Forever Ruined for the Ordinary September 15, 2002
Forever Ruined For The Ordinary
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Lets pray for God’s guidance and illumination.
Heavenly Father,
We have heard your Word, reveal you Word to us, Open our hearts, open our ears, open our minds, and open our hands that we might receive your Word. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen
Just one year and three months ago I was sitting in Pella, IA minding my own business. I was glad to be done with school and looked forward to getting on the with the rest of my life. Connie and the girls were glad to have me at home in the evenings and we were making plans for our future. You see, our family was adjusting to dad being home once in a while again. I had just completed four years of college and working full-time an average of 50 plus hours a week at the same time. It was now time to enjoy life. What we did not know is that is was time to enjoy life, life as God wanted us to have joy in it. We were called into full-time ministry and life has been a joy ever since. God breathed life into us. We have been forever ruined for the ordinary.
This passage in Ezekiel 37, of the Valley of the Dry Bones, is well known by most of you I am sure. There is a richness in it that has blessed the church through the ages. It has touched my heart and I pray that it touches yours also. This evening there are three things we will focus on from God’s Word. First, we are all at varying degrees of being lost and apart from God and what those might look like. Second, there is hope because God does see things differently than the way we see things, and third, How and why does God revive us?
An awareness of where we are spiritually and an acknowledgment of where we are in our spiritual lives is critical. The people of Israel were in exile in Babylonia. They felt there was no hope for them. Ezekiel was one of those carried off to Babylon. He was a prophet of God that prophesied messages of doom, judgment, and later hope to the exiled people of God in Babylon. The Israelites thought early in their exile that their captivity was only for a short time. Ezekiel dispelled that notion as he prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem. The people of Israel needed to know that they were in trouble with God. They had been disobedient and God allowed them to fall into trouble, into captivity for seventy long years.
I’m old enough and have lived enough of life to know when I have been in trouble with God. You see, you can’t be saved until you know you are lost. Even though I gave my heart to Jesus at the age of seven and have lived a relatively active Christian life throughout my life, I know what it is like to be far from God. Even more so, the people of Israel felt far from God.
God’s hand was upon Ezekiel and he was taken by the Spirit of God into a valley full of dry bones. All he could see were casualties. I use the word casualties because we can understand in the church who the casualties may be. They may be people who are burned out for one reason or another. They may be people who are just not interested in getting involved for one reason or another. They may even be people who are not a part of the church for one reason or another. Have you thought that they may even be people who have never set foot in a church.
I want to take you to verse 11 where the Sovereign Lord identifies who these bones, or casualties, are. Listen. (read verse 11a) Look at verse 12, the Sovereign Lord says, “O, my people”, and again in verse 13, “my people”. These casualties are the people of God, these casualties are God’s chosen people, the elect, and they are hurting. Hurting badly. Notice what God has heard them say in verse 11. (read 11b) They feel that their life is gone. I am sure there are people all throughout our churches that feel that the life is gone from us in the church today.
God’s Word shows us some measure of the degree of life that we may feel that is gone from us. There are at least three groups of people in these verses. (read verses 2, 7-8) In verse 2 there are those who are completely disconnected and seem to have no chance of ever making it. We all know people who would be in this group. They live all around us and we can’t imagine there is any hope for them. They don’t even have the form of a Christian. Then there are those who are like skeletons, they have the basic form of a Christian but there just doesn’t seem to be any hope for them either. They may want nothing or very little to do with church. Then there are those who seem to be whole but there isn’t any life in them. This is where I have spent much of my life as a Christian. I have served on consistory from the time I was 21 and was very active in the church in many ways, but I didn’t have very much life in me for the other two groups of God’s chosen people. The life in me I talk about is the passion or lack of passion I had for people of all walks of life. Jesus has a passion for all walks of life. This morning you and I heard Pastor Jonathan tell us that Jesus will always love you with a burning desire, a passion. It isn’t only for the people that are sitting in these pews that Jesus has a passion for, it is a passion for all people. I only had a small measure of Jesus in my life.
Let me illustrate how dangerous it can be to be in that third group because we don’t realize the danger we are in. Our daughter Emily, when she was three years old, decided one morning while she was playing in the front yard of our farmyard to take a walk. She got her shopping cart and walked nearly a mile to Highway 163. She was going somewhere but had no idea how much danger she was getting into. Highway 163 carried a lot of traffic, it is now a four-lane super highway, much like M-40 around 5 PM. When she got to the edge of the highway she stood at the edge of 163 waiting to go on. She still had not idea how much danger she was in. She was having the time of her life. In Emily’s case, Henry Dykstra, a Christian neighbor, was sitting on the other side of the road in his tractor helplessly watching in turmoil and unable to do anything because of the constant traffic. We don’t often even realize that we are in danger and others can see our danger and are unable to do anything for us. Life is good for us and but we don’t really see or maybe even want to see what God sees. With one step, Emily could have been run over by the traffic or the wrong person could have come along and taken her and we may have never seen her again. Fortunately for Emily and for us God is watching over us and brings people or events into our lives that save us. In Emily’s case it was Marlene De Jong, a member of our home church in Pella, over twenty miles from where Emily was standing, recognized her and stopped, bringing Emily back to us. That day, Marlene was Emily’s guardian angel. God does watch over us and cares for us. God sent someone to give life to the third group of people that Ezekiel was seeing too. God sends some one to give us life also. We find that there is a fourth group in God’s Word. Did you see it when we read His Word?
