Participants: Carlton P. Byrd
Series Code: BOL
Program Code: BOL000035
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00:01 ♪ (Theme Song) ♪
00:06 ♪ Jesus is worthy ♪ 00:09 ♪ oh yes, he's worthy ♪ 00:15 ♪ worthy of all... ♪ 00:18 ♪ (Music) ♪ PB: Good evening. My name 00:23 is Dr. Carlton T. Byrd and I'm the speaker-director 00:25 for Breath of Life Television Ministries. 00:27 And we are excited because we are on location right here at 00:31 the Southeastern Conference campground in 00:33 Hawthorne, Florida. 00:35 We're happy to be here to share the gospel of Jesus Christ 00:37 with men, women, boys and girls around the world, 00:39 but most importantly, today we were here in 00:42 Hawthorne, Florida. 00:44 We're grateful tonight for the invitation from our president 00:46 of this conference, the Southeastern Conference, 00:49 which happens to be my home conference, our president, 00:52 Pastor Hubert J. Morrell Jr. 00:53 Won't everyone give him a big round of applause 00:56 tonight? 00:58 God bless you. 00:58 Thank you so very much, Pastor Morrell, for your warmth, your 01:01 lovely wife, Sister Raquel Morrell, and we are here to 01:04 preach the Word of God. 01:05 Amen. 01:06 This is special for me, Breath of Life viewers, because my 01:09 parents are here tonight. 01:10 My wife is here, our children are here, my brother is here, 01:13 my sister is here, but my parents are here as well. 01:16 Pastor and Mrs. W. C. Byrd, give them a big round of 01:19 applause tonight. 01:20 We're grateful that they're with us with Breath of Life. 01:23 We are ready now to get in the Word. 01:25 If you're ready to get in the Word, let me say you say Amen. 01:27 Because if it's not in the Word, it doesn't deserve 01:30 to be heard, Amen? 01:31 Take your Bibles and go with me to the book of Ezekiel, and 01:34 chapter 37. Ezekiel 37, verse 1. Ezekiel 37:1. 01:51 "The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the 01:58 spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the 02:02 valley which was full of bones, And caused me to pass 02:07 by them round about: and, behold, there were very many 02:10 in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry. 02:13 And he said unto me, Son of man, 02:16 can these bones live? 02:21 And I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest. 02:26 Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and 02:30 say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 02:33 Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will 02:38 cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: And I 02:43 will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, 02:47 and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye 02:50 shall live; and ye shall know that I am the Lord. 02:54 So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I 03:00 prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the 03:04 bones came together, bone to his bone. 03:07 And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up 03:09 upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there 03:11 was no breath in them. 03:13 Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son 03:17 of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come 03:21 from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, 03:24 that they may live. 03:25 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath 03:28 came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their 03:30 feet, an exceeding great army. 03:32 Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole 03:36 house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and 03:40 our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. 03:43 Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord 03:47 God; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and 03:50 cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you 03:52 into the land of Israel. 03:53 And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened 03:59 your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your 04:04 graves, And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall 04:06 live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye 04:09 know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, 04:15 saith the Lord." 04:18 In harmony with our theme for our camp meeting here in 04:21 Southeastern Conference, revive us again. 