Randall LaVere II
Saturday, July 27, 2002
Get it together
Read Ezekiel Ch. 37 V 1-10 & Pray
V.3 – explain -”I don’t know”
Have you ever gone through any thing in life where you were just like, Where are we going?
We always feel like that we have to have an answer.
But there are some things that we do go through that are so bad, that you want to have faith, and you do have faith, but you say Lord I don’t know. You know how this is going to end up, You know where you are taking me, but I don’t know.
Ex. Riding with someone
Ex. Riding with God
Some times he takes a big U turn, just when you thought that everything was going just fine. Comfortable. & he just whips us totally around so fast that we get whiplash.
When read in the text this is a great story.
This message is a vision that is given to Ezekiel by the spirit of the Lord. He gets taken to a valley that is full of dry bones. They are scattered and very dry. The spirit caused him to pass by them round about. From every perspective. He says there were very many, and they were very dry.
And the Lord asked him, Son of man, Can these bones live? Ezekiel answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. I don’t know, but you do. God then tells Ezekiel to Prophecy to the dry bones. ( Or in other words to speak to the bones) V. 6 says So I prophecied as I was commanded. Then ther was a noise, and a shaking. ( I think that the shaking was somewhat like an earth quake or something along those lines.) And then the Bones came together, and the muscles, and joints, and e flesh began to cover the bones.
But there was still no life in the bodies. Then the Lord told him to prophecy to the wind, and say “ Thus saieth the Lord God” Come breathe on these slain, that they may live. So he did as he was told and the breath came into the bodies, and they lived and stood upon there feet, as a great army.
This story in the Bible is a symbolic vision given to Ezekiel from God. It is a vision about what was going to happen to the nation of Israel. The Valley was the Land of Israel, and the bones were the people of Israel that were dead in there sins, and scattered about through the Land, unto even the four quarters of the world. That they were wanderers without a country until 1948. They are regathered into their homeland, and stood upon their feet as a great army.
So the things that we, or our parents, and grandparents have seen come to pass in the past 50 to 60 years in the Land of Israel were given to the prophet Ezekiel thousands of years ago. We realize as we read on down a few chapters that God is not just giving this message for Ezekiel, that he is giving it to the whole nation of Israel. God is a big God. He literally speaks to thousands of people in a vision to 1 man. He speaks to the whole nation about their destination in life.
We being in Christ, the church are to embrace the word of God. And throughout the years through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit have taken this story and applied it to our every day lives. That is what the Bible is for to be applied to our lives every day. I know that a lot of us in here have heard this story preached many times. I know that I have.
But very few of us actually know what the story means. And I know that we have all heard the songs that go along with it “ Them bones, them bones them Dry bones, them bones them bones them Dry bones” Or maybe weve heard Dry bones in the valley wait and ye shall live” We have heard it preached but we didn’t even know what it meant. All that we know is that it sounded good, and it felt good.
I’ve tried to explain the vision that was given to Ezekiel, and I hope that someone is getting something from this, but now I’ll try and explain how that we can apply it to our everyday lives.
Ephesians ch. 4 v. 4 says The church is one body, and one spirit. And in a body we have to have structure. If we look at our bodies the bones provide that structure. In order for our structure to stand we have to be connected. Romans 12:4 says that we have many members in one body. So being many we are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.
So without having all of our members, we are not a complete body. We must have all of our members to function properly. Matt. 12:25 says that a house divided against its self cannot stand. What this is saying is that if we are not connected, then we can’t make it. We have to have all of the joints, muscles, nerves organs and bones for us to function. We have to have it all pulled together. Ephesians 4:16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase to the body, unto the edifying of itself in love.
We have to have it all pulled together.
Ex. Building material-cake
It is frustrating to know that we have everything it takes to build it or make it, but we just can’t pull it together. We have all of the potential, but just can’t get it together. Not being able to pull it together causes a lot of problems for people in life. Divorce. Children& Parents. Quit School. Careers. Not being able to pull something together creates strife. And strife is the enemy of love. Strife is the foundation of destruction. And the Bible says that the thief cometh but to kill, steal, and destroy. Any way that the devil can get into your life, and make you miserable he will. So what we need to bring it together is God.
Who wants to spend another day having potential? We want to be able to live in the house. We have to be able to get it together.
We have three things in the valley. We have The problem- which are the bones( or the children of Israel) . We have the prophet(Ezekiel) and we have the power(God). If God is going to do a work, he is not going to do something that we can take care of ourselves. We know that God is omnipresent, but if we don’t know how to ask him to help us, he won’t do it.
You can have everything there to fix the problem, and still not get it done. God will not fix for you what you can fix for yourself.
Ex. Manna
Some people get saved, because they are lazy. Lazy joints, that don’t want to function together. They are expecting God to come in and fix all of the problems in their lives. Then they get upset when they don’t get immediate results. If God isn’t taking care of your problems for you, then more than likely he is waiting on you.
God set Ezekiel in the valley, and showed him the problem. Then he asked him “can these bones live again”? can these bones live again? Can thesse bones live again? Can this marriage work? Can I get out of debt? Can I overcome this depression? Can I take care of these problems at work?
The Bible tells me that I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. We are sometimes placed into a valley church. And these problems that we are facing are the bones.
What do we do when life throws a problem at you, and you don’t know what to do? “ Oh Lord God, thou knowest”
What did Ezekiel do when he was facing these problems? Lets read verse 7
I prophesied as I was commanded. He spoke things that were not as though they were. I prophesied as I was commanded. We have got to start looking toward the future. We can’t just talk about where we have been, or where we are, but we have to talk about where we are going. The power of life and death are in the tongue. We have got to speak to our debts, Husbands, we got to speak to our wives. Wives speak to your husbands. Parents speak to your children. We have got to start rebuking the destructing power of satan out of our lives, and start living in the word of God.
When Ezekiel prophesied there was a noise. Perhaps it was a popping, or snapping sound like the bones coming together. You know how it sounds when you go to the chiropractor. We have got to speak the things that are not as though they were.
We must live in the word, and practice what has been preached to you.
Obey the word of God. This is when things started to happen for Ezekiel. When he spoke to his situation according to the word of God, he showed obedience, and it all came together.
