I've Got Joy

Series Intro

The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Advent)

Advent The ecclesiastical season immediately before *Christmas. Four Sundays in Advent always precede Christmas Day.

And the solemn character of the season is marked by the liturgical use of purple. The season is observed as a time of preparation not only for Christmas but also for the Second Coming of Christ .

Intro

19yr old Amy Cuddy riding back to college with friends wanting to make go to campus on time for their Monday morning class. They came up with a plan… one drive, the passenger stays awake to talk to the driver and one sleeps in the back.. in a sleeping bag, then rotate.

The ride is beautiful… Amy was the first driver, then passenger.

She finally got her turn to sleep… it’s about 4am in the middle of Wyoming … then then driver fell asleep.. the car rolled several times… but luckily the seatbelts secured them… all but Amy who was thrown from the car and hit her head on the highway … causing a traumatic brain injury by the force of the blow.

Because of her brain injury doctors couldn’t give her a prognosis they didn’t know if she would be able to recover or what part of the brain may recover. She had to withdraw from college and her IQ had dropped 30 points because of the injury. She tried to get back to life but… even her friends told her she was different… she went back to school and her brain wasn’t the same she had to drop out again. Her life was forever changed.

And in the text the people of God have had their lives changed.

Background

Here we are in the book of Ezekiel.

Ezekiel writes his own story. His visions and messages are all in the order in which they happen. He gives us a well-organized record of all his experiences, paying great attention to detail.

As a young man, Ezekiel is a priest, married and living in Jerusalem. In 597 BC, the Babylonian armies of Nebuchadnezzar besiege the city. Jerusalem is captured, and the temple of Solomon is ransacked of its treasures.

Ezekiel is taken captive, along with many of Jerusalem’s citizens.

He found himself living in a barren plain.

After four or five years, when Ezekiel is about thirty, God calls him to be a prophet. His messages are to correct and encourage God’s people in exile.

Of all the prophets of the Old Testament, Ezekiel is the strangest. Like Isaiah, he has a tremendous sense of God’s holiness. Like Jeremiah, he acts out some of his prophecies. Like Daniel, he sees visions which leave him speechless. Like Hosea, he experiences heartbreak. But in addition to all these, he seems in some way psychic. He goes into trances, is struck dumb for months and feels himself transported great distances. At one point he visits Jerusalem in a vision and interacts with the people there.

And God uses this prophet to help us learn something about hope.

I. When Hope Is Lost

This text is interesting because of who it’s describing. The people of God have been for many years a people of hope.

People with desire, expecting positive things to happen in their future. They had an optimistic emotion connected to positive outcomes.

They had hope.

But now the people of God, God’s chosen people have lost a battle, they’ve watched their city be destroyed and over 10,000 are captives 700 miles away from their home.

But now, life in exile was not a prison-camp kind of experience. The people are allowed to settle down and form communities. They have their own elders, who organize worship and teaching.

Jeremiah tells them to establish a normal life, build houses, plant fields and raise families.

But you’ve got to understand the people of God were proud and rightfully so. They were a people who would declare, there is no god like our God. God took them from a wondering group and gave them a land and now they have been defeated.

And what makes matters worse.

Babylon is an impressive place. The famous ‘Hanging Gardens’ are one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The stepped towers, known as ‘ziggurats’, these amazing temples with stairs that seem to climb to the heights of some powerful gods.

And everywhere are carvings of strange, winged, lion-like creatures—symbols of the might and mobility of Babylon.

To the people of God, these exiles, who have been so proud of Jerusalem, now find themselves dwarfed by the size and scope of Babylon’s buildings and businesses. And where is the God of Israel in all this? Is he still alive, or has he been defeated too?

Here they are in the foreign land that makes them feel like nothing and nobody.

Here they are captives having lost all that they had.

And they say of themselves our hope is lost.

Have you ever been there where you feel like your hope is lost?

Have you ever felt the emptiness of hopelessness?

Where life has knocked the life out of you.

That’s where the people of God are in the text.

And that’s where some sitting in here or watching online are today…

Feeling like you use to have hope, use the have the expectation of some bright tomorrow, but now it’s gone and you don’t know when it left.

While some people are excited about the Christmas season others are experiencing SAD.

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a more severe form of the winter blues.

Where you feel hopeless, may even have suicidal thoughts, or changes in appetite and sleep patterns.

Hopelessness creeps in and takes up residence.

Not only that someone here knows what it feels like to have extended struggle… and the stress of the struggle has caused you to lose hope.

You thought you’d have come out of this by now but the struggle has outlasted your hope.

And Listen at me go… hopeless ness is an equal opportunity employer.

You can have money…

You can have a spouse...

You can have a big house...

You can have the best job...

And sometimes your hopelessness can be so heavy that it seems to be a weight that even God cannot lift.

And that’s where the people of God are in the text.

So much so that God paints a picture for us of his chosen people as… dry bones… very dry bones, and there is no breath in them.

And God showed the image to Ezekiel… he led him around to see the vastness of the dry bones.

Then God asked a strange question… “Ezekiel can these bones live?”

It would seem to be a trick question and Ezekiel says, “Lord, you know.”

I love his response… he might feel like the answer is no… but he still leaves room for God. God you know.

And God gives him instructions that changes the scene, God says to him…

Ezekiel 37:4 ESV

Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.

II. Power of God’s Word

God says to Ezekiel tell the dry bones my word. Romans 10:14 says “How can they call on the one one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in one whom they have not heard and how can the hear without a preacher.

If there will every be life we need a word from God. In God’s word there is power, joy, healing. There is life in God’s word.

I know I’m right about that. God stood in the middle of nowhere stepped up on nothing, looked at no one and the Bible says God said let there be and AT GODS WORD EVERYTHING THAT EXCEST CAME TO BE. There is Power in His word.

At his word Noah built an ark

At his word Moses spoke to pharaoh

At his word sickness is removed

At his word demons flee

At his word blinded eyes are opened

At his word lame began to walk and dumb began to talk there is power in his word.

Look at your neighbor and say, There’s power in his word.

If you want hope, his word matters.

Ezekiel speak my word in this hopeless situation.

My brothers and my sisters whenever hopelessness tries to cloud your day… you’ve got to do what Ezekiel did speak his word.

“I am fearful and wonderfully made. “

“Greater is He who is in me than he that is in the world.”

“If God be for me who can be against me.”

“He will never leave more nor forsake me.”

“I am the head and not the tail, I am the lender not the borrower.”

“Weeping my endure for a night but Joy Will come in the morning.”

There is power in God’s word… Ezekiel speak God’s word… and the text says Ezekiel speaks the word of God… to the hopeless dry bones.

And things begin to change, renewal starts to happen.

III. Renewed Hope

The text says there was a sound… a rattling and bones come togehter… bone to it’s bone...

I’m so glad we serve a God who renews our hope…

This isn’t the first time that God has had to renew hope.

Gen. 3 Sin came in and killed our hope and God said… I plan to renew your hope.

All through out the OT God tells God’s people that your hope will be renewed but when we get to the last book of the OT it seems as though it’s not thing but dry bones for God is silent... all the way until Matthew’s Gospel and there things begin to change as God speaks and the people have renewed hope.

Close

My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name.

Refrain: On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand: all other ground is sinking sand; all other ground is sinking sand.

When peace like a river, attendeth my way When sorrows like sea billows roll Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say It is well, it is well, with my soul

It is well With my soul It is well, it is well with my soul

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come Let this blest assurance control That Christ has regarded my helpless estate And hath shed His own blood for my soul

It is well (it is well) With my soul (with my soul) It is well, it is well with my soul

Well Amy Cuddy’s life was changed forever her brain wasn’t the same..but… she found hope… she finally finished college … with a degree in psychology.. then she went on give the second most watched TED talk ever and to become a NY Times best selling author. And a Harvard Prof.

Call To Action -Remember What God’s Word Says About You -Get a Support Network -Talk To Loved Ones -Fight Back

Maybe you are here now… and you came in hopeless… you know the emptiness of hopelessness but today you heard His word…

My brothers and sisters… as we stand.

ANNOUNCEMNTS

3 VISIT CHALLENGE

GROWTH TRACK