Yes, there is a fourth group! Praise God, there is a fourth group. (read verse 9-10) There is a vast army. How did that happen? God made it happen! The breath of God made it happen. What is the breath of God? Where else have we heard of the breath of God? In Gen. 2:7 we read that “the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and BREATHED into his nostrils the BREATH OF LIFE, and the man became a LIVING BEING.” In John 20:21-22, we read these words as Jesus appeared to the disciples on Easter evening, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. And with that he BREATHED ON THEM and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit”. The breath of God is the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit makes all the difference in us. There is hope after all for every one of the first three groups. It often just seems hopeless to try to reach especially those in the first two groups. Those that have no resemblance of a Christian life or even those who are seemingly far from God and a Christian life. Why is there hope?
Its because God sees things differently than we see things and that is good. God told Samuel in I Samuel 16:7 when Samuel was choosing David the shepard boy, the man after God’s own heart, this; “the Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” God asked Ezekiel what he thought regarding the dry bones and Ezekiel answered wisely. [The Sovereign Lord] asked of me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “O Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”
With us, we must answer wisely also. We are not to lose hope as the people of Israel did. God sees things differently than we do. We are to never lose hope because with God there is always hope. When Jesus Christ was born into the world, the Jews were again without hope. Even though the Jews rejected Jesus and missed the hope that was theirs, we don’t have to. Even the disciples thought their dreams were shattered by the cross and their dreams were impossible, yet God looked at the cross in an entirely different light and so should we. Many people today following the events around the world this past year have lost all sense of hope.
God is still in control and as he told Ezekiel to say to the people, God says to us; (read verses 12-14a) God tells us that he has conquered death and will bring his people back to the land of milk and honey. The cross of Calvary gives us hope and we are saved by the grace of God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on our behalf on that cross. Jesus conquered death once and for all. What better hope do we need?
How and why did God revive those dry bones? Is this connected to how and why God desires to revive us? God revived the dry bones by the proclamation of his Word and the power of the Holy Spirit. Notice that it was Ezekiel that prophesied at the command of the Sovereign Lord. It certainly was not Ezekiel that caused the dry bones to become the vast army, it was God. We are never to mistake what we are to do vs. what God does. It was the breath of God that brought life to that vast army. It is the breath of God manifested in the Holy Spirit that brings life to you and I. Without the Holy Spirit in us, we are just here without real life. We are not useful to God. We are not able to withstand the spiritual warfare that we are in each day. Do you wonder if there may be a connection between the vast army Ezekiel tells us about and the putting on of the whole armor of God spoken about in Ephesians 6. We are indeed in a spiritual war.
We are to be faithful to God’s commands. This summer I heard a person quote the chaplain of the United States Senate in the Senate’s motto; “Without me, you can not, and without you, I will not.” What was true for God to use Ezekiel is still true for us. I know this quote rings true of my life. We are to obey the commands of God, we are to remain faithful and obey God. Each and every one of us must live our lives so that those around us will know we are Christians that have the Holy Spirit in us, not just Christians that appear to be alive. Our entire lives must be a model of Jesus Christ because we never know when we are being the only Jesus people have ever met. We are to live as though we are filled with gratitude for the grace that God has so abundantly given to us for our salvation.
God tells us in Ezekiel 37:14 that “I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord”. We are to acknowledge the Lordship of God and glorify his name. God’s Word tells us in Philippians 2:10, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth.” We must never lose sight of this truth. We must always begin with the end in mind.
Tonight, we have seen from God’s Word that we are all casualties. We are all lost. We are all in need of God’s saving grace. We have seen from God’s Word that there are four kinds of God’s people. What kind of person are you and what kind of person do you want to be. Do you want to be one of the people that is filled with the breath of God, the Holy Spirit? Do you want to be in that vast army? Then pray daily for the Holy Spirit to guide you and dwell within you and to give you peace. Join a prayer group and earnestly seek God’s face in his Word.
Does it mean you will be forever ruined for the ordinary? Yes, it does. You will never be the same again. God doesn’t call everyone into seminary, but he does call us to something. What is God calling you to be? Is it to be a devoted follower of Jesus Christ, a disciple?
A few weeks ago, I understand there was a reverse offering given. Could this be how God calls you to follow his commands or is it in some other way that you have felt the call of God on your life? It doesn’t really matter, Just Do It! It is not for me to tell you what to do for I don’t see what God sees.
Because God has not called you home to be with him, God still has a plan for your life. You should be careful to never second-guess God and his plan for your life for I do know that God has a plan for your life. God’s Word tells us in Jeremiah 29:11 that; “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future.” You may not realize this but Jeremiah was a prophet at the same approximate time as Ezekiel, but Jeremiah was left behind in Jerusalem during the exile while Ezekiel was taken to Babylon. God was faithful to his people in Ezekiel’s and Jeremiah’s time and he continues to be faithful today. Hebrews 13:8 tells us Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. People of God, God wants every one of you to be “forever ruined for the ordinary” to the glory of almighty God.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father,
You alone are worthy of all our praise and glory
Send your Holy Spirit daily to renew and to cleanse us.
Give us courage and wisdom to seek and to obey your will for our lives.
Revive us again, Lord Jesus.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen