this book Paul Dehaan sent me, and in it it says:
The people of God used to record his word, saying The Word OF God is:
*In Ezekiel 3, honey is in my mouth.
*In Job 23, spiritual food for the hungry
*In Colossians 3, dwelling in me richly
*Psalms 119: A lamp for my feet
*Jeremiah 15 is a joy and delight in my heart.
*Jeremiah 20:20: A fire shut up in my bones, and it goes on.
Because the word of God is important, you can’t survive without
Prayerless Christians and wordless Christians are dead Christians, but when you begin to pick up the word of God, there begins to be a rattle.
And those dry bones heard the word of the Lord, and they began to rattle.
When you hear the voice of Satan lie to you and say you can’t go back, you’ve got to tell him to flee, for you can’t speak truth but only lies.
It brings to mind the prodigal son, who left home with everything his father had to offer, continued on, and eventually ran out of things, became bankrupt, and had nothing. He said, “Surely I can’t go back to my father,” but something persuaded him to, and when he did, his father welcomed him home, told him to get the best he had, hugged him, and said, “My beloved son came back.”
Isn’t that how we are? We say, “God, I don’t need you any more, and we begin to leave him, and as my uncle Ben would say, When you stop hanging with Jesus, you begin to hang with the devil.
And slowly but surely, Satan will strip you of everything you have, and you will say, I miss how it was. When you turn back to God, he raps you in his arms and says, You came back.
ALTAR CALL