full

Ezekiel and the Dry Bones

Pastor Ronnie explores how true contentment comes from God, not circumstances. He discuss the significance of staying where God wants you, embracing seasons of dormancy, and learning to hear His voice amid challenges. Discover how God can grow your faith.

Scriptures Referenced

Job 42:3; Ezekiel 37:1-14; Matthew 19:26; Acts 8:20; Philippians 4:12-13

Key Insights

  • Why God sometimes leads us to hard or fruitless places
  • The crucial role of getting your heart right
  • The tension between staying and leaving when faced with difficult circumstances
  • Encouragement for those who feel stuck, fruitless, or far from where they want to be

Prayer Targets

Please join us in prayer for:

  • A hunger for the Word.
  • Tears for the lost.
  • Testimonies to share.

Get sermons delivered automatically: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Pocket Casts | YouTube | Your Favorite Podcast App

We would love it if you would consider joining us in person for one of our Sunday gatherings.

Gathering Times

  • Sundays, 9:00 AM
  • Sundays, 11:00 AM
  • Thursdays, 6:00 PM

Contact Info

Springhouse Church
14119 Old Nashville Highway
Smyrna TN 37167

615-459-3421

Additional Resources

CCLI License 2070006

Transcript

1

::

Good morning. When Pastor Kevin

2

::

assigned Ezekiel in the Valley of Dry Bones to me,

3

::

I went, what are you doing?

4

::

Give this to Barbie.

5

::

But he didn't. And so here we are. And I feel like the Lord's given

6

::

me some stuff. I feel like the Lord's you know, giving me some news you

7

::

can use, so that'll be good.

8

::

Ezekiel was a contemporary of Jeremiah. Just

9

::

a little background here. They both ministered

10

::

during the time of the exile to

11

::

Babylon. There were actually three deportations

12

::

of the Jews to Babylon. The first one took place

13

::

in 605 BC, and that's when Daniel and his friends

14

::

went. And then nine years later, there was another, a

15

::

larger group that went. And Ezekiel was in that group.

16

::

And then 11 years later, everybody went and.

17

::

Or did I say that right? Everybody,

18

::

Everybody, everybody went and they

19

::

destroyed Jerusalem.

20

::

Now, they. They were

21

::

contemporaries, Ezekiel and Jeremiah. Ezekiel was

22

::

in Babylon, and Jeremiah was still in

23

::

Jerusalem. And the people in Jerusalem were

24

::

saying, hey, we're. We're. We're the

25

::

ones. We're the good ones. That's why we're still here. And the

26

::

Lord's going to deliver us, just like he did during the time of

27

::

Hezekiah when he sent an angel and destroyed the

28

::

Assyrian army. Praise God. And Jeremiah said, that

29

::

ain't happening. That's not what God's doing

30

::

this time. These are false prophets that are

31

::

telling you that. In fact, what you need

32

::

to do is go out and surrender to the king of Babylon, because

33

::

that's what God wants you to do. And that's why Jeremiah was so

34

::

popular in his day.

35

::

Ezekiel, who was with the exiles in

36

::

Babylon, what the false prophets were saying there was, we're not going to

37

::

be here long, guys. Pack your bags. We're going back. We're

38

::

going back home. The Lord's going to take care of us, deliver us.

39

::

And Ezekiel said, that ain't happening. We're going to

40

::

be here for a while. In fact, we're going to be here for, like, 70

41

::

years. And so you just need to settle down. You need

42

::

to pray for the peace and work for the prosperity of the

43

::

place where you are. And that's why Ezekiel was

44

::

so popular. Ezekiel was

45

::

a strange dude. We

46

::

sometimes get the impression, we sometimes tend to think that, you know, the bad

47

::

guys are the ones who are. Who are exciting

48

::

and who are interesting people.

49

::

That's wrong. Now,

50

::

on the other side of that, we tend to think that, you know, the

51

::

good guys and gals, the good

52

::

guys, they're kind of boring. That's wrong. See, the

53

::

truth of the matter is the bad guys. There's only three strings on their

54

::

guitar. Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the boastful pride of life.