04:23 Tonight we begin with the subject entitled, 04:26 "Revival In the Valley." 04:28 God bless us now. 04:31 Breathe into the aisle in this place. 04:35 Make this camp, make this building, this room, your 04:40 sanctuary right now. 04:42 And God, we give you all the praise, the honor and the 04:45 glory for what you're going to do for us tonight. 04:48 Forgive me for my sins, hide me behind your cross. 04:50 When we leave here tonight, we'll be able to say it was 04:53 good to have been in your house. 04:55 It's in the name of Jesus we pray. 04:57 Let everyone say Amen. And Amen. 04:59 "Revival in the Valley." 05:00 Now, these first 14 verses of the prophet Ezekiel as 05:08 recorded in Ezekiel 37 can be divided into two parts. 05:11 Verses 1-10 record the vision Ezekiel sees. 05:19 Verses 11-14 provide its interpretation. 05:24 Ezekiel sees in vision the nation of Israel as described 05:28 in verses 1-10 as dry, dead, and in the valley. 05:36 Why? 05:37 The Bible says in the preceding chapters of Ezekiel 05:40 that there had been a fault in the Israeli camp. 05:43 Israel's temple had been burned. 05:46 The Israelites had been slaughtered, and the 05:49 banishment of Israel's nobles was present and then Israel's 05:52 life was then now, henceforth, extinct. 05:56 And to speak of returning prosperity to the nation of 06:00 Israel in such a condition was like talking of the 06:04 restoration of vitality to withered bones. 06:08 The primary intention of this vision was to depict the 06:12 restoration of the nation for the House of Israel, whose 06:14 condition at the time was symbolized by dry, dead bones. 06:21 What does it mean to be dry, dead and in the valley? 06:27 Webster says to be dry is to be without moisture, 06:32 to be cold, to be unfriendly, uninteresting, 06:35 lacking sweetness. 06:36 To be dead is to be no longer alive. 06:39 Being numbed, extinguished, lacking luster or movement. 06:43 To be in the valley is to be in a low area. 06:46 So then Israel was cold, unfriendly, without moisture. 06:53 No longer alive, extinguished, lacking luster 06:57 All in a low area. 06:59 Israel was dry, dead and in the valley. 07:03 Its economy was destitute. 07:06 Its people were indigent. 07:07 Its spirit was lifeless. 07:10 Its nationalism was unsupported. 07:13 Its socialism was decadent and its spirituality 07:18 was absent. 07:19 Ezekiel's primary role was to be one of prophetic speech, 07:24 to interpret the misinterpretations and the 07:27 confusion that had wrestled and arrested in the heart and 07:30 consciousness of the Hebrew people. 07:33 The people had a misconception about God, that God was 07:37 localizing, meaning that God was limited to one area. 07:40 And therefore, being exiled into Babylon, they felt that 07:44 God had abandoned them. 07:46 Secondly, not only did they have an erroneous conception 07:50 of who God was, but they felt that the protective presence 07:53 of God would not allow any forces--military, political or 07:58 social--to upheave them from their ground and relocate them 08:03 to some other partial ground. 08:04 In other words, they just believed that God wouldn't let 08:09 them get beat up. 08:11 And now, their hopes have been dashed. 08:15 They were dead, dismembered, despairing. 08:20 And so the picture we have in Ezekiel 37 is a picture of the 08:24 reanimation of life granted to us by the Spirit of God, that 08:29 the Spirit of God, God's Holy Ghost, reanimates and breathes 08:34 hope back into tired lives and renews and restores and even 08:39 revises that that was once alive and is now dead. 08:43 Dry, dead, dismembered and despairing is the gruesome 08:47 picture that Ezekiel is about to see. 08:50 But how could a revival of a fallen nation be possible when 08:53 its spiritual life, with disease, decadence, distress 08:58 and deterioration. 09:00 For understand, when you are weak spiritually, everything 09:05 else is going to be weak. 09:07 For how can one move, how can one grow, how can one have 09:10 life when one is unresponsive to God's call, unmoved by 09:14 God's claim, unchanged by God's covenantal association 09:18 with us in a divine human partnership of vision, passion 09:22 and mission? 09:24 Are we who go to church, week after week, dead, dry, 09:31 dismembered, despairing and in the valley? 09:37 What am I talking about? 09:38 I'm talking about in the church but spiritually dead. 09:41 For it's one thing to be in church; it's another thing to 09:45 be in Christ. 09:46 It's one thing to be in the building; it's another thing 09:49 to be in the body. 09:51 It's one thing to be in the sanctuary; it's another thing 09:54 to be in the spirit. 09:56 Everybody who's in church is not in God. 10:00 Everybody who knows the Bible does not know God. 10:03 Everybody who has religion does not have faith. 10:07 And everybody talking about him ain't going to heaven. 10:12 And so it was in verse 1 that the hand of the Lord was on 10:17 Ezekiel and transported him out to this strange, plain 10:21 valley, to take a vision of the vices that occurred on the 10:26 life of those who were once alive, a valley full of dead, 10:30 dry bones. 10:31 Ezekiel says that the hand that sent me down rested me 10:36 there, and told me to take a survey of the sights, to walk 10:40 backward and forward, to walk sideways, walk around and take 10:45 notice of what you see. 10:47 Ezekiel saw, at the end of verse 1 and beginning of verse 10:50 2, a valley full of dry bones. 10:51 These, however, were not merely bones. 10:54 These were the skeletal remains of people who had 10:57 names. 11:00 Who had families. 11:01 Who had children. 11:03 Legacies, histories, religion, sociology, philosophy. 11:05 He saw the bony remains, the skeletons that had been 11:11 broken, severed, separated, where the winds had gusted 11:14 across the plain and had blown and dismembered these bodies 11:17 throughout the valley. 11:18 He saw many bones and as many bones as he saw, that's how 11:22 many despairers he witnesses. 11:26 How many dreams that were unfulfilled. 11:30 How many hopes that had been dashed. 11:31 It was full of bones. 11:33 In verse 2, Ezekiel also sees that the bones were very dry. 11:38 Dry bones, symbolizing that these bones were not recent 11:42 deaths. 11:44 These were deaths of people who had died and laid in the 11:49 valley for many years. 11:51 The sun had bleached them white, the sands had kept them 11:55 clean. 11:56 A valley full of dry bones. 11:58 Now, Ezekiel knew that if God wanted to, God could have 12:06 raised the bones back to life. 12:08 But this was a picture of hopelessness, despairing, 12:14 dismemberment, dry bones. 12:17 There was no hint of hope. 12:19 There was no suggestion of possibility. 12:22 And the question now comes in verse 3, resonating from the 12:26 voice of God, son of man, can these bones live? 12:35 Now, when the prophet Ezekiel, the interpreter, heard this 12:40 question, can these bones live, he doesn't answer too 12:44 quickly. 12:46 He doesn't rush to answer, to presume upon God's 12:48 sovereignty. 12:49 Neither does he respond negatively in some kind of way 12:52 negating the possibility of the hopes of those who had 12:55 already gone through exilic pressure. 12:58 But the question tonight remains: can these bones live? 13:04 And that's the question I ask you today: can these bones 13:08 live? 13:09 Because if you keep the question in 6th century B.C., 13:11 it becomes a question of depersonalization. 13:14 But if you raise the question from the valley plains of the 13:18 dry bones and escort it to the 21st century, it takes on new 13:22 shape and new form for the future. 13:25 Can these bones live? 13:28 If you do not raise the question by pointing to the 13:31 bones in the valley, but point to the lives of those persons 13:34 who walk the concrete pavement of our city streets, you can 13:38 then ask, can these bones live? 13:42 When you look into the empty eyes of men and women whose 13:45 lives have been entangled and strangled from life, you begin 13:48 to ask, can these bones live? 13:51 When you look into the lives of young black men who number 13:55 more in our penal system and penitentiaries than they do 13:58 institutions of higher learner, you begin to ask, can 14:02 these bones live? 14:04 When you look at some women who followed some man, some 14:08 dream, some job, only to be left alone, broken, and to 14:13 raise children by themselves, you ask, can these bones live? 14:19 When you look at children who used to wake up and play under 14:24 the sunshine, but now walk through the valley of the 14:27 shadow of death, epitomized by drugs, teenage pregnancy, 14:30 promiscuity, AIDS and illiteracy, you ask, can these 14:36 bones live? 14:38 When you see the picture frames of families who used to 14:43 be in harmony, but now they've been cut out by the knife of 14:46 divorce, deceit and disrespect, and now pulled 14:50 from the canvas, you begin to ask, can these bones live? 14:54 When we look into the lives of people we call "stars," those 14:58 the world crowds around, to touch, to get an autograph, to 15:03 get a picture, where one day they're on top of the world, 15:07 but the next day they're forgotten, they're broken, 15:10 they're bewildered, you ask, can these bones live? 15:13 They may depict every semblance of life, they may 15:17 look like life, they may have the corollaries of life, but 15:22 yet they're dry, dead, dismembered, despairing bones, 15:27 and you ask the question, can these bones live? 15:33 Let's get a little closer to home. 15:36 You can move that question from the corporate community 15:40 center of the world to the church of the living God, and 15:44 look at people who sit in our pews week in and week out, and 15:48 you ask yourselves the question, can these persons 15:52 who look alive, who are no more than dead cadavers, can 15:57 these bones live? 16:00 Can our churches that used to be alive and well, packed and 16:04 full, sentinels of hope, bastions of energy, can these 16:09 bones live? 16:11 And so the only answer that the prophet can come up with 16:14 as he appeals to the all knowingness of the sovereign 16:17 God is, oh Lord God, only you know. 16:22 So Ezekiel goes on in verses 4 and 5, and this is what he 16:27 says the sovereign Lord told him to do: The Lord told him, 16:30 preach the Word. 16:35 And preach the Word of the Lord, and say to the dead, 16:40 dismembered, despairing bones, hear the Word of the Lord. 16:48 A little imagination will allow you to see how hopeless, 16:50 and improbable and impossible this preaching assignment is. 16:55 For it's hard enough to preach to those who move and stir 16:59 around, but to preach to that which is dead, dry, 17:04 dismembered and despairing is an awful thing. 17:09 And let me be clear: my travels have taken me to some 17:11 dead places. 17:12 Do I have a witness in this place? 17:13 Has there ever been a pew of pitiful Christians who are 17:19 unmoved by the power of God's holy Word? 17:21 Is there yet a sight of church folk who resemble dry, dead 17:25 bones in the valley? 17:26 And can't get excited when they think about the goodness 17:29 of Jesus and all He's done for them? 17:33 Is there yet a glimpse of dry, dead bones who sit in the pews 17:37 week after week, unaltered by the call of God? 17:41 I sure hope not. 17:43 But I'm here to tell you, it's tough to preach to Christians 17:47 who are like wheelbarrows, not good unless pushed. 17:51 Or better yet, like canoes; they need to be paddled. 17:55 Or maybe they're like kittens; they are content with their 17:58 petting. 17:59 Some are like footballs; you can't tell which way they will 18:01 bounce next. 18:03 Some are like balloons, full of wind, ready to blow up. 18:05 Some are like trailers; they have to be pulled. 18:08 And then some are like lights: they keep going on and off. 18:11 Do I have a witness in this place? 18:13 It becomes a hopeless possibility. 18:17 But yet that's what God often deals with: the uncanny, the 18:23 unusual, the impossible. 18:25 And yet God says, and listen to me, preachers, elders, 18:29 deacons, whoever preaches the word: if this is your 18:32 ministry, I call you to preach the Word of God, even when 18:37 they are dead, dry, dismembered and despairing. 