Your Knee Bone Is Connected To The Back Bone

Opening:

So many people in relationships try to change the other person. Reminds me of the

young fiancé who, after learning that her husband to be didn’t believe like she did, cried

to her mother saying, “Mom, what should I do? How can I change his thinking? He says

he doesn’t believe in hell?” The Mother said, “Honey, that’s alright, you marry him and

both of us will make him believe in hell.” (illustration from Sermon Central).

Maybe you have been going about changing your spiritual life all the wrong ways. Do

you feel like you are dead in your Spiritual life? Or maybe just have no power?

Or do you know someone who needs Jesus, but it seems it is going to be impossible for

God to save them? That person just seems to set against God and anything that is

associated with God that they will never change? It’s hard for us to keep up hope for

people like that at times. These people can be a mother, father, brother, sister, son,

daughter, neighbor, employer, or employee. But ask yourself is it really possible for God

to save that individual? Is it really possible for God to get me excited about my own faith

again?

Scripture: Ezekiel 37:1-12

Introduction:

Let’s look at the background of these passage. What happens is the Spirit of God

carries Ezekiel to a very peculiar place, the site of a horrific battle. Located in a valley

where countless people had been slain a long time before. It is in this valley that Ezekiel

saw dry bones laying about everywhere. Bones that were picked clean by the birds of

the air and the beast of the field. Bones that had been washed by the rain and bleached

by the sun. These bones had laid out in the sun and became baked and brittle. But then

God asks Ezekiel something very strange, “Son of man, can these bones live? (Ezekiel.

37:3).

I am certain that Ezekiel was tempted to say, “No that’s impossible”. Just as many of us

would say it is impossible for some people we know to become spiritually alive or maby

even experience a reviving ourselves. But Ezekiel was smart and gave a great answer.

He said, “God, You know” (Ezekiel 37:3).

God then was ready to show Ezekiel impossible just as He is ready to show us today

that indeed those bones could live.

Now we need to remember that the prime application of this passage is to the nation of

Israel. God said to Ezekiel, “These bones are the whole house of Israel” (Ezekiel 27:11).

In a prophetic sense God is demonstrating in these passages what He will do in the end

times to bring back the nation of Israel from all over the world, where they lie scattered

about, in unbelief just like these dry bones.

But don’t miss the application this also speaking to us today. That we see in these

passages how God brings life from death. What man often things is impossible has

been made possible for Israel by God. And that God can do this same thing for any

situation. God can bring life out of death and revive our lost friends, neighbors, families,

and even ourselves. God evan wants to revive our church.

Let’s look at what the lord Jesus Christ can do for us today just like God raised these

dry bones.

1. A Sinful Condition:

Your Knee Bone is Connected to the Back Bone

a. These were dead bones that symbolize how a man without Christ is dead.

They had all been slain just like all those that have been slain by the devil

today.

b. The devil is a murderer who brings:

I)Loss of Life

II)Pollution to Purity

III)Sickness to Strength

IV)Woe to Well-Being and

V)Fear instead of Faith

c. These were Dry Bones. They had been out there for a long time and the

moisture of life had Departed from these bones (Ezekiel 37:2).

d. And these were Dispirited Bones. They lay in a valley, a low place of sorrow

and grief (Ezekiel 37:2)

e. They were all Displaced Bones that were just laying about everywhere with

no Purpose and Place (Ezekiel 37:1).

f. That is the condition of life without God.

g. Skeleton Outline: Allow me to give you a Skeleton Outline of these Bones

h. The Tailbone Christian doesn't get involved. Always behind on their giving

because they never trust. Always behind on their work for God. They may

have good intentions but never actually do anything.

i. Illustration: The tailbone Christian is like the man who needed some same-day

dry cleaning before his trip. He went to a store that said, “One-Hour Dry

Cleaners.” “I need this in an hour,” he told the clerk.

She said, “I can’t get this back to you until Thursday.”