Live, Alive: God Takes Hold

Today, we launch our new summer sermon series, Live, Alive.

 For the next nine weeks, we are going to walk together through one of the most powerful and memorable passages in the entire Bible. It is found in Ezekiel chapter 37 and is commonly known as The Valley of Dry Bones. Ezekiel was a prophet living during one of the darkest chapters in Israel's story.  What defined him as a prophet was that God would give Ezekiel a vision and a message to deliver to the Israelites.

 In this vision, Ezekiel is standing at the edge of what looks like the remnants of the holocaust. A valley FILLED with human skeletons.  Kind of eerie, right? But wait – there’s more.

During the vision, tendons, muscles, and flesh begin to grow on the skeletons, and every single skeleton began to live. So, why did God give this vision to Ezekiel?  The context is important.  The Israelites lived as people without hope for a couple of reasons:

 First, for generations, they stopped following God and convinced themselves there would never be consequences for their choices.

 Secondly, the Babylonian Empire destroyed the city of Jerusalem, burned the Temple, and took thousands of Jewish people back to Babylon as slaves.

So, they refused to turn to God. Their capital city was gone. The Temple, which represented God's presence among His people, was gone. Their homes were gone. Everything they loved had been ripped away. These were people who believed their story was over.

That is one of the reasons why I love this passage!  The people of God lived as though they were people without hope…and I think that is where many followers of Jesus find themselves today.

Often we understand how God desires that we live – but we ignore Him…Then we experience hardships…and in our stubbornness, we refuse to ask God for help – because we still want to live life by our rules, not his.

 Maybe we understand what it feels like when part of our life seems broken beyond repair. Maybe you know how it feels to look at a marriage and wonder if things will ever improve. Maybe you know what it feels like to sit across the dinner table from someone you once loved deeply and realize conversations have become nonexistent. Maybe you know what it feels like to battle anxiety, depression, addiction, loneliness, shame, regret, or spiritual exhaustion. And frankly, if we are all honest, many of us know what it feels like to quietly look at an area of our life and think: This will never change.

That is exactly how God’s chosen people felt. That is exactly the reason God began to speak to Ezekiel.

 And over the next nine weeks, I invite you to take an honest look at areas of your life that feel dry and lifeless, and prayerfully, you will discover how God calls us to Live, Alive again.

Ezekiel 37:1-14 (NLT2)
1  The LORD took hold of me, and I was carried away by the Spirit of the LORD to a valley filled with bones. 2  He led me all around among the bones that covered the valley floor. They were scattered everywhere across the ground and were completely dried out. 3  Then he asked me, “Son of man, can these bones become living people again?” “O Sovereign LORD,” I replied, “you alone know the answer to that.” 4  Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, ‘Dry bones, listen to the word of the LORD! 5  This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Look! I am going to put breath into you and make you live again! 6  I will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’” 7  So I spoke this message, just as he told me. Suddenly as I spoke, there was a rattling noise all across the valley. The bones of each body came together and attached themselves as complete skeletons. 8  Then as I watched, muscles and flesh formed over the bones. Then skin formed to cover their bodies, but they still had no breath in them. 9  Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to the winds, son of man. Speak a prophetic message and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come, O breath, from the four winds! Breathe into these dead bodies so they may live again.’” 10  So I spoke the message as he commanded me, and breath came into their bodies. They all came to life and stood up on their feet—a great army. 11  Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones represent the people of Israel. They are saying, ‘We have become old, dry bones—all hope is gone. Our nation is finished.’ 12  Therefore, prophesy to them and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O my people, I will open your graves of exile and cause you to rise again. Then I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13  When this happens, O my people, you will know that I am the LORD. 14  I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live again and return home to your own land. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken, and I have done what I said. Yes, the LORD has spoken!’”

If you are a fan of the Walking Dead series, you probably saw this passage a little differently. As these bones came back to life, they were not snarling, snapping, and trying to eat Ezekiel…You can almost SEE the valley floor covered with skeletons. You can almost FEEL the initial hopelessness. Which is exactly the point.

God showed Ezekiel a picture of how the people of Israel saw themselves. Broken. Scattered. Defeated. Beyond repair.

Ezekiel 37:11 (NLT2)
…these bones represent the people of Israel. They are saying, ‘We have become old, dry bones—all hope is gone. Our nation is finished.’

 The real problem was hopelessness.

Many of us can relate. We have all had moments when we looked at situations…without HOPE. Maybe you thought…
A marriage could not change..
A habit could not change…
A relationship could not change…
A job could not change…

Sometimes followers of Jesus reach that moment of HOPELESSNESS because they begin to believe the SAME LIE Israel believed…and maybe it’s the same lie you have fallen for too. You think…”Nothing is ever going to change.”

 This vision begins with the people of God feeling hopeless…not with an army of people standing to their feet. BUT more importantly, it begins with GOD who refuses to leave HIS people in that valley of brokenness.

 And if you are standing at the edge of your own valley of dry bones…And if you desperately wonder if anything will ever change......if you are tired of feeling spiritually bone dry…Then see what Ezekiel experienced first…

GOD MOVES FIRST

Because of the dramatic imagery in this passage, we might miss the first words of this passage. Ezekiel wrote, "The LORD took hold of me..." BEFORE Ezekiel understood the vision, God was ALREADY moving. Before Ezekiel stepped into the valley, God “took hold” of him.

See, some people believe the spiritual dryness goes away IF and WHEN WE finally decide to get serious about God. We think transformation will continue if we become MORE disciplined, MORE committed, SERVE more…GIVE more…We think God is waiting for us to get our act together before He gets involved in our lives.But that is not how GOD works. The entire vision began because GOD MOVES FIRST.

 And, long before I ever thought about God, He was thinking about me. Long before I opened a Bible, walked into church, or committed my life to Jesus, God was ALREADY moving.

The reason why I went to church in the first place? God moved first.
The reason why a young lady invited me to church? God moved first.
The reason why the youth pastor shared Jesus with me? God moved first.

 And, I hope that you can look back now and see the moments God moved first in your life…

Maybe you look back and see how God moved first in…
A conversation.
A crisis.
A relationship.
A disappointment.
A sermon.
But looking back, you realize God moved first…

And maybe, just as God took hold of Ezekiel, God MAY be taking hold of YOU right now. Now…God doesn’t just grab hold of you to STARTLE you. He actually has a PLACE he wants to take you. And the first place God wants to take you may be surprising. Like God led Ezekiel…I believe that…

GOD WILL LEAD YOU TO FACE WHAT YOU WOULD RATHER AVOID

When God took hold of Ezekiel, God did not take Ezekiel to a revival service. God did not take Ezekiel to the Temple or to a place of comfort. He led Ezekiel to face a valley filled with dry bones.

Ezekiel 37:2 (NLT2)
2  He led me all around among the bones that covered the valley floor. They were scattered everywhere across the ground and were completely dried out.

 But God wanted Ezekiel to look at the PROBLEM. And honestly, God often works the same way in our lives. We want God to take away the problem, the diagnosis, the death, the hurt…But God wants us to face what we would rather avoid. The areas of our lives we spend time trying to avoid and not think about – God wants to do His greatest work!

And, the truth be told, as followers of Jesus, we avoid areas of our lives…because they hurt….not because we don’t care.

A struggling marriage hurts.
The shame that comes with addiction hurts.
The wound from your childhood hurts.
And maybe you avoid looking too deeply at pain, because you worry about what other issues might rise to the surface…

If you have ever walked through a 12-Step Study with Celebrate Recovery, you know there is a fourth step where you take an “Inventory”.  It’s actually the hardest…and a lot of people hit that phase, and they say, “I’m good,” and never finish the program. People want to recover – but they worry about the pain you're going to have to face. What tears are you going to have to cry? What truths are you finally going to have to admit?

We sometimes avoid the hard because it feels EASIER to carry the pain we KNOW than to face the pain God might UNCOVER to bring HEALING.

GOD WILL NOT ABANDON WHAT FEELS DEAD IN YOUR LIFE

 Remember – we read in verse 11 – the real problem was the HOPELESSNESS that the people of Israel felt. They believed God was done with them. They saw an ending, but God saw a beginning. The Israelites saw a dead end, but God saw a life that could live again. The people said, "All hope is gone.” But God said…"YOU DO NOT SEE WHAT I SEE.”

And that might be what YOU need to hear today.

When pain hangs around long enough, we start believing it will always be there. We begin to believe it will never improve. We begin to believe we will stay trapped and stuck forever. But what if God sees something you don’t yet see? What if God sees a future you cannot imagine? What if God has not abandoned the very thing you have given up on?

That is one of the reasons Celebrate Recovery is such a powerful ministry here at Beach Church. Every Friday night at 6:00 PM people walk through the doors of Adventure Beach doors with hurts, habits, and hang-ups they thought would define the rest of their lives. And week after week, God does something remarkable. Not because every problem disappears overnight. Not because every struggle suddenly goes away. But because people begin to discover that God has not abandoned them. Week after week, God whispers,“You see dry bones…I see life!”

If there is a hurt, a habit, or a hang-up that keeps holding you back, I invite you to check out Celebrate Recovery.

Celebrate Recovery meets every Friday night at 6:00 PM right here at Adventure Beach.

You do not have to tell your whole story. You do not have to have all the answers. Just check it out.

 And next weekend we are going to wrestle with the question, "Can these dry bones REALLY live?"