18:42 Speak the Word of the Lord and say to them, hear the Word of 18:47 the Lord. 18:49 Speak the Word that will reanimate that which once was, 18:52 and the reanimating power of the Holy Ghost will begin to 18:56 take shape and form to all who hear it. 18:59 Ezekiel is assigned by God to preach to these dry, dead 19:05 bones. 19:06 But you know what? 19:08 As Ezekiel begins to speak the Word, revival takes place. 19:13 As Ezekiel begins to speak the Word, reanimation takes place. 19:19 But not only reanimation, because as he spoke the Word, 19:22 reanimation became the reassembling of life. 19:26 For it's not nearly enough to reanimate life, but life that 19:29 has been dismembered has to be reunited. 19:32 So now God says, I will give you the reassembling of life, 19:36 and at that moment, Go begins to reverse the process of 19:41 decomposition. 19:42 He says, Preach the Word. 19:46 And as Ezekiel began to preach the Word, look at 19:50 decomposition reverse itself. 19:53 God says, breath will enter the life. 19:57 Tendons will fill the bones. 19:59 Flesh will come upon the tendons. 20:02 And then skin will come upon the flesh. 20:05 That is the reversal of the process of decomposition, for 20:08 when one dies, breath leaves the body, the flesh begins to 20:12 deteriorate, the skin and flesh begin to decompose, the 20:16 tendons begin to disintegrate, and then there is nothing left 20:19 but bare skeletal remains. 20:21 God says, my Word, sharper than any two-edged sword, can 20:29 reanimate and reassemble life. 20:32 Let me be clear tonight. 20:34 It is our duty to preach to all men, despairing of no one. 20:42 We are óóó, we are to preach in season and out of season. 20:48 Preach it when it's not even popular, because you can't be 20:51 popular and prophetic at the same time. 20:54 When it's two people, we are to preach just as hard as if 21:00 it were two thousand people, because God said, 21:05 wherever there are two or three gathered in the midst, I shall 21:08 be in the midst of them. 21:10 God can quicken the dead, God can raise life up 21:16 among the dead. 21:17 God is the Resurrection and the Life. 21:19 God is the Alpha and the Omega. 21:21 God is the Beginning and the End. 21:24 God is the First and the Last. 21:26 All we've got to do is preach God's truth and 21:29 God's strength. 21:30 God is sovereign. 21:32 God will quicken whom he will, when he will, where he will, 21:37 and how he will. 21:39 Ezekiel begins to preach. 21:40 I'm getting a little happy right about now. 21:44 Ezekiel begins to preach, and when Ezekiel begins to preach, 21:49 the Bible says revival begins to take place. 21:51 And you all know what happens when revival takes place. 21:53 The preacher gets to preach it. 21:55 The choir gets to sing it. 21:57 The organist gets to play it The Holy Ghost gets 22:00 to move it. 22:01 The people get to shout. 22:03 Prayer warriors start praying. 22:04 Demons start trembling. 22:06 Souls stop sinning. 22:09 Gossipers stop gossiping. 22:10 Politicians stop politicizing. 22:15 Ezekiel begins to preach to dry, dead bones. 22:24 And in the bones, the Bible says, revival takes place. 22:27 And they begin to fix themselves together, and 22:31 clothe themselves in flesh. 22:32 Ezekiel begins to see that, yes, there's still a God 22:37 who sits high, but he looks down low. 22:40 And so now Ezekiel begins to get a little happy. 22:43 Ezekiel begins to stomp his feet a little bit. 22:46 Ezekiel begins to life his hands a little bit. 22:48 Ezekiel begins to whoop and holler a little bit, 22:51 because he's thanking God for dry bones. 22:55 Because his valley, his revival, let him see God 22:57 perform orthopedic surgery It let the ankle bone be 23:03 connected to the leg bone, the leg bone be connected 23:08 to the knee bone, the knee bone be 23:10 connected to the hip bone, the hip bone be connected 23:12 to the back bone, the back bone be connected 23:15 to the shoulder bone, the shoulder bone be 23:17 connected to the neck bone, the neck bone be connected to 23:20 the head bone, and oh, dry bones! 23:27 Hear the Word of the Lord. 23:29 I am a witness that preaching the Word of God will stir up 23:37 and wake up dry bones. 23:40 Thank God for his Word. 23:42 I've asked myself many times, how can people come to church, 23:48 hear the Word and leave the same way? 23:51 Is it because they got the reanimation and the 23:56 reassembling? 23:57 But see, that's not the end of the process. 24:01 Because when you read the Word of God, it says to us in verse 24:05 8 that these people, although they now had shape and form, 24:09 they still had no breath in them. 24:13 Ezekiel had a measure of success in preaching. 24:19 A measure of success in preaching to the bones, and a 24:23 wonderful success it appeared to be. 24:27 The bones came together. 24:28 Bone to bone. 24:29 But the Bible says that there was no breath in them. 24:34 Ezekiel had done his work in the preaching, but there was 24:39 still something else that was needed. 24:42 Ezekiel must now prophesy to the wind to breathe 24:47 on the slain and make them live. 24:50 When Ezekiel does this, the Bible says that the wind 24:54 comes, and there stands up an exceeding great army 24:58 of living wind. 25:00 And that's just like some of us. 25:03 Many of us hear the Word to give us information 25:07 on how to live. 25:08 Enough of us get the Word to get inspiration 25:13 to reassemble life. 25:14 But without the indwelling presence of the Holy Ghost 25:18 that restores life, life is meaningless. 25:24 Some of us look alive, but we're dead. 25:28 Some of us are playing games with God, jiving with life, 25:33 but that's all right. 25:34 The day will come, keep on living, as the old folks say, 25:39 "Live long enough," and you will find yourself in a valley, 25:42 and you'll say, not only must I reanimate and 25:46 reassemble the Word of God, but I need a Word 25:50 that can restore life. 25:52 Life only comes from God's Holy Ghost. 25:54 Let me be clear to the preachers out there, elders, 25:57 teachers, deacons, teachers in Sabbath School, 26:01 let me be clear. 26:02 The more soul-stirring preaching will not 26:06 create life. 26:07 Ezekiel has to still prophesy to the wind. 26:15 He had to prophesy to the Holy Ghost that he would breathe 26:18 life into those dry, dead bones. 26:20 PB: I would like to thank you very much for tuning 26:24 to the Breath of Life telecast today. 26:27 I do hope that you were blessed by the Word of God 26:30 today. 26:31 I would like to take this opportunity to invite you to 26:34 become a partner of the Breath of Life television ministry. 26:36 That's right, you may give a tax deductible donation and 26:41 partner with us as we seek to give hope and peace of mind to 26:45 the dying world in which we live. 26:47 To contact us, feel free to give us a call at 26:50 877-BOL-OFFER. 27:00 Or write us at the address shown on your screen. 27:04 Finally, you can reach us by logging on our website at 27:07 www.breathoflife.tv. 27:12 Again, thank you very much for tuning in today and we want to 27:16 thank you in advance for partnering with our ministry. 27:19 May God continue to bless you. 27:22 >: It's an age-old question. 27:24 What happens after we die? 27:25 The Breath of Life gift offer this week is "What the Bible 27:29 Says About Death." 27:30 This little book peels back the theories the world has on 27:32 the afterlife and carefully explains what's accurate based 27:36 on a source we can really rely on: God's Word. 27:40 Discover what the Bible says about the soul. 27:43 Human nature, talking to the dead, the coming millennium, 27:46 the resurrection, and Hell. 27:48 "What the Bible Says About Death" is yours for a gift of 27:51 $5 or more. 27:52 Just call our toll-free number: 877-BOL-OFFER. 27:57 That's 877-265-6333. 28:00 Please have your credit card ready when you call. 28:03 Or you may write us to request your copy. 28:06 Just send your check to Breath of Life, P.O. Box 340, 28:09 Newbury Park, CA 91319. 28:12 Find comfort in what's to come after we pass from this world 28:16 to the next. 28:17 Get your copy of "What the Bible Says About Death" today. 28:22 PB: Son of man, can these bones live? |
Revised 2015-02-06