Valley of Dry Bones

Reading of Ezekiel 37:1-6 (by reader)

I’m not going to following the workbook very closely this morning - but I will be teaching off of the text. The lesson focus is “God brings new hope to hopeless people” is an important one to hear and as I read the Ezekiel passage this week - God led me to take a different approach.

Psalm 85:4–7 ESV

Restore us again, O God of our salvation, and put away your indignation toward us! Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations? Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your steadfast love, O Lord, and grant us your salvation.

There have been movements of God throughout history when religion waned and it seemed that the church was dead. The remnant of the faithful would pray for a new life, revival, an outpouring of the Spirit, for dry bones to live again and God answered their prayers. God, just as recorded in the scriptures (for instance the ministry of John the Baptist), would call forth men and women who would be his spokespersons - who would preach with such power and conviction that thousands upon thousands would surrender to Christ’s lordship.

One such historical movement of increased spiritual and religious devotion is known as the First Great Awakening. In the 1730s and 1740s, the First Great Awakening swept through Britain and the American colonies. Men like George Whitfield, Jonathan Edwards and John Wesley were leaders in this awakening - each experiencing crowds in the thousands coming to hear them preach and falling under the Lord’s conviction. The First Great Awakening instilled in people that they could have a personal relationship with God and churches experienced increased attendance. The establishment of educational institutions like Princeton, Brown, Dartmouth, and Rutgers all came out of this awakening. (hard to imagine them founded as religious schools today).

The Second Great Awakening began in at the beginning of the 19th Century. By the year 1800, over a million people had migrated westward, settling in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and of course, beyond that in what was Indian Territory, all the way to the Northwest.

In 1803, the U.S. doubled in size with the Louisiana Purchase. More migration. While the settlers were searching for new opportunities, the church was struggling to meet the spiritual needs of this wave of people. One Episcopal preacher in the Carolinas wrote:

How many thousands . . . never saw, much less read, or ever heard a Chapter of the Bible! How many Ten thousands who never were baptized or heard a Sermon! And thrice Ten thousand, who never heard of the Name of Christ, save in Curses . . . ! Lamentable! Lamentable is the situation of these people.

The frontier was indeed wild - religious life was almost non-existent, but then the Spirit of God moved yet again.

I want to share a couple of examples of spiritual awakening.

The Second Great Awakening started with a preacher named James McGready who served in central North Carolina.

Again, I am going to quote an article from the Christian History Institute:

In 1796 McGready became pastor of three small churches at Muddy River, Red River, and Gasper River in Logan County, Kentucky. This was in the southwestern part of the state, and, as the Methodist preacher Peter Cartwright described, it

was called Rogues’ Harbor. Here many refugees from almost all parts of the Union fled to escape justice or punishment. . . . It was a desperate state of society. Murderers, horse—thieves, highway robbers, and counterfeiters fled there, until they combined and actually formed a majority.

The area was primitive in the extreme, and the pioneers lived hard lives, full of danger, loneliness, and privation. But McGready was a fearless preacher, and he informed his hearers that they had not left the eternal God behind them; He was as much there on the frontier as he was anywhere. McGready spoke magnificently of heaven and its glories, thundered about hell and its torments, and questioned his hearers about their salvation. His message was so powerful that by 1798 many were “struck with an awful sense of their lost estate.”

The first real manifestations of God’s power came, however, in June 1800. Four to five—hundred members of McGready’s three congregations, plus five ministers, had gathered at Red River for a “camp meeting” lasting several days. On the final day “a mighty effusion of [God’s] Spirit” came upon the people, “and the floor was soon covered with the slain (those laid out in the spirit); their screams for mercy pierced the heavens.”

Convinced that God was moving, McGready and his colleagues planned another camp meeting to be held in late July 1800 at Gasper River. They had not anticipated what occurred. An enormous crowd—as many as 8,000—began arriving at the appointed date, many from distances as great as 100 miles. Tents were set up everywhere, wagons with provisions brought in, trees felled and their logs cut to be used as seats. Although the term camp meeting was not used until 1802, this was the first true camp meeting where a continuous outdoor service was combined with camping out.

