{"id":11309,"date":"2016-05-06T08:47:46","date_gmt":"2016-05-06T12:47:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=11309"},"modified":"2016-06-03T07:57:03","modified_gmt":"2016-06-03T11:57:03","slug":"diggin-up-bones-5116","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=11309","title":{"rendered":"Diggin’ Up Bones (5\/1\/16)"},"content":{"rendered":"

God led Ziek into a desert; into a valley filled with dust, despair, and… dead bones.\u00a0 How can places in life like these be turned into something vibrant and living?\u00a0 When we’re in the depths of discouragement, can God inject hope and energy and turn things around?\u00a0 You betcha!!!
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Click the below “Play” button and scroll down to follow along (the recording is from the 11:00 service)…<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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The scripture was Ezekiel 37:1-10.\u00a0 Click the following Drop Down box to follow along.\u00a0 Pastor Jim read from The Living Bible.\u00a0 The New Living Translation (NLT) is shown below.
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Ezekiel 37:1-10<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t

1 The Lord took hold of me, and I was carried away by the Spirit of the Lord to a valley filled with bones.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.”<\/p>\n

4 Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, ‘Dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord!<\/p>\n

5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Look! I am going to put breath into you and make you live again!<\/p>\n

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.'”<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.'”<\/p>\n

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\u2014a great army.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n

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Discouragement<\/span><\/h3>\n
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The story is told of the Devil who was having a yard sale, and all of his tools were marked with different\u00a0 prices.\u00a0 They were a fiendish lot.\u00a0 There was hatred, jealousy, deceit, lying, and pride– all at expensive prices.\u00a0 But a table on the other side of the yard displayed a tool obviously worn more than any of the other tools.\u00a0 It was also the most costly.\u00a0 The tool was labeled DISCOURAGEMENT.\u00a0 When questioned, the Devil said, “It’s more useful to me than any other tool.\u00a0 When I can’t bring down my victims with any of the rest of these tools, I use discouragement, because so few people realize that it belongs to me.”<\/span><\/div><\/div>\n

Satan is never happier than when he sees people giving in and giving up to despair and becoming lost in hopelessness.\u00a0 Have you ever felt like your whole world is caving in around you and there is absolutely no hope?\u00a0 Your troubles seem to mount up insurmountable.\u00a0 When focus on the moment and\u00a0 on the circumstance even God’s people can get worn down.\u00a0 We need to disobey Satan!\u00a0 Instead of focusing on the circumstance, we need to look ahead to “Tomorrow”…\"Gumby-upset-534103_960_720<\/p>\n

Cheer Up; I have good news!\u00a0 There is hope for the hopeless!<\/p>\n

When God led ‘ole Ziek into this desert, his nation was already in one.\u00a0 Things looked pretty bad.\u00a0 His nation was like a pile of dead bones, and what God showed him in this vision applied to the nation of Israel.\u00a0 Ezekiel was writing this from Persia.\u00a0 He wasn’t on vacation… in 589 BC King Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem, burned the Temple, and carried off all of the people\u00a0 to Babylon.\u00a0 The story is told in 2 Chronicles 36 (and 2 Kings 24).\u00a0 Here’s part of the account as told in 2 Chronicles 36:15-20…<\/p>\n

The Lord, the God of their fathers, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord was aroused against his people and there was no remedy.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

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He brought up against them the king of the Babylonians, who killed their young men with the sword in the sanctuary, and spared neither young man nor young woman, old man or aged. God handed all of them over to Nebuchadnezzar.\u00a0 He carried to Babylon all the articles from the temple of God, both large and small, and the treasures of the Lord’s temple and the treasures of the king and his officials.\u00a0 They set fire to God’s temple and broke down the wall of Jerusalem; they burned all the palaces and destroyed everything of value there.<\/span><\/p>\n

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He carried into exile to Babylon the remnant, who escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and his sons until the kingdom of Persia came to power.<\/span>
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Yep.\u00a0 Things were looking pretty bleak.\u00a0 Ziek didn’t need any explanation about the meaning of the dead bones.\u00a0 He was alredy feeling like he was at the far end of a long line of hungry customers at a fast food restaurant.\u00a0 This exile wasn’t going quickly, and it wasn’t joyful.<\/p>\n