55

::

And that is life in black and white. The

56

::

good guys, those who are on the side of the Lord. Love

57

::

comes in Technicolor. And

58

::

Ezekiel was a man who loved and loved passionately. And he

59

::

was a weird dude. And he had

60

::

two main visions that he's really known for

61

::

today. One of them was. He had this

62

::

vision of these four incredible,

63

::

massive creatures, living beings. And they had

64

::

four faces. I said in the early service, they had four heads. I

65

::

don't know. I don't think they had four heads. Know how many heads they had,

66

::

but they had four faces. One of them was like a lion, and one

67

::

of them was like an ox, and one of them was

68

::

like an eagle, and one of them was like a human. And just tell me

69

::

that isn't weird, but it even gets weirder than that because they rode

70

::

around on these big giant wheels that had a wheel

71

::

within a wheel, and they moved wherever the spirit moved, and

72

::

the glory of God was over them. That

73

::

was a. I mean, that. That. That's exciting.

74

::

And the other one was Valley of Dry Bones, which is

75

::

what I was assigned to preach about today.

76

::

Would you stand with me? We're going to read the whole section.

77

::

It's not all that long, but hang in there,

78

::

okay? The hand of the Lord

79

::

was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit

80

::

of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley.

81

::

It was full of bones. He led me back and

82

::

forth among them, and I saw a great many bones

83

::

on the floor of the valley, bones that were very

84

::

dry. Then he said to me, prophesy

85

::

to these bones and say to them, dry bones.

86

::

Hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Sovereign

87

::

Lord says to these bones. I will make breath

88

::

enter you, and you will come to life. I will

89

::

attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon

90

::

you and cover you with skin. I will put

91

::

breath in you, and you will come to life.

92

::

Then you will know that I am the Lord. So I

93

::

prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was

94

::

prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling

95

::

sound, and the bones came together, bone to

96

::

bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh

97

::

appeared on them, and skin covered them, but

98

::

there was no breath in them. Then he said to

99

::

me, prophesy to the breath. Prophesy,

100

::

Son of Man, and say to it, this is what the

101

::

Sovereign Lord says. Come, breath from the four

102

::

winds and breathe into these Slain that they

103

::

may live. So I prophesied as he

104

::

commanded me, and breath entered them. They

105

::

came to life and stood on their feet a vast

106

::

army. Then he said to me, son of man,

107

::

these bones are the people of Israel. They

108

::

say, our bones are dried up and our hope is

109

::

gone. We are cut off. Therefore,

110

::

prophesy and say to them, this is what the

111

::

sovereign Lord, my people, I am going

112

::

to open up your graves and bring you out from them.

113

::

I will bring you back to the land of Israel.

114

::

Then you, my people, will know that I am the

115

::

Lord. When I open your graves and bring you up

116

::

from them, I will put my spirit in you and you

117

::

will live. Will settle you in your own land.

118

::

Then you will know that the Lord have spoken.

119

::

And I have done it, declares the Lord. Father,

120

::

I pray for the Spirit to breathe in this place.

121

::

I pray that you would bring life to that which is dead.

122

::

Touch those places in us

123

::

where we so desperately need you. Jesus. Name.

124

::

Amen. You may be seated. I

125

::

realize that there was a slide missing there,

126

::

and I need to tell you what it says, because before the Lord

127

::

told Ezekiel prophesy, he said, he asked him a question.

128

::

He said, son of man, can these bones live?

129

::

And Ezekiel's answer was, sovereign

130

::

Lord, you alone know. Okay, that's important.

131

::

Don't know how I got left out.

132

::

The scene. There's a scene from the Chosen, and

133

::

if you haven't watched the Chosen, you really need to. It's really good.

134

::

But there's a scene, and some people have a problem

135

::

with the Chosen because there's some extra biblical stuff that they kind of put

136

::

in there. But, hey, guys, the Bible itself says not everything was

137

::

written down, actually happened. Okay, And

138

::

I'll give them a pass on this one. There's a scene where Jesus is

139

::

in the Garden of Gethsemane and he's praying,

140

::

we know what happened there. Father, let this cup pass from me, but

141

::

not my will, but yours be done. And

142

::

then the Chosen, they have this. There's this mist that

143

::

appears. And Jesus walks through the mist. And

144

::

the next thing you know, you hear this crunch. And he's

145

::

in this place where all these bones are. And I'm going,

146

::

oh, I know what this is. I know where he's going. And he

147

::

keeps walking through it. And he comes to this guy and he says, ezekiel,

148

::

you know, can these bones live? Ezekiel says, you

149

::

alone know. And at first

150

::

I was kind of confused. Okay, what's the connection here?

151

::

Why do these fit together? And then as

152

::

I was doing the assignment that Pastor Kevin gave me.

153

::

The Lord began to speak to me and said, here's the

154

::

connection. Neither one of them were in a place where they wanted to be.

155

::

Jesus was in Gethsemane preparing

156

::

to be arrested, betrayed, arrested,

157

::

crucified. Ezekiel

158

::

was in a valley of dry bones. Oh, hallelujah.