One of those in attendance at Gasper River was a presbyterian pastor named Barton Stone. He returned home to Cane Ridge, which is near Lexington, KY, and began to plan a camp meeting there.

Cane Ridge attracted an amazing multitude. The numbers arriving, coming from as far as Ohio and Tennessee, were estimated between 10,000 and 25,000. (Lexington, then the largest town in Kentucky, had fewer than 1,800 citizens!) Stone looked on as “the roads were crowded with wagons, carriages, horses, and footmen moving to the solemn camp.”

“While Stone and his colleagues had not expected these numbers, preparations had been made so that the crowds could be divided into separate congregations. Invitations had been sent by the Presbyterians to Methodist and Baptist preachers from far and near, and Stone was delighted that “all appeared cordially united in it. They were of one mind and soul: the salvation of sinners was the one object. We all engaged in singing the same songs, all united in prayer, all preached the same things.”

God breathing new life into dry bones.

One more story before I turn to the lesson book.

Charles Finney was called into service by the Lord well into the Second Great Awakening in 1825. For 25 years, this awakening had already transformed much of America, resulting in churches sending missionaries abroad, the founding of schools and colleges, and the conversion of tens of thousands of souls. But Finney took it to the next level - trained as an attorney, he took his courtroom skills to the pulpit and was very persuasive.

He began preaching in the area of Utica, NY and soon hundreds of converts were made and church attendance began to grow. He then lead many revivals along the Eastern seaboard, but he is best known for the revival he led in Rochester NY from the fall of 1830 through 1831.

Finney not only preached every night, but during the days he was also engaged with leading an almost continuous series of prayer meetings. ► There were simultaneous prayer meetings in homes and churches through the town. ► Women would go in groups to make home visits to pray and evangelize.  ► The high school classes stopped for prayer, as they couldn’t continue their studies due to the weeping brought on by their overwhelming conviction of sin. ► Businessmen closed their doors early to have family prayer meetings. ► There was a monthly prayer gathering that was attended by those from all denominations in the town, with attendance ranging from 100-300.

Results of the Rochester Revival ► The population of Rochester at the time of this revival was about 10,000, and 15-20% of the population was converted to Christ. This did not include those who were already part of churches and who made commitments, or recommitments to Christ. (that is just in Rochester, does not count all who came from out of town and the revivals that sprung up around NY from this one) ► Church membership in Rochester doubled in 6 months. ► “Large numbers were converted every night.”

One convert stated:

You could not go upon the streets and hear any conversation, except religion.

The local high school experienced the conversion of 300 students, with 40 of them becoming ministers, and 40 missionaries.

The prosecuting attorney in Rochester, who was converted during the revival, said:

I have been examining the records of the criminal courts, and I find this striking fact, that whereas our city has increased since that revival three-fold, there is not one third as many prosecutions for crime as there had been up to that time. Thus crime has decreased two thirds, and the population has increased two thirds.

Lyman Beecher as having said:

That was the greatest work of God, and the greatest revival of religion, that the world has ever seen in so short a time. One hundred thousand were reported as having connected themselves with churches as the result of that revival. This is unparalleled in the history of the church and of the progress of religion.

God has done it before. God will do it again!

(reader to read Ezekiel 37:7-10)

The word for breath in Hebrew is also the word for spirit. Ruach. It is God’s spirit who entered the skeletons and gave them life. Without God’s breath, there is no life. If a person does not have the Spirit of God, they are spiritually dead. This is what the Israelites had to learn as they suffered in exile. It is what our churches and our society need to learn today.

Israel had every spiritual advantage. they were God’s chosen people, they had God’s law, the temple, the priesthood with the sacrificial system, but they had lost the Spirit of the Faith. They had a form of religion but without the power.

What can you do to guard against the tendency to formalize your faith?

What can a person do who suspects that they have lost the real Spirit of faith in Christ? (pg 64)

(Reader = Ezekiel 37:11-14)

Notice God’s personal involvement in Israel’s revival:

I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel…I will put my spirit in you..and I will settle you in your own land.

God can give new life to old bones! We must pray, persevere and let God work.

Let’s pray.