Ziek was singing the blues, not the songs of God’s joy.\u00a0 Here’s what a psalmist wrote about that period (in Psalm 137:1-4):<\/p>\n

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By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. <\/span>
\nThere on the poplars we hung our harps, <\/span>
\n\u00a0for there our captors asked us for songs,<\/span>
\n\u00a0our tormentors demanded songs of joy;<\/span>
\nthey said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” <\/span><\/p>\n

How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 NIV<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It was a hopeless situation.\u00a0 The bones are very dry.\u00a0 They’re scattered.\u00a0 They’ve been there a long time.\u00a0 There’s no unity, nothing’s happening.\u00a0 This was an accurate description of how the Israelites felt.\u00a0 They felt like they got hit by a steam roller and were mired in hot tar.<\/p>\n

Do WE ever feel that way???<\/p>\n

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But We Haven’t Batted Yet!<\/span><\/h3>\n

But take another look at verse 1: “The Lord took hold of me, and I was carried away by the Spirit of the Lord…<\/span><\/em><\/strong>”\u00a0 God doesn’t give up!\u00a0 The hand of God comes to us.\u00a0 God pursues us.\u00a0 As Satan hits us with his tool of Discouragement, we say “It’s useless; there’s no hope.<\/span>”\u00a0 But God says “Relax!\u00a0 I’m going to do something really big here!<\/span>”<\/p>\n

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A man approached a little league baseball game\u00a0 one afternoon.\u00a0 He asked a boy in the dugout what the score was.\u00a0 The boy responded,\u00a0 “Eighteen to nothing–\u00a0 we’re behind.”\u00a0 “Boy,” said the spectator,”I’ll bet you’re discouraged.”\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

“Why should I be discouraged?” replied the little boy.\u00a0 “We haven’t even gotten up to bat yet!”<\/span>\u00a0<\/div><\/div>\n

Mother Theresa once\u00a0 said that there are no problems; just opportunities!\u00a0 It’s a matter of perspective.\u00a0 When faced with our own “bones in the desert” situations, we can choose to either say “Look at this mess!”\u00a0 OR…\u00a0 “What an opportunity for God!”\u00a0 To quote the country song, all too often we “look for love in all the wrong places.”\u00a0 We can either focus on the situation and not find anything resembling hope or love,\u00a0 or we can pour ourselves out to God and open ourselves up to the hope that is in Jesus.<\/p>\n

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There’s no greater state of hopelessness than a person without Christ. <\/span><\/p>\n

(… Have you shared the faith with someone to allow their spiritual bones to be awakened?<\/span><\/em>)<\/span><\/div><\/div>\n

Psalm Ps 121:1 reminds us to look to God in the midst of our hopelessness…<\/p>\n

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I lift up my eyes to the hills \u2014 <\/span><\/em>
\nwhere does my help come from? <\/span><\/em>
\n\u00a0My help comes from the Lord,<\/span><\/em>
\nthe Maker of heaven and earth. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Anxiety comes from being disconnected from God<\/strong>.\u00a0 When we “lift our eyes up to the hills” to God, despair is chased away.\u00a0 God brings hope… real\u00a0 hope (not just a wishy washy feeling). God’s hope chases away discouragement.\u00a0 Look up and let God come up to bat\u00a0 for you.<\/p>\n

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God Alone is the Answer to Hopeless Situations<\/span><\/h3>\n

In verse 3, God asked Ezekiel a question:\u00a0 “Can these bones ever live?”<\/p>\n

Ziek answers the only way one of us humans could: “O Lord, only you know the answer to that one”<\/p>\n

From a human perspective, it’s impossible for those old bones to ever come t o life.\u00a0 But Ziek answers from the perspective of faith:\u00a0 “I don’t see how they could ever live, God…. but I get the feeling You’ve got some other ideas???”<\/p>\n

Ezekiel is acknowledging that God can do the impossible.\u00a0 That if God so desires these dry discarded bones to have life again, they’re gonna live!\u00a0 We see this truth over and over in the Bible…<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t

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