159

::

And so here's the first place that I'm going to go. There's

160

::

a couple of places I'm going to go today. First place I'm going to go

161

::

is this. We may be led by the Spirit of the Lord to

162

::

places that do not seem pleasant or fruitful or where

163

::

we want to be. In fact, you may be in such a

164

::

place right now in your life. It may

165

::

be where you work. It may be a situation at home, it may be

166

::

a situation at school, it may be situation at church.

167

::

It may just be a situation in your mind, but it's someplace where

168

::

you don't want to be. Nevertheless,

169

::

God always has a purpose.

170

::

The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the

171

::

Spirit of the Lord. And he set me in the middle of a valley, and

172

::

it was full of bones, and they were very dry.

173

::

Ezekiel wasn't just. Didn't just stumble upon this valley.

174

::

He wasn't just wandering around and going, oh, there's a valley

175

::

of dry bones. Let's go check that thing out. No,

176

::

God went plopping. Here you are in the middle of

177

::

this. The Lord intentionally brought him there.

178

::

You know, life may seem random at times,

179

::

but it's not. He knows you.

180

::

He knows where you are. He knows your journey.

181

::

And he told me to share a little bit of my journey today.

182

::

And so I'm going to do that. Maybe there'll be some information

183

::

here that. That you might find helpful.

184

::

I grew up in church. Number of you

185

::

probably know this. And then in my late teens through to

186

::

my mid-20s, I

187

::

ran from the Lord as fast and far and hard as I possibly

188

::

could. Wanted nothing to do with church. But then when I was 25,

189

::

came back to the Lord and I was in this church, and it was.

190

::

It felt good. It was kind of like what I grew up in. Now, the

191

::

church that I grew up in, we had freedom

192

::

that we said. And what that meant was that something weird

193

::

was going to happen every service. And,

194

::

you know, sister so and so had the freedom to stand up and

195

::

deliver a message in tongues. And woe be unto the pastor if

196

::

he doesn't have an interpretation for it. Brother

197

::

so and so could get up and run around

198

::

the sanctuary and the church house or

199

::

somebody's got to fall over. Somebody's got to do something weird. And if something weird

200

::

doesn't happen because we're free, then there must be

201

::

sin in the pastor's life. Of course there's

202

::

sin in the pastor's life.

203

::

There's sin. There's sin in the life of the person you're sitting next to

204

::

look at them, give them a big smile. There's

205

::

sin in the person sitting in the seat you're sitting in.

206

::

So, of course there's sin in the pastor's life. So, you

207

::

know, we had this freedom, and you know that there was. There was

208

::

some of that in this church, but there was a different kind of freedom.

209

::

We could breathe. We could actually be

210

::

who we were and not have to, you know,

211

::

conform to some kind of how it's supposed to be.

212

::

And I just felt so good, and I've come back to

213

::

the Lord, and I really love this church. And everything was great for about nine

214

::

months, and then it started going south. I don't know why

215

::

they say south, but

216

::

anyway, we're not going there. It started going

217

::

south. Things started changing, and I

218

::

could see it kind of felt like

219

::

the pastor felt like he was kind of losing grip. And

220

::

so we were kind of, you know, let's. We got to get this back together

221

::

now. We got to get control of this. And I didn't want to be

222

::

there anymore. And I. You know, I told the Lord, I said,

223

::

lord, I could see the direction this is going, and I really don't want to

224

::

be here. And you know what I heard from the Lord?

225

::

Crickets. Nothing.

226

::

For about three months. And my attitude got worse and

227

::

worse and worse almost with every passing

228

::

week. And then the

229

::

Lord finally said something to me. And you know what he said?

230

::

He said, you're not going anywhere until you get your heart right.

231

::

You're not. You're not going anywhere until your attitude changes

232

::

now. Oh, okay. Because, you

233

::

see, it wasn't about the pastor. It wasn't about

234

::

what was going on in the church. It was about what was going on inside

235

::

of me. That's what he was working on.

236

::

And so, you know, I.

237

::

The first question that I would ask, if you're in one of those places, if

238

::

you're in one of those places where you don't want to be, is this.

239

::

Get your heart right before leaving.

240

::

That's the first lesson that I learned. Boy, has that served me well

241

::

over the years in a bunch of different kinds

242

::

of situations. Bunch of different places.

243

::

My friend Clopas Chitapa, who was my

244

::

Favorite student in the Bible school that I taught in in

245

::

Zimbabwe. His ministry,

246

::

Cornerstone Ministries, this month celebrated

247

::

30 years. And I.

248

::

And he asked me to do a little video thing to, you

249

::

know, say hello, congratulations. And I did. And

250

::

I said, Congratulations on 30 years of successful

251

::

ministry. I don't know the numbers, I don't know

252

::

the bank account, I don't know how many churches you got, don't know how many

253

::

people came. But I know your ministry is successful because I know how it started.

254

::

And the way it started was this. He had spent seven years working

255

::

in this ministry called Zioja. That

256

::

was the church that we were with in Zimbabwe. And

257

::

he had spent seven years working in that. And he contacted

258

::

me one day and he said, I. I really feel like the Lord has told

259

::

me that I need to leave Zyojia and start this

260

::

ministry. So I would like to know what you think

261

::

or what you think I should do. And I said, well, I bear witness with

262

::

that. And I did. I bear witness that you do need to start

263

::

a ministry. Now let me tell you what you need to do. You need to

264

::

go to Baba Ezekiel Gudi. You need to go

265

::

to him, share your heart with him, and you need to ask for his

266

::

blessing. And he went

267

::

to Ezekiel and he did.

268

::

I'm sure it was hard for him, but he went to him and he shared

269

::

his heart. And, you know, Ezekiel didn't want him to leave. He's

270

::

a really good man, offered him some

271

::

different positions and everything. But when he finally realized, okay, this is what

272

::

God has for you. I'm going to give you my blessing.

273

::

He gave him his blessing. And he said, over the years,

274

::

I've had many, many people. I mean, Ezekiel had over a thousand

275

::

churches, said, I've had many people who passed through and left

276

::

me and gone to start other ministries. You are the

277

::

first one who asked for my blessing.

278

::

I knew his ministry was successful because he did it the

279

::

right way. He left the right way with the right heart.

280

::

We many of you know, but some of you don't. We used to be an

281

::

assembly of God church here, and I grew up in the

282

::

Assemblies of God. So when I came back here to

283

::

take this church, I was

284

::

like, what in the world am I doing back in the Assemblies of God?

285

::

And the Lord spoke to me and he said, as long as your father is

286

::

alive, that's a non issue. So for the next 20

287

::

years, it was a non issue. And then

288

::

my father passed and some things changed. We spent

289

::

two years really trying to fit in, but it just

290

::

wasn't Working and the Lord finally, it was finally clear we

291

::

needed to leave. Because it was just taking too much energy,

292

::

too much focus, too much. And I went to the

293

::

district superintendent and I said, look, we're not mad. I'm

294

::

not mad. I'm not upset with anybody. This just isn't where we belong.

295

::

And so we're going to, we're going to pull out of the denomination

296

::

and I want your blessing when we go and he

297

::

gave it to us. We

298

::

wouldn't be here today. I don't think at all many of you

299

::

would not be here if we hadn't gotten that blessing.

300

::

Leave the right way. Leave

301

::

with the right. The Lord just simply may be. The

302

::

situation that you're in right now may simply,

303

::

entirely be about you getting

304

::

your attitude straightened out. And you know what?

305

::

You ain't going anywhere until that attitude gets straightened out.

306

::

Because wherever you do go, you're going to have the same

307

::

attitude. It's going to be the same way until

308

::

God does that work in your life, and that's why

309

::

you're there, so he can do that work in your life.

310

::

Then I went to work for Social Security, and when I went to

311

::

work for Social Security in 77,

312

::

it's 1977, I,

313

::

I was, I was excited about it because, I mean, they didn't

314

::

work, they weren't open on weekends, they weren't open

315

::

at night. And I could do this 9 to 5 job,

316

::

have all this time to work at the church and not

317

::

have to worry about conflicting with my work or anything. But about

318

::

three years in, I

319

::

knew I was called to full time ministry. And I went,

320

::

God, you've called me to full time ministry. I really don't need

321

::

to be here. And you know what God said to me?

322

::

Nothing. Crickets

323

::

for about, for about a year. And then

324

::

I finally figured it out.

325

::

I figured out that, oh,

326

::

I'm pretty young, I'm going to work 30 years

327

::

here and then I'll just be 57 and I can retire and

328

::

get this civil service pension and we'll go on a mission field

329

::

full time. I know what you're doing.

330

::

God goes, no, you don't. You don't have

331

::

any idea what I'm doing. And so

332

::

about nine months later, the man who's the youth

333

::

pastor at the church where we were attending, a guy named Bruce

334

::

Kobel, some of you know him, came to me and said, they're going to move

335

::

me into a different position here at the church. Would you like to, would you

336

::

consider becoming the youth pastor? And I said, yeah, I'LL do it.

337

::

He said, don't you want to pray about it? No, I know it's what

338

::

I'm supposed to do. I've only been praying about it for five years.

339

::

So, you know, here we are. And so here's.

340

::

Here's the second thing about this.

341

::

Are you willing to stay if it's God's will?

342

::

I got to the place where I went, I'll stay here for

343

::

30 years. I've been here for

344

::

four. I don't want to be here, but I'll stay here for 30 years

345

::

if that's what you want me to do. And by the time

346

::

Bruce came to me, I was totally there.

347

::

That's what I was going to do because that's what he wanted me to

348

::

do. Now, let me just say that

349

::

being willing to stay is not the same thing as getting comfortable.

350

::

Ho ho. I mean, anybody

351

::

can stay where they're comfortable. Anybody can

352

::

stay in an easy situation.

353

::

But being willing to stay, it's

354

::

because of contentment. It's a matter of being

355

::

content, because the contentment comes from God and not from

356

::

my circumstances. Paul says this.

357

::

I know what it is to be in need. I know what it is to

358

::

have plenty. I have learned the secret of being

359

::

content in any and every situation, whether well

360

::

fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want,

361

::

whether I'm comfortable or I'm uncomfortable, whether I'm

362

::

happy or unhappy, I can be content.

363

::

And then he goes on to say a verse that, you know, we like

364

::

to put on coffee mugs and T shirts and all kinds of things.

365

::

I can do all things through him who gives me strength.

366

::

And we completely divorce it from the verse that comes

367

::

before it. And in fact, the modern,

368

::

most of the modern translations don't say, I can do all things. They say,

369

::

I can do this. I can be content

370

::

in any and every situation through

371

::

him who gives me strength. It comes

372

::

after the lesson of contentment. In the world, we always

373

::

want more poor or rich, successful, unsuccessful,

374

::

strong, weak. But more stuff

375

::

does not ever bring more contentment,

376

::

only more. God brings more contentment,

377

::

whatever situation we're in. And that was really good. And

378

::

I should have gotten a few amens, or as

379

::

my dad would say, if he were here, he man, yeah,

380

::

well, never mind. And then

381

::

also speaking of some other place that I did not want to be,

382

::

I didn't want to come to Smyrna.

383

::

You say, well, what has that picture got to do with that? That's

384

::

where you parked your car today.

385

::

And I made that picture out my back window. And I don't know how clear

386

::

it is. My back window of my office, I

387

::

don't know how clear it is, but there's some deer back there. And I think

388

::

I made that picture because I was just so excited somebody came.

389

::

I didn't want to come to Smyrna. I remember

390

::

when we were in Zimbabwe and our youngest child was born about

391

::

eight months before we left. And my mom came

392

::

for Valerie's birth and I remember

393

::

her saying, you need to come to Smyrna. You know, what are y' all going

394

::

to do? Well, we're not sure. I think we're going to start a church somewhere.

395

::

You need to come Smyrna and take this church. And I

396

::

didn't say it, but I shouted it

397

::

inside. No, I don't either.

398

::

I've been to that church and I've been to

399

::

Smyrna and I don't neither one of those

400

::

things hold any attraction for me whatsoever.

401

::

But what a fruitful place. I mean,

402

::

we came and, you know, it wasn't like

403

::

it hit the ground and woo, we're so glad we're here.

404

::

No, it kind of hit the ground and we hit the ground.

405

::

But a fruitful place for my in laws who later on, as

406

::

they were older, we were in a place where we could take care of them

407

::

because we were near to them. Fruitful place for my

408

::

children. I mean, Isaac and

409

::

Arwen and Valerie all thrived here.

410

::

And then a fruitful place for my parents

411

::

and for us because, I mean,

412

::

I was never estranged from my parents and believe me, I

413

::

tried, but they loved me

414

::

so much that that never really happened. I was never estranged from my

415

::

parents, but we'd never been, you know, like best

416

::

buds or anything. The last 20 years,

417

::

their lives were the 20 years that we were here in

418

::

Smyrna and it was the best 20 years that I had with them

419

::

the whole time. I mean, what, what a blessing

420

::

the Lord brought us to. Well,

421

::

that brings up the flip side. Are you of. Are you willing to stay?

422

::

The flip side of that is, are you willing to go

423

::

if that's God's will. You may be in a place that

424

::

you're very comfortable and you feel like,

425

::

yeah, oh, I have arrived. Let's just come

426

::

on, Rapture. I'm good. I'm ready right now. The only thing

427

::

better than this could be heaven. And God goes,

428

::

let's go visit the Valley of Tribal. Let's

429

::

go over here. Are you willing to do

430

::

that? If that's what he wants, that's his will.

431

::

We have this mentality here

432

::

in the United States. I'll just say it. That ain't no place

433

::

better in the whole wide world. Course you

434

::

wanted to come home. Of course you wanted to be here. I bet

435

::

you were so happy to be back. Actually,

436

::

we were very sad to leave. And when we

437

::

got back, when we did come back,

438

::

about six months after we got back, Isaac and Arwin, who were,

439

::

let's see, they were 8 and 6 at the time, put a delegation

440

::

together and came to their parents to say, we're ready to go

441

::

back home now.

442

::

Retirement, it doesn't have to be moving from one place to another.

443

::

You know, it was been close to

444

::

five years now that I retired. Actually, I kind of

445

::

retired in secret before I retired. Cause Kevin and I.

446

::

Kevin and I were co pastors there for a while.

447

::

But the only reason I was here to go, he's in charge,

448

::

talk to him. And so

449

::

it's been a while. And for the first year or two, I'd have people say,

450

::

I bet it's hard, man, I bet it's hard. You know, sitting there,

451

::

you're not, you're not in charge anymore. And you don't, you're not the one

452

::

up preaching all the time and all this stuff.

453

::

By the way, my picture's on the wall out there and it

454

::

says Pastor Emeritus. And most of you don't know what

455

::

that means. What that means is I'm the old guy.

456

::

That means I used to be a pastor, you know, so

457

::

now I'm that thing.

458

::

But yeah, I bet it's hard to sit there and watch

459

::

the changes and everything. No, Kevin doesn't do things

460

::

always the way that I would do them. That's why Kevin is the

461

::

pastor now instead of me.

462

::

Because it was time. God says, time to go.

463

::

And when you go, because he has said it's time,

464

::

hey, that's. There ain't no. I

465

::

know that sounds Southern and hickey and everything, but ain't

466

::

nothing better than being where God wants you to be and

467

::

standing in the center of his will, whether it's stay

468

::

or go.

469

::

And by go, I do not mean run,

470

::

because that's often what we want to do. And

471

::

sometimes we paste God's name on it when really

472

::

we're just running away from something. But I mean, when

473

::

God has told you

474

::

to go. Of course, the blessing is not

475

::

always so apparent as it turned out to be for us in

476

::

Smyrna. Sometimes the blessing is simply

477

::

growing in the Lord. Sometimes it's simply maturing,

478

::

sometimes it's fruitfulness.

479

::

And it all boils down to this learning

480

::

to hear his voice, it's the most

481

::

precious, valuable thing you can

482

::

have in this life. Money.

483

::

Maybe that's good for you. Maybe that's not good for you.

484

::

If you don't know what that means. Wait 10 years. I mean,

485

::

you'll find out. Maybe it could be a good thing. It might not be a

486

::

good thing, but a word

487

::

from God. And knowing that you have a word from

488

::

God, whoo. Now that's valuable,

489

::

that, that's rich. That's true riches.

490

::

Well, how do I know if I'm. If I'm in such a place where I'm

491

::

supposed to stay or where I'm supposed to leave? There is no

492

::

formula. There is no form I can't

493

::

give you. Well, put A and E and plus

494

::

it to B and you'll get C. There's no formula for

495

::

it. You have to learn to distinguish

496

::

his voice. And his voice is not

497

::

always the same. It doesn't always come from the same

498

::

source. You may not hear it the same way.

499

::

And it is certainly not predictable.

500

::

You can't figure out, you know, what God's going to

501

::

say and how he's going to say it. And it

502

::

takes time. It takes obedience.

503

::

If you'll. If you'll just give him the time and

504

::

be obedient to what you feel like you're hearing from him.

505

::

You'll learn. You'll learn. But there's no

506

::

shortcut. It takes yourself. Getting out of the way

507

::

of what you want

508

::

and desiring what he wants.

509

::

Sometimes the Lord brings us to such places

510

::

to ask us questions that we may otherwise never consider.

511

::

Son of man, can these bones live?

512

::

The slide was missing, but I told you. Is there so? First thing

513

::

he asked. You may be in a place where there seems no hope

514

::

for life. There seems no hope for fruitfulness. There seems no hope

515

::

for reconciliation.

516

::

And. And perhaps you've always in the past, been able to make

517

::

Was tough, but I made it. I made it through.

518

::

You know, I, I, I, I, I just toughed my way through it and got

519

::

through to the other side. Or I scrimped and saved and, and

520

::

to make ends meet, you've been able to make it. And at

521

::

some point, God brings you to a. Oh, and it's such a blessing

522

::

where God brings you to a place where you are not enough.

523

::

You cannot make it. You

524

::

can't make ends meet. You. You can't get your way

525

::

through. One of my Favorite quotes

526

::

by C.S. lewis is everyone wants to see a miracle, but

527

::

no one wants to be in a position to need one.

528

::

We'll take a quick bunny trail here, and then we'll. We'll circle back

529

::

and plug in. But here's the bunny trail because there are those,

530

::

there are many who would profit from the desperation

531

::

of those in need.

532

::

But that is never God's way.

533

::

Whenever you hear. So whenever you hear anything

534

::

resembling. Send in your money and

535

::

receive your miracle.

536

::

Remember Acts, chapter eight. There was

537

::

a revival going on in Samaria, and Peter and John were sent

538

::

there, and revival was so strong that

539

::

this guy named Simon the sorcerer got saved.

540

::

And he. And he followed Peter and John around and he saw their ministry and

541

::

he saw how. How what they could do.

542

::

And he offered them money, said, I'll give you money. And

543

::

so. And you show me how to do that. You. You give

544

::

me the power to do that. And Peter said that.

545

::

Peter said this to him in chapter 8, verse 20,

546

::

may your money perish with you, because you thought

547

::

you could buy the gift of God with money.

548

::

And let's actually make this a little clearer. I don't

549

::

want to be freak any of you out, but really,

550

::

back in 1958, there was a J.B.

551

::

phillips, wrote a modern language

552

::

New Testament. And he translated this verse this way.

553

::

To hell with you and your money.

554

::

And he put a little footnote and he said, it's so unfortunate

555

::

that most of the translations obscure the real

556

::

meaning of what's being said. Here you

557

::

go. That was J.B. phillips. What does the message say? Sits to hell

558

::

with you. And your money says exactly the same

559

::

thing because you thought you could buy the gift of God

560

::

with money.

561

::

Son of man, can these bones live?

562

::

Ezekiel's answer was perfect

563

::

Sovereign Lord, you alone know.

564

::

By the time I was 17, I knew everything there was

565

::

to know.

566

::

I had it all figured out. And I couldn't understand

567

::

why some of these old folks did not see the wisdom in

568

::

me. And if

569

::

you are 17, if you've ever been 17,

570

::

and you can't relate,

571

::

then you. You d.

572

::

Because we all go through that point where we got it.

573

::

Well, at 25, when I came back to the Lord, I realized, okay,

574

::

maybe I don't know everything, but I know what I need

575

::

to do. And I also know what you need

576

::

to do. And I'll tell you what you need to do.

577

::

You can just ask me or just hush and I'll tell you.

578

::

You don't even have to ask me.

579

::

I was probably 60 before that demon was fully cast

580

::

out of me.

581

::

And at 75, I've

582

::

gained the wisdom to know that there is a whole universe of important

583

::

stuff out there, that about which I am

584

::

totally ignorant. There is just.

585

::

You don't become wise until you learn what you don't know.

586

::

And I don't mean until you learn it, but you learn you don't know it.

587

::

And often, so often, we just have to have. We just have to

588

::

know the answer.

589

::

Firstly, we need to understand that there are answers, in fact, all the really important

590

::

answers that are known only to God.

591

::

The disciples asked. Jesus was telling the disciples about

592

::

the end times. And the disciples said, what are these things going to happen? And

593

::

Jesus went, I don't know. I don't even know.

594

::

So if there's stuff that Jesus doesn't even know, then

595

::

who am I? Who am I? Who am I to know

596

::

know stuff?

597

::

Two weeks ago, I guess Justin was teaching on Job.

598

::

And when I saw that Justin was teaching on Job, I went, oh.

599

::

But it wasn't because it was Justin. It's because everybody messes

600

::

Job up so much, they have a tendency to. If you have an

601

::

unbelieving friend and they

602

::

pretend to read the Bible, I tell you what their favorite book is

603

::

right now. It's Job. Oh, Job's my favorite book.

604

::

They've never read it. They just heard about it. Okay.

605

::

But Job's friends.

606

::

Job's friends made two big mistakes

607

::

when they came to be comforting to Job. The first one

608

::

was they opened their mouth

609

::

up. Until then, they were doing a great job. And then they opened their mouth

610

::

and became miserable comforters. Are you all. Yeah, you guys can come on

611

::

out. I'm going to hurry. I know I'm a little. But yeah,

612

::

and I'm doing pretty well, I think. So. Yeah, let's. Let's just keep it going

613

::

here. No, you know, that's okay. Just say amen. Yeah.

614

::

Okay. They opened their mouth. The second

615

::

big mistake they made is when they opened their mouth, they tried to explain why

616

::

this was. Was happening, and not a one of

617

::

them came within a mile of the answer.

618

::

Not. Not one of them

619

::

said, oh, I know why it's happening, Job.

620

::

God was bragging about you to the devil.

621

::

And the devil. The. The devil said, well, the

622

::

only reason that he follows you and worships you

623

::

is because you bless him. You get him out of that health and wealth

624

::

movement, and he'll turn his back on you. And

625

::

God said, okay, let's just see.

626

::

That's why this is happening. No,

627

::

they had no idea what this was about.

628

::

No idea what was going on.

629

::

And so when God showed up

630

::

and began to ask Job some questions about

631

::

hippopotamuses and stuff,

632

::

Job said it all went away.

633

::

Yeah, I'm back now. You asked, who

634

::

is this who obscures my plans without knowledge. Knowledge.

635

::

Surely I spoke of things I did not understand. Things too

636

::

wonderful for me to know. Son of man, can these

637

::

bones live? You're the only one who

638

::

knows, Lord. So the word of the Lord was

639

::

spoken and there was a sound and the structure

640

::

began to come together. Thigh bone connected to the hip

641

::

bone kind of thing. And there they were. And they, and they had skin and

642

::

everything, but they weren't alive. So prophesy again.

643

::

And the word of the Lord comes the

644

::

breath. And the breath brings

645

::

life. He can make

646

::

these bones live,

647

::

but he may just simply have you where you are.

648

::

To teach you to know him.

649

::

Teach you perseverance, to get your attitude

650

::

right, to get your willingness, willing.

651

::

But ultimately the answer is

652

::

he is God.

653

::

Think about this. Jesus said that even the

654

::

hairs of your head are numbered. And we can, we can't, we

655

::

can't. Come on. The average

656

::

person has about 120 hairs on top of their head.

657

::

20,000. Yeah, you're right. 120. I was

658

::

talking about me and Fred.

659

::

100, 120,000. And Morgan.

660

::

It changes with time though.

661

::

Going to say that and there are 8 billion people.

662

::

You kind of go 8 billion times 120,000. Oh, that's

663

::

just ridiculous. You think God

664

::

knows all the stars and where

665

::

they are?

666

::

120,000 times 8 billion

667

::

is the tiniest fraction of, of how many stars there are.

668

::

The estimate on that is like

669

::

200 billion trillion

670

::

stars in the observable

671

::

universe. So that doesn't even talk about the stuff

672

::

that we can't even see. Oh, he knows so

673

::

much.

674

::

I had a friend telling me,

675

::

now let's, let's do this. I want to tell the story with us

676

::

standing and those who are going to minister, go ahead and come down here.

677

::

Had a friend telling me about a guy's testimony

678

::

one time is. I think it was a grief share thing, I'm not sure, but

679

::

he, his brother had passed away. His brother was young

680

::

and he had passed away and he had struggled with it so much, but he

681

::

seemed to have such peace. And his testimony was

682

::

this. I struggled with it so much until

683

::

one day I was so angry

684

::

and I was so upset about what had happened.

685

::

And I was driving in my car and I was, I was banging

686

::

on the steering wheel and,

687

::

and, and just go, why?

688

::

Why God? And

689

::

then I heard I am God.

690

::

And I got release, I got peace.

691

::

You know, I was brought up with all kinds of songs. Talking about. We'll.

692

::

We'll understand it better by and by. We'll. What we will understand

693

::

is not why my friend Doyle died

694

::

of cancer in the ninth grade. It won't be why my

695

::

mom spent 13 years in a wheelchair at the end of

696

::

her life. It won't be why my first wife, Margaret,

697

::

died in what seemed to be the prime of

698

::

life. What I'll know is he is God.

699

::

And whatever your situation, whatever your circumstance, the

700

::

answer is, he is God.

701

::

We're going to sing this song one more time. And

702

::

if you need prayer, these brothers and sisters will pray with you.

703

::

Yeah.

All Episodes Previous Episode

About the Podcast

Show artwork for Springhouse Church Sermons
Springhouse Church Sermons
Life Happens Here

Listen for free