Sermon Tone Analysis

EVERYONE WANT’S TO FEEL ALIVE.

And everyone has their own idea of what that looks like

Theme parks

Likes on Instagram

A great meal (that’s me)a

Finding that right someone

THE ONE WHO CREATED YOU KNOWS HOW TO GIVE YOU REAL LIFE

AND THAT MY FRIENDS IS REVIVAL.

Revival is when people decide that God has the life they need.

That God is their source.

That He has what they need.

And when a room this size decides to look to Him alone for life Revival breaks out.

Because when that much life change happens people take notice.

A city takes notice.

A region takes notice.

Your friends family neighbors and co workers take notice.

And what we are asking God to do tonight isn’t supposed to stay in this room but leave with every person and see the kingdom move forward.

LIKE I SAID A LOT OF PEOPLE HAVE IDEAS AND WANT TO TELL YOU WHAT REAL LIFE LOOKS LIKE.

Politicians

Influencers

Even Christians on Social media

Your family

Friends

AND THE DANGER IS THIS

When you start to feel lifeless who do you listen to?

When life hits, when you are faced with loss.

When the addiction starts to creep back.

When someone you trusted leaves a knife in your back.

When you get betrayed by someone who claimed to follow Jesus.

Who do you listen to.

Because it’s in those times that we start to look for answers because we don’t want to feel lifeless.

We don’t want to feel dead.

The biggest pandemic of our age is people looking for life in all the wrong places.

Whether you know Jesus today or not I want to ask, DO YOU FEEL ALIVE?

THE PROPHET EZEKIEL ONE DAY HAS A VISION.

God gives him this vision thats recorded in Ezekiel 37 that touches on just this.

There’s something dead that needs life again.

Ezekiel 37:1 (CSB) — 1 The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by his Spirit and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones.

It’s interesting how God takes him to a valley.

It could have been a mountain, it could have been a mountain overlooking a valley.

It could have been some level ground or any other number of topographical options but he takes him to a valley because even in the valley God is still with you.

Even at your lowest point God is still there.

We serve a God who is with us no matter what because when you enter a relationship with Jesus his spirit resides in your heart.

And there is no place you can go and no distance you can run where He wont be right there.

So no matter where you are tonight, maybe you feel close to God, maybe you feel far from God, maybe you’re not even sure about God can I tell you he’s here tonight and anything can happen.

God takes him to this valley and the vision continues...

Ezekiel 37:2–3 (CSB) — 2 He led me all around them.

There were a great many of them on the surface of the valley, and they were very dry.

You see bones serve no purpose and have no life outside of a body.

Bones, once outside of a body have no life.

Have no purpose.

And they dry up.

And these bones were very dry and in the same way we cannot truly be alive outside of a relationship with Jesus.

It is Jesus that causes us to have life and purpose and meaning.

So many people are trying and searching for life and purpose outside of Jesus only to be left dry.

And the world wants you to think that feeling dry is actually life!

And that if you feel dry and dead, it’s definitely not because you’ve been looking for life in all the wrong places it’s someone elses fault.

It’s that people on that side of the political isles fault.

It’s because you are not being true to yourself and living your truth.

And we have a generation that has become complacent with feeling dry when life is so close.

Friend how long will you look for life in dead places.

You know when people came looking for Jesus on resurrection Sunday and he wasn’t there the angel said to them “Why do you look for the living among the dead”.

and that picture rings true to our culture today.

3 Then he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

I replied, “Lord God, only you know.”

Only you know God.

These bones are pretty dry.

They haven’t felt alive in a long time.

They’ve been running for a while.

I’ve been out of church for a while.

I’ve tried for so long and it hasn’t worked.

It’s been years since I prayed God im not sure how this can work it’s a little too far gone.

It’s funny how we over complicate things when it comes to Jesus isn’t it?

The Gospel is so amazing but so radically simple.

But for some reasons we want complicated reasons.

We want a 52 week class that i pay $80 a week for that will give me 104 steps to dry bones coming alive.

Like God i’ve been running away from you for a long time but I can’t come to church this week because I gotta fix my life first.

God I’ve been choosing my own way for a while but I can’t dive headfirst and start praying and getting into your word right away I gotta make up for this somehow then I can.

I’ve done too much.

And all the while God never asked HOW the bones would live he just asked if they could.

And what’s crazy is the HOW is radically simple.

Ezekiel 37:4 (CSB) — 4 He said to me, “Prophesy concerning these bones and say to them: Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord!

That’s it?

Just HEAR God’s words?

The word hear there can also be translated as OBEY or UNDERSTAND.

But my favorite way it can be translated is AGREE.

Dry Bones AGREE with the word of the LORD.

If these bones would just HEAR God’s words and agree life could happen.

That’s it.

Not get your life together.

Not have all the answers.

Not hear all the other options.

Not Make up for lost time.

Just hear what God says and decide to believe.

Could it be that REVIVAL in your heart tonight and Revival in this CITY in this STATE is not a result of people having all the theological answers, or getting seminary, or being in 15 Bible studies, but rather just Hearing what God has to say and taking God at his word and believing what He says.

Don’t get me wrong study theology.

Go to seminary if your being called.

Join your Bible studies.

But if you read through the book of ACTS we see the biggest REVIVAL ever happening thousands getting saved at a time and when the religious leaders looked at leaders of this movement called the CHURCH they said “These are untrained and ignorant men BUT they had been with Jesus.”

These people didn’t need seminary.