Review District Council and how it connected - we are in the vein

It is interesting to see how where we are as a body is also being reflected at the district level.

We were able to receive a fresh infusion of vision for what lies ahead on a district level, and it is similar to what is happening on our local level.

No matter where you stand on political issues, or what your beliefs are about what’s happened over the last few years, one thing is certain: we as a country are in a time of transition…

This transition is both spiritual and political. There is a shift happening in every sector and on every level.

There is a generation of boomers who have held off retirement as long as they can and a generation of young adults who make up the largest generation ever seen in the history of this country that have entered the work force, begun voting, and are carving out their place of influence in the world.

Unfortunately, the political climate in this country is one that has turned generation against generation; young against old, old against young.

There is such a cultural setting of division that it has trickled down into the churches that will allow it.

The news and media would have us believe that we are nearing on civil war because of ideological differences.

But I say not so.

We hold the solution to the problem of division in the world.

We hold the hope that can heal the broken hearted, set the captive free, and unify a divided people.

Review Sunday Night’s Sermon about Unity in the Body

Sunday night we talked about Unity in the Body… Unity in the context of relationship amongst believers.

This is part 2 of that message

Ezekiel 37:1–10 NASB95

1 The hand of the Lord was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones. 2 He caused me to pass among them round about, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley; and lo, they were very dry. 3 He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, You know.” 4 Again He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.’ 5 “Thus says the Lord God to these bones, ‘Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life. 6 ‘I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you that you may come alive; and you will know that I am the Lord.’ ” 7 So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8 And I looked, and behold, sinews were on them, and flesh grew and skin covered them; but there was no breath in them. 9 Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they come to life.” ’ ” 10 So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.

The Sound of Unity

Pray

Context:

The book of Ezekiel is a record of prophecies, spoken and penned by the prophet Ezekiel sometime around the beginning of the 6th century B.C.

What is interesting about the book of Ezekiel is that it was written in a time of political unrest.

The assyrian empire had gone forth with the ambition of conquering the whole known world, but had spread too far for its own foundation.

This instability of the Assyrian empire gave rise to the Babylonians who exiled much of Israel for a second time.

Exile was a strategy that prevented uprisings after a land was conquered. They would take groups of people out of the land and replace them with their own. They would send those people to other places in the empire, spreading them out so that they could not have the unity of vision to be able to cause an uprising.

We see many prophets during the time just before and during the exiles giving warning of times to come and calls to repentance for those who had abandoned the blessing of God.

One thing was always certain with these prophecies, though, God always promised His faithfulness toward those who would turn from their wicked ways and follow Him.

This is the context of the verse we so often hear quoted about a promised future:

Jeremiah 29:11 NASB95

11 ‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.

Jeremiah was a contemporary of Ezekiel and this was written during a time of turmoil and uncertainty for Israel.

Even though they were in a bad place, God had their future in mind…

This is a time of political unrest as the powers of Assyria and Babylon strive for who will come out on top…

And this is a time of spiritual unrest because now the whole system of sacrifice at the temple has been removed from the people of Israel.

Before, they at least had the option to follow the instruction of God, but now they are left with a change of everything. They have to find a different way to carry out the instructions given to them by God.

Before, they were required to bring sacrifice and there was a complex system of sacrifice for repentance, and it was the priests who maintained the system in the temple.

Now, the temple is unavailable, and they have to come up with a new way of doing things…

Ezekiel was a part of one of the last groups to be exiled. You can see in his prophecies that there are three major stages:

Stage 1 is pre-exile and is a call to repentance and a warning about what is to come. These are chapters 1-24

Stage 2 is in the midst of the transition of exile when everything is turned upside down. These are chapters 25-32

Stage 3 is written from within the time of exile and is largely focused on the promises of Israel’s restoration.

This is where we find Ezekiel 37.

Now when you picture this prophecy, take in to account that the armies of Israel have fallen to an impossibly large foe and the result is that all of life has been uprooted, and the spiritual vitality of God’s chosen people has dried up…

Ezekiel 37:1–2 NASB95

1 The hand of the Lord was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones. 2 He caused me to pass among them round about, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley; and lo, they were very dry.

I think there is something to be learned here from how Ezekiel is describing what has the potential to be a great army.

First, it wasn’t enough that the bones were all in the same place.

Geography alone isn’t unity.

Just because the bones were all in the same place, did not give them the unity they needed to be an army.

In the same way, simply coming together in this place of worship does not constitute unity.

We can be here together and not have unity. We can listen to the same songs, hear the same message, and even answer the same altar call, but still be divided.

Unity isn’t accomplished by geographical standing. It takes more than just showing up.

Second, great numbers don’t mean unity.

High attendance isn’t unity.

Verse 1 says the valley was FULL of bones. Verse 2 says there were VERY MANY.

You would think if there was good attendance at their church service, they would be able to get something done!

Third, the appearance of unity isn’t enough.

The appearance of unity isn’t unity.

Look at verse 8:

Ezekiel 37:8 NASB95

8 And I looked, and behold, sinews were on them, and flesh grew and skin covered them; but there was no breath in them.

We can come together, we can get high attendance, and we can even work out a system that operates like a well oiled machine.

We can get everyone on the same page with our organizational structure and look as much like a body as a body can look, but still be out of unity.

Sunday night we talked about unity in the context of relationships and engaging with one another. Unity is relational. We can’t be in unity without one another.

