In the last few months I've picked up a hobby that I had years ago and I got really deep into and then we moved down here I kind of dropped it because I didn't have the time But just kind of seasons of life changed but in the last six or seven months I started cooking again a lot and It's getting it's getting me a problem because sometimes I just cook things for the sake of cooking things now You know people who like to cook you find yourself in that quandary. It's like I really don't need to smoke a pork But I will don't see what happens And I've also kind of gotten deeper and deeper I got when we moved from Kentucky years ago I sold my smoker because nobody wants to transport a smoker halfway across the country in the same box truck that your mattress is in Because you don't want your mattress to know like barbecue. I got another I got a way to do barbecue again That's kind of gotten deep and then I got this new thing and people always asking about it I'll share pictures of it on social media But people ask what is that thing? It's a suv one and it's a thing that heats up water and you drop in a vacuum sealed bag and it's really great People like it for steak and I've done that before it's all right, but where it's really good is like when you cook weird things Like I made a oxtail on a couple of times.
Is anybody here know what oxtail is? You make it okay, it's a cow's tail It's like big it's like this big and you can buy like sectioned up at the grocery store and individual servings Or you can buy the whole thing and it looks like you have a giant like monster tail on your kitchen counter But I'll tell you I see your faces right now You can make that face and until you eat it over cheese grits and then you'll be making a different face Well, I guess like these weird like these weird things I cooked like venison shank a couple of weeks ago It was all right. I should have done something different But like it's but the weirdest thing I think I've cooked was before that and I kind of carried around the outcomes of it with me Just because it was so weird looking was last year I cooked a whole deer neck in the crackpot. Do you ever cooked a deer neck before?
That is good. All right, it's good. We know the best thing about cooking a deer neck is you get like eight of these things afterwards I got to say to me. They're so weird looking.
I was just a crispy brain massy if I wire them together Like at the house I got a paper plate full like deer vertebrae bones at the house And I forgot about them until like two weeks ago I saw them on a paper plate in the garage Apparently when I put them out there the first time the dog like a really wanted them And so the 11 pound dachshund was like trying to scale the workbench to get to the deer bones But I thought about this because the story we're telling in scripture is a weird story It's probably in the weirdest book of the Bible and it's about pop. I think though weirdest guy This Ezekiel in the story of his vision of a valley full of dry bones And I brought this this vertebra because as weird as this looks I can't imagine What this story what this vision that he had was like but also realized that this vision was important because it shows us a greater Reality of what God desires for us and for our life. So today's story is about this field But it's also a story about what does it mean for the Holy Spirit to be involved with us And what does it mean for us to involve the Holy Spirit in our world? So Ezekiel chapter 37 verse 1 through 14 I'll read it for you can also read on your by on your phone if you have that or you can read it on the screens behind me But this is what scripture tells us the word took hold of me and I was carried away by the Spirit of the Lord To a valley filled with bones.
He led me all around among the bones that covered the valley floor They were scattered everywhere across the ground were completely dried out Then he asked me son of man can these bones become living people again? Or sovereign Lord I replied you will own the answer to that He said to me speak a prophetic message to these bones and say dry bones listen to the word of the Lord And this is what the sovereign Lord says look I'm going to put my breath into you and make you live again I will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin I will put breath into you and you will come to life and you will know that I am the Lord So I spoke this message just as he told me and suddenly as I spoke there was a rattling noise all across the valley Chris I would have wired those bones that are gonna rattle them right now That's just really weird The bones of each body came together and attached themselves as complete skeletons and I watched muscles and flesh formed over the bones Then skin formed to cover their bodies But they still had no breath in them and he said to me speak a prophetic message to the winds son of man Speak a prophetic message and say this is what the sovereign Lord says come O breath from the four winds breathe into these dead bodies so that they may live again So I spoke the message as he commanded me and breath came into their bodies then all came to life and stood up on their feet a Great army then he said to me son of man these bones represent the people of Israel They're saying we've become old dry bones all hope is gone our nation is finished Therefore prophesied of them and say this is what the sovereign Lord says Oh my people I will open your graves of exile and cause you to rise again Then I will bring you back to the land of Israel when this happens oh my people you will know that I am the Lord I will put my spirit in you and you will live again return to home to your own land Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken I have done what I said. Yes, the Lord has spoken So crazy story right valley bones I can picture I there's a piece of me that I think I remember some like crazy weird Sunday school cartoon about this when I Was a kid frightened me of this whole image of the rattling together, but Ezekiel is different Ezekiel Is a person that no one understood? I really think the more I read Ezekiel and the more you see his picks his book is different It's filled up four visions.
It's a second one, but I think Ezekiel almost had PTSD because of what he lived through Ezekiel was a priest During the initial assault of Babylon upon Jerusalem He was there for the fall of Jerusalem in the bloodshed that happened He was taken away in the first wave of the exile and the way that this worked the way that um the only way I can It's this is really not a good example What's the best one we have you know the movie came out ten twelve years ago the three hundred remember the Persians like imagine that is what came into Jerusalem Like those are the people that were just going off across the entire world and taking everyone over and the way they would they would destroy a nation Was not just your military might and like the initial siege and invasion destruction, but they also tried to culturally destroy a people So what they would do is if you were important if you were part of the royal royalty If you were a priest if you were a merchant or a business leader If you had any sort of like social standing where you matter to the culture of people they would immediately take you away So Daniel being on the lines then looking at book and Old Testament He was part of this first wave or Daniel was important enough Where the Babylonians felt like he could continue this culture of what they have going on So it's taken away from there Ezekiel was taken away as well as a priest He was probably part of the priest in class that lived in Jerusalem and kept the temple running He was important enough for them to put them to put them there Okay, we got to get him out of here So he's there and that you hear these stories and you imagine what it was like for Ezekiel It's an up to leave the city walls of Jerusalem and to see the destruction that took place But also as the Babylonians were coming to Jerusalem We read in scripture other places in the historical record that they're destroying every town along the way So in this long like literal walk And stemming from Jerusalem to pretty much Baghdad. He sees destruction Ezekiel He had some things going on in his brain Ezekiel also God called him to build as he's part of this exile community God called him to build a tiny model of Jerusalem with rocks and sticks And to lay on his side naked for a year and to prophesy even more destruction And that while he was laying on his side naked for a year prophesying destruction over a weird model of Jerusalem He was to cook his food using animal done Like this guy is out there But scripture tells these stories these four visions he had that are of remaking and of restoration the second vision Is this one we read now? He sees a valley of bones and think of that phrase that we have like I feel it in my bones It's a very old phrase very old way for us to talk about that our bones are the essence of who we are But there are basic framework there are the things that if we get down to the very bottom level This is what it means for me to be a person as we see the same thing in scripture the same way that the Jewish people believe about the bones We see these now scattered about across this this valley not like individual skeletons laid out nicely But as though there's been a massive battle and massive death and everything is torn up and spread apart Which was another military tactic to not bury bones was to desecrate them to break up a body meant that when a person rose from the dead They would not have all their pieces all this is almost like this is triggering Ezekiel a little bit now For what he probably saw these are or dried they've been there for a long time He's seeing this But it also helps us realize this is not just one person story as he killed us didn't see one skeleton out there But he saw countless skeletons This is not a story in the Bible where it's easy for us to interpret is just a singular individual part of our life But this is about God's people and it says it in there these this represents the nation of Israel this represents a community a Community of restoration a community of redemption. This is not about me.
This is about us. It's not about you This is about us and that's how we should be reading this the last thing that kind of comes in that's interesting It's different. It's this idea of breath We see this constantly comes up ten times this passage if anything It's like the glue that's holding this vision that Ezekiel had together this idea of breath and Hebrew It's the same word for spirit that makes the interpretation a little bit thicker and we realize what's the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives Well, we also what's the role of the breath of God in our lives we think back to Genesis two and God breathed his breath into the nostrils and Created Adam that the Spirit of God is this thing that we have been filled up with to give us life and to send us The four winds are coming and causing these skeletons to rise up the Spirit of God is all over the entire earth has the ability to overwhelm All of us this in all places at all times That the breath of God exists in the hearts of every single person who's been remade by him So this isn't just an odd story isn't just a weird story about a about a valley of bones It's a story that shakes our senses. It's a story that that causes us to ask questions It's so different from normal life But it's so it's causing us to ask questions about the deep things of God in our life and about who we are as a people I think so much of this story it goes back to this And I know I'm getting old up to where I have I caught myself saying this phrase now It's not just my grandfather's phrase or my dad's phrase, but this story's about corporate loss This story is for anyone who is said what's the world coming to you?
And we realize that for thousands of years people have been saying what's the world coming to you? And what this story shows us that what the world's coming to is Jesus That what the world's coming to is restoration this redemption. It's remaking This is a story about how God calls a people and God cares for a world This bigger than just us is bigger than just you Jesus loves you a lot But he's big enough. He has the capacity to love you fully and to love someone else fully at the same time He has the ability to love all of us fully at the same time to desire the best for all of us at the same time to remake all of Us at the same time.
This is a story about reversible history that no matter what things can be remade God says I've created out of nothing before This is in my full ability to recreate you so the question really is how do we see ourselves as an active part of this redemption Or more so maybe what does it mean for us to live as a church in a world full of bones? What does it look for us as a church? To be part of the redeeming of our communities To be part of what Jesus is doing in that way So we're not the ones that say what's the world coming to but to where we're the people who say well everything's going to Jesus And not give it all away forget about it But this is going to be better than anything else So we know three things That's how we do this three things that we can learn from this from what Ezekiel says the first thing that we know is that we know our status That we know we are called by God that we know we are adopted as sons and daughters by God that we know first and foremost that we are the people of God And God calls his people for a purpose that Jesus has worked resurrection in each of our own lives that he has untangled us From a web of destruction and death as I was reading this passage this week the thing I couldn't help is if I'm willing to take this The fullest most serious extent the most literal extent there is in scripture Then Ezekiel might have seen my bones laying out there tangled out He might have seen my weird janky shoulder that I have right now He might have seen you Scattered about and see you're remaking your restoration your redemption that Jesus is actively working out in your life all the time We're called to be part of a living people People who live as though they're alive who they've been breathed into by the Holy Spirit they hold God's breath inside of them They realize that I love how this guy destroyed these skeletons emerging It's not just like because let's think about this God has it his full ability to just make these things magically get better right? What is equal sees and just that rattling of the bones?
It's like it's like a pirates the Caribbean kind of thing But to see all of the bones come together and then there's the sinews and I hope I'm pronouncing that right the muscles To see skin come on it's a process Ezekiel sees that process our own remaking is a process It's a process that Jesus is involved with it's a process no matter where we are in that line We are learning from him. We're growing in him. It's all right. If some of us are doing pretty good Just have our bones together some of us might not have our leg yet It's all right for some of us to have muscles put back on it's all right It's all right for all this to be at any point in time in that process because we're a living people and until the day Jesus comes back We're all going to be in that transition phase Being restored being redeemed by God.
We know our status the second thing we know is that we know where we need to go We know that this is not just about us This is about God and God's people We know that we're called to live our restoration out in a public manner Bringing his presence because we believe the presence of God has the ability to change things willing to live out a public display of the presence of God and we know Where we need to go the last thing we learned is this that we know to speak the words of God This is one of the fun parts of the story is that God not only is not snapping his fingers and making everything perfect instantly But God is also calling Ezekiel to be part of this he says speak prophetically to the winds and that's that's that's a mess of truth telling They speak the truth of my redeeming and make this come into play There's so much of this story that also is you see like echoes from Genesis chapters 1 and 2 when God creates the world He's asking the world to be part of its own creation. He says let it be He says he's asking creation to be active in its own creating that this has always been about participation It's who God is It's not something that he came up with it's not something that that that I say because it makes it sound better But all throughout scripture from the very beginning it's been about God inviting his creation to be part of his creation fully We know how to speak the words of God as words of God or words of belonging the words of togetherness the words of community There were words that fight against loneliness We know to speak those words of God His story is so much about the spirit activated life. It's about us realizing that we are full of the spirit And we're called to bring that spirit to other places We're called to live that out public but we're called to honestly ask ourselves questions about the places where we say Jesus in our neighborhoods We're called to actively look at look at what does restoration and redemption look like in the places I live in the place that I work In the place that I go to school and the place is my kids hang out And the places I have influence over what does it look like for me to bring the spirit-filled presence of God into those places And to see where Jesus is asking me to be redeeming things with him We acknowledge the power of God in that life of redemption