But the truth is, there are times when we find ourselves in a place like this, in a dry place, disconnected from the other members of the body.

So we know that we should be fostering relationships with one another. We know that unity has to be done in the context of relationship. But what do you do if you find yourself in a place of disrupted unity and you’re dry…

I think there are three principles in this text that can be applied to restoring and maintaining unity.

We need a word.

Ezekiel 37:3–4 NASB95

3 He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, You know.” 4 Again He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.’

Ezekiel didn’t take in a medical team. There wasn’t a comity meeting. He didn’t have a board or trustees, deacons or elders, a creative team or advisory commission.

What he had was a word from the Lord.

All hell can be breaking loose, but if you’ve got a word from the Lord, it can make everything alright.

This is why it is important to learn the promises of God concerning your life…

You can encourage yourself in the promises of God....

God I thank you that You said I would be the head and not the tail, above and not beneath, the lender and not the borrower, blessed in the city, blessed in the field, blessed in my coming, blessed in my going.

I thank you that goodness and mercy are following me all the days of my life.

I thank you that You said you would open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing I don’t have room enough to store.

I thank you that there’s never been a day of lack in your house. You own the cattle on a thousand hills. David said I once was young and now I’m old and I’ve never seen the righteous forsaken or his seed begging bread.

We need a word from the Lord!

We need the Breath of God.

Ezekiel 37:4–6 NASB95

4 Again He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.’ 5 “Thus says the Lord God to these bones, ‘Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life. 6 ‘I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you that you may come alive; and you will know that I am the Lord.’ ”

As I said Sunday night, we must be intentional about building our relationships with one another to have unity.

But I can assure you, there will come a time, if we are together long enough… If we ever get close enough… that I will offend you.

And there will be a time, no matter how careful we are, that one of us will have a fleshy flare up and say something we shouldn’t have said.

In fact, this is the very issue with all politics! - the people. If it weren’t for the people involved in politics, I would probably enjoy it more.

It’s the same with ministry. Ministry would be easy if it weren’t for the people!

But unity with myself is just narcissism in a pretty package.

The only way we maintain our unity that we are building is by the Spirit of God.

The Hebrew word for Spirit is Ruach, which is also translated breath…

This is the picture given in the creation account when God breaths His own breath into the lungs of Adam, He is giving Adam a human spirit in the likeness of God’s spirit.

It is our spirit that connects with the Holy Spirit… The Ruach… the breath of God.

I need God to blow His breath on me for right living and empowered witness and unity with you.

Lastly, when we have unity in the context of relationships… a Word from the Lord… and His Spirit empowering us…

There will be a…

Sound of Unity

We said earlier that you could look like your in unity and it not actually be unity…

There are other motivations other than a unified thought and mind that can look like unity.

Lethargy can look like unity. We look like we all get along, but we are just too tired to fight…

Complacency can look like unity. We look like we get along, but the truth is we don’t care enough to try and change anything….

But there is an unmistakable sound of unity…

Ezekiel 37:7 NASB95

7 So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone.

A noise… a noise.... a noise…

This word noise in the Hebrew is QOL. It’s translated 498 times in the Old Testament and it can be translated as noise or sound, but the majority of the times it is translated, it is translated as voice or voices.

Gen 4:1 uses it to describe the voice of Arbam’s blood…

1 Sam 4:6 uses it to describe the noise of a shout…

Ex. 36:6 describes it as a proclamation

1 Kings 19:13 Elijah stood at the mouth of the cave and heard the “voice” of God....

I would like to have been there to hear what Ezekiel heard… He says it’s a rattling but it’s also a noise… But it’s not just a racket, it’s a sound… a noise… This bone connecting to that bone....

There started forming order out of the chaos… life in the dry place… unity in the midst of disconnect…

There was a noise!

Can I tell you this morning that unity always has a sound…

The look of unity can be faked, but there’s a sound of unity that cannot be mistaken…

It is the sound that is music to the ears of God....

It’s the sound that can disrupt the strongholds of the enemy…

It’s the sound that demons flee from…

It’s the sound that causes the earth itself to tremble....

It is the sound in which God is enthroned....

That sound is the voices of God’s people in one mind and one accord, lifting up their voices in prayer and in praise…

It was this sound that caught the attention of those who were there on the day of pentecost…

It was this sound that Ezekiel heard in the valley…

It was this sound that was lifted up in acts 4 when God responded with another outpouring of his presence on the upper room.

It was this sound that was loosed when God’s Spirit was poured out on the temple so that the priests couldn’t stand to minister…

It’s this sound that torments the devil and pleases the Father.

It is the Sound of unified voices of the saints being lifted up to heaven in one accord…

Chords sounded together in unity illustration

The Sound of Unity

Last sunday night, as we split up to pray together, Randy and I finished praying and I just listened.

There was a sound… a noise.... the sound of voices all together… lifting up your petitions to God....

Then when the prayer was done… the sound continued… Because then you joined your voices in a symphony of conversations…

I told several, “I love this sound...”

I love the sound of conversation and prayer and singing together and praising together.

This is the sound of unity....

Altar call: I asked everyone to pray for someone last week that they don’t normally pray with. Ask their need, get to know their situation. Then I asked that you take that need home and pray for that person every day for 7 days. Today is the 7th day and I expect that there will be some testimonies before the day is out.

Here’s what I would like you to do today: